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The Culture Of An Organization

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The culture of an organization is like a river. It can be fluid, strong and consistent, serving as lubricant while guiding its members in the right direction. In contrast a river can become stale and toxic, silently killing those who drink at its shore.1
—Ron Kaufman

Tyco International was nearly ruined because of the unethical corporate culture Kozlowski was implementing. According to a study on leadership and organizational culture by T. Gilberson et al., the values within the organization can be linked to the personality characteristics of the CEO. It is upper management that is believed to be the primary influence on the creation and development of organizational culture.2
Kozlowski put policies in place to misappropriate the funds of the company, these policies directly violated company culture. The other directors began to follow these policies even thought they knew it went against company policy. Why? According to social cognitive theory, individuals are proactively involved in their own development; "What people think, believe, and feel affects how they behave". 4 If we believe this statement to be true than why were the subordinates at Tyco influenced by the leaders to engage in unethical corporate culture. We could consider D. Lease’s explanation that control through culture is so powerful that once these values are internalized; they become part of the individual‘s values, and the individual follows organizational values without thinking about them.5 Another

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