An academic essay:
"What is a 'successful corporate culture'? Do successful cultures invariably contain seeds of their own destruction?"
Introduction
This essay aims to critically analyze and explain the phenomenon of 'successful corporate cultures'. We will first define what corporate cultures are and how they align the values of employees with that of an organization and its goals, vision and mission. We will be then discussing the key elements of successful corporate cultures and what practices businesses can adopt in order to achieve that. This essay will highlight the necessary cultural traits which positively contribute towards achieving organization goals and targets and cultural effectiveness.
We will then proceed to examine the different types of cultures and relate them to specific market conditions . Also, how organizational cultures can help corporations gain a competitive advantage by improving financial performance, improving productivity and increasing job satisfaction of its employees.
Finally, we will discuss limitations faced by successful corporate cultures and how they can hinder creativity in some cases. The role of changing environmental (social, political and economic) conditions in making good cultures become obsolete will be discussed before reaching a conclusion.
Defining corporate culture
Culture is a broad and complicated term with a number of possible definitions and meanings. No one term can be used to completely define culture. However, many researchers have come up with different descriptions that can help explain it. Simply put; one can conceptualize culture as (Glisson & James, 2002) shared among members belonging to a certain group, (Detert et al,2000) existing at multiple levels (e.g., group and organizational levels), (Smiricich,1983) influencing employees’ attitudes and
