What was the reason behind the rise of organizational culture as a concept for understanding organizations? Of course, it was not coincidental. Many social, field and individual-level developments triggered the increase of awareness in the 90s. These factors are explained below:5 • Individualism and alienation: By the end of 1970s modern societies witnessed widespread diffusion of individualism that alienated people from the society. Lonely people searching for an identity celebrated organizational culture as a haven. Organizational culture allowed people to answer aching questions for raison d’etre! “Who am I, what is my reason for being in this world? what this organization stands for?” are all examples of questions asked and generally found an explanation within the concept of organizational culture. • Technically advanced production and the rise ofservice industry: Production process was upgraded to an advanced level in which automation became widespread. Moreover, the volume of service industry gradually surpassed goods production in many developed countries.Thus,employees had to be more customer-focused and technically qualified. Consequently, skillful and welltrained employees preferred independent working conditions. Organizational culture, as a way of controlling employee behavior, allows members to use their judgment, and act morefreely within defined organizational norms. Once members of the organizations cultivated with organizational values, close supervision will be redundant.
Machine bureaucracy gradually became less useful in managing people: Scientific management was the paradigm relevant to 1960s and 1970s. During 1980s validity of scientific management as the only paradigm for managing people started to be scrutinized. The effectiveness of objective and mathematical management techniques like time-and-motion studies was challenged. This movement led scholars focusing on the human aspect of management, or in other words, “soft” aspects of organizations. • Innovative production techniques: Mass production techniques increase the level of efficiency. But these techniques usually decrease the overall flexibility of the organization. To balance the level of efficiency with the degree of flexibility, organizations should employ people who have a sense of active belonging and commitment. Organizational culture is providing a cognitiveschemethroughwhich members can agree upon collective values, and thus elevates the level of organizational commitment. • Japanese miracle: After the devastation experienced by Japan following the 2nd World War, Japan’s reborn as an economic power found to be related to the Japanese management style. Globalization which is generally equated with getting rid of economic, political, cultural, and technological barriers led to an increase in awareness and curiosity in the global west for the east. It was self-evident that Japanese miracle was mostly related to the Japanese cultural value system and its reflections within Japanese organizations. Other countries also tried to understand and encapsulate these reflections for themselves, and hence the interest in the cultural aspect of organizations tend to strengthen.