The Historical and Philosophical Understandings of Organizational Culture

Purpose - This study sought to discuss definitions of organizational culture taking into consideration different views, and the historical and philosophical elements of organizational culture. Research Design, Data, and Methodology - This paper is a relatively conceptual study that has attempted to define organizational culture, a topic that has been debated among scholars and practitioners. Various studies in the literature related to organizational culture have been reviewed in an effort to reduce the complexities and ambiguities in definitions of organizational culture. Results -This study summarized and synthesized different studies related to organizational culture, and identified the main streams for defining organizational culture as being from the historical and philosophical elements of organizational culture. Conclusions -The concept of organizational culture continues to be an important factor affecting organizational effectiveness and initiating organizational development. However, the definition of organizational culture has not been well-established. In this sense, this paper seems to be significant and meaningful as it attempts to define organizational culture from different perspectives.