This Article Full Text (PDF) A correction has been published References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Wei Zheng Articles by Baiyin Yang Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Toward a Theory of Organizational Cultural Evolution

Northern Illinois University, wzheng{at}niu.edu

Qing Qu

Tsinghua University

Baiyin Yang

Tsinghua University

This article proposes a theoretical framework for elucidating how organizational culture evolves as an organization goes through its life cycle. This framework reveals that as the organization goes through its life stages of start-up, growth, maturity, and revival, organizational culture evolves through corresponding mechanisms of inspiration, implantation, negotiation, and transformation. This framework contributes to the literature on the dynamic view of culture. This article suggests that human resource development professionals need to be perceptive of the life stages of their organizations and intentionally leverage different cultural mechanisms to respond to critical organizational needs.

Key Words: organizational culture • cultural evolution • organizational life cycle

Human Resource Development Review, Vol. 8, No. 2, 151-173 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1534484309333619


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?