Toward a theory of organizational cultural evolution

Wei Zheng, Qing Qu, Baiyin Yang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)151-173
Number of pages23
JournalHuman Resource Development Review
Volume8
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

Keywords

  • Cultural evolution
  • Organizational culture
  • Organizational life cycle

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