Culture is one of the most important things when it comes to behavior.

It spans several
lifetimes and was built on countless generations.[1] Gasset says that culture is vital and is necessary
for civilization. It affects the way a person thinks and behaves even on a subconscious level.[2] This
is because we are exposed to it at a young age. We learn it from our elders and pass it down to our
offspring. No one culture is alike. Each have their own customs and traditions that give it a unique
sense of personality. Even if some cultures do share similarities, different names, practices, and
beliefs separate them.
In the organization it is no different.

In Deshpande and Webster’s paper on Organizational culture and marketing, they first
claim that marketing concepts defines an organizational culture. The marketing studies would then
turn to behavioral sciences in order to determine how the culture of organizations would function
and ultimately define the future of a company.

The culture of an organization can be defined as everything “human” in it, according to

Meek, V.L (1988). In his paper [3], he would further explain that the social structure of an
organization has its own quirks and rituals that make it unique from others like it. As an
organization is formed, the culture grows alongside it. For it is not only a handful of people that
would contribute to the culture, but rather everyone involved in the organization, no matter how
detached from the management. However, the upper management dictates most of the culture in the
workplace. This, according to Meek, is contrary to anthropologists’ views that cultures create
leaders.
Each member of the organization contributes to the culture. However, the manager has
more power when it comes to the organization’s pacing. It is they that set the policies that all

1 Kroeber,
A. L., & Kluckhohn, C. (1952). Culture: a critical review of concepts and definitions. Papers.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University, 47(1) p. 24
2 Betancourt,
H. and Lopez, S.R. (1993) The Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race in American
Psychology. American Psychologist 48(6) pp. 629-637
3
Meek, V.L (1988) Organizational Culture Origins and Weaknesses. Organization Studies. Pp 453-
473. DOI: 10.1177/017084068800900401
members under them must follow. However, each manager can have distinct traits that affect the
way their subsets work. One manager can be more relaxed than another, resulting in more lenient
deadlines, while in another department, another manager has tighter deadlines. The culture in the
workplace, which most people would argue to be homogenous, would have wider varieties
depending on the scale of their operation. The relaxed manager could have a more personal
relationship with his division at the price of a slower pace, while the critical one is more detached
but more efficient. This would also be why the human resources department requires people that
can tell whether a potential employee would be a good fit for the division. In Arruda, W.’s article
on Forbes, he cites Netflix as a company that excels in a more lenient system. The culture of Netflix
is like a scientific management style, where employees are judged based on their performance,
rather than work hours. This results in employees that are more motivated to achieve greater goals
for rewards, rather than simply clocking in every day.

1 Kroeber,
A. L., & Kluckhohn, C. (1952). Culture: a critical review of concepts and definitions. Papers.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University, 47(1) p. 24
2 Betancourt,
H. and Lopez, S.R. (1993) The Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race in American
Psychology. American Psychologist 48(6) pp. 629-637
3
Meek, V.L (1988) Organizational Culture Origins and Weaknesses. Organization Studies. Pp 453-
473. DOI: 10.1177/017084068800900401
 Sources:
Betancourt, H. and Lopez, S.R. (1993) The Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race in American
Psychology. American Psychologist 48(6) pp. 629-637

Deshpande, R. and Webster F.E Jr. (1989) Organizational Culture and Marketing: Defining the
Research Agenda. The Journal of Marketing 53(1), American Marketing Association. pp.3-15

Kroeber, A. L., & Kluckhohn, C. (1952). Culture: a critical review of concepts and
definitions. Papers. Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University, 47(1)

Meek, V.L (1988) Organizational Culture Origins and Weaknesses. Organization Studies. Pp 453-
473. DOI: 10.1177/017084068800900401

1 Kroeber,
A. L., & Kluckhohn, C. (1952). Culture: a critical review of concepts and definitions. Papers.
Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology, Harvard University, 47(1) p. 24
2 Betancourt,
H. and Lopez, S.R. (1993) The Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race in American
Psychology. American Psychologist 48(6) pp. 629-637
3
Meek, V.L (1988) Organizational Culture Origins and Weaknesses. Organization Studies. Pp 453-
473. DOI: 10.1177/017084068800900401