Recent developments in the organizational landscape serves as a continuous reminder to the fact that the organizational practices of yesterday cannot be trusted to be develop optimum output. To this end, prying questions about the most sustainable strategy in achieving organizational success are now been asked. This current essay in many ways can be said to be raising similar questions on the one hand and answering them on the other hand. This study unlike a good number of the works conducted on similar topics is more of an academic collation and review of what is available within the domain of academia as far as organizational development is concerned. In other words, drawing from the works of previous scholars in this area will in one way or the other be used as a mirror reflection to gauge where the subject matter stands in our day and age.

To begin this task, the core aspect of this current work is built on an understanding of the fact organizational culture is a useful precursor to accomplishing the stated task of understanding organizational setups. Within this respect other vital indicators that will be considered include amongst other things organizational learning, organizational planning and development. Each of these indicators according to Schein (1992) falls within the broad universal bracket of organizational culture which also tends to exert a degree of considerable influence of events in any organization.

Given the centrality of organizational cultural inclinations on the overall posture of contemporary organizations it will not be farfetched to contend that for leadership to enhance its effectiveness within the organizational setting then much of the onus lies on the capacity to make periodic flexible adjustments to accommodate immediate and contemporary realities (Schein, 1992). Stated differently, the most ideal way to appraise the status of an organization within the paradigms of today’s realities, it is imperative to understand the individual internal dynamics that regulates the respective cultural functionalities that are operational in each organization. Doing this enables a fine line to be drawn to reflect where the cultural intricacies begin and where they end all within the framework of the organization. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses of such an organizational cultural posture. It further brings it under the spotlight to enable an objective measurement of the parading dynamics and most importantly how any of the facets can be susceptible to relevant changes.

Within the limited scope of this work, emphasis is placed on the need to understand as well as come out with a tenable interpretation of an organization’s culture to serve as a roadmap to comprehensive sustainable management practices that reflect the intricate demands of the twenty first century. The second important guiding factor in this process is based on the fact that a firm understanding and interpretation of organizational culture enables an organization’s management hierarchy to steer the organization on the cause of its strategic development within a given time frame; it also has significant impacts on the output and most importantly the needed learning process required at any level of the organizational system.

It is also known that culture in its absolute sense has the capacity to either make or hamper any development that an organization plans to pursue. Given the importance placed on organizational culture within this work coupled with the fact that it will be a recurring factor in this essay provides sufficient reason to conduct an exhaustive discussion of what organizational culture is, so as to ensure that a careful screening of irrelevant discourses will eventually contribute to the further illumination of the subject matter of this essay.

A Review of the Available Literature on Organizational Culture

In casual terms, organizational culture can be seen from the perspective of the most dominant identifiable values and attitudes that have overtime become part of an organization’s operational processes. Come to think of the fact that an organization’s success or failure in its chosen endeavor cannot be treated in isolation with the cultural disposition of the organization barring all unforeseen circumstances. Organizational culture and its diverse streams of interest gained emerged as an integral managerial concept a little over two decades ago and have since gained widespread acceptance and usage.