ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Edition

214 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND LEADERSHIPseveral months and many rewrites before they felt relatively comfortableabout the paper.When the insiders initially approved this project, they did notknow what the cultural description would actually look like; theyhad no way of assessing whether they should approve the project.Since they did not have a particular need to gain insight into theirown culture at this point in their history, the actual confrontationwith the data was uncomfortable for some members of the company.Truths were spelled out that they felt would have been betterleft implicit or buried, and the fact that outsiders probably wouldnot recognize the company was small comfort because everyoneknew that other insiders would immediately recognize it. The availabilityof the description in written form became a further interventionin this company’s functioning because it articulated manythoughts, values, and assumptions in ways that had never beenarticulated before. The company had not contracted for anythingother than giving a student permission to interview and observe, yetit found itself in some degree of turmoil over material that had notyet even been published.Risks of an Internal AnalysisIf an organization is to understand its own strengths and weaknessesand to make informed strategic choices based on realistic assessmentsof external and internal factors, it must at some point studyand understand its own culture. However, this process is not withoutits problems, risks, and potential costs. Basically, two kinds ofrisks must be assessed: (1) the analysis of the culture could be incorrectand (2) the organization might not be ready to receive feedbackabout its culture.If the analysis of what the culture’s basic assumptions are andhow they fit into a pattern or paradigm is wrong it may give thedecision maker incorrect data on which to base decisions. If decisionsare made on the basis of incorrect assumptions about the culture,serious harm could be done to the organization. Such errors