ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Edition

418 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND LEADERSHIPnot fit the leader’s own assumptions yet may still be critical to thesuccess of the organization.Summary and ConclusionsI have tried to articulate in this chapter the characteristics of alearning culture and the implications for leadership of the realities ofcreating such a culture in an increasingly turbulent and unpredictableworld. I reviewed the culture change issues at the major stagesof organizational development and focused on the leadership rolein developing strategy, in mergers and acquisitions, and in jointventures and strategic alliances.It seems clear that the leader of the future must be a perpetuallearner, which will require (1) new levels of perception and insightinto the realities of the world and into him- or herself; (2) extraordinarylevels of motivation to go through the inevitable pain of learningand change, especially in a world with looser boundaries in whichone’s own loyalties become more and more difficult to define; (3) theemotional strength to manage one’s own and others’ anxiety as learningand change become more and more a way of life; (4) new skills inanalyzing and changing cultural assumptions; and (5) the willingnessand ability to involve others and elicit their participation.Learning and change cannot be imposed on people. Their involvementand participation is needed in diagnosing what is goingon, in figuring out what to do, and in actually bringing about learningand change. The more turbulent, ambiguous, and out of controlthe world becomes, the more the learning process must be sharedby all the members of the social unit doing the learning.In the end, we must give organizational culture its due. Can werecognize—as individual members of organizations and occupations,as managers, as teachers and researchers, and sometimes as leaders—how deeply our own perceptions, thoughts, and feelings are culturallydetermined? Ultimately, we cannot achieve the cultural humility thatis required to live in a turbulent culturally diverse world unless we cansee cultural assumptions within ourselves. In the end, cultural understandingand cultural learning starts with self-insight.