Organizational Culture and Project Management

Sathe (27) defines “culture” as the set of assumptions, often unstated, that members of an organization share. Smirchich and Stubbart describe it as, “the degree to which a set of people share many beliefs, values and assumptions that encourage them to make mutually reinforcing interpretations of their own acts and the acts of others” (30, p. 727). Through a system of shared norms, beliefs, values, and assumptions, culture can bond individuals to each other, thereby creating shared meanings.

Sathe notes that an individual becomes committed to organizational beliefs when “he or she internalizes them, that is, when the person comes to hold them as personal beliefs or values” (30, p. 12). Because these assumptions are internalized and reinforced by experience, they may be outside an individual’s awareness. Internalization most likely occurs when “he or she derives personal satisfaction from the content of the behavior because it is congruent with corresponding personal beliefs and values” (30, p. 12).