9
MID-LIFE CRISIS AND POTENTIAL DECLINE
One of the persistent questions about culture is whether a strong culture is or is not an advantage in terms of effectiveness. This question now has to be revisited in terms of the stage of evolution of the organization. As I noted in Chapter Seven, in the growth stage, the strength of culture is both a goal and an advantage. Strong cultures provide a source of identity and control in that the members of the organization think alike, making it less necessary for formal control procedures to be instituted. However, with growth comes differentiation, the loss of functional familiarity, and the necessity for formal control procedures. As subcultures form the concept of strength loses its meaning, unless one ...

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