Thirteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

There has been much written in the literature regarding organizational culture. Specifically, how it is developed, how it emerges, and how to change it. Some social theorists treat culture as a monolithic feature of an organization that can either be frozen and unfrozen at the direction of leadership. Others approach culture as an unchanging object. Still others approach culture as something that is subject to their command. This paper will apply Social Transaction Theory (STT) to the subject and show that these are flawed views. STT states that social entities such as culture continually and organically emerge from social transaction. An organization’s culture is completely dependent on its people and their continual interaction with each other and the surrounding environment. Dewey and Bentley’s term “transaction” is used to combine human and environmental interaction into one entity. By using the STT lens to examine organizational culture, we can provide guidance to business and not-for-profit leaders in developing strategies to deal with developing and established stronger organizational cultures.