From the last quarter of the previous century, a host of indomitable factors have been constantly threatening the survival of business organizations. Rising customer expectations, escalating environmental pressures and daunting competitive onslaughts are some of the challenges that business organizations are facing today. In such intimidating contexts, organizational culture assumes immense significance as a central theme for attaining competitive advantage.

Organizational culture is hypothesized to play a decisive role in the development of a unique corporate identity which in turn provides organizations with the opportunity to leverage their corporate identity to achieve strategic leadership. Cultural influences have a strong bearing on the character and persona of an organization. Peters and Waterman (1982) have opined that excellent companies focus on building an enabling corporate culture.

Organizational culture is defined as shared managerial beliefs and assumptions about employee nature and behavior. Deal and Kennedy (1982) define organizational culture as the way things get done around here. Schein (1990) describes it as a set of shared assumptions, values, beliefs and norms about expected behavior. Schwartz and Davis (1981) view culture as a pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by organization members. Ouchi (1981) puts it as a set of symbols, ceremonies, and myths that communicate the underlying values and beliefs of an organization.