The Process and Factors of the Corporate Culture Evolution
企业文化演化过程及其影响因素探析

Organization evolution theory probes into the principle of organization development,focusing on its evolution process and influencing factors.The purpose of this article is to define the concept of corporate culture in terms of a dynamic model of the evolution process of corporate culture and its influencing factors.Many static definitions have settled for the notion by simply focusing on the substantive content of culture,its structure and its effects on the organizational behavior.Many of these researches have been done vigorously in the field of anthropology and placed emphases on how aspects of the culture are interpreted within the organization.The research of corporate culture focuses on the process of its evolution,a process of cultural transmission in the aspect of culture content and its form(tacit or not),from one stage to another,through natural evolution mechanism initiated by the staff,and compulsive evolution mechanism initiated by the administrative department.There are four major corporate culture stages in the organization evolution process: glue culture,discrete culture,exterior culture and system culture.According to the theory of life circle of leadership,there are four steps to staff maturation.Similarly,according to the uime array,the corresponding corporate culture can be divided into four stages: unripe stage,preliminary ripe stage,pre-ripe stage and ripe stage.In general,corporate culture goes through these four stages from glue culture to system culture.The development from glue culture to discrete culture,is the result of the corporate culture's natural evolution,while the growth from discrete culture to exterior culture is the result of the corporate culture's compulsive evolution.The development from compulsive culture to system culture is the result of the two evolution mechanisms.Through natural evolution mechanism,staff of the firm will develop homogenous beliefs and routines through shared experiences,which leads to shared values and beliefs.The notion of corporate culture,which may be in one of the four stages or in the transitional condition,is usually disrupted by the revolutionary periods through compulsive evolution mechanism.The whole process seems to be in a punctuated equilibrium,evolving from one stage to another.There are four main factors influencing the evolution process of corporate culture: the change of entrepreneur's concept,the main incidents of the firm,the change of staff's character or demand (capability,education etc.) and the growth of the firm(the expanding of the firm's boundary,the conflict with geographic culture or other industrial culture and the change of the structure).The first two factors are episodic change factors.They often promote the corporate culture to evolve through compulsive evolution mechanism.The last two factors are continuous change factors.They often promote the corporate culture to evolve through natural evolution mechanism.These factors jointly determine the cultura