With the launch of the new Certificate in Organizational Anthropology, Penn LPS Online aims to remedy that lack of understanding and put organizational culture firmly on the radar. вЂњBut very few people actually have the depth of understanding of what goes into making up culture, the embodied practices that we have of talking about the world, and all the things that pass beneath the radar screen.вЂќ Greg Urban, professor of anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania who teaches and writes about organizational culture. вЂњYou can hardly pick up a newspaper or listen to a program without hearing somebody talking about the culture of this workplace or the culture of that organization,вЂќ says Dr. But, if you suddenly develop trouble breathing, youвЂ™ll notice-and things can go downhill rapidly. ItвЂ™s a little like breathing-you know itвЂ™s necessary, you know itвЂ™s occurring, but if all is well, you donвЂ™t actively take note of it. On a day-to-day basis, we are usually so immersed in it that we donвЂ™t always pay close attention. How many of us think about organizational culture, good or bad? Wherever we work, itвЂ™s there, in the background somewhere. (Ironically, if you do a search on Google of вЂњtoxic corporate culture,вЂќ youвЂ™ll get over 27 million results.) Recently, the culture at Google came under similar unfavorable scrutiny when thousands of employees staged brief walk-outs at offices worldwide to protest sexism, racism, and uncurbed executive power.

Social media colossus, Facebook, came in for its own bruising when reports surfaced of a вЂњcult-likeвЂќ culture where employee dissent was discouraged and leadership enforced a top-down approach when it came to decision-making.

It painted a picture of a corporate culture that eroded work-life boundaries, where employees cried at their desks, and those who couldnвЂ™t cut it as Amazonians were culled in what one former HR manager called, вЂњpurposeful Darwinism.вЂќ Following the article, Amazon cried foul, with founder Jeff Bezos hitting back and saying he didnвЂ™t recognize the culture portrayed in the Times article. Last year, the New York Times portrayed the culture at retail giant Amazon in pretty brutal terms. Organizational culture gets a lot of media attention-especially when itвЂ™s not-so-great.

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