Within the framework of raising awareness about concepts and experience exchange in all the public health fields among the faculty members, on Monday, December 26^th, 2016, the Public Health and health Information College organized a scientific lecture under the title “Organizational Culture”. Dr. Abdulrahman Alzahrani, a lecturer at the College’s Health Service Management Department at the Umm Al-Qura University (UQU), delivered the lecture. Present at the lecture were Dr. Waheeb Dukhaillah Alharbi, the College’s dean, Dr. Hamid Abudlaziz A’alam, the College’s vice deans, Dr. FadiL Ibn Mohammed Bangar; the College’s vice dean for Educational Affairs,  supervisors of the departments and many faculty members of the College’s departments. 

Dr. Abudlrahman touched upon a number of the aspects related to the organizational culture. He elaborated on the concept of the organizational culture nature and its features saying that it is the undocumented part of the organization. And it is the values and criteria and guiding beliefs and common understanding among the members of the organization. It is the culture which is promoted to the new members of the organization as the correct way of thinking and acting. Part of such culture is explicit and much of it is implicit.

Still, Dr. Abdulrahman brought up the importance of the organizational culture embodied in two key elements: the internal integrity and the external harmony. These two elements are significant in terms of building the capital of social organization. 

He further pointed out that the aspects of the organizational culture are mirrored in the rites of passage and integrity; tales of heroism and achievements; relations and influence and organizational icons as well as the structures, hierarchies and administration systems. 

Dr. Abdulrhaman similarly mentioned the four well-known types of the organizational culture patterns based upon flexibility or consistency of the organization, and upon focusing the internal and external attitude of the institution. These patterns are: harmony culture, message culture, bureaucracy culture and group culture. Each pattern has its characteristics and its sub-cultures.   

Drawing the lecture to a close, a discussion ensued between Dr. Abdulrahman and the attendance about the aspects of the organizational culture. Among these aspects are the necessity of benefiting from the national vision 2030, the academic accreditation activity at the College to revisit the vision, mission, values and objectives of the University and College, analyzing the current situation and needs and publishing them adequately across the University and the College and their websites and the possibility of flexibility and harmony in the mainstream organizational culture pattern. Other aspects include changing and modifying in line with any change in the surrounding and competitive environment, the importance of recruiting the competence compatible with the culture of the organization when appointing, the ability of the organizational pattern to combine all the four well-known patterns and the responsibility of the leadership within the organizations adopting the proper pattern of the organizational cultures and making changes if need be.