An organisations' culture encapsulates what it has been good at and what has worked in the past. These values can often be accepted without question by long-serving members of an organisation.
One of the first things a new employee learns is some of the organisation's legends - perhaps how the founder worked long hours and despised formal educational and training qualifications.

Legends can stay with an organisation and become part of the established way of doing things. Perhaps the founder's views about the importance of education and training will stay current; in the course of time there may be a 'culture shift' as new managers move into the organisation and change the old ways. However, a number of legends continue to be important determinants of 'the way we do things around here'.

A norm is an established behaviour pattern that is part of a culture.
A number of organisational culture types have been identified by researchers.

Organizational culture is a system of shared assumptions, values and beliefs that governs how people behave in organizations. The culture of an organization is determined by the values placed on a set of characteristics, such as risk orientation and attention to detail.
If there is a high level of agreement and commitment among the members of an organization on the importance of these values, their organization has a strong culture. An organization in which members do not agree with the core values or are not committed to the core values has a weak culture.

Cultures fragmented by role conflict and member disagreement are found to provoke stress reactions and crises in professional identities (Meyerson 1990). The fragmentation or breakdown of organizational cultures due to economic or political upheavals affects the well-being of members psychologically and physically, particular in the wake of downsizings, plant closings and other effects of concurrent organizational restructurings (Hirsch 1987). The appropriateness of particular cultural forms (e.g., hierarchic or militaristic) for modern society has been challenged by several culture studies (e.g., Hirschhorn 1984; Rousseau 1989) concerned with the stress and health-related outcomes of operators (e.g., nuclear power technicians and air traffic controllers) and subsequent risks for the general public.