Culture as a concept has had a long and checkered history. It has been used by the layman as a word to indicate sophistication, as when we say that someone is very "cultured." It has been used by anthropologists to refer to the customs and rituals that societies develop over the course of their history. In the last several decades it has been used by some organizational researchers and managers to refer to the climate and practices that organizations develop around their handling of people, or to the espoused values and credo of an organization. In this context, managers speak of developing the "right kind of culture," a "culture of quality" or a "culture of customer service," suggesting that culture has to do with certain values that managers are trying to inculcate in their organizations. Also implied in this usage is the assumption that there are better or worse cultures and stronger or weaker cultures, and that the "right" kind of culture will influence how effective the organization is. In the managerial literature there is often the implication that having a culture is necessary for effective performance, and that the stronger the culture, the more effective the organization