The paper presents a follow‐up to the saga of organizational culture, first chronicled in two issues of the Leadership & Organization Development Journal in 1996 and tracing culture’s development from the organization development model through to the interest in total quality management (TQM), forming a link between the three concepts. Since the 1996 articles, culture as a concept has proceeded to develop in many new directions. In revisiting organizational culture after five years, this paper attempts to show how it has branched out from TQM and has since been associated with business process reengineering, organizational learning, and knowledge management; all of which claim to involve either changing a culture or working with an existing culture. Discusses also the role of culture in the emerging ideas and perspectives of strategic alliances, sustainability and future organizations. It is argued that the culture saga is far from finished. While many of its components may turn out to be no more than passing fads and fashions, culture has proven itself to be an enduring concept that, as it has travelled many paths in the past, will travel many different paths in the future.

• This paper traces the development of strategic change models and their assumptions, arguing that managers have a good deal of choice in the strategies they adopt.• It presents the idea of organizational politics as simply another tool that managers have to choose from when instigating strategic change and explains why Western managers feel uncomfortable with the notions of power and politics. • The paper outlines the assumptions upon which the political model of change is based and argues that managers engage in political action in many subtle ways, particularly during times of change.• Finally, it provides some examples of political strategies that managers use, arguing that political action is not all bad and that managers have much more choice in strategic change strategies than they are willing to acknowledge.

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Presents the second in a series of two articles tracing the saga of the organizational culture literature from the organization development model through to the recent interest in total quality management (TQM), forming a link between the three concepts. It is argued that, while TQM has separate origins from the culture movement, the two fields have recently converged with the idea that to achieve "excellence" and "quality", it is necessary either to change or work with the culture of an organization. Following on from the first article which dealt with literature that was mainly of academic interest, such as concepts and methods of study, diagnosis and measurement, reviews the literature that heralds and then reflects the growing interest in utilitarianism. This literature is concerned with attempts to study, implement and measure culture change, and with the emerging relationship between culture and TQM.

The effects of culture on the performance of an organization depend, not on the strength of the overall culture, but on the mix and weightings of the components of that culture. An example is the component of conflict, which may be a healthy incentive for action and competition when present in some forms and degrees, but can be damaging when it becomes the culture’s dominant feature and its existence is not acknowledged. Research theory in the management of non‐profits emphasizes the need for consonance and deplores the existence of conflict; however, research shows that some community organizations do not fit the model presented in the literature and that conflict does exist in these organizations and can cripple their ability to function in goal‐setting, staffing, the conduct of meetings, problem solving and decision making, the identification and utilization of individual skills, and writing submissions for government funding. Uses the example of a small, non‐profit organization, which works in an environment where there is a need for unity, but where conflict between the volunteers and paid workers, and among the volunteers themselves, had become the over‐riding consideration in all decision making and was paralysing the organization.