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Although statistical evidence seems to be lacking, it is at present widely acknowledged that organizational culture has the potential of having a significant effect on organizational performance. An analysis of sustained superior financial performance of certain American organizations has attributed their success to the culture that each of them had developed. It has been proposed that these organizations are characterized by a strong set of core managerial values that define the ways in which they conduct business, how they treat employees, customers, suppliers and others. Culture is to the organization what personality is to the individual. It is a hidden but unifying force that provides meaning and direction and has been defined as the prevailing background fabric of prescriptions and proscriptions for behaviour, the system of beliefs and values and the technology and task of the organization together with the accepted approaches to these. From the literature, a vast number of dimensions of organizational culture were observed. These dimensions were synthetized and 15 constructs of culture emerged. By means of conventional item construction, item analysis and factor analysis, a questionnaire with acceptable reliability and construct validity was developed to measure organizational culture.

Several hematological abnormalities associated with HIV have been documented, but the mechanisms responsible for the cytopenias in AIDS patients are complex and not always completely understood. Thrombocytopenia, which occurs in about 40% of patients with HIV infection, may be caused by increased peripheral platelet destruction, a defect in platelet production due to the impaired formation of platelets by HIV-infected magakaryocytes, or a combination of these. The aim of this study was to compare the morphology of the platelet aggregates in platelet-rich plasma (PRP) clots prepared from HIV patients with those of controls without HIV. These platelet aggregates were studied using the scanning electron microscope to determine the effect of the virus on platelet ultrastructure. The results showed that although the platelets do aggregate, the morphology was changed with membrane blebbing as well as torn cellular membranes. Membrane blebbing is typically associated with apoptosis. It is concluded that the altered morphology of platelet aggregates in HIV patients may be related to thrombocytopenia as a result of peripheral platelet destruction.

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