Abstract
This study explores the relationship between organisational culture and performance in health and social care organisations and poses the question that if performance is dependent upon organisational culture, can organisational culture be influenced to improve the performance of the organisation? Our review of the themes and ideas around organisational culture shows that organisational culture has been recognised and discussed extensively. We draw out what we believe to be the causal relationships between organisational strategy, organisational culture and organisational performance. Our methodology consists of four research instruments which were designed by us and applied to six organisations in the public sector. These instruments evaluated organisational culture and the level of consumer satisfaction with the services provided by the organisations within the study. The study highlights the conflicts between the various sub-cultures that exist between the categories of the organisations and it emphasises the critical importance of organisations' strategies in establishing and maintaining an organisational culture and that it is the management of strategies that, over time, alters the culture of organisations rather than any direct manipulation of the culture itself.