ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Abstract

The last issue of the Contemporary Military Challenges in 2019 when we celebrate the 15th anniversary of Slovenia's accession to the European Union and NATO, is dedicated to the organizational culture. Many different books, articles, and online records are dedicated to the organizational culture. Most authors claim that organizational culture is essential to the success of large companies and the performance of their employees. After a number of theories on the factors affecting the performance of companies and large corporations, we have somehow again returned to the central factor - the person - the employee, the one who is motivated to do something more and better, who positively influences other employees so that together they can become better and more satisfied, and that they are more in tune with the goals and desires of the company which employs them for the common good. Concerning the distinction between organizational culture and organizational climate Dr Kristijan Musek Lešnik on his website says that many experts and gurus often confuse the two concepts or use them interchangeably. As far as organizational climate is concerned, Musek, referring to Schein, writes that organizational culture is composed of artefacts (things, language, slogans, symbols), expressed values (strategies, goals, philosophy and standards of the organization) and basic assumptions (beliefs, opinions, attitudes and feelings that are taken for granted within the organization and are shared by its members). Compared to both, he says that it also manifests itself in a temporal perspective: culture is oriented towards the past (traditions, myths, etc.) and builds the future through visions, whereas the climate is the perception of the present state. From this description it can be concluded that the organizational culture and of course climate are important for every undertaking. Consequently, they also play an important role in the modern armed forces. History is important to the identity of a nation and its military; however, organizational culture as the builder of the future is even more important. The past decade has been very specific for the Slovenian Armed Forces, as it was entirely marked by the financial crisis which began in 2008. SAF members especially felt it in terms of their salaries, equipment, weapons and reduced numbers of personnel. The SAF was also strongly impacted by the changed security situation in the nearby and broader region, which was predominantly manifested in the form of mass migration in 2015. Since then, it has been identified primarily through the increased number of illegal migrants crossing the Croatian border where Slovenian Armed Forces members take an active part in protecting the Schengen border in collaboration with the police. As it seems, this will continue to be its task in the future as well. Organizational culture as the builder of the future is the central theme of this thematic issue, in which we focus on the core tasks and mission of the Armed Forces.