The Icfai University Journal of Soft Skills, Vol. II, No. 3, 2008 52 Common Artifacts Contributing to Organizational Culture: An Indian Perspective A good organizational culture not only provides direction to the organization but also to the individual members of the organization. But many people do not have an idea about it. Though they cannot define it, many recognize it. In this paper, we tried to bring out an understanding of organizational culture, as the way things happen in and around organizations. Organizational culture also helps in bringing change. This paper focuses on common artifacts in different sectors that form organizational culture. © 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved. R Jagajeevan* and Priya Shanmugam** * Lecturer, PSG Institute of Management, Coimbatore, India. E-mail: jaggi005@yahoo.co.in ** Lecturer, PSG Institute of Management, Coimbatore, India. E-mail: priyaashan@gmail.com Introduction Corporate culture is the focal point that affects employee commitment and engagement in an organization. It is considered easy to understand but most difficult to practice. This is the result of various assumptions, beliefs and values, which formulate the organizational culture. Organizational culture typically speaks about how an organization sees itself and how the people feel about the organization. Although culture practices are considered to be common and similar in organizations, still many organizations possess a strong and deep-rooted organizational culture. A well-defined culture is critical to business success. A very closely related aspect of organizational culture is organizational climate, which describes the atmosphere within the organization and the extent to which teamwork is extended. Earlier thinkers have defined organizational culture with a focus on distinguishing the levels into strong and weak cultures. The culture also differs between the hierarchical levels within an organization. Although there are many definitions for organizational culture, this paper focuses on the definition given by McShane and Mary (2001) that emphasizes on the basic pattern of shared assumptions, values and beliefs. These elements are seen only as the tip of an iceberg and there are more such invisible elements that lie hidden in the organization. The book, Organizational Development for Excellence defines culture as encompassing the whole gamut of the existing ways of interaction, activities, values, attitudes, norms, beliefs, sentiments, feelings and other factors. Hence, organizational culture and organizational climate have been presumed as reflections of organizational ethics, human values and beliefs that result in ethical responsibility.