Notes on Theory 1: Organizational Culture according to J.

Martin

A summary of Joanne Martin's three perspectives or approaches to culture. Taken from Cameron, K., et. al. (2006); Diagnosing and changing organizational culture (p. 60-61) There are three perfectly valid perspectives to culture
Integration Culture is what people shares Is the glue that holds them together Consensus can be detected Differentiation Culture is manifested by differences among subunits Organization's culture is fraught with conflicts of interest Consensus about what common culture exists is fiction Fragmentation Culture is ambiguous Culture is unknowable Describes not an attribute of an organization but the inherent nature of the organization itself

Individuals shift cultures frequently within an organization

No one culture can be identified Each perspective has legitimacy

Notes from Martin, J. (2004); "Organizational Culture" Organizational culture is embedded in

Everyday working lives of ALL members with diverse cultural manifestations such as Formal practices Pay levels Hierarchy Job descriptions Informal practices Behavioral norms Stories to tell how things work Rituals Humor Jargon Physical arrangements o Interior decor o Dress norms o Architecture Values Espoused by employees Seen as enacted in behavior Culture consists of the patterns of meaning that link these manifestations together Sometimes in harmony Sometimes in bitter conflicts between groups Sometimes in web of ambiguity, paradox and contradiction

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Notes on Theory 1: Organizational Culture according to J. Martin

Why bother to study culture? To generate commitment To increase productivity To perpetuate personal values

Three theoretical traditions to describe organizational culture

Integration The most popular Because is harmonious and clear Executives love it because it makes them feel as the creators The least well supported empirically Most researchers take only a small subset of the organization to show the features of integration Meanings associated with small samples may not be consistent with the full range Most studies rely on the view of managers and up Assumes consistency Culture supposedly originates in the values articulated by top management Reinforced by selectively hiring people with similar priorities Change can occur, but as a whole and following a period of un-stability and deterioration Denies ambiguity: "It is not part of the culture" Differentiation Describes an organization as composed of overlapping, nested subcultures that coexist in Harmony Conflict Indifference Inconsistency across cultural manifestations is evident Espoused values, behavior mandated by formal policies Informal norms Consensus in evident only within the boundaries of a subculture Ambiguities appear at the interstices where one subculture meets another Organization is a collection of subcultures Fragmentation Clarity, consistency and consensus are shown to be idealized oversimplifications Ambiguity is not denied (as in Integration) or relegated to the interstices between subcultures (differentiation) but it is the defining feature of cultures in organizations Understanding of ambiguities should be a central component of any cultural study Power is diffused broadly at all levels of the hierarchy

Any organizational culture contains elements congruent with all three viewpoints
The analyst cannot wear "the lens" of one or another approach, and who the researcher is affects what he or she sees The analysis is always subjective This is the reason why and how many cultural researches have disagreed about such fundamental ideas

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