Professional Documents
Culture Documents
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Concepts of Culture and This paper examines the significance of the concept of
OrganizationalAnalysis culture for organizational analysis. The intersection of cul-
turetheory and organization theory is evident in five current
research themes: comparative management, corporate cul-
Linda Smircich ture, organizational cognition, organizational symbolism,
and unconscious processes and organization. Researchers
pursue these themes for different purposes and their work is
based on different assumptions about the nature of culture
and organization. The task of evaluating the power and
limitations of the concept of culture must be conducted
within this assumptive context. This review demonstrates
that the concept of culture takes organization analysis in
several different and promising directions.
These themes are representative of cur- The balance of the paper briefly summarizes five different
rent research trends in the organization and programs of research that flow out of linkingthe terms culture
management literature and exemplify the and organization and examines their underlying assumptions
continued interest of organization theorists
in the problem of order. Themes that would and metaphors. Inthe firsttwo, culture is eitheran independent
flow from a Marxist or radical structuralist or dependent, external or internal, organizational variable. Inthe
orientation are not shown here. They are
much less well developed within organiza-
final three, culture is not a variable at all, but is a root metaphor
tion and management theory because their for conceptualizing organization. Each of these five represents
fundamental problematic concerns ques- a viable mode of inquiry. Considered together, they demon-
tions of dominance and radical change. In
this volume, Riley's paper on structuration strate thatthe promise of the concept of culture forthe study of
is suggestive of that line of research. organization is varied and rich.
342/ASQ, September 1983
Concepts of Culture
/ s0 0
Cultural (C) (C)
Context ( ogo
(D( /
THE ORGANIZATION
CULTURAL f l
CONTEXT /
I~~Tech/' ~~~ / I
nology
\ I and t
{(Sociocultural
\ \ Structure /System
\~~~ \ \/
Production /
System / /
/00
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