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Culture Organisation Theory

Presentation by

Ralph Soule & Lai Fong, YeeHOL 8100: Org Culture, June 2012

&

By Calvin Morrill ~ American Academy of Political and Social Science, Sept 2008

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Historical Backdrop

Acultural Rationalis

t Theorizing

Turn of 20th

Century

Accidental discovery of Shop Floor

Culture (Norms & Sentiments)

by Human Relations Scholars

1920s

Explorations of Informal &

Institutionalized Relations

in Organisations

Mid 20th

Century

Blend of organizational culture frameworks, neoinstitutional

analysis, sociology of culture, social

movement theory

1980s toPresent

Day

Change Boundaries DevianceResearch

Questions?

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Outline of Article

[1] The Unacknowledged Use of Culture in Early Organization Theory – p. 16

[2] The Discovery of Norms and Sentiments on the Shop Floor: The Rise of Human Relations – p. 19

[3] From Informal Relations and Institutions to Negotiated Orders – p. 21

[4] Systems of Meaning and the Cultural Construction of Rationality: Organizational Culture and Neoinstitutional Frameworks – p. 23

[5] Change – p. 28

[6] Boundaries – p. 31

[7] Deviance – p. 33

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Unacknowledged Use of CultureIn Early Organization Theory

19th – early 20th century

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Emergence of Early Organization Theory

Creation of Self-Regulating Markets

… in tandem with

The Rational Organization

… as free markets underlie most social institutions

The linchpin for realizing & sustaining market society (including state bureaucracies)

Culture played an important yet

unacknowledged roles in early

Organization Theory

Example: Factory Life, where culture is both threat & resource.

Threat – local practices & workers’ traditions seen as disruptive to rational production.

Resource – value of workers’ considerable knowledge about how factories operate.

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Unacknowledged Use of CultureIn Early Organization Theory1

Federick Taylor

Scientific Management Purest & most famous expression of early applied organization

theory; focus on efficient construction of workers tasks

Used “time & motion” studies to harvest traditional work practices, then restructured them into simple task sequences that supervisors or owners could easily control & deploy

Scientifically re-engineered jobs & incentive wages by piece rates

Henry Fayol

Principles of Management ~ planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, controlling

Rationalist theory of management

Yet recognized importance of managerial “flexibility” and building “esprit de corps” among “personnel

These are undeveloped allusions to what’s become known as Organization Culture today !

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In effect, scientific management stripped organizations of workers’ collective knowledge (while not touching the collective knowledge of managers and owners), only to bring it back, repackaged as “scientifically” constructed procedures.

“Page 18

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Discovery of Norms and Sentiments onthe Shop Floor: Rise of Human Relations

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As early as 1920s, researchers realized that culture might offer additional resources for accomplishing managerial prerogatives.

Hawthorne Effect AT&T,

1924-27

Productivity increased even when illumination decreased

Managerial attention lavished on workers made them feel important

These insights laid foundation for Human Relations or HR school

Elevated place of workplace norms & sentiments

Scholars included study of norms & sentiments into mainstream organization theory as variable that impact worker productivity

HR softened the hard edges of scientific management-inspired control

Human Relations 1930s – 40s

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From Informal Relations and Institutionsto Negotiated Orders

3Scholars used ethnographic & case-study methods to reveal a complex “underlife” in organizations, containing conflicting values and interests that both subverted and facilitated the achievement of formal goals

Philip Selznick ”Leadership in

Administration” Internal, “unwritten laws” and

“informal associations” could expand executive control to achieve official, organizational goals

Job of leadership is to guide the transition from organization to institution so that the ultimate result effectively embodies desired aims and standards.

First version of “Functionalist Institutionalism”

1950s-60s:

Chicago-style Fieldwork into informal sides of organizations &

negotiated orders Where people negotiate about

meanings, routines, tacit agreements of work

Centres on the construction of meaning in organizations via social interaction

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During good economic times, organization theory heavily accents bare-bones technological rationalism (with an emphasis on tweaking efficiency), but it turns to culture when uncertainties about productivity, worker commitment, and managerial imagination set in.

“Page 23

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Systems of Meaning, Cultural Construction of Rationality, Neoinstitutional Frameworks

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Two Significant Developments:

Emergence of organizational culture frameworks that emphasized organizations as systems of meaning & symbols;

Fusion of early institutionalism elements + symbolic interactionism + ethnomethodology ~ neoinstitutional theories of organizations focused on the non-rational aspects of organizations (rituals, myths, symbols)

Late 1970s to early 1980s

Focus on “constitutive” effects of culture with respect to organizational members’ inner lives (where culture transforms peoples’ identities, restructuring their inner lives):

The meaning they attribute to organizational life;

The construction and maintenance of instrumental social structures.

1980s to Present

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Rational instrumental organizations dominate and persist on the contemporary scene not because they are technically superior on some universal, objective criteria but because they conform to a social reality and are deemed legitimate as defined by pervasively shared cultural assumptions.

“Page 27

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Change5

In contemporary Organization

Theory:

The study of Culture in

Organizations

The study of Cultural

Organization

=

Q: How does cultural organization change at the micro, organizational and broader (field, institutional) levels?

Q: What is the role of collective action and everyday social interaction in shaping these dynamics?

Power

Agency&Crucial issues of:

Exogenous

Endogenous

External, unanticipated shocks (eg disasters, economic downturns, demographic shifts, wars, dramatic legal changes)

How internal dynamics change as a result of socialization practices, managerial action (eg hostile takeovers that alter corporate cultures, reframing of shared beliefs)

Factors

Factors

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Boundaries6

Two Types of Boundaries: Symbolic & Social

Cultural Schemes

Workplace Artifacts

Eg. Concept of home vs work

How cultural schemes are woven into gendered texture of organization and fields.

Eg. Engineering drawings or machines – symbolize occupational jurisdictions of varying statuses

Such artifacts can constrain or facilitate collaboration

Boundary Objects / Trading Zones – where artifacts can be used for meaningful collaboration, exchange and competition (p. 33)

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Deviance7

Organization Deviance ~ violations of formal (organizational) design goals and normative expectations … that produce suboptimal outcomes

Definition:

Multiple Aspects of Deviance

Mistakes

Misconduct

Disasters (which might originate as mistakes or misconduct)

Eg. NASA, Challenger disaster – multiple mistakes leading up to launch decision woven into NASA work culture -> neutralized all signs of danger Normalizing

Deviance

Watergate scandal Iran-Contra affair Space shuttle Challenger disaster Enron scandal US subprime mortgage disaster

Examples:

How are deviance and responses to it culturally constructed?

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Discussion Questions

x x x

Question 1

XXXX