Negations and Ambiguities in the Cultures of Organization

Abstract

In this article I examine the difference between concepts of culture contained in organizational studies and those in anthropology. The twentieth-century emergence of rationalized organizations poses an unmet challenge to anthropological theory. The unique cultural consequences of the organizational form are found in the cultures of command and authority, adaptation and resistance, alienation and inclusion that are found in every organization. These separate cultures interrogate each other and draw on cultural resources outside the organization. In the final section I examine some of the mechanisms with which organizations manage the ambiguities of boundaries and differentiation. Drawing on theories of rites of passage, personhood, gift-exchange, and totemism, I describe the quotidian practices of staffing, sales, and accounting as symbolic processes for managing ambiguity, [organization, culture, theory] American Anthropologist 102(4):726-740.

Studying Culture as an Integral Aggregate Variable: Organizational Culture and Innovation in a Group of Nonprofit Organizations

“…This is changing as researchers recognize that organizational culture may be at least incompletely shared within an organization (Martin 1992). The proponents of this view argue that intracultural diversity (Pelto and Pelto 1975) must be acknowledged and see organizational cultures as systems of meanings that are characterized by multiple meanings and partial consistency and consensus, which in turn are negotiated among multiple, complementary, and competing perspectives (Fine 1984;Martin and Meyerson 1988;Trice 1993;Caulkins and Hyatt 1999;Batteau 2001).…”

Deconstructing divisions: Cultural schismogeneses as sources of creativity in organizations

“…It can be understood as a 'continually contested process of making claims of difference' in groups and between them (Parker 2000, 233), and can thus be viewed as a 'struggle for hegemony' with competing oppositions attempting to define the primary purpose of the organization in a way that meets their definitions (Parker 2000, 75). From this perspective, which is in accordance with anthropological definitions of culture (Batteau 2000), organizational culture is not stable and permanent, but instead constantly being enacted and changed. In line with this definition of organizational culture, it is important to grasp that cultural transformation and change are virtually uncontrollable because they are results of 'simultaneous interlocking local processes' (Demers 2007, 88).…”

O Organization, Where Art Thou? Tracing the Multiple Layers of Ambiguous and Shifting Boundary Processes in a Formal Organization

“…Managing who is part of the organization and the quality of their attachment is a key task for formal organizations (Batteau 2001). 5 The continual process of defining who is inside and who is outside these boundaries can be referred to as "boundary work" (Gieryn 1983).…”