Cultural approach to organization

Cultural approach to organization

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  GROUP COMMUNICATION THEORY CULTURAL APPROACH TO ORGANI ZATI ON Clifford Geertz
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  Overview • Geertz andPacanowsky describe organizations as having their own culture.  This means that any given organization has a particular culture in which the meanings for things are shared between individuals.  •   The environment that surrounds each company is called the corporate culture and consists of the organization's image, character, and climate.  The culture is learned through the use of Stories (or metaphors) used to convey the messages the corporation wants to share with its employees.   
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  There are threetypes of stories told: • Corporate stories, information which the management wants to share with the employees; Personal stories, which include personal accounts of themselves that employees share with each other to help to define who they are within the organization; and Collegial stories, which are stories (positive or negative) that employees within an organization tell about eachother. 
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  •   Introduction. • A.Anthropologist Clifford Geertz views cultures as webs of shared meaning,shared • understanding,and shared sensemaking. • approach in his research of organizations. • Pacanowsky asserts that communication creates and constitutes the taken-for- • granted reality of the world.   •  
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  Clifford Geertz &      Michael Pacanowsky 1973 Individual Interpretations: This theory clearly comes from a humanistic perspective.  It is very interpretive, the use of thick description as a means to understand corporate culture shows us that through symbols, we seek to reach shared meaning throughout our corporate experience.  
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  Culture as ametaphor of organizational life. A.Interest in culture as a metaphor for organizations stems from our recent interest in Japanese corporations. B.Corporate culture has several meanings. 1.The surrounding environment that constrains a company ’s freedom of action. 2.An image,character,or climate controlled by a corporation. 3.Pacanowsky argues that culture is not something an organization has,but is something an organization is.
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  What culture is;what culture is not. A.Geertz and his colleagues do not distinguish between high and low culture. B.Culture is not whole or undivided. C.Pacanowsky argues that the web of organizational culture is the residue of employees'performances. D.The elusive nature of culture prompts Geertz to label its study a “soft science.”
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  Thick description —what ethnographers do. • A.Participant observation,the research methodology of ethnographers,is a time- • consuming process. • B.Pacanowsky researched Gore &Associates. • C.Although Pacanowsky now works with Gore,the company he researched,he earlier • cautioned against “going native.” • D.Thick description refers to the intertwined layers of common meaning that underlie • what people say and do.
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  Can the managerbe an agent of cultural change? • A.The cultural approach is popular with executives who want to use it as a tool,yet • culture is extremely difficult to manipulate. • B.Even if such manipulation is possible,it may be unethical. • C.Linda Smircich notes that communication consultants may violate the ethnographer's rule of nonintervention and may even extend management ’s control within an organization.
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  Limitations • .The culturalapproach is criticized by corporate consultants,who believe that • knowledge should be used to influence organizational culture. • B.Critical theorists attack the cultural approach because it does not evaluate the • customs it portrays. • C.The goal of symbolic analysis is to create a better understanding of what it takes to function effectively within the culture.
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  Example: • Just becauseLynn has joined a new company does not mean that she has to become one of "them" all of the time.  Just as we do interpersonally, Lynn chooses the appropriate time and place and person for her to tell her 'stories' to.  Collegial stories among friends, corporate stories among colleagues, and personal stories to friends.  Her descriptions of events help us to understand her role in an organization, as well as her perceptions of it.
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  The Greatest Successof All If you give a part of yourself to life, The part you receive back will be so much greater Never regret the past, but learn by it Never lose sight of your dreams; a person who can dream will always have hope. Believe in yourself; if you do, everyone else will. You have the ability to accomplish anything, but never do it at someone else’s expense. If you can go through life loving others, you will have achieved the greatest success of all. Judy LeSage
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  SUCCESS It’ s not how much you accomplish in life that counts, But how much you give to others. It’ s not how high you build your dreams that makes a difference, But how high your faith can climb It’ s not how many goals you reach, But how many lives you touch. It’ s not whom you know that matters, But who you are inside. Believe in the impossible, Hold tight to the incredible And live each day to its fullest potential You can make a difference in your world. REBECCA JORDAN
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  THANK YOU! PROF. I.E.VALERA