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Showing papers on "Organizational culture published in 1989"


Book
01 Jan 1989
TL;DR: Based on interviews with German, French and American executives and on extensive research into intercultural relations, the authors provides insights and practical advice on day-to-day transactions in international business, which is designed to help Americans, Germans and the French better understand one another's psychology and behaviour.
Abstract: Based on interviews with German, French and American executives and on extensive research into intercultural relations, this book provides insights and practical advice on day-to-day transactions in international business. It is designed to help Americans, Germans and the French better understand one another's psychology and behaviour. The authors emphasize the behaviour one can expect in the business culture of each and offer advice for avoiding the misunderstandings and miscommunications that can occur.

1,574 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The field of marketing management is grounded implicitly in a structural functionalist or contingency perspective of organizational functioning as discussed by the authors, however, the field of organizational behavio-behavior is not grounded in a functionalist perspective.
Abstract: Contemporary work on marketing management is grounded implicitly in a structural functionalist or contingency perspective of organizational functioning. However, the field of organizational behavio...

1,413 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Barney et al. as discussed by the authors found that workers were more satisfied and committed when their values were congruent with the values of their supervisor, and that the degree of congruence between workers and their supervisors was not significantly correlated with workers' tenure.
Abstract: The purported advantage of a strong corporate culture presumes that positive outcomes result when peoples' values are congruent with those of others. This was tested by using a design that controlled for artifacts in prior studies. Participants, 191 production workers, their supervisors (N = 17), and 13 managers at a large industrial products plant, completed questionnaires containing measures of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and work values. Responses were later matched with the attendance and performance records of the production workers in the sample. Results showed that workers were more satisfied and committed when their values were congruent with the values of their supervisor, \felue congruence between workers and their supervisors was not significantly correlated with workers' tenure; however, its effect on organizational commitment was more pronounced for longer tenured employees. The topic of corporate culture has recently captured the interest of practicing managers as well as academic researchers. This appeal is based on the general observation that organizations with strong cultures exhibit superior overall performance (Barney, 1986; Deal & Kennedy, 1982; Kilmann, 1984; Peters & Waterman, 1982). Further evidence for this conclusion has come from accounts of the Japanese system of management (Ouchi, 1981; Pascale & Athos, 1981). These descriptions attribute the high levels of motivation and involvement of Japanese workers, at least in part, to their adoption of the dominant values and company philosophies held by their organizations (Schein, 1981). The superior performance of firms with strong corporate cultures has been ascribed to their use of socialization and other techniques to emphasize specific core values that, when shared by employees (Barney, 1986; Tichy, 1983), are thought to perform certain crucial functions. Schein (1985) has succinctly described these functions as external adaptation and internal integration. In fostering external adaptation, holding these core values is believed to influence employees to behave in ways that are necessary for the organization to survive in its environment. In this mode, values are thought to have a direct effect on the behavior of individuals in the workplace. The role of values in internal integration is quite different,

807 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a comparison of strong culture organizations, ranging from cults and religious organizations to strong culture firms, is made, and the authors argue that culture and commitment result from: systems of participation that rely on processes of incremental commitment; management as symbolic action that helps employees interpret their reasons for working; strong and consistent cues from fellow workers that focus attention and shape attitudes and behavior; and comprehensive reward systems that use recognition and approval.
Abstract: The notion of "corporate culture" has received widespread attention in the past several years But what is meant by the term and why should managers be concerned with it? Culture can be thought of as a mechanism for social control As such, culture is important for both the implementation of strategy and as a mechanism for generating commitment among organizational members Based on a comparison of strong culture organizations, ranging from cults and religious organizations to strong culture firms, this article argues that culture and commitment result from: systems of participation that rely on processes of incremental commitment; management as symbolic action that helps employees interpret their reasons for working; strong and consistent cues from fellow workers that focus attention and shape attitudes and behavior; and comprehensive reward systems that use recognition and approval These techniques characterize "strong culture" organizations

799 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore corporate ethical values and organizational commitment in marketing, and discuss corporate ethical value as a component of corporate culture, and review the literature on ethical marketing.
Abstract: The authors explore corporate ethical values and organizational commitment in marketing. They (1) discuss corporate ethical values as a component of corporate culture, (2) review the literature on ...

784 citations


Book
01 Jan 1989

724 citations



Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The concept of the Learning Company is beginning to attract those concerned with the development of people in organisations as mentioned in this paper, but no one has yet claimed to be able to offer a working model of what a learning company is.
Abstract: INTRODUCTION The concept of the Learning Company is beginning to attract those concerned with the development of people in organisations. Having been stirred up by the prescriptions of In Search of Excellence in terms of how to organise for action and innovation (Peters and Waterman, 1982), this theme is the one most likely to preoccupy managers in the next few years. Even before the notion has been thoroughly defined and explored it has entered the mainstream. For example, Item 6 in the new Charter Group Initiative’s ’Code of Practice’ uses the term ’Learning Organisation’ (FME/CBI/BIM, 1987, p. 5) as does a recent survey report from Ashridge to designate the coming phase of training and development in organisations (Barham et al., 1988, p. 49, et seq.). The Learning Company is the new frontier and the scouts are busy bringing back reports. However, while many people are talking about it no-one has, as yet, claimed to be able to offer a working model of what a Learning Company is. There is both excitement about the possibilities and a lack of clarity about what it looks like. In short we are now standing at the ’vision’ end of the vision-to-reality sequence in bringing the idea into being. In October 1987, we began a 6-month pilot project entitled ’Developing The Learning Company’ with funding from the Manpower Services Commission. The aim was to define and test the feasibility of the idea as

280 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compared the relationships between context and organizational structures under conditions of environmental scarcity and environmental munificence, and found that context and structure can be linked under both conditions.
Abstract: This study compared the relationships between context and organizational structures under conditions of environmental scarcity and conditions of environmental munificence. The study analyzed data o...

195 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigate the nature of national and business culture differences within corporations, and their implications for the structuring of the organisation, and suggest how the necessary cultural information can be collected.

193 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors argued that sentiments and events celebrating the unique identity of machinists in one firm were simultaneously the vehicle for the assertion of boundary and division between interests within this group. But they did not consider the role of organizational events and processes in defining organizational culture.
Abstract: Much of the recent literature relating to organizational culture reveals two themes. On the one hand, managerial accounts depict organizations as fostering solidary senti ments, with all participants accepting and upholding joint values. Alternatively, other studies describe organizations as comprising potentially divided interests, which utilize collective values for sectional advantage. An assumption common to both perspectives is that organizational events have single, fixed meanings to all parties. Organizational culture, it seems, is about either pervasive unity or pervasive division. Using empirical materials, it is argued that sentiments and events celebrating the unique identity of machinists in one firm were simultaneously the vehicle for the assertion of boundary and division between interests within this group. Organizational events and processes were capable of multiple interpretation. This theme prompts some concluding generaliza tions, which suggest that organizational culture is defined spe...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, an ethnographic approach was employed to study a bank in the northeastern U.S. that underwent organizational change and transformation in response to the dema-cation crisis.
Abstract: This article reports research in which an ethnographic approach was employed to study a bank in the northeastern U.S. that underwent organizational change and transformation in response to the dema...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify and explore new arenas of inquiry and action in the organizational change and development field, and argue that the field is currently characterized by a renewed focus on changing whole systems and a wide breadth of progress cutting across theory, method, and practice.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The impact of the Theory of Bureaucratic Caring on the corporate enterprise will necessitate a system shift from a narrow to a broad focus where management and caring views can exist side by side and realistically represent the transformation of health care organizations to benefit humankind.
Abstract: Changes in the health care environment have raised many questions related to patient care. How are political, economic, legal, and technological caring decisions made? How is spiritual caring fostered? How can ethical caring be the grounds on which moral decisions are made? What new policies must be designed to enhance the human perspective in corporate policy, and how will these principles and policies guide actions? The impact of the Theory of Bureaucratic Caring on the corporate enterprise will necessitate a system shift from a narrow to a broad focus where management and caring views can exist side by side and realistically represent the transformation of health care organizations to benefit humankind.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The notion of differential shaming as mentioned in this paper is proposed as a basis for building an integrated theory of organizational crime, which can be seen as a continuation of the mainstream tradition of criminological theory in the domain of criminal subculture formation.
Abstract: To understand the circumstances that lead to organizational crime, we need to consider the insights of strain theories on the distribution of legitimate and illegitimate opportunities, of labeling theory on the way stigmatization can foster criminal subculture formation, of subcultural theory as applied to organized business subcultures of resistance to regulation, and of control theory. It is contended that an integration of these perspectives into a theory of organizational crime is possible; a continuity can be established with the mainstream traditions of criminological theory in the domain of organizational crime. Thirteen propositions are advanced as a basis for building such an integrated theory. The key to this attempt as synthesis is the notion of differential shaming—the shaming from organizational cultures of compliance versus the shaming from subcultures of resistance to regulatory law.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The studies demonstrate that while computer and communications technology have the potential to relax constraints on information work in terms of space and time, in today's traditional work environments, corporate culture and management style limit acceptance of telecommuting as a substitute for office work.
Abstract: The subject of this paper is work performed in the home with computer and communications technology, also known as telecommuting. The article reports on two studies of work at home: a quasi-experimental field study of organizational telecommuting pilot programs, and an attitude survey comparing computer professionals who work at home to employees doing similar jobs in traditional office settings. The results of the field study demonstrated that working in the home had little impact on employee performance; however, supervisors were not comfortable with remote workers and preferred their employees to be on site. In the survey, work in the home was related to lower job satisfaction, lower organizational commitment, and higher role conflict. The survey also included computer professionals who worked at home in addition to the regular work day. The author suggests that performing additional unpaid work in the home after regular work hours may be an important trend that merits further investigation. The studies demonstrate that while computer and communications technology have the potential to relax constraints on information work in terms of space and time, in today's traditional work environments, corporate culture and management style limit acceptance of telecommuting as a substitute for office work.

Book
01 Feb 1989
TL;DR: The evolution of Organization Theory Max Weber's Concept of Bureaucracy Taylor, Schmidt and Scientific Management How to Kill Creativity Working under Mechanized Systems of Production Computers and the Mechanization of Intellectual Work From Bureaucracies to Networks The Emergence of New Organizational Forms Organization Design An Information Processing Perspective Organizational Technologies Organizational Environments The Emergent of Turbulent Environments as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: PART ONE: MINDSTRETCHERS Flexibility and Intelligence What is This? The Need for a Tool Chest Framing and Reframing Seeing the Same Situation in Different Ways What is This? Using Your 'Right Brain' We Learn How to See What is a Paintbrush? What is Truth? Different Assumptions and Organizing Principles Generate Different Designs Developing Multiple Interpretations Understanding Different Viewpoints Escaping From Dominant Ideas Interpreting Patterns, Boundaries and Constraints What is an Organization? Viewing Your Organization as if You Are a Visitor from a Foreign Land Where's The Customer Some Thought Patterns Today's Solutions Shape Tomorrow's Problems Mindstretchers -- Ideas and Solutions PART TWO: READINGS, STORIES AND OTHER RESOURCES The Evolution of Organization Theory Max Weber's Concept of Bureaucracy Taylor, Schmidt and Scientific Management How to Kill Creativity Working Under Mechanized Systems of Production Computers and the Mechanization of Intellectual Work From Bureaucracies to Networks The Emergence of New Organizational Forms Organization Design An Information Processing Perspective Organizational Technologies Organizational Environments The Emergence of Turbulent Environments The Contingency Approach Analyzing Relations Between Organization and Environment Differentiation and Integration One of the Paradoxes of Management Collective Strategy The Management of Interorganizational Relations Tit for Tat A Strategy for Cooperation and Survival Organization and Environment Adaptation or Selection Do Organizations 'Enact' Their Environments? Organizational Growth and Development Just in Time Systems of Management Japanese Management The Art of Self-Regulation The Challenger Disaster A Case of Discouraged Feedback? Information and Misinformation Some Unintended Consequences of Performance Controls Collaboration and Control Peopleless Factories Peopleless Offices Team-Based Manufacturing Digital Tries the Bossless System Growing Large While Staying Small Organizational Learning Innovating Organizations The Case of 3M Culture A Complex and Subtle Language Corporate Culture and Core Values Corporate Culture The Role of Stories Transformational Leadership The Tandem Corporation A Successful Corporate Culture? ServiceMaster Combining Vision and Control Life on the Fast Lane at Datsun Apple Computer and the Politics of Change Politics at Work Some Sources of Organizational Conflict A Perspective on Conflict Management Decision-Making in Conflict Situations Managing Intergroup Conflict Rational for Whom? Powerless Power? Gender and Corporate Politics Game-Playing and the Psychodynamics of Organizational Life Groupthink The Problems of Conformity Some Unconscious Aspects of Organization The Destructive Side of Technological Development Unfolding Contradictions The Bhopal Disaster 'Hooked' on Work The Not-Enough World of Work PART THREE: CASES AND EXERCISES American Football A Case of Mechanistic Organization? arlie Chaplin's Modern Times Eagle Smelting A Visit to McDonald's Judging the Degree of Fit Between Organization and Environment The Paradoxical Twins Acme & Omega Electronics Scholar Educational Products Inc. The Changing Structure of Financial Services Organizations Often Obstruct Learning Product X Arnold The Paradox of Creativity Understanding the Culture of Your Organization Perfection or Bust The Creation and Destruction of the Order of Maria Theresa Sink or Swim Reflections on a Corporate Training Program The Nomizu Sake Company The University as a Political System The Fortress Insurance Company Rainbow Financial Services Global Inc A Roleplay How Politicized is Your Organization? Pluralist Management Meetings, Meetings, Meetings The Sunnyvale Youth Centre Conflict at Riverside The Handgrenade Jersey Packers The Department of Information Services Quality Co-Op Who Builds the Dillworth Extension? The Lakeside Literary Magazine A New Direction for the Upstage Theatre Tipdale Engineering Visibility, Autonomy, Relevance and Relationships Four Factors Shaping Power and Influence Final Offer Problems in the Machine Shop Profit and Organizations A Story of Exploitation?



Journal ArticleDOI
01 Apr 1989-Quest
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors focus on the processes and dynamics that structure gender in organizations and explain how organizational elites (males) work to recreate themselves in order to retain their power, and how women collude in this process.
Abstract: This paper, and the study upon which it is based, focuses on the processes and dynamics that structure gender in organizations. More specifically, our purpose has been to understand and explain how organizational elites (males) work to recreate themselves in order to retain their power, and how women collude in this process. Our empirical data were drawn from in-depth interviews with over 70 women and men who hold professional and key volunteer positions in one of five Canadian national sport organizations. Our specific focus here, however, is a critical assessment of the plausible explanations for these observations. We draw upon the theoretical and empirical literature in four areas: voluntary participation and associations, organizational culture, critical organization theory, and most important, feminist perspectives on organization theory. This is an exploratory paper that attempts to explain the relations between women and men in a specific organizational context and how these relations can be chang...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Owens and Steinhoff as discussed by the authors developed a paper and pencil instrument that may be used to probe the unseen, unvoiced, virtually preconscious elements that underlie and give rise to the organisational culture of schools in order to assess systematically the organizational cultures in them.
Abstract: Students of organisation generally hold that deciphering the subtleties and nuances of behaviour, speech and artifacts in order to describe and understand organisational culture can only be done through such observational field methods as ethnography. Owens and Steinhoff question this assumption and the methodological limitations inherent in it. They sought to develop a paper‐and‐pencil instrument that may be used to probe the unseen, unvoiced, virtually preconscious elements that underlie and give rise to the organisational culture of schools in order to assess systematically the organisational cultures in them. The authors explain the theory of organisational culture which guided the development of their research instrument, the Organisational Culture Assessment Inventory (OCAI).

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the concept of organisational culture was applied to a recent study of academic organisations in an Australian university and different levels of culture are revealed, bases of conflict and aspects of a common culture are elucidated, their organisational implications are discussed and the value of a cultural perspective is addressed.
Abstract: How the concept of organisational culture was applied to a recent study of academic organisations in an Australian university is the thrust of this article. Rather than use the more traditional approach of analysing functions and formal structures, the study added a different perspective by applying a cultural framework adapted chiefly from the works of three noted scholars of higher education. It examined academic culture, namely, the symbolic dimension of academic organisation embodying the traditions, myths, rituals, occupational beliefs and values and other forms of expressive symbolism that have grown up about universities and the life and work of academics. Different levels of culture are revealed, bases of conflict and aspects of a common culture are elucidated, their organisational implications are discussed and the value of a cultural perspective is addressed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a study was conducted to determine whether thematic rules can be identified as direct reflections of culture and to relate thematic organizational rules to employee values, perceptions of actual and desired message sending and receiving activities, and organizational outcomes, such as perceptions of organizational success and satisfaction with organizational relationships and rewards.
Abstract: As a result of pervasive interest in communication and culture, increasing efforts are being focused on understanding communication/culture relationships and relating them to important organizational processes and outcomes. In an effort to contribute to our understanding, the present study was designed to determine whether thematic rules can be identified as direct reflections of culture and to relate thematic organizational rules to employee values, perceptions of actual and desired message sending and receiving activities, and organizational outcomes, such as perceptions of organizational success and satisfaction with organizational relationships and rewards. The results indicated that rule-value discrepancies, message sending differences, message receiving uncertainty, work satisfaction, and estimations of organizational quality and survival are interrelated and supportive of previously postulated theoretical relationships among values, culture, behaviors, and outcomes.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Organisational Culture Assessment Inventory (OCAI) as mentioned in this paper is a measurement of organizational culture, which is a measure of the phenomenon referred to as organisational culture in a given organization.
Abstract: The purpose of the research was to develop a measure of the phenomenon referred to as organisational culture. The study addressed the following questions: (1) What are the essential facts which define the metaphor, Organisational Culture?, and (2) How can these facts be ascertained systematically in a given organisation? This article describes the procedures used in the development of an instrument, called the Organisational Culture Assessment Inventory (OCAI), designed to address these questions. A previous article specifies the theoretic assumptions on which the OCAI is constructed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A conceptual framework for understanding the form and dynamics of organisational change is provided in this paper, where the basic organisational model and life cycle, the types of organizational change, and the role of company culture in organizational change are examined.
Abstract: A conceptual framework is provided for understanding the form and dynamics of organisational change. The basic organisational model and life cycle, the types of organisational change, and the role of company culture in organisational change are examined. The mechanics of change are discussed and an overview taken of some pitfalls.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Corporate culture has become the 'in' phrase not only for an army of professional management writers, but also for senior cxccutives, production managers, and finance people alike as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: In recent years, management theory has discovered a new buzz-word culture. In particular, 'corporate culture' has become the 'in' phrase not only for an army of professional management writers, but also for senior cxccutives, production managers, and finance people alike. This concept has becomc for the 1980s what 'strategic planning' was for the 1970s, as notions from anthropology such as rites, customs and values replace stars, cash cows and dogs as dominant expressions in corporate boardrooms and business seminars [2]. The concept of culture has become attractive because it offers a new panacea for corporate ills. Management journals document how cultural factors arc at the heart of best practice. Human resources experts see cultural norms as the key to the infrastructurc of informal organisation. This infrastructure is comprised of the ceremonies and rituals which give meaning to the work environment; it encompasses the core values which leaders and subordinates hold dear. Modern management texts tell managers to create corporate cultures which dovetail with effective corporate strategy. This integration is presented as the main reason for the successes of the 'Excellent' and Theory Z' companies [3]. The new axiom of administrative wisdom is that good strategy equals success only when we possess an appropriate culture. This interest in culture has turned rnanagcmcnt theory full circle. Like

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The challenge is to manage the organization's culture so that the company's strengths can be tapped to achieve superior performance and identify its weaknesses in time to overcome them before they cause serious damage.
Abstract: The challenge is to manage the organization's culture so that you can tap the company's strengths to achieve superior performance and identify its weaknesses in time to overcome them before they cause serious damage.



Journal ArticleDOI
01 Aug 1989
TL;DR: Despite the frequently held assumption that organizational culture has an impact on organizational functioning, few authors have explicitly discussed the topic of organizational culture and organiz... as discussed by the authors, but they did not explicitly define organizational culture.
Abstract: Despite the frequently held assumption that organizational culture has an impact on organizational functioning, few authors have explicitly discussed the topic of organizational culture and organiz...