Organizational Culture in Action

A Cultural Analysis Workbook

Gerald W. Driskill, Angela Laird Brenton

• Publisher: SAGE Publications, Inc
• Year: 2010
• Print ISBN: 9781412981088
• eBook ISBN: 9781452237930
• Edition: 2
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

This book is a practical guide to "reading" the culture of organizations and to understanding the implications of culture for organizational effectiveness. Sharing their experiences from over 25 years of consulting and teaching, the authors make the process of cultural analysis practical and applicable. Beginning with an explanation of the theories of organizational culture, the book provides guidance on collecting information, leading students through qualitative research methods of observation, interviewing, and analyzing written texts. Students come away equipped to apply cultural insights to fostering diversity, supporting organizational change, making leadership more dynamic, understanding the link between ethics and culture, and achieving personal growth.

Key Features

· Application activities are integrated throughout each chapter: Inviting students to apply the concepts learned, these activities can also be used in class or for assignments.

· Four contexts chapters contain topical cases and examples: These chapters demonstrate the value of cultural analysis as students consider the implications for change, ethics, diversity, and leadership.

· Includes numerous real-life examples: Based on the authors? extensive consulting experience, these examples help students see the material applied in context.

· NEW! Expanded discussion of ethics with related cases, and sections on multicultural organizations, generational diversity, the use of dialogue groups, and intercultural training bring the text thoroughly up to date.

PART I

Cultural Analysis
Planning

1

Introduction

Setting the Stage

All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players: They have their exits and their entrances; And one man in his time plays many parts.

—Shakespeare, 1564–1616, As You Like It,
Burchell (Ed.), 1954, p. 42

Objectives:

• Reflect on the pervasiveness of organizations in our lives
• State the goal of cultural analysis
• Apply guides for selecting an organization for analysis

Stage Terms:

• Organizational culture
• Cultural analysis
• Organization
• Organizational performance

Cradle to Grave

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When we ask students to name and describe an organization, they often first think of a workplace they have been a part of as an adult. However, by focusing on work-places, we miss the great variety of organizations that shape and define us throughout our lives. Our first experiences in organizations were like many of yours: Bright lights and masked strangers welcomed us into a hospital birthing room. Since that time, we have lived, breathed, laughed and cried, worked or consulted with, and dreamed and been bored in a wide array of organizations including business offices, advertising agencies, nonprofits, universities, prisons, and day cares. Some of them have inspired us, and some of them have broken our hearts. All of them create expectations and perceptions that follow us all the rest of our lives. Beyond the myriad examples of tragic and comic tales we could each tell from our experiences as employees, we also have countless stories from our experiences as customers, volunteers, and patients. The point is clear—we cannot escape an inextricable connection with organizations. Yet we easily take for granted the impact of organizations, the very stages on which we live out our lives. We know when to show up, we know when something goes wrong with a piece of equipment or a relationship, but we rarely see the big picture of how all the various aspects of the stage impact us. The purpose of this workbook is to equip us to create more competent organizational performances. Such performances are grounded in learning the way our communication shapes and is shaped by the culture of the organization and national culture as well.

Organizations are places that carry us from cradle to grave by shaping our sense of identity, role, and meaning in life.

In the years that have passed since the startling birth experience, we have come to believe that organizations are no more and no less than a significant stage for human drama. Our research on cultures in hospitals, engineering firms, churches, banks, airlines, phone companies, schools, and day care centers and our service experiences in hospitals, multinationals, and nursing homes have all underscored our conviction that organizations are far more than the places where we work and make money. They are places that carry us from “the cradle to the grave” by shaping our sense of identity, role, and meaning in life.

Thus, while our motivation to study organizations began with a pragmatic sense that our livelihoods depended on being able to work in organizations, a deeper, more fundamental concern has emerged. We want to improve our ability to shape and direct organizations in ways that are more humane. We believe such an effort to be fundamental to practitioners, scholars, teachers, and students, but more importantly as participants in the human drama. The goal of this workbook, therefore, is not simply to teach you how to conduct a cultural analysis, but it has implications for your role as a change agent within an organization and within your community. In short, the workbook is designed to help you by heightened awareness to do better what you do almost every day—make decisions about the best ways to lead and communicate in your organization(s). The quality of such decisions is enhanced through engaging in the process of conducting a cultural analysis.

FAQs on Cultural Analysis

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This chapter sets the stage for conducting a cultural analysis by clarifying the approach we take in this workbook. While the remaining chapters provide greater depth on the “how to” of understanding and improving organizational performances, our goal here is to respond to seven common questions about the major approach and features of this workbook. As you review our responses to these questions you should gain a clearer sense of the process of cultural analysis, as well as criteria to consider in selecting an organization.

1. What Do You Mean by Organizational Culture?

We provide several definitions in Chapter 3. Our favorite is from Geertz (1973), that culture consists of the webs of significance that we have spun for ourselves. His definition highlights that culture consists of meaning and that it is constructed and interactive. Each organization has a unique way of doing things. Just as each national culture or civilization has its own unique language, artifacts, values, celebrations, heroes, history, and norms, each organization is unique in these same ways. At a deeper level, organization members create and/or are indoctrinated into unique beliefs and assumptions that form the basis for acting together. Some beliefs and assumptions may operate at a conscious level. Basic assumptions such as those about human nature and human relations are more likely to operate at the unconscious level. For example, I might just assume that supervisors make decisions and employees carry them out without ever consciously questioning that assumption. In contrast, when actors understand and identify with the history, norms, and values of a group, they can become a true ensemble cast by coordinating their actions more effectively with others’. They can also understand the symbolic significance of events and actions in a more thorough way and identify the many subcultures that together form and shape the overall organizational culture. This practical knowledge can then aid us in being ethical and responsible in the way we shape these cultures in our interactions with others.

2. Just What Do You Mean by a Cultural Analysis?

Just as anthropologists immerse themselves in a foreign culture to understand it, students of organizational culture use many of the same methods to understand an organization’s culture. For example, they systematically observe artifacts and interactions, analyze written documents, participate in rites and rituals, and interview culture members about the meanings they attach to organizational objects and events. Interestingly, actors use many of the same techniques of observation, interviewing, and analyzing scripts in the process of crafting a credible and compelling performance on the stage or in film.

We define a cultural analysis as a process of capturing the unique qualities of an organization as revealed in values, history, stories, and other elements created through interactions that have significance for organizational effectiveness and the personal development of members. One way to gain clarity about the organizational cultural analysis process is to use analogies: to make connections between the familiar and the unfamiliar, the known to the unknown. One organizational culture class participant said that the cultural analysis process was like the Wheel of Fortune television game. In that game, participants have to fill in the missing letters of a phrase based on a clue from the moderator. If participants guess too early and get it wrong, they are penalized by losing a turn. And of course, if they guess too late, they risk losing to other contestants willing to take a risk. The challenge is to have enough information about the word puzzle to make a credible interpretation. In the same way, if you attempt a definitive interpretation of a culture too early in the process, you may pay the price of misunderstanding the culture. We also recognize that, at some point, you have enough data for a realistic (although not perfect) cultural interpretation, and you need to move ahead to application. We agree with the need to balance thoroughness with timely application, and you will learn in this workbook a process of cultural analysis that emphasizes careful reflection on cultural data combined with application. We have identified two different analogies as a way to clarify the process and to encourage you to move systematically through the five cultural analysis steps outlined in this workbook.

Gerald’s Analogy: Paint My Numbers

We have a painting in our home of a wolf. The dark eyes and menacing face peer out from behind the white bark of aspens. The painting was our son, Eli’s, first time to paint by numbers. Not true art you might say. Imagine, however, if Eli did not have a color and number code. He would have to determine colors that seemed best together. He would need to create a convincing palette that made the wolf come to life.

A cultural analysis is like painting with numbers and colors without the code for three reasons. First, the cultural analysis process does not begin with a blank canvas. The paint by numbers box comes with a canvas with lines and numbers on it; the colors are in the box. In the same way, organizations come with a barrage of colors and numbers. In Chapter 4 we label these colors as elements of culture (e.g., values, stories, rituals). You do not have to create these cultural elements; you do have to identify them. You will have to find a corresponding, convincing match for the color with a number in the culture. In short, you will be called on to create a credible interpretation.

Second, the analysis process requires an awareness of how your background and assumptions color the process. Eli has seen pictures of wolves (and a few at the zoo). He has ideas of acceptable hues. In the same way, we begin the process with experiences that literally color the process. Thus, no two analyses are going to be the same. Yet for the picture to be convincing to those who view it, one must discern how previous experiences influence the interpretation process. We discuss in Chapter 5 the process of bracketing, which involves recognizing our reactions and responses that color our interpretation.

Finally, the analysis process influences the researcher and the organization. Eli completes a paint by numbers and in the process, he is more aware of one way wolves may appear in nature. His painting also influences others who view it. In a similar way, the cultural analysis process influences our experience with life in organizations. You will attend to communication in ways that will be new to you. Our hope is you will become more adept and responsible in your communication based on this analysis. Furthermore, the questions you ask during interviews and the report you provide the organization will prompt reflection on and possible changes in communication practices. The potential impact of your analysis indicates the importance of maintaining high ethical standards in the process.

Angi’s Analogy: The Jigsaw Puzzle

The cultural analysis is similar to putting together a complex jigsaw puzzle without having a picture on the box to guide your efforts. The point of this analogy is to understand the tensions between seeing parts versus the whole and to appreciate the impact the process has on the person doing the analysis. This metaphor applies in several ways:

First, it is often difficult to get a sense of the big picture when you are looking at individual pieces. Only after you have assembled a number of segments can you start to get an idea of the picture the puzzle will create.

Second, it takes both dark and bright pieces in most cases to assemble a complete puzzle. I recently read a story of a young girl who secretly stole pieces of a puzzle her family was assembling and hid them under the sofa cushion because they were so ugly. In frustration, her family began to despair of ever being able to put the puzzle together because so many pieces were missing. Only when the girl provided the dark pieces could the entire picture be revealed. Sometimes in our cultural analysis it is tempting to linger on the positive stories and upbeat images. They rarely form the complete picture. Sometimes you must provide the dark elements to understand the complete culture. Critical theorists such as Mumby (1993), Deetz (1991), and Deetz, Tracy, and Simpson (2000) have encouraged this phase of analysis.

Finally, the process of putting together the puzzle is often as important as the finished product. The mental exercise of seeing connections, of developing creativity, and of growing in patience and discipline will develop the puzzle builder even if the particular puzzle is not an ...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Dedication
• Title page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Part I. Cultural Analysis Planning
• Part II. Cultural Analysis Basics
• Part III. Cultural Data Collection and Interpretation
• Part IV. Cultural Analysis Application
• References
• Index
• About The Authors