1.
BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS AND (MY) INITIAL THOUGHTS
Author: Brown, A.D. | University of Bath, Management professor (Organization
Studies) | Organizational Behaviour, Sheffield; PPE, Oxford
Title: Organisational Culture
Publisher: Pitman Publishing
Year: 1995
Textbook which consider the nature of organisation as non-rational, ambiguous, and
unpredictable. It provides some explanations of what organisational culture is and
explores how culture changes within firms.
2. FACTS AND EVIDENCE (AUTHOR)
◾ Key factual information + Evidence
◾ Source of the Evidence
- (1st): historical primary resources (primary ≈ direct)
- (2nd): recent critical texts within the discipline (≈ secondary sources)
- (SR): scientific research
- (EM): economics models
- (EXP): experiments / fieldwork
◾ N.B.: Note down the number of the page!
◾ Organisational stories, for how much they could differ in their details, can
be traced back to common themes between. In total there are seven types of stories
that occur frequently: (Martin et al., 1983) p.15
1. Rule-breaking
2. Humanity of the boss
3. Professional mobility
4. Concerns about unemployment
5. Assistance from the company in time of need
6. Boss’s reaction to mistakes
7. Organisation’s approach to obstacles
◾ Culture cannot be taken at face value but must rather be thoroughly
researched in its evolution and history if useful accounts of it are to be drawn.
(Rowlinson & Hassard, 1993) p. 27
◾ To obtain a more complete picture of organisational culture, a research in
its history and its evolution is needed to complement the analyses of their current
status.
◾ Discrepancy between ‘espoused theory’ (normative, in published materials and
speeches of managers) and ‘theory-in-practice’ (positive, as experienced by the
workforce).
(Argyris and Schon, 1978)
◾ Subcultures diversify in three distinct types, or functions:
- Enhancing subcultures (self-reinforcing, long employment)
- Orthogonal subcultures (adherence to core values, plus the acceptance of
separate ones)
- Countercultures (reactionary, opposing the core values)
3. ARGUMENTS AND CLAIMS (AUTHOR)
◾ What is the main overarching argument?
◾ What are the claims used to support his argument?
◾ A claim is not persuasive on its own. It can be: a definition, a
recommendation, a prediction, an opinion.
◾ An argument is a series of claims (substantiated with reasons and evidence)
which leads to a conclusion.
Example of an (Argument) advanced by Oscar Wilde:
- (Claim 1): ‘History’ is what historians write, but they do not write
it for all time.
- (Claim 2): We do not have to accept the judgements made by historians
of an earlier generation.
- (Conclusion): The one duty we owe to history is to rewrite it.
◾ N.B.: Note down the number of the page!
◾ Organisational culture originated from four different sources: (p.2)
- climate research (attitude about employees’ own organisation)
- national culture (belief that national culture differences may affect
organisations)
- human resources management (as the means by which SCA can be achieved)
- performance research (organisational culture as the key to superior
performance)
◾ Late 19th century models of organisations are obsolete for the current
service-based economy because they have been developed with an industrial mindset.
Current interest in organisational culture is flexible and non-mechanistic. (p.3)
◾ Organisational culture is built upon anthropology and organisational
sociology. (p.3)
◾ Organisations have been approached from different perspectives: (p.4)
- human relations (organisations to serve human needs; beliefs, values,
attitudes)
- modern structural theory (rational, goal-oriented, mechanistic, hierarchical)
- systems theory (input, output, feedback loops)
- power and politics (irrationality, negotiation, influence, subcultures).
◾ The ability to discern between ‘espoused culture’ and ‘culture-in-practice’
is key to the understanding of organisational cultures. (p. 27)
◾ The recognition of the existence of separate identifiable espoused cultures
and cultures-in-practice in organisations helps us to understand why so many
organisational cultures appear confused and contradictory. (p. 27)
◾ Subcultures originate because of the inherent hierarchical and specialized
structure of the organisation (therefore both vertically among hierarchy levels and
horizontally across departments and divisions). They also depend on the different
environments, training and work routines to which employees are subjected. (p.28)
◾ It is through the medium of culture that we are able to make sense of our
world and by means of organisational culture that we appreciate and attribute
meaning to our organisational experiences. (p. 32)
◾ >> Look at SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS (p. 32-33)
4. MY RESPONSE AS THE READER
◾ What is my opinion of this written work?
◾ Do I see any major flaws in the argument? (✘)
◾ Do I find any claim particularly compelling or original? (★) (✔)
◾ Is the evidence provided appropriate for these claims and arguments?
◾ Do I have any questions?
◾ The ability to discern between espoused culture and cultures-in-practice is
key to the understanding of organisational cultures. ✔
◾ Just have a look at the ‘Conclusion’ section, as it clearly summarises all
the contents of the chapter. If a more detailed analysis is needed, it is very
handy to trace it back using the summary.
BROWN (1985)
◾ Origins of culture (four)
◾ Intellectual origins (Anthropology and Sociology)
◾ Definition of culture: (Many: metaphors, objective entity
◾ Contents of culture (list and explanations). How are cultures defined? (basic
assumptions, beliefs, etc…)
◾ Organisational Culture (four, the last of which is ‘power and politics’ |
which connects with Meek’s argument that organizations may be regarded as forum for
conflicts and dispute; moreover, Galbraith (1983) points out that organisations
exploit ‘conditioned power,' better known as ‘belief,' to cause the individual to
submit to the will of another or of others.
◾ Role and existence of subculture (+ information from Barney, p.660)
