Defining "Culture" and "Organizational Culture": From Anthropology to the Office

Defining “Culture” and
“Organizational Culture”:
From Anthropology to the Office
Bruce M. Tharp
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE WHITE PAPER
04.09

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ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE WHITE PAPER
Usually the domain of top executives and upper-
Defining “Culture” and
management, for most within an organization its
culture remains implicit — often with only its effects
“Organizational Culture”:
and implications discussed. Despite this, as decades
From Anthropology to the Office of research suggest, an explicit, integrated, accepted,
and consistent organizational culture seems important
The topic of organizational culture is increasingly in achieving long-term health and other performance
understood as a company asset that can successes. Yet, as in most arenas of social science
where the intricate webs of various and varying
be used to increase business performance. human influences exist, distinct and conclusive causal
While important, organizational culture is a links are difficult to establish. Keeping this in mind, it
slippery concept to concretely define. This is still very likely that the richness and dynamism of
organizational activity—the life of an organization—
paper deals with the historical development may be seen, and therefore shaped and improved,
and foundational understandings of both through the lens of culture.
the term culture, from anthropology, and
its appropriation by industrial organization ANTHROPOLOGICAL ORIGINS OF “CULTURE”
researchers to organizational culture. A What exactly is culture? Unfortunately a fixed, universal
foundational definition by Edgar Schein of understanding does not exist; there is little consensus
MIT’s Sloan School of Management is arrived within, let alone, across disciplines. Often “culture” is
at as well as the notion that culture can be applied so broadly, merely as “social pattern,” that it
means very little. Highly specific, idiosyncratic definitions
observed at three levels of the organization: also abound where the term is used in various contexts
artifacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions. in support of any agenda.
Contents:
When “culture” first appeared in the Oxford English
• Anthropological Origins of “Culture”
Dictionary around 1430 it meant “cultivation” or “tending
• Understanding Culture
the soil,” based on the Latin culture. Into the 19th
• Origins of “Organizational Culture”
century “culture” was associated with the phrase “high
• Understanding Organizational Culture
culture,” meaning the cultivation or “refinement of
mind, taste, and manners.” This generally held to the
mid-20th century when its meaning shifted toward its
present American Heritage English Dictionary definition:
For some, culture is considered the “glue” that holds an “The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns,
organization together and for others, the “compass”
arts, beliefs, institutions, and al other products of
human work and thought.”
that provides direction.
ASPECTS OF CULTURE
The culture of an organization eminently influences its
myriad decisions and actions. A company’s prevailing
ideas, values, attitudes, and beliefs guide the way in
INVISIBLE
which its employees think, feel, and act—quite often
VALUE . ATTITUDE . ASSUMPTIONS . BELIEFS
unconsciously. Therefore, understanding culture
is fundamental to the description and analysis of
VISIBLE
organizational phenomena. For some, culture is
considered the “glue” that holds an organization
ARTIFACTS:
BEHAVIORS:
together and for others, the “compass” that provides
EMPLOYEE DRESS
FINANCIAL REPORTING
direction. These are but two of many such metaphors
PRODUCT LINE
HIRING / FIRING PRACTICES
(e.g., magnet, lighthouse, exchange-regulator,
affect-regulator, need satisfier, sacred cow), illustrating
SIGNAGE
EMPLOYEE TRAINING
that organizational culture is indeed very important,
PUBLICATIONS
RECYCLING PROGRAMS
but whose definition is slippery and often contested.
INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE
FURNITURE
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ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE WHITE PAPER
While the dictionary definition helps to close in on its
To speak of culture as being shared narrows the field
meaning in general parlance, the term is also used by
of relevant activity to that which is common and
many disciplines in unique ways. To move toward a
social. A particular action is not cultural if it is unique
more specific and applied understanding of “culture,”
to one or relatively insignificant number of individuals.
anthropology can be helpful. It is this social scientific
Also, culture is learned (actively or passively) and is
discipline that has contributed the most to its practical
transmitted cross-generationally through formal or
application within the field of organizational research.
informal social interaction—we are not born with the
Originally the notion of culture described the rituals,
understanding that stealing is wrong or that “diamonds
myths, languages, values, beliefs, and practices of
show you care.”
distant peoples often in exotic places—the objects
of traditional anthropological inquiry. Even within
One of the primary characteristics of human life, over
the field however, numerous approaches to culture
animal life, is that we assign symbolic meaning to
abound as evident in one seminal 1952 study that
ideas, behavior, and objects, as well as have language
identified 164 different definitions.
and speech. We say that humans have culture while
animals do not. This is largely due to their inability to
British anthropologist Edward Tyler is widely credited
ascribe arbitrary symbolic meaning to their world—a
with the first (1871) “modern” definition of culture:
chimpanzee could not designate his banana to signify
“that complex whole which includes knowledge,
honesty, for example. Culture is also adaptive in that it
belief, arts, morals, law, custom, and any other
can and does change in response to various influences
capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member
and conditions. No culture is truly static—many aspects
of society.” Undoubtedly this definition influenced
of American culture are radically different in the wake
the shift toward current dictionary definitions.
of the Internet, the dot-com bubble, and global
terrorism. And finally, culture is integrated in the
sense that it permeates society and becomes part
We are not born with the understanding that stealing
of the social machinery. Culture is the ever-present,
ethereal medium in which members live and through
is wrong or that “diamonds show you care.”
which they act.
In 1973 anthropologist Clifford Geertz published, The
Interpretation of Cultures, in which he writes: “Culture
Subsequent to this new interpretation and vision of a
is the fabric of meaning in terms of which human
“complex whole,” academics attempted to build upon
beings interpret their experience and guide their
this by creating universal lists of all of the elements of
action” and that culture is “an ordered system of meaning
culture, the most exhaustive of which (first published
and of symbols in terms of which social interaction
in 1938) lists 79 major divisions and 637 subdivisions.
takes place.” This semiotic (symbolic or language
While comprehensive and still useful for social science
based) notion of culture gained great popularity in
researchers today, it is ineffectual for most general
the postmodern movement of the 1980’s, when the
applications as wel as corporations and other organizations.
relatively mature discipline of organizational behavior
first began to talk broadly about “organizational culture.”
Geertz’s anthropological definition was the most
UNDERSTANDING CULTURE
cited in the literature at that time and still has great
purchase in contemporary research.
While the complexities of the culture concept were
being debated in the mid-20th century, surveys of its
different definitions yielded a few common threads
ORIGINS OF “ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE”
that are helpful in organizational research. Most simply,
culture involves three basic human activities: what
The field of organizational behavior and the related
people think, what people do, and what people make.
discipline of management science began investigating
Further, several common properties arise: culture
organizations in terms of culture as early as the 1930s.
is shared, learned, transmitted crossgenerationally,
The final phase of the famous Hawthorne studies
symbolic, adaptive, and integrated.
at the Western Electric Company marked the first
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ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE WHITE PAPER
systematic attempt to use a concept of culture to
• Pascale and Athos, 1982, The Art of Japanese Manage-
understand the work environment. While an
ment: Applications for American Executives
important step forward in qualitative research, the
• Deal and Kennedy, 1982, Corporate Cultures: The
investigation was rather blunt and the understanding
Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life
of organizational culture remained fairly primitive
during the following decades. Most mid-century
Since the early 1980s, academic and applied exploration
attempts at understanding were conducted by scholars of organizational culture has steadily increased and
steeped in quantitative psychology and sociology,
even now there is little indication of abatement
though by the 1970s researchers more explicitly and
as changes in data management, work organization,
emphatically appropriated the theories and methods
values, lifestyles, demographics, knowledge-intensive
of anthropology. The late-century upsurge of interest
work, outsourcing, and a host of other social, economic,
in organizational culture is credited largely to the
and technological factors continue to impact the
economic conditions of the 1970s when international
relationship between organizations, workers, and
competition had heightened and more foreign
the workplace.
companies were operating factories in the United
CULTURE IS FOUND IN:
UNDERSTANDING
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
Definitions of “organizational
ESPOUSED VALUES:
OBSERVABLE ARTIFACTS:
culture” are almost as numerous
as those of “culture”— a 1998 study
Those values championed
Architecture & Physical Surroundings
identified 54 different definitions
by a company’s leadership.
Products
within the academic literature
Technologies
between 1960 and 1993. One
Style (clothing - art - publications)
helpful, though general, definition
Published Values / Mission Statements
offered by Edgar Schein of MIT’s
Sloan School of Management is that
Myths / Stories / Rituals
organizational culture is:
a pattern of shared basic assump-
tions that the group learned as
it solved its problems of external
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS:
adaptation and internal integration,
Underlying (often unconscious) determinants of an
that has worked well enough to be
organization's attitudes, thought processes and actions.
considered valid and, therefore, to
be taught to new members as the
correct way to perceive, think, and
feel in relation to those problems.
States. Specifically, the success of the Japanese in
many industries sparked curiosity about whether their
Delving deeper, three common attributes seem to
differing corporate values, attitudes, and behaviors
arise across the varying perspectives within sociology,
were responsible for their often superior performance.
psychology, anthropology, and management science.
One is that the concept of shared meaning is critical;
The 1982 publication of Peters & Wasserman’s In
secondly, is the notion that organizational culture is
Search of Excellence stirred both popular and
constructed socially and is affected by environment
professional interest through its suggestion that
and history. The third common feature among the
organizations with strong cultures were more effective.
many definitions is that organizational culture has
Corporate culture was offered as an asset that could
many symbolic and cognitive layers—culture is thick
be managed to improve business performance. While
and resides at all levels.
definitely the most popular book on the subject (outselling
all other non-fiction books for the year), three others
To help understand these symbolic and cognitive
were seminal to the development of the field:
layers, Schein has categorized the places where
culture is found into three fundamental categories:
• Ouchi, 1981, Theory Z: How American Business Can
observable artifacts, espoused values, and basic
Meet the Japanese Challenge
underlying assumptions.
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ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE WHITE PAPER
Observable artifacts represent an organization’s
underlying, often unconscious, determinants of an
attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs— how it sees things,
organization’s attitudes, thought processes, and
what is important and meaningful. These include the
actions. These assumptions are central to its culture.
architecture and physical surroundings; its products;
Values that gain long-term acceptance often become
its technologies; its style (shown through clothing, art,
so ingrained and taken-for-granted that individuals
publications, etc.); its published values and mission
are usually unaware of their influence. They usually
statement; its language, gossip, jargon, and humor;its
provide a tacit sense of security and an unquestioned
myths and stories; and its practices, rituals, cer-
impetus for perceptions and behavior.
emonies, and taboos.
Scholarly understanding the social and symbolic
Espoused values are those championed by a company’s
processes of the workplace continues to expand
leadership and management. They are distinguished
in breadth and refine in depth as organizational
from enacted values, which are those that employees’
behavior and organizational management scholars
actual behavior reflects (just because the CEO claims
build upon social scientific theories and methodolo-
that her company values its customers does not mean
gies. A function of industry type, national culture,
that the employees necessarily act accordingly). While
environmental factors, as well as the vision, goals, and
the role that values play in organizational culture is
strategy, an organization’s culture affects its structure,
undeniable, many scholars claim that it is erroneous
practices, policies, and routines. Evaluating and
to ascribe values, which are inherently human and
understanding organizational culture holds perhaps
located only in individuals, to a corporate entity or
the best promise for corporate leadership being able
to a group of individuals. Such a position maintains
to influence individual and group performance,
that the values of a few particularly influential leaders
facilities performance, organizational performance,
are what rally other employees and subsequently
and ultimately the ever-important financial components
influences company behavior. Basic assumptions are
of business performance.
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