7.2 (Dixon and Dougherty 2009)

multiple meanings of organizational culture

Consulting method: in-depth and focus group interviews with student staff, artifact analysis, and observation of organization staff meetings and retreats

Common terms did not mean the same thing. 2 different fields: organizational communication, and higher education.

  • Organization culture: “German approach, based in phenomenological/Interpretive epistemology”. culture is the product of symbolic interaction. Scholars tries to understand the role of human interaction. organizational culture is not easily manipulated by managers. " organization is a culture". purposes:
    + increasing productivity
    + understanding organizational processes
    + critiquing oppressive organizational practices.
  • organizational culture: American approach to study organizational variable that affect organizational effectiveness. “organization has a culture”. can be quantified, and manipulated.
    + Institution can be measured: dynamism vs. stability and internal vs. external focus.

two subculture: First-born (tradition, consensus) and Youngest (debate, and new ideas)

The problem stems from different discipline understanding of “culture”, there was a rejection of the definition by organizational communication scholars.

" Rather than positing that there is one “right” concept, we would encourage other consultants to proactively discuss with clients, what key terms mean to them in the particularity of their context, as a means of creating a “shared discursive” reality."

References

Dixon, M. A., and D. S. Dougherty. 2009. “Managing the Multiple Meanings of Organizational Culture in Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Consulting.” Journal of Business Communication 47 (1): 3–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021943609355790.