7.1 (Martin and Siehl 1983)

Culture:

  • based on history, members can behave and expected to behave
  • help construct common value for employees.
  • control mechanisms which dictate patterns of behavior

culture can hardly be under control, not monolithic phenomenon

3 levels of culture:

  • basic assumptions
  • values/ideology
  • artifacts (e.g., stories, rituals, dress): express values
  • management practices (e.g., training program).

Types of subcultures:

  • enhancing: same position
  • orthogonal: unrelated position
  • counterculture: opposite position: “most likely to arise in a strongly centralized institution that has permitted significant decentralization of authority to occur” (e.g., GM’s culture: team players, loyalty, “refrigerator story”), balancing act must be taken to manage counter culture and dominant culture

References

Martin, Joanne, and Caren Siehl. 1983. “Organizational Culture and Counterculture: An Uneasy Symbiosis.” Organizational Dynamics 12 (2): 52–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/0090-2616(83)90033-5.