Smircich, L. (1983). "Concepts of Culture and Organizational Analysis." Administrative Science Quarterly, 28(3): 339-358.

Smircich concludes that five current research themes consider culture -- comparative management, corporate culture, organizational cognition, organizational symbolism, and unconscious processes and organization.

The differences in approach to culture are derived from differences in basic assumptions researchers make about "organization" and "culture". Many are based on the concept of a metaphor and imagery (organizations machines (Trist), organisms struggling for survival (Lawrence & Lorsch), theaters for performance of roles (Goffman), political arenas (Pfeffer). Our thinking and assumptions are constrained by our choice of metaphor.

Often the main metaphor is one of orderliness, and much of org theory is inquiry into social order. What we see is the interlinking of images of organizations and of culture.

Culture and Comparative Management:Culture as Independent Variable:

This is concerned with managerial practices across countries. It's seen as a background, explanatory variable influencing the development of beliefs. Ouichi's Theory Z and fascination with Japanese management is part of this research perspective.

Corporate Culture: Culture as an Internal Variable

In this view organizations are culture-producing phenomena (Louis, Deal & Kennedy). They produce by-products of rituals, legends, and ceremonies. Research in this area is based on systems theory framework. Early factors impinging on organizational survival were structure, size, technology, and leadership. More recently more subjectivist variables such as culture have been added, with the recognition that symbolic processes are occuring within organizations (Pfeffer, 1981). The environment presents imperatives that the organization may enact through symbolic means.

Culture is often defined as the social or normative "glue" that holds an organization together. It expresses the values or social ideals and the beliefs the organizational members come to share (Louis, 1980). These values are manifested in terms of myths, rituals, stories, legends, and specialized language.

Some of the research has focused on how these symbolic interactions affect variables such as turnover, absenteeism, and committment. Culture is seen as building commitment, enhancing social stability, and as a sense-making device. It suggests that culture may be another variable that can be used to affect organizations. However, much of the literature refers to a single organizational culture, when in likelihood there are several organizational subcultures.

For many, culture is a bridge between micro and macro, between organizational behavior and strategic management.

Culture as a Variable: A Comparison

Both of these views are compatible with a functionalist paradigm, a system-structural view. Both assume that the world expresses itself in terms of general and contingent relationships among it's more stable and clear-cut elements. Both see orgs as organisms, in one case in the environment, in the other a result of human enactment.

Culture as a Root Metaphor for Conceptualizing Organization

Others discard the notion that culture is something an organization has, in favor of the view that culture is something an organization is. Culture is the root metaphor. It sees organizations as expressive forms, manifestations of human consciousness. Researchers in this perspective explore the phenomenon of organization as subjective experience and to investigate the patterns tht make organized action possible.

Cognitive Perspective

In cognitive anthropology, culture is a system of shared cognitions or a system of knowledge and beliefs. The task is to find out what the rules are. Weick uses a cognitive perspective. Organizations are networks of shared meaning or shared frames of reference, organized patterns of thought or paradigms.

A common underlying assumption is that thought is linked to action. Actors think as well as behave.

A Symbolic Perspective

Anthropologists like Geertz treat culturas as systems of shared symbols and meanings. Researchers look for symbol systems and their associated meanings. The focus is on how individuals interpret and understand their experience and how these relate to action.

Structural and Psychodynamic Perspectives

Culture is also seen as the expression of unconscious psychological processes (ala Levi-Strauss). In this view one would consider the organization as a "indiginous theory". But few people are using this perspective.

Culture as Root Metaphor: A Comparison

All of these adopt the view of cultural as an epistemological device to frame the study of organization as a social phenomenon. Organization is a form of human expression. The world is not objective but subjective.