Topic 1: Questions around Organisational culture
Session 1: What is Organizational Culture?
● Definition organisational culture (shared assumptions)
● Symbols & Meanings
● Culture as social & taken-for-granted
○ Org culture is collectively shared; people are often not aware of it
○ Studying organizational culture requires in‐depth analysis
■ Most aspects of culture are not visible, some are even unconscious
● Edgar Schein’s model of Org. culture (iceberg: artifacts, values, basic assumptions)
○ Artifacts (conscious), values (preconscious), assumptions (unconscious)
● How to study Org. culture (rigor and flexibility)
○ Studying org culture requires rigor, flexibility, critical reflection of bias
● Three main interests (technical, practical-hermeneutic, emancipatory)
Session 2: How to Study Organizational Culture?
● Definition metaphor
● Morgan - Culture as metaphor
○ 8 metaphors (machine, organism, brain, culture, political system, psychic prison,
change/flux, domination)
○ Each a particular (one‐sided) way of seeing/ interpreting
● Organisation as a pyramid
● Culture as variable vs as root metaphor
○ Root metaphor: Culture is not ‘outside’; it permeates the organization
● Culture as metaphor vs metaphors for culture
○ 6 metaphors for culture (exchange regulator, compass, social glue, sacred cow,
affect regulator, mental prison)
● Advantages of using metaphors vs potential problems
○ Metaphors for culture sharpen the perspective but not if there’s too many)
○ Great analytic tools, with a danger of superficial use or overuse
● Movies as medium for studying culture
○ Why film (4x)
○ Why study org. through film (5x)
■ ‘Videocy’, safe learning, emotional aspects & hidden fears of society
○ Film as reflection of societal concerns (3x)
○ How to study org through film (4x)
■ Treating film like text; analyzing different levels of meaning (codes)
○ Different levels of meaning (referential, explicit, implicit, symptomatic) - treating
film like text
○ Codes in film
○ Potential problems (4x)
, ■ Ethnocentrism and bias
■ Films vs reality
○ Role of audience
■ Passive recipients versus active interpreters
Questions Week 2 (Alvesson Ch. 1, 2 & Bell)
1) What is the use(fulness) of metaphors for studying culture? What are some advantages/
problems with the use of metaphors?
2) What is the difference between the understanding of culture as a (root) metaphor versus
the use of metaphors for understanding culture?
3) What are three good reasons for studying culture through film? What are three things to be
careful about when doing so?
Topic 2: Organizational Culture, Identity and Control
Session 4: Organizational Culture, Identity & Performance
● The technical interest
● Critique of the technical interest
○ Good vs bad, simplification, measurement, confusion, separation
● Practical-hermeneutic
● Value of Practical-hermeneutic
○ Practical relevance of the practical‐hermeneutic (knowledge) interest
■ Culture as diagnostic instrument, wise decisions, avoiding traps
○ No categorization, oversimplification, quick fixes, measurement
● Definition of organisational identity
● Organisational identity vs culture
○ Similarities vs differences
○ Relationship between the 2
● Emancipatory interest in identity
○ How power is exercised through controlling identities
● Emancipatory interest in culture
○ Culture as normative control, resisting control, cynical consciousness
● Managing identity
○ How?
■ Socialization, being disciplined, internalizing professional values
○ 5x (controlling, concealing, exploiting, faking, shaping)
Session 5: Organizational Culture, Control & Emancipation
● Culture as means of normative control
○ How it works
○ Resisting normative control
