Cultural
Approaches
Chapter 5
Culture
(Schein)

“Pattern of basic assumptions-invented,
discovered, or developed by a given
group as it learns to cope with its
problems of external adaptation and
internal integration-that has worked well
enough to be considered valid and,
therefore, taught to new members as the
correct way to perceive, think, and feel in
relation to those problems” (textbook, p. 88)
Culture

Both the ideology of a society and the actual,
concrete practices that occur in a society.
 Man is an animal suspended in webs of
significance which he himself has spun.
Culture is the web.
 The totality of socially transmitted and
constructed behavior patterns, arts, beliefs ,
institutional habits, & all other products of
human work and thought characteristics of a
community or population.
Culture
Culture consists of the abstract values,
beliefs, practices, & perceptions that lie
behind people’s behavior.
 They are often shared by members of a
society, & when acted on produce
behavior considered acceptable by the
community.

Overview
Something an organization has
 Something an organization is
 Something an organization does
 Something that impacts organizational
and individual identity
 An org. is greater than the things that
make it up!!!!

Prescriptive Approach: Seek to
Explain What’s Wrong & Prescribe a
Solution

Strong cultures (Deal and Kennedy)
– Values
• Beliefs
– Heroes
• Exemplify an org.’s values
– Rites and rituals
• Ceremonies
– Cultural network
• Communication system through which cultural
values are instituted and inforced
Prescriptive Approach: Seek to
Explain What’s Wrong & Prescribe a
Solution

Excellent Cultures-Themes (Peter & Waterman)
– A bias for action
– Close relations to the customer
– Autonomy and entrepreneurship
– Productivity through people
– Hands on, value-driven
– Stick to the knitting
– Simple form, lean staff
– Simultaneous loose-tight properties
Descriptive Approach: Seek to
Describe & Understand



Individuals make sense of their world
through their communicative behaviors
Seek to describe an organization’s unique
sense of place
Distinction b/t prescriptive and descriptive
– Culture is complicated
– Culture is emergent-socially constructed
– Culture is not unitary
• co-cultures w/in org.
• Cultural penetration (slices)
– Culture is not static
Schein’s Model of
Organizational Culture
Org. culture is complex
 Group phenomenon
 Communication is important in
developing, maintaining, and displaying
culture
 Pattern of basic assumptions
 Often ambiguous
 Culture is emergent and developmental

Scheins’s Levels of
Culture

Level I: Behaviors and artifacts
– Manifestations of the culture
– Markers such as communicative behavior,
objects, things

Level II: Values
– Preferences of what ought to happen

Level III: Basic assumptions
– Core beliefs/world views
Methods of Inquiry

Object of inquiry should drive method of
assessment (refer to the reading by Burke
posted on the additional reading page)
Empirically, traditional research in
organizations has been quantitative
 Qualitative research is also useful in
getting at changing nature of culture

– Ethnography, Observation, & Interviews
– For consultants, this is often the first step of
a Communication Audit in an organization
Check it out!
Case in Point-Red Sox Nation (p. 83)
 Spotlight on Scholarship (p. 86)
 Case Study-The Cultural Tale of Two
Shuttles (p. 97)
