Week 4 discussion
Organizational Culture: Can It Be “Managed”?
Some organizational theorists would assert that an
organization’s culture cannot be “managed” in the truest sense of how
one “manages” the processes and activities and things that exist
within an organization. David Campbell (2000, p. 28) says that an organization
“is being constructed continuously on a daily, even momentary [italics
added], basis through individual interactions with others. The organization
never settles into an entity or a thing that can be labelled and described,
because it is constantly changing, or reinventing itself, through the
interactions going on within it.” At the same time, Campbell says that an
organization “does have a certain character to it, such that, like driving
on the motorway, not just anything goes” (p. x).
Consider the sheer multiplicity of formal and informal
groups, structures, tasks, functional operations, and individual interactions
that exist and occur within very large organizations; these are seemingly
endless. Consider as well the potential number (and combination) of individual
to individual, individual to group, and group to group interactions that are
likely to occur on a momentary basis within an organization (and then, there
are the seemingly endless numbers of contacts/interactions with external
stakeholders as well). The possibilities are seemingly infinite—or at least
they are indefinite. For this reason, organizational culture seems more
abstract, fragmentary, perhaps fluid—perhaps even relative and momentary.
What is organizational culture? Can culture be managed in
the same way that other systems and processes can be “managed”? Depending on
your answer, what does this mean as to the use of culture as a “strategic
control”?
