Cultural Approach to Organizations

Culture is a shared meanings and understandings. University of Colorado professor Michael Pacanowsky has applied the cultural views of Clifford Geertz to organizational life. Clifford Geertz is a Princeton anthropologist who has conducted many in-depth studies. Geertz's interpretive approach has proved useful in making sense of culture in organizational activity. Culture as a whole creates meaning. Meanings with in a culture are derived from a network of interaction. It is the act of communication that creates a culture's reality. Cultural meanings are learned through socialization. The members of a culture assign meaning, thus creating their own culture. The assigned meanings in turn provide experiences with in that culture.

Geertz, who likes to refer to himself as an ethnographer, maps out, observes, and analyzes social discourse in thick descriptions. Michael Pacanowsky has applied Geertz's studies on culture to organizations. Together these two scholars of communication have put together a logical cultural approach to organizations.

Like any culture that is made up of a group that defined by a set of symbols and values, large universities such as Ohio University are considered cultures as well. The University that is centered on a campus with a maintenance crew, professors, administrators, and the president is a culture.

Geertz refers to culture as a "soft science" because we apply and interpret meaning ourselves. The experiences that are involved in day to day communication and interpretation are the factors that are involved in applying meaning to a culture. Pacanowsky considers culture to be much more than a single factor in the research of organizations. According to Pacanowsky, "Organizational culture is not just another piece of the puzzle; it is the puzzle. From our point of view culture is not something an organization has; culture is something an organization is"(Griffin 274).

Check out Kevin's Research Report on the cultural approach to organizations.

Now here is Alexa's Research Report.

Here are some of Brad's Examples and Applications of the cultural approach to organizations.

Read Elizabeth's Critique!

Check out a great semiotics page that discusses coorperate communication as realted to the Cultural Approach to Organizations.

Here are some Great Links so that you to read about cultural approach to organizations in more detail.

Back to the INCO 234 home page .

Griffen, Em. A First Look At Communication Theory. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. 1997.


This page was created by Kathryn Taddeo!
This page was last updated on 3-9-00.