Culture: The Missing Concept in Organization Studies

TLDR

Inattention to social systems has led researchers to underestimate culture’s role, yet culture concepts must arise from observed behavior, explain data, and be definable, as illustrated by POWs and organizational learning failures. The implication is that culture must be observed, not merely measured, for organization studies to advance. © 1996 Cornell University; 0001-8392/96/41 02-0229/$1 .00.

Abstract

? 1996 by Cornell University. 0001-8392/96/41 02-0229/$1 .00. Inattention to social systems in organizations has led researchers to underestimate the importance of culture-shared norms, values, and assumptions-in how organizations function. Concepts for understanding culture in organizations have value only when they derive from observation of real behavior in organizations, when they make sense of organizational data, and when they are definable enough to generate further study. The attempt to explain what happened to brainwashed American prisoners of war in the Korean conflict points up the need to take both individual traits and culture into account to understand organizational phenomena. For example, the failure of organizational learning can be understood more readily by examining the typical responses to change by members of several broad occupational cultures in an organization. The implication is that culture needs to be observed, more than measured, if organization studies is to advance.