Corporations, Culture, and Commitment: Motivation and Social Control in Organizations

TLDR

Corporate culture has attracted growing scholarly interest, being viewed as a social control mechanism that facilitates strategy implementation and fosters employee commitment. The study seeks to clarify the meaning of corporate culture and explain why managers should care by arguing that culture and commitment arise from participatory systems, symbolic management actions, peer cues, and reward structures. The authors compare a spectrum of culture‑rich organizations—from cults and religious groups to corporate firms—to identify participatory systems, symbolic management, peer cues, and reward structures as the mechanisms linking culture to commitment. Strong organizations are distinguished by these participatory, symbolic, cue‑based, and reward‑oriented techniques.

Abstract

The notion of corporate has received widespread attention in the past several years. But what is meant by the term and why should managers be concerned with it? Culture can be thought of as a mechanism for social control. As such, culture is important for both the implementation of strategy and as a mechanism for generating commitment among organizational members. Based on a comparison of culture organizations, ranging from cults and religious organizations to culture firms, this article argues that culture and commitment result from: systems of participation that rely on processes of incremental commitment; management as symbolic action that helps employees interpret their reasons for working; and consistent cues from fellow workers that focus attention and shape attitudes and behavior; and comprehensive reward systems that use recognition and approval. These techniques characterize strong organizations.