This document provides background information on organizational culture theory and ethnography. It explains that organizational culture theory uses metaphors to compare disparate ideas and relies on ethnography, which involves qualitative observation and analysis of an organization's customs, stories, rituals and practices. The document then discusses how ethnographic study shows that organizational members perform communicative acts that help create and maintain a shared sense of reality, and that different organizations have different realities which leads to different interpretations of member actions. It asks the reader to describe examples of physical, behavioral, verbal, ritual, passion, social, political and enculturation performances from their workplace and analyze how their workplace culture affects communication processes or information flows and may contribute to communication problems.

1. Objective:
This question is designed to help you contextualize your final
project. You may be able to use material you develop here in
your final project.
Background:
Please begin this exercise by reading the following information
carefully.
Organizational Culture Theory is based on a metaphor— a
creative device to make meaning by comparing two disparate
ideas or things. This theory relies on a field of study known as
ethnography, which uses qualitative methodologies of
investigation. Ethnography involves observations of customs
and culture. The researcher becomes part of the organization to
systematically observe, analyze, and interpret artifacts, stories,
rituals, and practices in order to gain insight into its culture. An
ethnographer of communication examines how communication
is used to build the shared beliefs and value systems that sustain
a specific social structure (Baillet, 2009).
Ethnographic study of organizations shows members act out
something researchers call communicative performances, a
metaphor suggesting organizational life is like the theater
(Tracy, 2009). Members of an organization bond through
specific types of “performances” that help them create and
maintain a shared sense of reality. Different organizations have
different organizational realities. Because of this, the actions
performed by the members of an organization are interpreted
differently depending on the organization.
Activity:

2. To get a sense of the role organizational culture may be playing
in the communication problem you are investigating for your
final project, review the definitions of the following terms in
our course materials and then describe an example of as many
of them as you can from your workplace:*
Physical symbols
Behavioral symbols
Verbal symbols
and
Ritual performances
Passion performances
Social performances
Political performances
Enculturation performances
Complete your response by analyzing and explaining how your
workplace’s culture affects your organization’s communication
processes or information flows. Could that culture be
contributing to the communication problem you are
investigating?