Table for Multiple PerspectivesModernismCritical TheorySymbolic InterpretivismPostmodernismOntologyObjectivism - Reality is out there whether we know it or not.Objectivism - Reality is out there whether we know it or not.Subjectivism - We construct reality and agree upon it.Reality is an illusion created by discourses.EpistemologyPositivism - Knowledge is discovered through scientific measurements and tests.Subjectivist - Knowledge is tainted by dominant ideology (dominant ideology refers mostly to modernist theories)Interpretivism - Knowledge is discovered by the interpretation of meanings (relative to time, place, individuals)Discourses (especially modernist theories and concepts) create the illusion of knowledge.TheoryObjective truths that govern organizationsUnmasking the "real" truths that are hidden by modernist theories.Truths are relative and context specific (Depends on the meanings produced at different time, place and by different people)Rejection and Challenge to modernist theories. Provides alternative interpretations to modernist understanding of organizations.MethodologyQuantitative methods and Deductive ApproachQualitative methods and Inductive Approach (Focus on historical analysis and discourse analysis)Qualitative methods and Inductive Approach (Focus on Ethnography)Discourse Analysis and DeconstructionModernism: Discovers truths that govvern organizations. These truths that are scientifically derived are superior to commonsense andspeculations and act as universal laws that are applicable to all organizations.Symbolic Interpretivism: Questions the universal claim of modernist theories (truths). Instead, "truths" concerning organizations are sociallyconstructed and context-specific, dependent on time/place/individuals.Critical Theory: Exposes the ideological nature of modernist theories (truths). Modernist theories privileges the management/elites by espousingvalues that aligns with that of the management/elites. Aims to unmasks hidden truths of modernist organization theories.Postmodernism: Challenges the dominant position of modernist theories (truths) as objective knowledge. Aims to deconstruct the universalassumptions of these modernist theories (truths) and provide alternative discourses that give voice to the marginalized. RMIT University Slide * Organisational Culture RMIT University RMIT University Slide * Organisational Culture Objectives:Assignment One Review of course: Why are we doing this? How can different perspectives help me in the future? Introduce the concepts of culture, norms and values. Discuss how these concepts relate to organisations. Distinguish between contemporary theoretical approaches to organisational cultureModern Symbolic interpretiveCritical theoryPostmodern RMIT University Assignment One The Question To Be Answered: 'What managers most often want to know about their organization's culture is how to change it......But what is recommended to managers on the basis of cu ...

1. Table for Multiple PerspectivesModernismCritical
TheorySymbolic
InterpretivismPostmodernismOntologyObjectivism - Reality is
out there whether we know it or not.Objectivism - Reality is out
there whether we know it or not.Subjectivism - We construct
reality and agree upon it.Reality is an illusion created by
discourses.EpistemologyPositivism - Knowledge is discovered
through scientific measurements and tests.Subjectivist -
Knowledge is tainted by dominant ideology (dominant ideology
refers mostly to modernist theories)Interpretivism - Knowledge
is discovered by the interpretation of meanings (relative to time,
place, individuals)Discourses (especially modernist theories and
concepts) create the illusion of knowledge.TheoryObjective
truths that govern organizationsUnmasking the "real" truths that
are hidden by modernist theories.Truths are relative and context
specific (Depends on the meanings produced at different time,
place and by different people)Rejection and Challenge to
modernist theories. Provides alternative interpretations to
modernist understanding of
organizations.MethodologyQuantitative methods and Deductive
ApproachQualitative methods and Inductive Approach (Focus
on historical analysis and discourse analysis)Qualitative
methods and Inductive Approach (Focus on
Ethnography)Discourse Analysis and
DeconstructionModernism: Discovers truths that govvern
organizations. These truths that are scientifically derived are
superior to commonsense andspeculations and act as universal
laws that are applicable to all organizations.Symbolic
Interpretivism: Questions the universal claim of modernist
theories (truths). Instead, "truths" concerning organizations are
sociallyconstructed and context-specific, dependent on
time/place/individuals.Critical Theory: Exposes the ideological
nature of modernist theories (truths). Modernist theories
privileges the management/elites by espousingvalues that aligns

2. with that of the management/elites. Aims to unmasks hidden
truths of modernist organization theories.Postmodernism:
Challenges the dominant position of modernist theories (truths)
as objective knowledge. Aims to deconstruct the
universalassumptions of these modernist theories (truths) and
provide alternative discourses that give voice to the
marginalized.
RMIT University
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Organisational Culture
RMIT University
RMIT University
Slide *
Organisational Culture
Objectives:Assignment One
Review of course: Why are we doing this?
How can different perspectives help me in the future?
Introduce the concepts of culture, norms and values.
Discuss how these concepts relate to organisations.
Distinguish between contemporary theoretical approaches to
organisational cultureModern Symbolic interpretiveCritical
theoryPostmodern
RMIT University

3. Assignment One
The Question To Be Answered:
'What managers most often want to know about their
organization's culture is how to change it......But what is
recommended to managers on the basis of culture theory
differs markedly according to the perspectives adopted'
(Hatch and Cunliffe, 2013: 185).
Choose two of the four perspectives and discuss their different
views on organisational culture and how their advice to
managers who are seeking to influence organisational culture
might be different.
RMIT University
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RMIT University
Assignment One
Two questions to answer:
Why and how do each perspective provide different insights
into the nature of organisational culture?
How do the insights of each perspective lead to different
recommendations to managers on how they might go about
changing organisational culture?
RMIT University
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RMIT University

4. Assignment OneYou must focus explicitly on the key issues
identified in the question.
You must consider at least two of the four perspectives.
You must make use of required readings.
A failure to follow this and the instructions in the assignment
guide will have a significant negative impact on your marks.
RMIT University
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RMIT University
Why are we doing this?
How will these four perspectives help me in the future?
Rewind: Week One
What is this course about?
Upon Successful Completion of the course you will be able to:
Identify, understand and interpret a range of organisational
theories and concepts that contribute to the management of
contemporary organisations
Critically evaluate theories and practices in organisations to
support decisions and actions and select and apply relevant
theories to develop solutions to problems in contemporary
organisations
Understand, critically discuss and apply key organisational
theories to issues arising from diverse cultural, economic,
historical, philosophical and social and environmental contexts
Communicate ideas, intentions and outcomes clearly to a variety
of audiences

5. Fast-forward: 5 Years
Scenario:
You have secured a position as a department manager.
First day on the job you learn:
The company is in financial difficulties.
Your department is seen as underperforming.
Former management team of the department resigned. Some
department members tell you they resigned due to their
treatment from senior management.
Senior management of the company tell you the ‘culture’ of the
department is the problem and that it will have to be dealt with
as a matter of priority.
OT to the rescue?
What is organisational culture?
How should I choose to think about:Organisational
culture?Senior Management’s position?The department?My role
in the department?

6. What are the implications of different perspectives for making
different management decisions?
What is Culture?
The totality of learned ideas, values, knowledge,
normative behaviours, rules and customs shared and passed
down by a group of people through language, symbols and
artifacts.
Culture
Norms and Values
Norm:A common expectation and/or prescription for social
behaviour within a given context.
Values:The central beliefs and purposes of an individual, group
of individuals, organisation or society.

7. Organisational Culture
‘comprises the deep, basic assumptions and beliefs, as well
as the shared values, that define organisational membership, as
well as the members’ habitual ways of making decisions, and
presenting themselves and their organisation to those who come
into contact with it’ (Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis, 2008: 224).
Schein’s Levels of Organisational Culture - Modernist
Three Components of Culture in Organisations
Level 1: Artifacts: Visible organisational features (buildings,
uniforms, interior design, brand images).
Level 2: Values: non-visible facets of organisational culture
(norms and beliefs)
Level 3: Basic Assumptions (Core) largely unconscious and
tacit frames that shape values and artifacts formed through and
out of particular social relationships Shapes decision-making
processes ‘invisibly’

8. Schein’s Levels of Organisational Culture
Structure that shapes us via socialisation and acculturation
(processes)
The Complexities of Organisational Culture
Corporate Culture: top down
The dominant culture (values, artifacts, rules, norms, etc.) put
forward by top management.
May or may not be widely supported by organisational
members.
Subcultures: bottom up
Diverse cultures found within an organisation whose members
view themselves as distinctly different. Other subcultures also
view them as distinctly different.
Enhancing subcultures (advocate for dominate corporate
culture).Orthogonal subcultures (express a view that is neither
supportive or threatening of dominant culture)Countercultures
(hold values, norms and attitudes that challenge dominant
corporate culture)
The Complexities of Organisational Culture
Organisational Culture composed of all the subcultures: not a
single monolithic entity

9. Corporate culture only one of the many sub-cultures: an
imposed tool of management: the dominant sub-culture?
Subcultures within organisations can contribute to or rival
organisational attempts to reproduce dominant identities and
culture.
Where do organisational sub-cultures reside?
Occupational groupings
Departments or teams
Hierarchical divisions
‘Old’ or ‘new’ segments or departments
Organisational IdentityCorporate cultures are a way for
organisations to shape their organisational identities.
Organisational identities= those artifactual attributes, familiar
signs, symbols and routines that corporations use to create a
particular public ‘image’.
The public image/identity is a composite of physical structural
components and culture.
Gagliardi’s fan model identifies instrumental strategies and
expressive strategies as aspects of organisational identities
Hatch’s cultural dynamics model takes the fan model one step
further by focussing on the process rather than the components.
Bakan anthropomorphises identity e.g. like an old man
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RMIT University

10. Culture, Identity and Image
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RMIT University
Hatch’s cultural dynamic model
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RMIT University
Modernist Approach
Organisational culture is ‘real’ – structural reality
Organisational culture(s) is a variable that can impact upon
organisational performance.
Organisational culture can enable or constrain organisational
effectiveness & capacity to bring about change.
Modernist Approach; A management tool?Culture amenable to
change? Evidence from industry – acculturation of externally
sourced CEOs – rather than them changing existing culture – as
was intended.

11. Modernist Approach
Kotter and Heskett (1992) Corporate Culture and Performance
Research question: Does organisational culture impact on
organisational performance?
Modernist Approach
Kotter and Heskett (1992) Corporate Culture and Performance
Research DesignSurveyed managers and financial analysts
of 200 corporations Surveys included a range of questions and
variables aimed at measuring ‘cultural strength’ and cultural
values as well as organisational performance (e.g. financial
viability).
Quantitative AnalysisMeasured the strength of the correlation
between corporate culture and organisational performance and
organisational adaptation/change.
ResultsThere is a positive correlation between organisational
performance and the strength of corporate culture. When
corporate cultures demonstrated to be weak organisational

12. performance was reduced.
National cultural InfluencesGeert Hofstede’s IBM study
identified five key variables
Power distance – accept or reject inequalityUncertainty
avoidance – accept avoid risk takingIndividualism versus
collectivismMasculine versus feminineLong-term versus short –
term orientation
These vary from national culture to national culture and are
important to those managing MNCs and TNCs.
RMIT University
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RMIT University
Implications for management practice
If we can understand organisational culture and national
cultural differences management can use that knowledge to
achieve certain outcomes (e.g. improve organisational
efficiency and effectiveness).
Objective is to create and unify an organisational culture
so that it aligns with organisational goals.
Mechanisms for organisation acculturation:
‘Team-building’ exercisesCorporate sponsored social events

13. Symbolic Interpretive ApproachesCulture is ‘real’ – socially
constructed and objectified
Interpretation and meaning making occurs through culture(s).
Taking part in ‘organisational’ life and culture is like fulfilling
a part in a theatrical play.Organisations have scripts to
‘perform’Organisational members (actors) perform an
organisational role within this script.Organisational success or
failure is partially determined by the capacity to perform the
script and have good actors.
Symbolic interpretive approach
Investigating Organisational Culture
Qualitative data gatheringParticipant observation (‘going
native’)Ethnography (observation, focus groups, indepth
interviews).
Qualitative analysisThematic and narrative analysis
Results:‘thick description’ (Geertz) & interpretation of the
dynamics of organisational culture.

14. Symbolic interpretive approach
Organisational Acting & Emotional Labour
Hochschild’s The Managed Heart: Commercialisation of Human
Feeling (1983):
First to develop the notion of ‘emotional labour’
Emotional labour is characterised as:
‘a covert resource, like money or knowledge, or physical
labour, which companies need to get the job done’
(Hochschild:1983).
Symbolic interpretive approach
Organisational Acting & Emotional Labour
The individual actor:
Hochschild uses the example of flight attendants and bill
collectors to show how people are constrained to maintain
emotions in their work:Friendliness of flight
attendantSuspension of trust and sympathy for the debt-
collector.
The organisational script and collective emotional labour:
‘it is not simply individuals who manage their feelings in
order to do a job; whole organisations have entered the game.
The emotion management that keeps the smile on Delta Airlines

15. competes with the emotion management that keeps the same
smile on United and TWA’ (1983: 185-6).
Implications for management practice
Symbolic-interpretive:
If we understand culture and the cultural meaning of
behaviours, verbal and non-verbal communication, symbols and
objects, we come to understand ourselves, others and our
interaction with others more fully.
This knowledge can enable managers to engage more effectively
with diverse cultures and sub-cultures within and external to
organisations – facilitate institutionalisation.
Enable organisational actors to better negotiate order –
facilitate cooperation.
Implications for management practice: Understanding
Narratives and Dramaturgy
The need to direct the Script & Train the Actors:
Critical Theorists

16. Theoretical position: culture is real
‘Organisational culture’ is ideological.
Organisational culture is an attempt to ‘manufacture consent’
and pacify consumers, organisational members and others that
the organisation depends upon.
Critical TheoristsOrganisational culture as manipulation:
Critical Theorists
Theoretical position:Modernist understanding of ‘culture’ is too
simplistic.
Organisational culture not be manufactured and/or easily
controlled by management.
Organisational members become very cynical and suspicious of
management attempts to ‘manufacture’ a culture.
Implications for management practice

17. Critical theorists:
‘Poor’ organisational culture is a potential sign of ‘poor’
management.
Managing ‘culture’ should not be the focus of management
practice.
Improving management processes and procedures should be the
priority (e.g. better involvement of organisational members in
decision-making processes) – employee empowerment –
employee participation industrial democracy.
Postmodernist Approaches
Calling Organisational Culture into Question:
Postmodernists challenge the idea that organisations have
cultures.
The notion that members of an organisation share a culture is an
illusion.
Postmodernist ApproachesCorporate ‘culture’ is conceptualised
within postmodern notions of power and the contestation of
power – need to deconstruct this.

18. Postmodern Approaches
Organisational Culture & Power
Corporate ‘culture’ is part and parcel of organisational
narratives that seek to legitimise authority and marginalise
other voices.
Organisational members, however, recite and create different
narratives with different audiences resulting in a polyphony of
competing and incoherent ‘stories’ being told simultaneously
within an organisation.
Organisations as soap opera not theater.
Implications for management practice
Postmodernism:
Requires us to recognise, ‘listen’ to, and critically reflect upon
dominant and marginalised organisational narratives.
Is ‘culture’ the problem?Is leadership the problem?
These narratives can help us to identify points of instability and
dissatisfaction within organisations.
These multiple and competing narratives can help guide our
decisions and provide organisational members with a better
sense of involvement in management processes.

19. Symbols of control? Power rather than product?
Cult or culture?
OT to the rescue?
First Day on the Job as Department Manager
How should I choose to think about:
Organisational culture?Senior management’s position?The
department?My role in the department?The way my perspective
of the ‘problem’ may influence my management decisions?
Guide to the Assignment
Individual Assignment:
Due date: To Be Advised
Length: 2,000 words
Weight: 40%
Aims of the assignment
The aims of this assignment are for you to:
1. Develop your understanding of the nature of the key
organisation perspectives and their related theories;
2. Demonstrate an understanding of the key perspectives and the
meta-theoretical assumptions that underpin each;

20. 3. Develop research skills and the ability to assess the strengths
and weaknesses of various debates and arguments;
4. Gain skills in the written presentation of an argument,
including the ways in which scholars incorporate and
acknowledge the ideas of other writers.
Key Criteria for Assessment:
For this assignment your essay will be assessed on the extent to
which it demonstrates:
· Your ability to conduct research and use it to develop an
argument/answer that will discipline your response.
· Your ability to write a clear, compelling, well-presented and
properly referenced response to the question.
· Your ability to directly respond to all of the key issues raised
by the question asked.
· The ability to move past description to analysis; to move past
a focus on who, what, when and how questions to also answer
the associated why questions.
· The ability to provide your own answer to the question in your
own words
The Question To Be Answered:
'What managers most often want to know about their
organization's culture is how to change it......But what is
recommended to managers on the basis of culture theory differs
markedly according to the perspectives adopted' (Hatch and
Cunliffe, 2013: 185).
Choose two of the four perspectives and discuss their different
views on organisational culture and how their advice to
managers who are seeking to influence organisational culture

21. might be different.
Answering the Question:
In answering the question you will need to engage with the
nature of the various perspectives and why and how each
provides different insights into the nature of organisational
culture. You will also need to explain how these different
insights relate to management practice: How do the insights of
each perspective lead to different recommendations to managers
on how they might go about changing organisational culture?
You must focus explicitly on the key issues identified in the
question.
You must consider at least two of the four perspectives.
1. You must make use of required readings.They have been
selected because they provide the essential material required to
answer the question. You will lose marks if you fail to use
them.
Recommended readings have also been provided. Before you
begin to look for additional reading you should first acquire a
good understanding of the basics from the textbook, the
required readings and recommended readings. Once you acquire
this understanding you can then look for other material.
Required readings (located on blackboard site):
1.Chapter 6 and pp 311-318 (Hatch and Cunliffe)
2.Fleming, P and Spicer, A. (2003) ‘Working at a cynical
distance: Implications for power, subjectivity and resistance’

22. 3.Wilson, F. (2014) ‘Chapter 11: Culture’ in Organisational
Behaviour and Work, pp. 224-241.
4.Xu, Y., and Weller, P., Inside the World Bank, “The Staff and
Their organizational Culture”, pp. 74-82.
Recommended readings (located on blackboard site):
1.Martin, J. & Frost, P. 2012, ‘Chapter 30: The organisational
culture war games' in Gittell, Jody Hoffer., Godwyn, Mary &
Gittell, Jody Hoffer, Sociology of organizations : structures and
relationships, Pine Forge Press/Sage, Thousand Oaks, Calif., pp.
315-336
2.Zhang, C. & Iles, P. 2014, ‘Chapter 11:Organisational culture'
in Rees, Gary & Smith, Paul, Strategic human resource
management : an international perspective, SAGE, Los Angeles,
pp. 383-439.
A failure to follow this and the following instructions will have
a significant negative impact on your marks.
Presentation/Structure of your answer/essay:
Introduction:
In this section you must provide an overview of your answer to
the question; provide answers to the key what and why
questions of your argument/answer. These should take the form
of direct responses to the key issues raised by the question.
Your argument should be informed by a critical
analysis/engagement with the content of the essential readings.
Please keep in mind that in all sections of your response you
must move past description to analysis, this means providing
answers to the why questions that emerge from your key
statements.

23. Exploration of your argument:
In this section of the essay you need to accomplish two tasks.
First, you must explore the key perspectives showing how each
perspective’s theoretical and metatheoretical approaches lead
them to provide different insights into organisational culture.
Second, having demonstrated an understanding of the
perspectives and their theoretical approaches to understanding
organisational culture you then need to discuss how these
understandings lead to different views on how best to manage or
change organisational culture. In other words what does each of
the perspectives have to say on this issue and why do they say
it? What criticisms do they offer of each other and why?
You can address the above, two tasks sequentially; beginning
with an exploration of the how and why of each of the chosen
perspectives (ontology and epistemology), and second: an
exploration of the positions advanced by two of the perspectives
(modernist, symbolic interpretivist, critical theory and
postmodernism) as they provide different advice to managers on
how to go about changing or managing organisational culture.
In your essay, you must consider at least two of the four
perspectives.
An alternative structural approach is to integrate the exploration
of the how and why of each perspective and how each provides
different insights into the nature of organisational culture and
how best to manage organisational change. For example;
explore the how and why of the modernist positions on
organisational culture and then its application to modernist
positions for managing and changing organisational culture. .
On completing the how and why of the modernist position and
its application then move on to the other selected perspective.

24. The two alternatives outlined above will enable you to present a
clear direct and disciplined response to the question.
The whole response must be informed by an engagement with
essential readings. You must draw upon and evaluate academic
debates and arguments. This is not to be viewed as an exercise
in which you make up a response off-the-top-of-your-head nor
is it one in which you focus on description and ignore analysis.
While you may draw upon examples of organisational culture
in actual organisations this should be done to illustrate
differences in perspectives both theoretically and practically as
they relate to understanding and managing organisational
culture.
Conclusion:
You must conclude with your general answer to the question. It
should reiterate the key argument/answer to the question
provided in the introduction and indicate to what extent it has
been supported or challenged by your analysis of the debates
and arguments of other authors.
Additional Guidance:
1. This essay is designed to develop your knowledge of the
theoretical perspectives, to build your understanding that each
perspective is underpinned by different assumptions that lead to
different ways of understanding organisational culture. Given
their ontological and epistemological underpinnings, each
perspective has different ways of conceptualising how
organisations and organisational culture intersect. Based upon
these different understandings of organisational culture the
advice each perspective provides to managers who are seeking
to influence organisational culture is likely to be different.
2. This essay is not an exercise in describing various

25. organisations and their organisational culture or how
management goes about managing culture. You must
demonstrate your understanding of the perspectives and how
they relate to an understanding of organisational culture. If
empirical examples of organisational culture within
contemporary organisations are introduced they must be used to
illustrate how they are informed by the theoretical perspectives.
3. Please use headings with care. It is better to avoid using them
in an essay but if you must, please keep them to a minimum and
ensure that they enhance rather than undermine your argument.
4. This essay question has been designed to encourage you to
prepare your own individual essay. There is no single ‘right’
answer. Markers will be looking for evidence that you have
read broadly, including the provided material, and have
synthesised the material to develop your own answer/ argument.
The markers will also expect you to answer the question in your
own words.
5. Do not try to cover every single detail; you only have 2000
words so concentrate on the major points rather than fine
details.
6. You can make use of the Web sources but they need to be
reliable sources- Wikipedia is not a reliable source of
information. We encourage you to make use of journal articles
which can be found via a range of library databases. I suggest
you use Expanded Academic ASAP (Gale) database which is
located through the Databases section of the library website
because it allows you to search a range of journals using
keywords. Some of the keywords you should consider are:
culture in organisations, organisations and modernism,
organisations and symbolic interpretivism, organisations and
critical theory, organisations and postmodernism, etc. You will

26. find an enormous amount of relevant literature. You can also
do author searches which can be helpful to locate recent articles
by scholars mentioned in the textbook. We also encourage you
to make use of the references and further reading suggested by
the textbook at the end of each chapter. ‘Citation Linker’ found
through the library website is a useful tool to locate some of the
journal articles mentioned in the textbook. There is a lot of
information out there regarding the topic.
7. Students are NOT allowed to use lecture notes as reference
materials.
8. You should look at the assessment sheet found in the course
guide. It will give you a feel for the sorts of things we will be
assessing.
9. You should also look at the other part of the course guide
which outlines the differences between the grades -i.e. what
separates a ‘P’ from a ‘C’.
10. A key point to remember in answering the questions is not
to be overly descriptive. In answering the question you will
need to develop an argument. An argument requires ‘expressing
a point of view on a subject and supporting it with evidence’
(see http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/argument.html)
The basic components of an argument include:
· Making a claim (informed by relevant organisational
perspectives and/or theories)
· Supporting your claim with evidence
· Recognising and engaging with counterclaims