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The Cultures of Work Organizations
This is the first, most comprehensive integration and synthesis of the growing literature on the cultures of work organizations. It offers a cultural perspective that is compatible with mainstream theories of organizations, while drawing upon the literatures in sociology, anthropology, organizations, communications, education, public administration, management, and business to illustrate the major components of work-related cultures. It will benefit professionals who are consultants, trainers, organizational development agents, and literate managers.
528 pages, Paperback
First published August 20, 1992
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August 9, 2014
The Cultures of Work Organizations is an important beginning for the study of corporate rituals.
When Hamilton Trice and Janice Beyer introduced The Cultures of Work Organizations, they wrote that “never before has there a comprehensive, scientifically grounded integration of the existing material on cultures of workplaces.” It is unfortunate that, over 20 years later, I can write that there has still been no such comprehensive integration in publication. Though an update of the work of Trice and Beyer is sorely needed, at least we can be thankful that this foundation exists as a starting place for what ought to be generations of future cultural studies of corporate organizations.
What separates the work of Trice and Beyer is their systematic integration of ritual analysis into their description of the mechanisms of cultural evolution in the workplace. More recent books on the culture of professional organizations have done little beyond merely listing ritual as something that ought to be taken into account. With a cultural phenomenon as diverse and complex as ritual, more elaboration is called for.
Trice and Beyer’s understanding of ritual isn’t always well-considered. For example, their distinction between rites and rituals fails to consider the deep motivations behind behaviors that seem superficial at first glance. This distinction encounters further problems when Trice and Beyer attempt to describe rites of passage in a manner that isn’t consistent with their definition of what makes rites different from rituals. Finally, the authors tend to place excessive emphasis on defining separate categories of ritual, and don’t work enough to explain the common structures that al rituals share in common.
That said, the scheme devised by Trice and Beyer goes a long way beyond any previous work to describe corporate rituals, and will be of great use to professionals who are seeking to go beyond behaviorist and rationalist schemes for keeping individuals working in sync, and in accord with organizational goals. Trice and Beyer deserve a good deal of credit for recognizing that the rituals that preserved coherence and enabled adaptability to change in traditional societies are also at work in present-day corporations.
When Hamilton Trice and Janice Beyer introduced The Cultures of Work Organizations, they wrote that “never before has there a comprehensive, scientifically grounded integration of the existing material on cultures of workplaces.” It is unfortunate that, over 20 years later, I can write that there has still been no such comprehensive integration in publication. Though an update of the work of Trice and Beyer is sorely needed, at least we can be thankful that this foundation exists as a starting place for what ought to be generations of future cultural studies of corporate organizations.
What separates the work of Trice and Beyer is their systematic integration of ritual analysis into their description of the mechanisms of cultural evolution in the workplace. More recent books on the culture of professional organizations have done little beyond merely listing ritual as something that ought to be taken into account. With a cultural phenomenon as diverse and complex as ritual, more elaboration is called for.
Trice and Beyer’s understanding of ritual isn’t always well-considered. For example, their distinction between rites and rituals fails to consider the deep motivations behind behaviors that seem superficial at first glance. This distinction encounters further problems when Trice and Beyer attempt to describe rites of passage in a manner that isn’t consistent with their definition of what makes rites different from rituals. Finally, the authors tend to place excessive emphasis on defining separate categories of ritual, and don’t work enough to explain the common structures that al rituals share in common.
That said, the scheme devised by Trice and Beyer goes a long way beyond any previous work to describe corporate rituals, and will be of great use to professionals who are seeking to go beyond behaviorist and rationalist schemes for keeping individuals working in sync, and in accord with organizational goals. Trice and Beyer deserve a good deal of credit for recognizing that the rituals that preserved coherence and enabled adaptability to change in traditional societies are also at work in present-day corporations.
Displaying 1 of 1 review