A person's approach to organizational life is grounded in an elaborate and largely unarticulated meaning map, which provides tools for analysing situations, beliefs about how things ought to be done and rationales for those beliefs. This meaning map is socially constructed. We argue in this article that children's literature is a part of this process of social construction, and that these stories in the United States are reflective of one of the dominant strands of the U.S. national culture, namely, technical rationality. We analyse thematically a set of twenty-nine chil dren's stories, and discuss the repeating themes which emerged from that analysis. The implications for the study of organizations are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ackoff, Russell1976The art of problem solving. New York : John Wiley.
2.
Adams, Guy B., and Virginia Hill Ingersoll1990a 'Culture, technical rationality and organization culture'. American Review of Public Administration20 (December): 285-302.
3.
Adams, Guy B., and Virginia Hill Ingersoll1990b 'Painting over old works: the culture of organizations in an age of technical rationality' in Organizational symbolism. B. A. Turner (ed.), 15-31. Berlin and New York : Walter de Gruyter.
4.
Allaire, Y., and M.E. Firosorotu1984 'Theories of organizational culture'. Organization Studies5/2: 193-226.
5.
Argyris, Chris1964Integrating the individual and the organization. New York : Wiley.
6.
Barley, Stephen R., Gordon W. Meyer, and Deborah C. Gash1988 'Cultures of culture: academics, practitioners, and the pragmatics of normative control'. Administrative Science Quarterly33: 24-60.
7.
Barrett, William1979The illusion of technique. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday .
8.
Baum, L. Frank1960The wonderful Wizard of Oz. New York : Dover Publications.
9.
Berger, Peter, and Thomas Luckmann1967The social construction of reality. Garden City, NY: Doubleday / Anchor.
10.
Bettelheim, Bruno1977The uses of enchantment. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
11.
Bottigheimer, Ruth B.1986Fairy tales and society. Philadelphia : University of Pennsylvania Press.
12.
Boyacigiller, Nakiye, and Nancy J. Adler1991'The parochial dinosaur: organizational science in a global context'. Academy of Management Review16: 262-290.
13.
Brooker-Gross, Susan1981 'Landscape and social values in popular children's literature: Nancy Drew mysteries'. Journal of Geography80 (February): 59-64.
14.
Buell, Ellen Lewis, editor 1982A treasury of little golden books. New York: Golden Press.
15.
Campbell, Joseph1967The hero with a thousand faces. Cleveland : World Publishing.
16.
Carpenter, Humphrey1985Secret gardens: a study of the golden age of children's literature. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin .
17.
Clegg, Stewart R.1990Modern organizations: organization studies in the postmodern world. London: Sage.
18.
Cook, Elizabeth1969The ordinary and the fabulous: an introduction to myths, legends and fairy tales. New York: Cambridge University Press.
19.
Cott, Jonathon1981Pipers at the gates of dawn. New York : Random House.
20.
de Charms, R., and G. Moeller1962 'Values expressed in children's readers'. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology14: 136-142.
21.
Dorfman, Ariel1983The empire's old clothes. New York: Pantheon.
22.
Egoff, Sheila1981Thursday's child. Chicago: American Library Association.
23.
Fay, Brian1976Social theory and political practice. London: Allen and Unwin.
24.
Filley, Alan, Robert J. House, and Steven Kerr1988Management process and organizational behavior. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman.
25.
Fromm, Eric1951The forgotten language: an introduction to the understanding of dreams, fairy tales and myths. New York: Holt, Rinehart, Winston.
26.
Frost, Peter J., et al., editors 1985Organizational culture. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
27.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg1970Truth and method. New York: Seabury Press.
28.
Garis, Howard R.1939Uncle Wiggily and his friendsNew York : Platt and Monk.
29.
Harris, Joel Chandler1946Uncle Remus stories. New York : Golden Press.
30.
Hofstede, Geert1980Culture's consequences: international differences in work-related values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage .
31.
Horkheimer, Max1947The eclipse of reason. New York : Oxford University Press.
32.
Ingersoll, Virginia Hill, and Guy B. Adams1986 'Beyond organizational boundaries: exploring the managerial meta-myth'. Administration and Society18: 360-381.
33.
Ingersoll, Virginia Hill, and Guy B. Adams1992The tacit organization. Greenwich, CT : JAI Press.
34.
Jones, Michael O., Michael D. Moore, and Richard C. Snyder, editors 1988Inside organizations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
35.
Kanter, Rosabeth Moss1977Men and women of the corporation. New York: Basic Books.
36.
Kets de Vries, Manfred F. R., and Danny Miller1987'Interpreting organizational texts'. Journal of Management Studies24: 233-247.
37.
Kingsbury, Mary Emily1973 'Socialization for work and leisure: cultural values reflected in children's literature'. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Oregon, Eugene, June.
38.
Klein, Gillian1985Reading into racism: bias in children's literature and learning materials. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
39.
Luthi, Max1984The fairytale as art form and portrait of man. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
40.
Lystad, Mary 1984At home in America: as seen through its books for children. Cambridge, MA: Schenkman.
41.
Maccoby, Michael1976The gamesman. New York: Simon and Schuster.
42.
Mannheim, Karl1940Man and society in an age of reconstruction. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
McClelland, David1961The achieving society. New York : The Free Press.
45.
McClelland, David1963 'Values in popular literature for children'. Childhood Education40: 135-138.
46.
Metzger, Michael M., and Katerina Mommsen1981Fairy tales as ways of knowing . Las Vegas: Lang.
47.
Nye, Russell1970The unembarrassed muse. New York : Dial.
48.
O'Dell, Felicity Ann1978Socialisation through children's literature: the Soviet example. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
49.
Perlstein, Susan, and Frank Laurino1980'Children's theater as a reflection of contemporary values' . The lion and the unicorn3 (Winter): 96-104.
50.
Piaget, Jean1962Play, dreams and imitation in childhood. New York: W. W. Norton.
51.
Piper, Watty1974The little engine that could. New York : Platt and Monk.
52.
Pondy, Louis, et al., editors 1983Organizational symbolism. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
53.
Powell, Gary N.1988Women and men in management. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
54.
Ricoeur, Paul1973 'The model of the text'. Social Research38: 529-562.
55.
Riesman, David1950The lonely crowd. New Haven: Yale University Press.
56.
Sale, Roger1978Fairy tales and after. Cambridge, MA : Harvard University Press.
57.
Schein, Edgar1985Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
58.
Sendak, Maurice1963Where the wild things are. New York : Harper and Row.
59.
Simon, Herbert1979Models of thought. New Haven: Yale University Press.
60.
Smircich, Linda1983 'Concepts of culture and organizational analysis '. Administrative Science Quarterly28: 339-358.
61.
Smircich, Linda, and Marta B. Calas1987'Organizational culture: a critical assessment' in Handbook of organizational communication. F. M. Jablin et al (eds.), 228-263. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
62.
Smith, Kenwyn K., and Valerie M. Simmons1983 'A rumpelstiltskin organization: metaphors on metaphors in field research'. Administrative Science Quarterly28: 377-392.
63.
Spybey, Tony1984 'Frames of meaning: the rationality in organizational cultures '. Acta Sociologica27: 311-322.
64.
Suess, Dr.1957The cat in the hat. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin .
65.
Tucker, Nicholas1981The child and the book. New York : Cambridge University Press.
66.
Turner, Barry A., editor 1990Organizational symbolism. Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter.
67.
Vandeberg, Leah, and Nick Trujillo1990Organizational life on television. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
68.
Vanderburg, William H.1985The growth of minds and cultures: a unified theory of the structure of human experience. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
69.
Vickers, Sir Geoffrey1965The art of judgment. New York : Basic Books.
70.
Weber, Max1979Economy and society, Vol. 1 and 2. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
71.
Zipes, Jack1983Fairy tales and the art of subversion. New York: Wildman Press.
