A cultural perspective on organizations: the need for and consequences of viewing organizations as culture-bearing milieux

Abstract

The prevalence and influence of cultural phenomena in organizations coupled with limitations inherent in traditional approaches to organizational inquiry suggest the need to add a cultural perspective to our repertoire of perspectives on organizations. A cultural perspective is proposed to guide inquiry on intersubjective, emergent, context-embedded and/or interpretive phenomena in organizational settings. The cultural perspective represents a social defmition paradigm and contrasts with the social fact paradigm of traditional perspectives. Methodological consequences of a cultural perspective are discussed. Topics of study germane to a cultural perspective are illustrated. Methods of organizational inquiry reflective of a cultural perspective are discussed.