theory related to organizational communication

1. GROUP COMMUNICATION
THEORY
CULTURAL APPROACH
TO ORGANI ZATI ON
Clifford Geertz

2. Overview
• Geertz and Pacanowsky describe organizations as
having their own culture. This means that any
given organization has a particular culture in which
the meanings for things are shared between
individuals.
• The environment that surrounds each company
is called the corporate culture and consists of the
organization's image, character, and climate. The
culture is learned through the use of Stories (or
metaphors) used to convey the messages the
corporation wants to share with its employees.

3. There are three types of stories
told:
• Corporate stories, information
which the management wants to
share with the employees;
Personal stories, which include
personal accounts of themselves
that employees share with each
other to help to define who they
are within the organization; and
Collegial stories, which are stories
(positive or negative) that
employees within an organization
tell about eachother.

4. •
Introduction.
• A.Anthropologist Clifford Geertz views
cultures as webs of shared meaning,shared
• understanding,and shared sensemaking.
• approach in his research of organizations.
• Pacanowsky asserts that communication
creates and constitutes the taken-for-
• granted reality of the world.
•

5. Clifford Geertz &
Michael Pacanowsky
1973
Individual Interpretations:
This theory clearly comes from a
humanistic perspective. It is very
interpretive, the use of thick description
as a means to understand corporate
culture shows us that through symbols,
we seek to reach shared meaning
throughout our corporate experience.

6. Culture as a metaphor of organizational life.
A.Interest in culture as a metaphor for
organizations stems from our recent interest in
Japanese corporations.
B.Corporate culture has several meanings.
1.The surrounding environment that constrains
a company ’s freedom of action.
2.An image,character,or climate controlled by a
corporation.
3.Pacanowsky argues that culture is not
something an organization has,but is
something an organization is.

7. What culture is ;what culture is not.
A.Geertz and his colleagues do not
distinguish between high and low culture.
B.Culture is not whole or undivided.
C.Pacanowsky argues that the web of
organizational culture is the residue of
employees'performances.
D.The elusive nature of culture prompts
Geertz to label its study a “soft science.”

8. Thick description —what
ethnographers do.
• A.Participant observation,the research
methodology of ethnographers,is a time-
• consuming process.
• B.Pacanowsky researched Gore &Associates.
• C.Although Pacanowsky now works with
Gore,the company he researched,he earlier
• cautioned against “going native.”
• D.Thick description refers to the intertwined
layers of common meaning that underlie
• what people say and do.

9. Can the manager be an agent of cultural
change?
• A.The cultural approach is popular with
executives who want to use it as a tool,yet
• culture is extremely difficult to manipulate.
• B.Even if such manipulation is possible,it
may be unethical.
• C.Linda Smircich notes that
communication consultants may violate
the ethnographer's rule of nonintervention
and may even extend management ’s
control within an organization.

10. Limitations
• .The cultural approach is criticized by
corporate consultants,who believe that
• knowledge should be used to influence
organizational culture.
• B.Critical theorists attack the cultural
approach because it does not evaluate the
• customs it portrays.
• C.The goal of symbolic analysis is to
create a better understanding of what it
takes to function effectively within the
culture.

11. Example:
• Just because Lynn has joined a new company does
not mean that she has to become one of "them" all of
the time. Just as we do interpersonally, Lynn chooses
the appropriate time and place and person for her to
tell her 'stories' to. Collegial stories among friends,
corporate stories among colleagues, and personal
stories to friends. Her descriptions of events help us
to understand her role in an organization, as well as
her perceptions of it.

12. The Greatest Success of All
If you give a part of yourself to life,
The part you receive back will be so much
greater
Never regret the past, but learn by it
Never lose sight of your dreams; a person who
can dream will always have hope.
Believe in yourself; if you do, everyone else
will.
You have the ability to accomplish anything,
but never do it at someone else’s expense.
If you can go through life loving others, you
will have achieved the greatest success of
all. Judy LeSage

13. SUCCESS
It’ s not how much you accomplish in life that counts,
But how much you give to others.
It’ s not how high you build your dreams that makes a difference,
But how high your faith can climb
It’ s not how many goals you reach,
But how many lives you touch.
It’ s not whom you know that matters,
But who you are inside.
Believe in the impossible,
Hold tight to the incredible
And live each day to its fullest potential
You can make a difference in your world.
REBECCA JORDAN

14. THANK YOU!
PROF. I. E.VALERA