摘要:

ABSTRACTThe recent interest in cultural analysis of organizations is based on the belief that organizations have symbolic aspects that affect organizational behaviour. Underlying this research, however, are different assumptions about the nature of symbols and the role they play in organizations. The majority of writers have assumed that symbols perform an expressive function and are used in a type of action they call 'symbolic action’which they contrast with ‘substantive action’. This dichotomy between symbolic and substantive action has resulted in the development of models that assume culture is a causal factor in organizational change, and should be controlled by the management of symbols. In this article, this approach ‐ the management as symbolic action approach ‐ is examined and found to be inadequate. An alternative approach is developed ‐ the culture‐as‐context approach ‐ that assumes all actions have a symbolic aspect, all actions are value‐laden, symbols are meaningful only in terms of their relations with other symbols, and symbols are dispositions to action, not causes of it. The study of culture is seen, then, as the explication of action in terms of the system of symbolic forms ‐ goals, plans, ideas, roles and traditions ‐ that people use to give meaning and order to their experience. This approach is applied to the interactions of the members of the‘Transition Team’in a Bell Telephone operating company preparing for the deregulation of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, its parent corporation, in 1981. It is demonstrated empirically and explained conceptually that culture leads to a certain class of possible actions which makes certain attempts at change, or reactions to change, pr

ISSN:0022-2380    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1986.tb00438.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACTThis article is primarily concerned with exploring the relationships between organizational climate and characteristics of organizational environments. Environmental characteristics include dependencies, competition and uncertainty. In addition, the relationship of climate and environments with dimensions of organizational structure and size are examined. Using data from 15 industrial organizations in Britain, the results have shown that different environmental characteristics have different associations with organizational climate. Also, the relationships between organizational environments and climate are not similar to those found between environments and structure. It is suggested that the creation of appropriate climates and structural design as responses to environmental pressures may be considered as complementary strategies in an attempt to maintain administrative control. The results, therefore, provide support for the suggestion that, in order to improve our understanding of the dynamics of organizational climate, characteristics of organizational environments should be incorporated into future research designs.

ISSN:0022-2380    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1986.tb00439.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACTThis paper focuses on the fundamental changes in the management of state enterprises that are taking place in China. Specifically, we discuss the expansion of enterprise autonomy and changes in the managerial decision‐making structure. The genesis of the reform programme is traced back to inefficiencies caused by the over‐centralized state planning system which reduced enterprise management to little more than an administrative function dominated by the Party secretary. As a consequence, managerial and technical cadres became demoralized and the growth of staff functions such as accounting, marketing and personnel management was stunted. From a series of experiments launched in 1978 has grown the realization that tinkering around with the state planning apparatus is insufficient to stimulate entrepreneurship and vigorous industrial expansion. Accordingly, reform has been launched on a broad front both within the state apparatus, in an endeavour to roll back external constraints on enterprise, and within the enterprise itself, by seeking to provide powerful incentives both to managerial cadres and workers through a system stressing individual responsibility and rewards commensurate with results. A number of severe constraints on the reform programme are analysed, in particular, the changing balance of power within the enterprise between the factory director, the Party secretary, the workers’congress and the trade union. Contradictions exist within the new structure of decision‐making but, given a period of political stability and sustained economic growth, there should be sufficient surplus to mollify discontent and stifle those who refuse to give up their belief in the virtues of having‘politics in command’of the industrial

ISSN:0022-2380    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1986.tb00440.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

ISSN:0022-2380    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1986.tb00441.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

ABSTRACTLike most experience, people endow organizations with meaning. Meaninggiving has been explained as a categorization process of matching stimuli against prototypes. This study explores the applicability of such a view to organizations by focusing on a central component of the perspective ‐ prototypes. A phenomenological design is used to uncover the content of organizational prototypes. Data collected from a sample of managers in the financial industry demonstrate the utility of the prototype notion, indicating that further exploration is warranted of how organizations are categorize

ISSN:0022-2380    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1986.tb00442.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Book reviewed in this articleManaging in Different CulturesFrost, P. J., Moore, L. F.Louis, M. R.Lundberg, C. C.Martin, J.T. K. MeierMcPhee, R. D.Tomkins, P. K. (Eds.)RussellMcKinnonCox, CharlesBeck, John(Eds.)DavidMegginsonFietcher, CliveWilliams, Richard.RichardBaker

ISSN:0022-2380    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1986.tb00443.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1986

数据来源: WILEY