Processes of cultural change and stability

An important limitation of applying anthropology in organizational research is that contemporary society is not tribal. However, even though contemporary organizational researchers ignore anthropology, they describe similar processes as those described by anthropologists. This section will identify some of the processes of change and stability identified by anthropologists and compare them to contemporary organizational culture studies.

Evolutionary patterns: Variation, growth, decline

Early theories of cultural change assumed that cultural variation was universal. In the variation process, introducing alternatives drives change. Alternatives often exist in a culture. For cultural change to occur, an aggregate number of individuals negotiate a consensus on cultural behavior, creating a dynamic reaction through which cultural deviations become standardized through consensus. Through this process of cultural growth and decline, new patterns of behavior become stable through institutionalization, pushing out old patterns and institutions.

This perspective is dated. However, it proposes an essential consideration of the institution’s role in cultural dynamics. Institutions are “static remains of once dynamic cultural patterns,” making them “cultural fossils” that provide clues about the consciousness and meaning of the past (Hatch, 2004, 198). Kroeber argues that institutions prevent new learning. In comparison, institutional theory sees institutions as explanations of static culture. While institutionalists see the institution as a means of maintaining and transferring knowledge, Kroeber (1944 in Hatch, 2004) argues that institutions are artifacts that inhibit understanding and meaning. This perspective is contentious but suggests a distinction between cultural meaning and institutions. Sevon (1966 in Hatch, 2004) attempts to resolve the tension between institutional theory and cultural change by introducing variation, arguing that no original ideas exist, but innovation occurs as cultures imitate old ideas through different perspectives. Roach (1995 in Hatch, 2004) calls this “repetition with a difference” (46), a process that creates conditions for stability and change to interact simultaneously. While institutions stabilize behaviors, they accommodate change.

Change from outside: Diffusion, acculturation, and selective borrowing

Anthropologists recognized that groups close to others tend to share more cultural traits than groups that are distant. Anthropologists use diffusion and acculturation to describe the processes that underlie cultural borrowing. Diffusion considers the cultural transmission that has occurred; acculturation considers cultural transmission as it is happening. Borrowing from other cultures is universal and usually occurs when a dominant group is influenced by the cultures’ customs. Acculturation research shows that borrowing is a selective process; people borrow practices that seem worthwhile and discard those that seem impractical. Herskovits (1964 in Hatch, 2004) argued that cultural contact “is never a process of addition” (177). Instead, borrowing is a process that focuses on and reinterprets the rewarding aspects of a different culture, merging them with the existing culture to create something new. Thus, cultures change through a negotiation process of conflict and compromise to build divergent meanings and behaviors.

Considering focus as a mechanism of cultural change applies to organizational change by helping leaders understand that their cultures may intensify focus inside the organization to facilitate culture change processes. Isolated leaders will be less effective change agents because they will not understand the focus of the organizational members. Another vital point to consider is reinterpretation, meaning how the culture assimilates new ideas into existing cultural patterns to minimize disruption. Reinterpretation involves applying old meaning to new forms or giving new meaning to old forms. Re-contextualization is a similar concept that explains how cultures provide new meanings to borrowed artifacts to minimize disruptions to the existing cultural patterns.

Change from within: Enculturation, re-enculturation, and cultural innovation

Enculturation explains how cultures remain stable and how cultures transfer symbols, practices, and meanings from one generation to another. Enculturation involves conditioning to fundamentals and absorbing ethics, aesthetics, and group conventions in human development. As humans reach maturity, they have sufficient conditioning to move quickly within the limits of cultural boundaries [people never grow up, they just learn how to behave] and can make decisions about new forms of behavior presented by cultural change. Herskovits (1964 in Hatch, 2004) argues that early enculturation leads to stability but can lead to cultural change in maturity as adults.

Adults can learn, relearn, and unlearn culture by reconditioning responses to new stimuli and re-enculturating themselves. This later enculturation is a conscious process that creates an opportunity to change by examining alternatives for new ways of thinking and behaving.

Organizational theorists call this concept socialization, meaning how new members of an organization make sense of the environment and learn its culture to adapt to its values, norms, and practices. This adaptation can be mutual. Just as anthropologists recognize that individual peculiarities can be the source of cultural innovation, socialization can be a process by which individuals influence change while maintaining stability. Cultural innovation through socialization occurs partly because different people react differently to the same situation, which can induce change (Barnett, 1953 in Hatch, 2004).