Conclusion

The dynamic theories presented by Schein, Gagliardi, and Hatch represent a progression of thinking that shifts management from the center of culture to seeing management as part of a dynamic cultural process. Hatch’s model adds circularity among the relationships and processes. This provides a return principle that exists neither in Shien’s top-down hierarchy nor in Gagliardi’s model of unidirectional change over time. The models show “growing sensitivity to the symbolic-interpretive aspects of culture” (207). The models also show connections between contemporary organizational theory and the cultural dynamics theories expressed by cultural anthropology and evolutionary sociologists.

Organizational culture researchers have replicated and extended the process of cultural stability and change described by cultural anthropologists and evolutionary sociologists. This might invite accusations of revisionist history, but anthropology and sociology provided rich commentary on a culture that is missing from traditional organizational studies writings. Organizational and sociological thought inspired theorizing about culture in organizational settings. The connections between anthropology and sociology and contemporary organizational culture theory support connections among them, while organizations provide a rich context for exploring dynamic cultural processes.

References

Hatch, M. J. (2004). Dynamics in organizational culture. In M. S. Poole, & A. H. Van de Ven, Handbook of organizational change and innovation (pp. 190-211). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.