IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v619y2008i1p15-40.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Culture and Organization Theory

Author

Listed:
  • Calvin Morrill

    (University of California, Irvine)

Abstract

Culture has become a legitimate concern and part of the basic conceptual toolkit in much of contemporary organization theory. This article historically traces the contested place of culture in organization theory—from acultural rationalist theorizing at the turn of the twentieth century; to the accidental “discovery†of shop floor culture by human relations scholars in the 1920s; to mid-twentieth-century explorations of informal and institutionalized relations in organizations; to present-day approaches that blend concepts from organizational culture frameworks, neoinstitutional analysis, sociology of culture, and social movement theory. This historical backdrop provides a context for raising several research questions relevant to organizational change, boundaries, and deviance. In closing, the author suggests that an analytic nexus between culture, power, and agency is emerging in contemporary organization theory that ultimately may yield a theory of society.

Suggested Citation

  • Calvin Morrill, 2008. "Culture and Organization Theory," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 619(1), pages 15-40, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:619:y:2008:i:1:p:15-40
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716208320241
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716208320241
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716208320241?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Karl E. Weick, 1998. "Introductory Essay—Improvisation as a Mindset for Organizational Analysis," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 9(5), pages 543-555, October.
    2. Weber, Max, 1905. "Protestantism and the Spirit of Capitalism," History of Economic Thought Books, McMaster University Archive for the History of Economic Thought, number weber1905.
    3. Owen-Smith, Jason & Powell, Walter W., 2003. "The expanding role of university patenting in the life sciences: assessing the importance of experience and connectivity," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(9), pages 1695-1711, October.
    4. Rodolphe Durand & Hayagreeva Rao & Philippe Monin, 2003. "Institutional Change in Toque Ville: Nouvelle Cuisine as an Identity Movement in French Gastronomy," Post-Print hal-00480858, HAL.
    5. Joanne Martin, 1990. "Deconstructing Organizational Taboos: The Suppression of Gender Conflict in Organizations," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 1(4), pages 339-359, November.
    6. Hayagreeva Rao & Philippe Monin & Rodolphe Durand, 2003. "Institutional change in toque ville : Nouvelle cuisine as an identity movement in French gastronomy," Post-Print hal-02311672, HAL.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brayden G. King & Teppo Felin & David A. Whetten, 2010. "Perspective---Finding the Organization in Organizational Theory: A Meta-Theory of the Organization as a Social Actor," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 21(1), pages 290-305, February.
    2. Luis Alfonso Dau & Aya S. Chacar & Marjorie A. Lyles & Jiatao Li, 2022. "Informal institutions and international business: Toward an integrative research agenda," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(6), pages 985-1010, August.
    3. Tammar B. Zilber, 2011. "Institutional Multiplicity in Practice: A Tale of Two High-Tech Conferences in Israel," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(6), pages 1539-1559, December.
    4. Victoria Johnson & Walter W. Powell, 2015. "Poisedness and Propagation: Organizational Emergence and the Transformation of Civic Order in 19th-Century New York City," NBER Working Papers 21011, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Hao Ren & Rongrong Wang & Suopeng Zhang & An Zhang, 2017. "How Do Internet Enterprises Obtain Sustainable Development of Organizational Ecology? A Case Study of LeEco Using Institutional Logic Theory," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-21, August.
    6. Maxim Voronov & Mary Ann Glynn & Klaus Weber, 2022. "Under the Radar: Institutional Drift and Non‐Strategic Institutional Change," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(3), pages 819-842, May.
    7. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1q24hpq2919to8ct061g8p33kn is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Hayagreeva Rao & Sunasir Dutta, 2018. "Why Great Strategies Spring from Identity Movements," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(1), pages 313-322, March.
    9. Anselm Schneider, 2015. "Reflexivity in Sustainability Accounting and Management: Transcending the Economic Focus of Corporate Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(3), pages 525-536, March.
    10. Violina P. Rindova & Luis L. Martins, 2018. "From Values to Value: Value Rationality and the Creation of Great Strategies," Strategy Science, INFORMS, vol. 3(1), pages 323-334, March.
    11. Chatterjee, Ira & Cornelissen, Joep & Wincent, Joakim, 2021. "Social entrepreneurship and values work: The role of practices in shaping values and negotiating change," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1).
    12. Maximilian Benner, 2022. "Legitimizing path development by interlinking institutional logics: The case of Israel's desert tourism," PEGIS geo-disc-2022_01, Institute for Economic Geography and GIScience, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    13. Bai, Xiaoou & Tsang, Eric W.K. & Xia, Wei, 2020. "Domestic versus foreign listing: Does a CEO's educational experience matter?," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(1).
    14. Udo Staber, 2008. "Network Evolution in Cultural Industries," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(5), pages 569-578.
    15. M. Beaulieu & P. Lehoux, 2019. "The emergence of health technology organizations among institutional healthcare and economic actors," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 1115-1151, December.
    16. Albin Skog & Örjan Sölvell, 2020. "The dark side of agglomeration, sustained wealth and transposition of trading institutions—the case of Bordeaux in the 18th and 19th centuries," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 67-91.
    17. Washington, Marvin & Patterson, Karen D.W., 2011. "Hostile takeover or joint venture: Connections between institutional theory and sport management research," Sport Management Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 1-12, February.
    18. Giacomo Negro & Michael T. Hannan & Hayagreeva Rao, 2011. "Category Reinterpretation and Defection: Modernism and Tradition in Italian Winemaking," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(6), pages 1449-1463, December.
    19. Solomon, Shelby J. & Mathias, Blake D., 2020. "The artisans' dilemma: Artisan entrepreneurship and the challenge of firm growth," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 35(5).
    20. repec:hal:journl:hal-00782455 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Ye, Qin & Cai, Yue & Wang, Jingbei, 2024. "Navigating institutional complexity: How firms respond to conflicting patenting demands from competing institutional logics," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 204(C).
    22. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5fb16v625i8vdbgdiskfbht5i5 is not listed on IDEAS
    23. Hyndman, Noel & Liguori, Mariannunziata & Meyer, Renate E. & Polzer, Tobias & Rota, Silvia & Seiwald, Johann, 2014. "The translation and sedimentation of accounting reforms. A comparison of the UK, Austrian and Italian experiences," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 388-408.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:619:y:2008:i:1:p:15-40. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.