Organizational Culture Study

One perspective of the organization as a culture has focused on the nature of communications in the organization and how this communication affects organizational members (Smircich, 1983; Van Maanen, 1985; Pacanowskky & O'Donnell-Trujillo, 1982; Pettigrew, 1970). This communication perspective holds that communications and communications-related activities provide meaning to the organization, thereby sustaining it. Thus, the communication perspective of organizations as cultures would state that there must be analysis of both the nature and the effects of organizational communication in order to understand any organization as a culture.

The proposed study focuses upon examining one particular organization from the standpoint of the communication-culture perspective of organizational theory. The selected organization is Martin Luther King Law and Public Service High School (LPS) a small, urban

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n's learned, accumulated experience which is socially transmitted, or more briefly, behavior acquired through social learning. Keesing also adds that culture is action oriented, focused on ideas and artifacts which individuals share and value. He also considers culture to be patterned and symbolic. In more current thought, there is little deviation from Kessing's conceptual understanding of culture except there is greater emphasis on how members of a particular culture understand its nature, and how they contribute to its perpetuation. If there is any thread of thought that is similar in both early and current definitions of culture it is the emphasis on traditional beliefs, values and normative behaviors. Organizational scholars in both management and communication also emphasize values, beliefs, and patterned behavior in their definitions of organizational culture. However, contemporary definitions reflect a merging of both structural and interactional components in their definitions. This merging can be seen in the work of Van Maanen and Barley (1983) who speak of organizational culture as structural and comprised of: . . . institutionalized practices, imbued with particular beliefs, values and patterned behaviors; an
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Office Staff, Significance Study, Purpose Study, Selection Methods, Functionalist Paradigm, Culture Perspective, Pacanowsky O'Donnell-Trujillo, Siehl Martin, Interpretive Paradigm, Kroeber Luckholhn, proposed study, culture perspective, organizational theory, organizational culture, educational excellence, interpretive paradigm, communication communication-related, faculty staff, communication communication-related matters, friendly supportive, functionalist paradigm, themselves feeling free, educational excellence achieved, using student ideas, feeling free talk,
Approximate Word count = 6699
Approximate Pages = 27 (250 words per page)