In recent years culture has ceased to be just an analytic category in the social sciences to become a concept invoked by social actors to describe and observe their own practices and those of others. Organizations are, perhaps, the most prominent actors in this process. Since the 80's, management theorists have noted that culture is a central dimension in any organizational environment. In this way, culture has evolved into a highly productive reflexive category for self-description of organizational systems. The aim of this paper is to analyze the meanings involved in such self-descriptions from two perspectives: on the one hand, from the discourse of management about organizational and organizational cultures and on the other hand, from the comparative analysis of two organizational situations (a company and an international NGO). We intend to show how culture is established as a paradoxical mode of observation and organizational description.
Keywords:
Self-description, Culture, Management, Organizations, Meaning
Gonnet, J. P. (2013). The observation of culture in organizational systems. A hypothesis. MAD, (28), 34–46. Retrieved from https://revistaderechoambiental.uchile.cl/index.php/RMAD/article/view/26946
