Organizational Culture, Rituals and Taboos

Organizational culture is embedded in the everyday working lives of all cultural members. Manifestations of cultures in organizations include formal practices (such as pay levels, structure of the hierarchy, job descriptions, and other written policies); informal practices (such as behavioral norms); the organizational stories employees tell to explain “how things are done around here”; rituals (such as Christmas parties and retirement dinners); humor (jokes about work and fellow employees); jargon (the special language of organizational initiates); and physical arrangements (including interior decor, dress norms, and architecture). Cultural manifestations also include values, sometimes referred to more abstractly as content themes. It is essential to distinguish values/content themes that are espoused by employees from values/content themes that are seen to be enacted in behavior. All of these cultural manifestations are interpreted, evaluated, and enacted in varying ways because cultural members have differing interests, experiences, responsibilities, and values. Culture consists of the patterns of meanings that link these manifestations together, sometimes in harmony, sometimes in bitter conflicts between groups, and sometimes in webs of ambiguity, paradox, and contradiction. For these reasons, it is much too simple to define culture in unifying, harmonious terms; for example, in terms of values that are espoused by management and supposedly shared by most employees.