New Frontiers of Organizational Culture Research:Expanding and Integrating Methodological Approaches

Abstract

The symposium offers an integrated and updated understanding of the key gaps in organizational culture theory and how organizational researchers might address them, by showcasing novel and cutting-edge methodological approaches and highlighting how they can inform culture theory building. The papers focus on two key theoretical gaps in the existing literature: the microfoundations of how organizational culture emerges and the extent to which it is shared across different groups, and the role of organizational identity as perceived by various audiences and how it influences individual and firm performance. Using a range of methods, including online experiments, Q-sort assessments of culture, natural language processing (henceforth, NLP) in the form of topic modeling, and computational simulations, papers 1, 2, and 3 focus on the mechanisms leading to the emergence of shared cultural understanding, or the lack thereof. Then, using NLP in the form of word-embedding, paper 4 offers insights on how organizations may leverage atypicality with regards to competitors to achieve superior outcomes in their competitive landscapes. Promoting Shared Understanding Across Cultures: Comparing U. and Chinese Populations in Online Games Presenter: Douglas Guilbeault; U. of Pennsylvania Where You Sit Affects What You See: Examining Perspectives On Culture Across Hierarchical Levels Presenter: Arianna Marchetti; London Business School Presenter: Jennifer Chatman; U. of California, Berkeley The Role Of Others’ Attention In Learning Organizational Culture Presenter: Anjali M. Bhatt; Harvard Business School Presenter: Jennifer Dannals; Yale School of Management Doing Organizational Identity: Earning Surprises and Performative Atypicality Premium Presenter: Paul Gouvard; USI (Lugano) Presenter: Amir Goldberg; Stanford U. Presenter: Sameer B. Srivastava; U. of California, Berkeley