Organizations as Multiple Cultures: A Rules Theory Analysis

Abstract

This essay articulates the utility of the coordinated management of meaning(CMM) theory of rules for identifying different cultures within an organization and for conceptualizing the complex interaction between them. In CMM, rules are conceptualized as cognitions that individuals employ to create action in interpersonal episodes. The utility of CMMas a theoretical and an analytical frame is specifically demonstrated through applying the perspective to one view of multiple cultures in organizations: the interplay between a dominant culture, one whose central values are espoused by top management and are widely shared, and three specific types of subcultures: enhancing, orthogonal, and a counterculture. The roles of structural vs. content factors in organizational cultures as well as the dynamic meshing of intrapersonal meanings to create interpersonal action are also addressed in terms of CMM.