Relationships Between Culture and Institutions

Abstract

This article suggests four different relationships between institutionalism and organizational culture seen as two different levels of analysis. The relationships represent a continuum from a significant influence of the institutional level on organizational culture to a significant cultural influence on the formation and construction of institutions. The four relationships are defined as 1) cultural filtering of institutional pressure from isomorphism, 2) organizational culture as a source of new institutional elements, 3) organizational culture as a source of positioning towards institutions, 4) counterculture as redefining institutions. The article also discusses how the relationships can be seen in a temporal perspective stressing how the relationships between culture and institutions develop over time. A temporal perspective further questions which processes constitute the relationships between culture and institutions and how they are connected. Finally, the article points at the influence of globalization challenging the national origin of many institutions when relating to a world of organizations, which increasingly are becoming global. For some companies, organizational cultures become global institutional forces in their own right, while some institutions become trapped in their own local organizational cultures. In conclusion, the article is a call for the development of a more temporal perspective on the relationships between culture and institutions- seen in a global perspective.