ORGANIZATIONAL SUBCULTURES IN A SOFT BUREAUCRACY: RESISTANCE BEHIND THE MYTH AND FACADE OF AN OFFICIAL CULTURE

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Jermier, John M.; Slocum, John W., Jr.; Fry, Louis W.; Gaines, Jeannie
• 署名单位: State University System of Florida; University of South Florida; Southern Methodist University; State University System of Florida; University of South Florida
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2.2.170
• 发表日期: 1991
• 页码: 170-194
• 关键词: ORGANIZATIONAL CONFLICT; SUBCULTURE; COUNTERCULTURE; SYMBOLIC BUREAUCRACY

摘要

The primary purpose of this study was to compare and contrast an organization's official culture and its subcultures. The proposition that soft bureaucracies project a rigid exterior appearance, symbolizing what key stakeholders expect, while masking a loosely-coupled set of interior practices, guided this analysis of a police organization. The official culture (crime-fighting command bureaucracy) was examined as an arbitrary set of symbols and meaning structures arranged according to top management preferences. Using qualitative and quantitative data, the organization's subcultures were profiled. It was demonstrated that top management was unable to impose organization-wide conformance with the official culture. There was close conformance to the official culture in only one of five distinct clusters of officers (crime-fighting commandoes, 21 percent of the sample). Officers in the other clusters (crime-fighting street professionals, peace-keeping moral entrepreneurs, ass-covering legalists, and anti-military social workers) substantially modified or rejected top management's dictates. They represented resistance subcultures, similar in their opposition to official culture, but unique in form. It was concluded that other organizations, not known for their monolithic image and solidarity, also encompass subcultures.