Organizational Culture and Paradoxes in Management: Firms, Families, and Their Businesses

Description

Studies on culture, change and social processes within organizations have been historically organized around orthogonal approaches. While the literature on change has focused on creating pragmatic, generally simple methodologies that bypass the complexity of the data in order to emphasize the possibility of intervention, literature aimed at truly understanding of the firm and its processes has emphasized the ambiguity of organization and the difficulties involved in reaching a unitary view of its processes, let alone creating a single theory of change. Finally, the literature on family businesses has been restricted to limited views of the field, disregarding the rich insights brought by psychology, sociology or anthropology. The result of these trends has been a gap in the creation of knowledge, with a paucity of studies that link theory with practice and ground change on a comprehensive view of the social reality of the firm. This book addresses both the specific need of family businesses and the broader demands of any organization in which the issue of culture is seriously considered. Drawing on the notions and scholarship on organizations and sociology, the author proposes new concepts and tools for the change agents interested in working with the instrumental rules of the firm with the cohesive tone of the family. Organizational Culture and Paradoxes in Management will be of value to students at an advanced level, academics and reflective practitioners. It addresses the topics with regard to management and organizational studies and will be of interest to organizational scholars, consultants and leaders interested in fostering a meaningful culture within organizations and family businesses. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Preface 1 The Premises of the Argument Definitions of the Situation: Truth, Reality, and Identity Choices: Value, Power, Status, and Identification Power, Value, and Justice Games Games and Culture 2 Families and Their Businesses Some Basics Ties of Blood and Relatedness Kinship Systems Marriages and Families Family Businesses and Family Property Organizational Culture in Family Businesses: The Stage of Change Some Universal Elements From Structure to Uniqueness: Particulars 3 Definitions of the Situation The World of Practice and the World of Ideas The Management of Truth and Untruth The Playful or Emotional Adult: Myth and Fiction Serious Talk: Sensemaking and Identity Stories The Search for Truth: Scientific Models and Essays The Management of Doubt Doubts about Reality: Ontological Oscillation, Interpretive Flexibility, and Ambiguity Doubts about Certainty: Biases, Intuitions, and Cognitive Automatisms Fuzzy Sets, Prototypes, Natural and Linguistic Categories A Preference for the Visible: Narratives, Causality, and Rhetoric Variations of Memory, Imagination, and Predictions Statistical Anomalies Doubts about Truth The Management of Tacitness and Unconsciousness Organizational Culture and Paradoxes in Management: Truth, Doubt, and Error Culture as Learning: Abstractions Culture in the Practice: Learning from Experience and Novelty 4 Value, Meaning, and Power Emotions Emotions as Private Signs of Value Emotions as Instruments of Communication and Structuration Meaningful Games and Their Trade-Offs Social Games: Instrumental Uses, Power, Rank, and Meaning The Rupture of Meaning: Social Dilemmas Trade-off # 1: The Dilemma of Cooperation Trade-off # 2: Honor, Justice, and Reputation versus Utility The Social Negotiation of Trade-Offs and Ambiguities Conflict Norms Rules, Processes, and Contracts Deviance, Error, and Genius Limit Situations Social Power and the Construction of Meaning Coercion Rewards Charisma Legitimacy Complementarities Organizational Culture and Paradoxes in Management: Power and Value A Chain of Meaning Touching the Actors 5 Communication The Place of the Game Triads and Small Groups Informal Networks Bureaucracies and Hierarchies The Game of Communication Theme and Tone The Media The Flow of Communication Ambiguity Egocentric Biases Self-Fulfilling Cycles of Communication Illusions of Consensus Paranoid Cycles of Mistrust Communication, Conflict, and Appeasement of Conflict Communication during Conflict Privileging Self-interest: Communication during Bargaining Privileging Common Meanings or Actions: Rational Discussions and Muddling Through Rational Communication Muddling Through Organizational Culture and Paradoxes in Management: Communication Some General Elements Local Aspects 6 The Organization of Culture Leading Change Setting the Tone Drafting Some Rules Relational Contracts Putting in Practice Appendix 1: Some Remarks about the Practice of Change The Methodology A Brief Critique A Final Summary Appendix 2: Didactic Material Used During the Change Process Bibliography Index