Structure, culture and agency: Rejecting the current orthodoxy of organisation theory

Journal/Book: J Theor Soc Behav. 1997; 27: 108 Cowley Rd, Oxford, Oxon, England OX4 1JF. Blackwell Publ Ltd. 93.

Abstract: The preoccupation with 'organisational culture' within organisation theory continues to engage academia and the business world alike, This paper argues that not only has the decade-long emphasis on culture led to an unhelpful disregard for structure but more fundamentally involves an elision of structure and culture. In contradistinction, structure, culture and agency are held to be irreducible emergent strata of reality. It is maintained that Giddens' structuration theory-which commands considerable assent-conflates structure and agency, thereby precluding analysis of their relative interplay over time. Such conflationary premises are further evident in the literature on 'organisational culture'. Analytical dualism is held to be the methodological key to examining the relative interplay of structure, culture and agency and is predicated four-square on the reality of a stratified world.

Note: Article Willmott R, Univ Warwick, Dept Sociol, Coventry CV4 7AL, W Midlands, ENGLAND

Keyword(s): SOCIETY

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