Title
Clean Climbing, Carabiners, and Cultural Cultivation: Developing an Open-Systems Perspective of Culture
Abstract
In this inductive study, we explore the dynamics between Alpinista (a pseudonym), a company that designs and manufactures rock climbing and skiing gear, and the broader cultures within which the company is embedded. Our data pushed us toward the notion of “culture as toolkit,” a perspective that focuses on culture as a set of means or resources used to solve problems. By applying this perspective, we realized that Alpinista's cultural toolkit and the cultural register of the sports (the sum of the toolkits and cultural resources available for members in the environment) influence one another. To explain these dynamics, we induce a grounded model of cultural cultivation---practices that contribute to the intermingling of organizational and societal cultures---that describes cultural infusions (when the organization imports cultural materials and translates them) and cultural seeding (when the organization exports cultural materials into the environment). We describe which actors (both inside and outside of the organization) can be involved in these processes. The model that emerges from these data provides insight into the cultural dynamics present as organizational culture and broader societal cultures interact, providing insight on issues of organizational authenticity and the paradox of similarity and uniqueness.
Year
DOI
Venue
2011
10.1287/orsc.1100.0538
Organization Science
Keywords
Field
DocType
cultural seeding,cultural cultivation,broader culture,organization imports cultural material,cultural toolkit,cultural resource,cultural dynamic,clean climbing,cultural infusion,organization exports cultural material,cultural register,open-systems perspective,open system,organizational culture
Sociology,Pseudonym,Public relations,Organizational culture,Knowledge management,Intermingling,Open system (systems theory),Climbing,Cultural analysis
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
22
2
1047-7039
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
4
0.51
3
Authors
2
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Spencer H. Harrison140.51
Kevin G. Corley2131.78