organizational culture and marketing
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Organizational Culture and Marketing: Defining the Research AgendaAuthor(s): Rohit Deshpande and Frederick E. Webster, Jr.Source: Journal of Marketing, Vol. 53, No. 1 (Jan., 1989), pp. 3-15Published by: American Marketing AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1251521 .
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Rohit Deshpande & Frederick E. Webster, Jr.
rganizationalulture n d
Marketing efining t h e
Research gendaContemporary work on marketing management is grounded implicitly in a structural functionalist or con-
tingency perspective of organizational functioning. However, the field of organizational behavior from
which such a perspective derives has recently developed a major thrust into theoretical modeling and
empirical research on organizational culture. The authors survey this emerging literature on organiza-tional culture, integrate it in a conceptual framework, and then develop a research agenda in marketing
grounded in the five cultural paradigms of comparative management, contingency management, orga-nizational cognition, organizational symbolism, and structural/psychodynamism.
\(W HEN Drucker (1954) first articulated the mar-
keting concept, he noted that marketing was not
really a separate management function but rather the
whole business as seen from the customer's point of
view. In other words, the marketing concept definesa distinct organizational culture, a fundamental shared
set of beliefs and values that put the customer in the
center of the firm's thinking about strategy and op-erations.
Despite this centrality of organizational culture to
marketing management issues, there has been rela-
tively little scholarly study of its impact in a market-
ing context. This lack of scrutiny perhaps reflects, as
Ruekert and Walker (1987) suggest, the relatively
greater attention given to consumer than to organi-zational issues in marketing in general. For example,
Rohit eshpandesAssociaterofessorfMarketing,mosTuckchoolof Business dministration,artmouthollege. rederick.Webster,Jr. s E.B.Osborn rofessorf Marketingtthe AmosTuck chool,ExecutiveirectorftheMarketingciencenstitute,ndVisitingro-fessor f Business dministrationt the Harvardusiness chool.Theauthors regratefulorcommentsnpreviousersions f the article
bySusanAshford,jayKohli,cottNeslin,amesWalsh,KarlWeick,and heJMeditor ndanonymouseviewers.heresearch assup-portednpart y heMatthewsundranto theTuck ssociates ro-
gram ndby heMarketingcience nstitute.
when marketing scholars turned to the behavioral sci-
ences for guidance beginning in the late 1950s and
especially the 1960s, the study of culture focused ex-
clusively on understanding consumer behavior, par-
ticularly the definition of cultures and subcultures asmarket segments, culture as communication, the dif-
fusion of innovations, and cross-cultural comparisonsof international markets (Engel, Kollat, and Black-
well 1968; Zaltman 1965). Subsequent treatments of
culture in marketing also have been limited mostly to
the consumer behavior area.
Several scholars recently have begun to recognizethe importance of organizational culture in the man-
agement of the marketing function. Weitz, Sujan, and
Sujan (1986) included organizational culture conceptsin their development of a model of selling effective-
ness. Parasuraman and Deshpande (1984) suggestedthat greater attention be paid to organizational culture
along with structural explanations for managerial ef-
fectiveness. Additionally, heightened concern for is-
sues of implementation in marketing strategy (Walkerand Ruekert 1987) and the development of a customer
orientation within organizations is also raising ques-tions related specifically to organizational culture
(Bonoma 1984; Deshpande and Parasuraman 1986;
Webster 1981, 1988). In fact, Mahajan, Varadarajan,Kerin (1987) have gone so far as to suggest that the
Journal of MarketingVol. 53 (January 1989), 3-15. Organizational ulture ndMarketing 3
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next phase of development of the field of strategicmarketplanningmust involve a formalintegrationof
organizational ulture issues.In contrastto the scant attentiongiven to organi-
zationalculturein marketing,a majorthrust nto the-oreticalmodeling andempiricalresearchon the topichas occurred in the field of organizationalbehavior
(Hofstede 1986; Jelinek, Smircich, and Hirsch 1983;
Kilmann, Saxton,and
Serpa 1985;Sathe
1983;SchwartzandDavis 1981). As a result,within the past10 years, organizational ulturehas become one of themost active research areas within the discipline (Al-laireand Firsirotu1984; Frost et al. 1985; Ouchi andWilkins 1985). In addition,practitionernterest n the
topic is evident from the success of books emphasiz-ing the cultural determinants of corporate perfor-mance (Deal and Kennedy 1982; Ouchi 1981; Petersand Waterman1982), including the major theme of
comparing he functioningof American andJapanesefirms with culture as a principalexplanatoryvariable
(Pascaleand Athos 1981).
Despite the growinginterest n organizational ul-tureamongbehavioralscientistsandpractitioners,no
strongconsensushas formedabout a definitionof the
term.Hence some people have concludederroneouslythattheconceptitself is amorphous.The differentdef-
initions stem from differenttheoreticalbases for the
concept. To providea basis for furtherdiscussion, we
define organizationalcultureas thepattern of shared
values and beliefs that help individuals understand or-
ganizationalfunctioning and thus provide them norms
for behavior in the organization. That is, organiza-tional culture is relatedto the causalitythatmembers
impute to organizational functioning. We subse-quentlynote the rangeof alternativedefinitionsof or-
ganizationalcultureavailablein the literature.
The chief objective of our article is to encouragethe developmentof a streamof researchon organi-zational culture in marketing. However, an inade-
quate understandingby marketingreseachersof un-
resolved issues in the development of models of
organizational ulturecould lead to some false starts,weak integrationamong various researchprograms,
inappropriate pplicationof concepts of culture, and
inadequateattention o some of the basic issues of re-
searchmethodologybeing confrontedby researcherson organizational ulture.We thereforebegin by out-
lining the developmentof the field of organizationalcultureand discussing currentcontroversiesin defi-
nition and measurementn termsthatshouldbe useful
to marketingresearchers.We first provide an historicalperspective on the
development of theory in organizational culture,
drawingon work in anthropology,sociology, and or-
ganizationalbehavior.Then we describea conceptualframeworkof organizationalculture paradigms. Fi-
nally we discuss specific applications to marketingproblemsto provideresearch directions for program-matic work on the topic. Given the expanse of the
literature,ourpurposeis to describebriefly each ma-
jor theoreticalperspective on organizationalculturerather han to providean exhaustive review.
Development of the Field of
OrganizationalCulture:Historyand DefinitionalIssuesAs Ouchiand Wilkins (1985) note in a majorreview,the developmentof interestin the concept of culture
appliedto organizational unctioningwas due to the
realizationby organizational ociologists in the mid-
1970s that traditionalmodels of organizationsdid not
always help them to understandobserved disparitiesbetween organizationalgoals and actual outcomes,between strategy and implementation.Most formal
models of organizations ncorporated, n one way or
another,systems, structure,and people, but not cul-
ture (Schwartz and Davis 1981). For example, inLeavitt's (1964) model, organizations are seen as
multivariatesystems consisting of four sets of inter-
actingvariables: 1) tasks-the work to be performedto accomplishgoals, (2) structure-systems of com-
munication,authority,status,rewards,andworkflow,
(3) technology-problem-solving inventionsused bythe firm, and (4) people. Culture s a completely dif-
ferent component that also may contribute signifi-
cantlyto organizationalunctioningandmay affect the
otherfour subsystemsas a mediatingvariable.
In recent studiesof difficulties in strategicimple-
mentation and comparisons of the performanceofAmericanfirms with thatof European,Japanese,and
other Asian competitors,researchersbegan to intro-
duce concepts of cultureas possible explanationsfor
differences n competitiveeffectivenesswhenfew dif-
ferences in the structural haracteristicsof the orga-nizationswereevident(PascaleandAthos 1981). This
line of reasoningbegan to suggest thatmodels of or-
ganizationsthat did not include cultureas a specific
organizationalvariable were incomplete (Ouchi and
Wilkins 1985).
Despiteagreementaboutthe importanceof culture
as an organizational ariable,consensusaboutitsdef-
inition and measurement s lacking. We define orga-
nizationalcultureas the patternof sharedvalues and
beliefs that help membersof an organizationunder-
standwhy thingshappenandthus teach them the be-
havioralnormsin the organization.However, we also
highlightthevarietyof culturedefinitionsto show that
differentperspectiveson culturemay be highly rele-
vant for different marketingmanagementproblems.These differentdefinitionslead to several theoretical
dilemmas in defining and measuringorganizational
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culture-for example, choosing between definitionsof culture in both anthropologyand organizationalstudies, the distinctionbetween culture and climate,the appropriateevel of analysis, whetherto use sur-
vey or ethnographicmeasurement,and the distinctionbetween cultureandsubcultures,ncluding"clans"and"native views."
EarlyDefinitions
In a seminalpaperby two anthropologists,164 defi-nitions of culturewere analyzedin detail and the re-
sults were summarizedas a consensus statementthat
culture"is a product; s historical; ncludesideas, pat-terns,andvalues; s selective; s learned;s basedupon
symbols;and is an abstraction rom behaviorand the
productsof behavior" KroeberandKluckhohn1952,
p. 157, quoted by BerelsonandSteiner1964, p. 644).
They found thatculturehad been definedvariouslyas
the values and beliefs shared by the members of a
society;thepatternsof behaving,feeling, andreactingsharedby a society, includingthe unstatedpremises
underlyingthatbehavior;learnedresponsesthatpre-viously have met with success; habitual and tradi-
tional ways of thinking,feeling, andreactingthatare
characteristic f the ways a particular roupof peoplemeets its problems;and anotherword for social real-
ity, the things people take for granted.
Specifically for the conceptof organizationalcul-
ture,definitions ffered n recentstudies nclude:"...
some underlyingstructureof meaning, that persistsover time, constrainingpeople's perception,interpre-tation, and behavior"(Jelinek, Smircich, and Hirsch
1983, p. 337), "a patternof beliefs and expectations
sharedby organizationmembers" Schwartzand Davis1981, p. 33), and "the system of . . . publicly and
collectively acceptedmeanings operatingfor a given
groupat a given time. This system of terms, forms,
categories, and images interpretsa people's own sit-
uationto themselves" (Pettigrew1979, p. 574).
Cultureand Climate
Distinguishingbetween the terms "culture"and "cli-
mate"as used in the organizationalbehavior iterature
is importantbecausesome theoristshave confusedthe
two. Cultureis a set of sharedassumptionsand un-
derstandingsaboutorganizational unctioning. Orga-nizationclimateis a relatedbutdifferentconcept. Cli-
materelates to members'perceptionsaboutthe extent
to which the organization s currentlyfulfilling their
expectations. Schneider and Rentsch (1987, p. 7)summarize he differenceclearly by statingthat "cli-
mate refers to the ways organizationsoperationalizethe themesthatpervadeeverydaybehavior-the rou-
tines of organizationsand the behaviors that get re-
warded,supportedandexpectedby organizations the'whathappensaroundhere'). Culturerefersto thehis-
tory and norms and values thatmembersbelieve un-
derlieclimate(the 'why do thingshappen he way theydo') and the meanings organizationalmembersshare
about the organization's mperative."
Level of Analysis
Some scholarsview organizationalculture as a prop-
erty of the groupor organization tself, like structure
or technology. Others view it as something that re-
sides within each individualas a functionof cognitiveand learning processes. As an individual property,culture is the evaluationspeople make of the social
context of the organization hatguide theirbehavior.
It is theirattempt o "makesense"of theorganization.Some arguethatculture s an exogenous environmen-
tal variable, one that cannot be managedbut rather
must be accommodated,whereas others see it as a
variableendogenousto the organization similarto or-
ganizationalstructure),mediatingthe way in which
the organization esponds o environmentaltimuliand
change. Still others argue that it is both process and
outcome because it shapes humaninteractionsand isalso the outcomeof those interactions Jelinek, Smir-
cich, and Hirsch 1983, p. 331). We believe that cul-
tureis all of these thingsbutthatthe differencesarise
because of differences in theoreticalapproach o the
concept. We subsequently discuss further whether
marketingresearchersshould view cultureas an ex-
ogenous or endogenousvariable, a propertyof indi-
viduals or of organizations,becauseeach perspectiveis appropriatedepending on the marketing problem
being addressed.
SurveyResearch Versus Ethnographic
Research
There s alsoheateddebatebetweenscholarswhowould
use ethnographicmethodsto study organizational ul-
tureand those who preferto use techniquesof statis-
tical inferenceappliedto datagathered hroughsurveyresearchmethods(Ouchi and Wilkins 1985, p. 475-
6). Ethnographicechniques ftenareusedfor thestudyof organizationalculture, whereas surveys are most
common for the study of organizationalclimate (cf.
Joyce andSlocum 1984). Criticsof the latterapproach
argue that the survey techniques themselves are a
productof cultureand thus are
culturallybiased and
"culture-bound."Hampton (1982) attemptedto de-
velop a survey questionnaireon culturebased on the
classic workof an anthropologistDouglas1982). Any
marketingresearcherwho wants to studycultureand
remainsensitive to suchmethodological ssues should
examine Hirschman's(1986) discussion of appropri-ateethnographicmethodsfor marketing esearch.Our
own position is that culturetopics in marketingcan
and should be studiedby both traditionalsurvey re-
search and ethnographicmethods. We more specifi-
OrganizationalulturendMarketing5
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cally relate research topics to methodological ap-proachesin the marketingapplicationssection.
Subcultures, Clans, and Native Views
Another ssue is whetherorganizational ulture s pri-marily and typically a characteristicof the total or-
ganization,such as a corporation,or whether t is pri-marilya characteristicf groupsor "subcultures" ithinthe
organization.One dimension of this issue is the
extent to which organizationshave cultures that aredistinctfrom the "background"ultures n which theyexist. Such background ultures can take a varietyof
forms, including departmentalsubcultures such as
marketing,finance, and manufacturing.Wilkins andOuchi (1983, p. 468), for example, state: "Contraryto currentlypopularnotionsof organizational ulture,we claimthatthe existenceof local organizational ul-
tures that are distinct from more generally shared
backgroundculturesoccurs relatively infrequentlyat
the level of the wholeorganization." akingwhattheycall a "utilitarian" iew from a transactioncosts per-spective, they define three mechanisms-markets,bureaucracies,and clans-for regulating exchangesor transactionsand achieving the criterion of "rec-
iprocity,"meaningthat the transactionsareperceivedas equitableby the organizationmembers.Marketsuse
a price mechanism, bureaucratic elationshipsestab-
lish rights of evaluation and reward, and the clan
mechanism socializes the parties in such a way that
they see theirobjectivesas being congruentwith those
of the firm. Such a clan mechanism is one way of
thinkingaboutorganizational ulture.A similarview
has been developedby LebasandWeigenstein 1986).
To illustrate he operationof the clan mechanism,Wilkins and Ouchicite the practiceof Japanese irms
of hiring young recruits,socializing them, andbasing
payon seniority,notperformance.With a strongclan,members'inclinationis to do what is best for the or-
ganization.Elaboratesystems of performanceevalu-
ationand controlare not necessary.Wilkinsand Ouchi
conclude that entireorganizationsareless likely to de-
velop andmaintaina clanmechanism(i.e., "culture")than are functionalor professionalgroups within an
organization.Therefore,they argue, organizationsdo
not often have the richnessof a uniqueculture that is
characteristicof the paradigmatic ulturesstudiedbyanthropologists.For Ouchi and Wilkins, organiza-tionalculturegenerallyis seen best as a characteristic
of groupsrather han of total organizations.
Gregory(1983), in a frequentlycited article, like-
wise argues that any given organizationis likely to
comprise multiple cultures, which she refers to as
"nativeviews." She also argues that organizationalculture s essentiallya group-basedphenomenon.Us-
ing an ethnographicapproach, organized around a
conceptof cultureas a systemof meaningsand "learned
ways of coping with experience," she studied tech-nical professionalcompany employees in the Silicon
Valley of California.Oneof herprincipalconclusionsis thatmultipleculturesare not simplysubcultures uchas departmentsof the organization,but may also be
national,regional/geographic, r industrycultures hatare backgroundcontext for the organization,or maybe occupationaland ethnic culturesthat cut across a
given organization.Amongthe
many interestingis-
sues thatmarketingresearchersmight examine usingthis "nativeviews" conceptof cultureare conflict be-
tween sales and marketingdepartments,cooperationbetween R&D and marketingdepartmentsn the de-
velopmentof new products,and assignmentof sales
representatives o customers on the basis of ethnic,
regional, or professionalbackground imilarity.
A Conceptual Framework of
Organizational Culture ParadigmsThe differentconceptionsof culturelead to a bewil-
dering complexity in interpretation.To provide the-oreticalguidancefor researchersn marketing,we tryto integrate he organizational ehavior iteraturewhile
retainingthe importantdistinctionsbeing made. We
refer to Smircich's (1983a) insightful review of the
variousapproaches o the studyof organizational ul-
ture, which she summarizes nto five differentpara-
digms. In the first two, one can thinkof cultureas a
variable and in the others as a metaphorfor the or-
ganization tself. Table 1 lists the key theoretical ea-
turesof the five paradigms.
Cultureas a VariableIn the comparative management approach, culture can
be viewed as a variable exogenous to the firm, influ-
encing the development and reinforcementof core
beliefs andvalues withinthe organization e.g., a na-
tional culture). Such cross-culturalstudies of man-
agement typically are motivatedby a search for ex-
planationsfor differencesin organizationaloutcomes
such as job satisfactionin U.S. and Mexican firms
(Slocum 1971) or effectiveness, as in the many stud-
ies of JapaneseversusAmericanmanagement nd their
differencesbased on the differences in Japaneseand
U.S. nationalcultures(Pascale and Athos 1981).In studies with a contingency management per-
spective, culture is seen as an independentvariable
endogenousto the firm, consistingof beliefs andval-
ues developed by and within the organization(Dealand Kennedy 1982; Peters and Waterman1982). In
contingency models, measures of corporateperfor-manceareinfluencedn significantandsystematicways
by the sharedvalues, beliefs, identities, andcommit-
ment of organizationalmembers. The contingency
managementperspectiveon organizationalcultureis
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TABLE 1Theoretical Features of Organizational Culture Paradigms'
OrganizationalParadigm
1. Comparativemanagement
2. Contingencymanagement
3. Organizationalcognition
4. Organizationalsymbolism
5. Structural/psychodynamicperspective
aAdaptedrom Smircich 1983a)
Key Theoretical Features
Grounded in functionalism (Malinowski 1961) andclassical management theory (Barnard 1938)
Grounded in structural functionalism (Radcliffe-Brown 1952) and contingency theory(Thompson 1967)
Grounded in ethnoscience (Goodenough 1971)and cognitive organization theory (Weick 1979)
Grounded in symbolic anthropology (Geertz 1973)and symbolic organization theory (Dandridge,Mitroff,and Joyce 1980)
Grounded in structuralism (Levi-Strauss 1963) andtransformational organizational theory (Turner1983)
Locus of Culture
Exogenous, independent variable
Endogenous, independentvariable
Culture as metaphor for
organizational knowledgesystems
Culture as metaphor for sharedsymbols and meanings
Culture as metaphor forunconscious mind
complementary to traditional contingency frameworks
used to investigate such variables as structure, size,and technology of an organization (Pugh and Hickson
1976), and which in turn are grounded in functionalist
theory in sociology (Parsons 1956). Like the com-
parative management approach, contingency manage-ment research is explicitly interventionist. As Smir-
cich (1983a, p. 345) notes, researchers believe that
cultural artifacts "can be used to build organizational
commitment, convey a philosophy of management,rationalize and legitimate activity, motivate person-
nel, and facilitate socialization."
The comparative management and contingency
management views of organizational culture reflect amotivation to understand culture as a lever or tool to
be used by managers to implement strategy and to di-
rect the course of their organizations more effectively,to make culture and strategy consistent with and sup-
portive of one another. As Smircich (1983a, p. 346-
7) notes about these approaches, they tend to be "op-timistic" and "messianic" (perhaps as a reflection of
their structural functionalist nature) and to overlook
the likelihood that multiple cultures, subcultures, and
especially countercultures are competing to define for
their members the nature of situations within organi-
zational boundaries.
Culture as a Metaphor
Three other provocative ways of thinking about or-
ganizational culture are theoretically grounded in an-
thropology rather than in sociology. They describe
culture not as a variable but as a root metaphor for
the organization itself; culture is not something an or-
ganization "has" but what it "is." In these perspec-
tives, organizations are to be understood not just in
economic or material terms, but in terms of their ex-
pressive, ideational, and symbolic aspects. The three
perspectives are called "cognitive," "symbolic," and
"structural/psychodynamic."
In the organizational cognition perspective on or-
ganizational culture, the task of the researcher is to
understand what the "rules" are that guide behavior-
the shared cognitions, systems of values and beliefs,
the unique ways in which organization members per-ceive and organize their world (Weick 1985). For ex-
ample, researchers following this tradition have iden-
tified common ideational patterns within American
organizations which they label as "entrepreneurial,"
"scientific," and "humanistic" (Litterer and Young
1981). Shrivastavaand Mitroff (1983) suggest a methodfor identifying the "frames of reference" managers use
in assessing acceptability of new information. Anal-
ogous to the cognitive paradigm in much of consumer
behavior research, this organizational culture perspec-tive focuses on the mind of the manager and views
organizations as knowledge systems.In an organizational symbolism perspective, an or-
ganization, like a society, is a system of shared mean-
ings and symbols, a pattern of symbolic discourse that
provides a background against which organizationmembers organize and interpret their experience,
looking for clues as to what constitutes appropriatebehavior (Pondy et al. 1985). Researchers using this
approach characteristically search for ways in which
organizations can and do "socialize" new members to
achieve coordinated action and a sense of organiza-tional identity and commitment. An example is the
ethnographic study by Smircich (1983b) of the ex-
ecutive staff of an unnamed insurance company. Her
work describes the corporate ethos ("if you've got
anything that is controversial, you just don't bring it
up"), organizational slogans ("wheeling together"),
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rituals the"Mondaymorning taffmeeting"),and other
symbolic processes that help create sharedorganiza-tional meanings.
From a structural/psychodynamic perspective, the
researchgoal is to discoverstructural atterns hatlinkthe unconscious human mind with overt manifesta-tions in social arrangements.Researcherssee orga-nizations as a form of humanexpressionratherthanas goal-oriented,
problem-solvingnstruments.An il-
lustration s the work of Mitroff (1982), who drawson Jungian archetypesto suggest a fourfold classifi-cation of managerialstyles based on combinationsof
thinking, feeling, intuition,and sensing.The more traditional tructural/functionalist iews
of organizational ulture,as embodiedin the first two
approachesof comparative managementand contin-
gency management,are more theoreticallyand meth-
odologically consistent with the organizationalso-
ciology perspective in which much marketingmanagement iteratures implicitlygrounded.(Foranexcellentrecentexampleof thisperspective, ee Walker
andRuekert1987). They are also consistent with theimplicitlyinstrumental erspectiveof much of this lit-erature.However, it is vitally important hat market-
ing researchers,as they read the backgrounditeraturefrom organizationalbehavior, recognize the diverse
conceptual and theoretical perspectives guiding re-
searchin thatfield. For instance, in some specific in-
vestigations,such as those exploringthe determinantsof innovativeness n an organizationor the processesby which new sales representatives reintegrated ntoa salesforce, the cognitive or symbolic perspectiveon
organizational ulturemaybe much more relevant.To
encouragemarketing cholarsto pursuesuch inquiry,we now turn to more specific applicationsof these
theoretical perspectives to marketing management
problems.
Concepts of OrganizationalCultureApplied to Marketing
Specific theoretical tructuresmightbe appropriateor
specific marketingproblems.In definingthe research
agenda ororganizationalulturen marketing,t makes
sense to try to identify a set of researchissues that
mightflow from theorganizational ultureparadigms.Thoughwe cannotbe exhaustivein such an endeavor,we hope to be provocativein suggestingresearchdi-
rectionsthatwill develop relativelyunexplored ntel-
lectual territory n marketing.Our specific objective in developing a research
agendaon organizational ulturetopics for marketingscholars is to contributeto the study of marketing
management.In this endeavor we are explicitly in-
terventionist,but are committedto the premise that
managementpractice, and the teaching of marketing
to futuremanagers, is strengthenedby the develop-ment andapplicationof soundtheory.We believe that
improving marketing management serves to make
companies more responsive to customer needs (and,as noted before, a customer orientation s a type of
organizational ulture).Hence, thoughwe distinguishbetween the first two and the other three paradigmsof organizationalculture on the basis of an instru-
mental-metaphoricallassification, we now examine
all five paradigms n terms of their potentialcontri-butions to the study and improvementof marketingmanagement.Table 2 summarizes the marketingre-search and methodological implications of the five
paradigms.
ComparativeMarketing Management
Relatively ittleresearch,especiallyempirical,has been
doneon cross-nationalmarketingmanagementssues.
Even single-countrystudies of problems facing mar-
keting managers re scarceandfew attemptshave been
made to generalize knowledge about these problems
(or examine the limits of such generalizability).Wesee an opportunityor the rigorousapplicationof con-
cepts of organizationalculture to enhance signifi-
cantly the researchon basic issues of standardization
versus customizationof internationalmarketing pro-
grams.Improvedcommunication echnologies and distri-
butionsystems, as well as the developmentof global
marketingstrategies, have led to a greaterneed for
knowledge about marketingmanagementissues that
traversenationalboundaries(Davidson 1982). How-
ever, what little work has been reported n the com-
parativemarketing iterature an be classified primar-ily as cross-nationalconsumerbehavior, rather than
comparativemarketingmanagement,research.
We can begin to rectify this omission if we take
as one majoravenueof inquirythe success or failure
of multinational orporations whetherAmerican,Eu-
ropean,Japanese,or other)in "exporting" heir mar-
keting practices. This issue involves the very funda-
mentalsof the globalizationcontroversy.As QuelchandHoff (1986) pointout, thebasicquestion n global
marketing s not whether or not to "go global," but
rather o whatdegree. The issue addressedhere is not
how to tailormarketingprograms includingproductsandcommunications) o customers,but ratherhow to
adaptmanagementpolicies, programs,and structures
to local personnel, channel institutions, and organi-zations.A comparativemanagement pproachs need-
ed to examine the specific aspects of a local culture
thatnecessitatemodification/adaptationof marketing
strategy n orderfor the strategyto be successful. As
Quelch and Hoff note, the Coca-Cola Companyand
Nestle have very differentapproaches o global mar-
keting-Coca-Cola being a greateradherentof stan-
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TABLE 2Implications of Organizational Culture Paradigms for Marketing Research and Methodology
OrganizationalParadigm
1. Cbmparativemarketingmanagement
2. Contingencymarketingmanagement
3. Marketingcognition
4. Marketing
symbolism
5. Structural/psychodynamicperspective in
marketing
Marketing Research Implications
Cross-culturalstudy of standardization vs.customization of international marketing programs
Research on relative effectiveness of cost-based vs.culture-based marketing control mechanisms in
different countries
Research on impact of customer needs satisfaction-oriented culture vs. stockholder wealthmaximization-orientedculture on market
performance
Relative impact of organizational structure andculture on innovativeness
Research on making marketing strategy consistentwith culture and structure
Role of CEOin creating and disseminating acustomer orientation
Extent of differentiation of marketing department ina firm and its impact on "marketing marketing"to
top management
Impactof environmental change on the nature andeffectiveness of brand management structures
Research on the creation, dissemination, and use of
marketing knowledge in firms
Study of impact of organizational restructuringonshared marketing cognitions
Research on sources of organizational conflicts
involving marketing and other departments (e.g.,marketing/R&Dconflicts in new productdevelopment process)
Research on the socialization of new marketingrecruits
Impact of strong marketing socialization on
creativity and innovativeness
Study of importance of organizational symbols insales transactions
Research on the historical development of "market-driven" firms as expression of founders' wills
Methodological Implications
Cross-sectional survey research
Cross-sectional survey researchor ethnographic methods
Ethnographicor
phenomenological research
Ethnographicor
phenomenological research
Ethnographicor historicalresearch
dardization and Nestle believing in local market ad-
aptation-yet both are extremely successful consumer
goods marketers.Though several thoughtful conceptual articles have
been written on the relevance of national culture to
globalization (Levitt 1983), few empirical studies have
examined the issue. An important exception is the re-
cent work of Gatignon and Anderson (1987) who use
transaction cost analysis to explain the extent of con-
trol exerted by multinational corporations over their
foreign subsidiaries. They find that American mul-
tinationals generally take lower control levels in
countries where a greater "sociocultural distance" is
perceived (i.e., where American executives feel un-
comfortable with the values and operating methods in
a host country).Clearly the success of any international marketing
strategy depends not only on the extent of its con-
formity to customer cultural norms but also on the
conformity with the values and beliefs of employeesin various host countries, as Hofstede's (1980) land-
mark survey of the work-related values of 116,000
respondents in 40 countries suggests in a broader
management context. For example, are marketing
managers in an East Asian subsidiary of a British par-ent company more or less likely than their East Af-
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rican counterpartsto adopt British marketing pro-grams?An interestingopicin thiscontext s theresidual
impactof colonial heritageson the relativerateof dif-fusion of Europeanmarketingstrategies n Asian andAfricancultures.
Anotherrelatedtopic of interest s the relative ef-fectiveness of variousmarketingcontrol mechanismsfor differentnationalor regional cultures. Marketingcontrol has been defined as a
systemof
methods,pro-cedures, and devices used by marketingmanagerstoensurecompliancewith marketingpolicies and strat-
egies (Parkand Zaltman1987, p. 599-600). Discus-sions of such marketing ontrolsystemstypicallyhavebeen framed in traditionalaccounting theory involv-
ing cost and performancevariance monitoring(An-
thony, Dearden,andBradford1984;HulbertandToy1977), yet a comparativemarketingmanagementper-spective suggests an importantalternativemechanismfor implementingmarketingcontrol. Ouchi (1980, p.132) provides the illustrationof Japanesefirms ex-
ercising a form of "clancontrol," trainingtheir em-
ployees so they need not be monitoredclosely: "It isnot necessaryfor these organizations o measureper-formance to control or direct their employees, sincethe employees' natural socialized) intention is to dowhat is best for the firm." This approachallows si-multaneous discretion and control, with people ex-
pressingautonomywithin cultural imits. It is an im-
portant lternativeo traditionalmechanismsof control,which frequentlyhave the counterproductiveesultof
creatingresistanceamong employees who see it as a
correctiveratherthan a monitoringdevice (Jaworski1988). Lebas and Weigenstein(1986) furthersuggest
that culturecontrolis graduallyreplacingrules-basedcontrol as organizationsundergoingproductivityde-
clines searchfor new ways of managing employees.An areaof research nquiry or marketing cholars
is the extent to which such alternative orms of mar-
keting control can lead to equivalentor higher pro-
ductivityin variouscustomercontactfunctions.Three
such functions are salesforce, distributor,and cus-
tomerservicemanagement.Is clan controlsuperior o
cost/performance-orientedmarketingcontrolin these
marketing unctions in different countriesin which a
multinational irmoperates(e.g., in monitoringsales-
forceperformancen FranceandGermany)?Does thissuperiorityarynotonly by countrybutby region(e.g.,are there southwesternand northeasterndifferences
within the U.S. in termsof the relativeeffectiveness
of accounting-basedversus culture-basedmarketingcontrol mechanismsin distributionchannel manage-ment)?
Because each of the threeresearchtopics noted is
grounded in the comparativemanagement perspec-tive, it seems sensible to at least begin the empirical
inquiry by using survey research methods. Those
methodshave been used successfully in several anal-
ogous studieson organizational ulturesuch as that ofHofstede(1980) and could be adaptedsuccessfully to
marketing nquiries.Further, he polling of managersin several nations about which marketingpracticesaresuccesses and failures is well suited to survey meth-ods.
Contingency Marketing Management
Surveyresearchalso mightbe appropriateat least forthe initial exploration) n the examinationof market-
ing managementproblems from a contingency cul-tural viewpoint. This perspective is likely to be themostnaturalone for marketing cholarsbecause much
marketing managementliterature s groundedeither
explicitly or implicitly in a structural-functionalist
paradigmthat is the philosophicalfoundation of the
organizational ultureperspective.Such workhas ex-
amined, for example, the impact of organizationalstructure formalization,centralization,andcomplex-
ity of the organization)on marketingplan utilization
(John and Martin 1984) and the performanceof or-ganizational uyingcenters(SpekmanandStern1979).
An importantavenue for research in contingencymarketing management s to examine the impact of
an organization'svalues and beliefs on marketper-formance. For instance, one might compare an or-
ganizationalcultureemphasizingprimarilythe satis-
faction of customer needs with one emphasizing
primarilystockholderwealth maximizationon such
measuresas long- and short-runsales growth, earn-
ings per share, marketshare, and returnon equity.The formertype of organizationalcultureis the sub-
ject of growing attentionamong marketingscholarsand practitioners.Webster(1988) points to evidence
in the business pressof companiesthat have made an
intellectual commitment to being customer-oriented
but are finding it difficult to achieve that reorienta-
tion. What are the culturaltraits, the shared values
and beliefs, that are characteristicof a customer-ori-
ented, market-drivennterprise? nitialworkhas been
reportedby both academicsandpractitionerswho are
interestedn thetopic (Drumwright 987;Kutner1987;Ruekertand Naditch 1987; Sakach 1987). Partof the
difficultyof conductingsuch research s in operation-
alizing measuresof organizationalculture. Examplesof how it might be done are provided in the recent
work of anorganizational ociologist (Reynolds 1986)which,thoughpreliminary, rovidesdirectionsor scale
development that are of interest to marketing re-
searchers.A relatedresearchstudycould examinethe impact
of both culturaland structuralmeasures n explaininga dependentvariableof interest(Davis 1984). For in-
stance, one could examine the influence of organi-zational values and beliefs along with organizational
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formalization and centralization on innovativeness
(Cherianand Deshpande 1985). The premise wouldbe thatneitherstructurenor cultureper se would en-
couragegreater nnovativeness as much as would theinteractionbetween a particular et of culturalbeliefsand a specific kind of organizational tructure.
This last issue is important o scholars in both or-
ganizational behavior and strategic management.
Schwartzand Davis (1981) argue that organizationstructureand culture must be balanced and internallyconsistent and also must fit strategy f thatstrategy sto be implemented. They point to the mismatch of
strategy, structure,and culture as the reason for thefailureof formerPresident WalterSpencer's plan to
change Sherwin-WilliamsCompanyfrom a produc-tion to a marketingorientationand as a majorreasonfor the difficultiesin integrating he mergedRockwelland North American companies. Further, Wheel-
wright(1984) notes in a perceptivearticle on the his-
tory of strategic planning that an overly analyticalstrategicapproach hat did not take into account man-
agers'values and beliefs helpsto explainboth the fail-ureof Texas Instrumentsn implementing ts strategic
plansandthe success of HewlettPackard,which tookthe oppositeapproach.Wheelwrightdescribes such avalue-based incrementalapproachto strategic plan-ning as one in which the beliefs of managers and
workersin a firm are the key to setting its long-termdirection,taking precedenceover the actions of com-
petitorsand the structureof its productmarkets. He
cites the work of Quinn (1980) on logical incremen-
talism as being a good example of this approach n
the strategicmanagement iterature.
Most literatureon organizationalculture treats itas a top-downphenomenonwith a criticalrole being
played by the CEO (frequentlyin conjunctionwith,or as a memberof, a founding family) in both estab-
lishing culturalnorms and overseeing their diffusionin the firm (Schein 1984). Hence, an interesting opicfor research s the role of the CEO in developing and
implementinga customerorientationin a firm. The
argumentsof Wilkins and Ouchi (1983) and our pre-
liminaryfield researchsuggest, however, that it maybe more productiveto study culture at the SBU or
divisional or even departmentalevel as it relates to
the developmentof a customer-orientedview of thebusiness.
A relatedtopic in contingencymarketingmanage-ment is the role of the marketingdepartment n an
SBU. Is therean optimaldegree of differentiationof
"marketing" s a separate,distinct subculturewithin
the businessunit? We can think of the marketingde-
partment reatingresistanceif its role is perceivedas
beingtoogreat,butbeingunable o functionas a change
agentwithin an organization f its role is perceivedas
beingtoo slight. Therole of the marketingdepartment
should be studied within an evolutionaryperspective.Therole mightbe seen as beingmorecrucial or SBUsin mature, fragmentedindustries with greater com-
petition n relativelyundifferentiatedommodities hanin new, highly differentiated industries with patentprotectionand relatively little indirectcompetition.
Also relevant to contingency marketingmanage-ment is the study of a particularorganizational orm
as a cultural phenomenon-product/brand manage-ment. A focus on how environmentalchanges mightaffect the relative efficiency of product managementas anexpressionof organizational ulturemightbe thebasis for such an inquiry. This researchtopic is es-
pecially salient for consumer goods firms currentlyfacedwith increasedretailercontrolof thedistribution
channel, accelerated sales promotion activity, and
consequentlydecreasedbrand oyalty.Though surveyresearchmethodstraditionally ave
been used to examinecontingency management ssues
in marketing, combining them with ethnographicmethodsmightbe appropriaten investigatingspecific
topics. For instance, an understanding f the role ofa CEO in implementinga customer/marketingori-
entationin an organizationmight involve a field in-
vestigationwith the extensive note taking, document
collecting, and personal interviews that characterize
the typical anthropologicalstudy. However, to gen-eralize across firms and/or industries t might be ap-
propriatesubsequentlyto develop a survey research
questionnaire o detect common patternsor themes.
We shouldadd thatethnographicmethods arenot sin-
gle-firmrestricted.Gregory's(1983) studyof "native
views" in Silicon Valley firms is an excellent example
of the kind of researchthatcan be done in this area.
Marketing Cognition
Among the metaphoricalviews of organizational ul-
ture,the organizational ognitionperspectivesuggestsseveral interestingresearch directions. In this para-
digm, culture s seen as a metaphor or organizational
knowledge systems with sharedcognitions.
Myers, Massy, and Greyser (1980), in a major
MSI/AMA reporton marketingknowledge develop-ment, reported ittle diffusion of marketingconcepts,models, and theories at the line managerlevel. Few
researchershave takenup this issue for empiricalin-vestigation, but it is a topic for which an organiza-tional cognitionperspectivemightprove helpful. Re-
centworkon thenotionof an "organizational emory"(Walsch and Ungson 1988) suggests several reasons
why scholars in any field includingmarketingmight
investigatethis area. Beyond the obvious need to un-
derstandthe impact of marketingtheory and model
development on practitioners,it is important o un-
derstandthe process by which marketingknowledgeresides in an organizationwheremanagershave great
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task mobility. A firm thatrotatesmanagers hroughaseries of positionsand functionsmightwant to ensurethat core marketingknowledge is not lost in the ro-tation(a problemthatis accentuatedwhena key man-
ager leaves the firm). This area is of currentconcernbecause of the restructuringoccurring in recentlymerged or acquired corporations. What constitutes"sharedmarketingcognitions"in such organizations?How are
theyaffected duringmergerand acquisition
activity?Another nterestingresearchareathat could be ex-
aminedfrom an organizationalcognition perspectiveis organizationalconflict involving marketing. One
could explore, for instance, the "thoughtworlds"of
managersas organizationalbehaviorscholarDough-
erty (1987) has done in her studyof marketing/R&Dconflicts n the new productdevelopmentprocess.Such
an inquiry would center on understandinghow dif-
ferences in the world views of differentgroupsor de-
partmentswouldhelp or hinderthe enactmentof mar-
ketingdecisions.Thisapproach anbe appliedusefully
to several of the other subfunctionaldivisions, in-cluding marketingversus sales.
Though not taking a culturalperspective, Desh-
pandeand Zaltman(1984) suggest that differencesin
the perceiveduse of marketresearch nformationcan
be explainedby a "two-communityheory"of differ-
ing backgroundsof marketingresearchersand man-
agers. Their work could be reexaminedfrom a mar-
ketingcognitionperspective.SimilarlyZaltman 1987),
using a theories-in-useapproachwith a repertorygridmethod,has attempted o describetheknowledgesys-tems of retailbuyers. The underlyingtheme in these
studies is to uncoverthe "grammar" r epistemolog-ical basis for marketingdecisions-what it is about
the ways marketingmanagersandothers nterpretheir
world hatexplainswhy theytakecertainactions which
might frequentlybe in conflict with those taken by
others). Zaltman'sapproach s very much in the tra-
dition of cognitive organizationalbehavior scholar
Wacker (1981), who has suggested using the reper-
tory grid for diagnosis and intervention.As in the last example, researchersworking on
marketingcognition issues might find methods such
as the repertorygrid useful in mappingthe cognitive
rules being used by managers. Traditionally,how-ever, the organizationalcognition literaturehas been
groundedn ethnographicnthropologicalmethod.The
objective is to get as much depth as possible in un-
derstandingorganizationalknowledge from the orga-nizationalactors'perspective,therebysacrificinggen-
eralizabilityo someextent.Thoughmarketingcholars
may or may not choose to make the same method-
ological tradeoff, they should be aware of the most
common research methods being used by organiza-tionalbehaviorresearcherswho haveworkedwiththis
paradigm.
Marketing Symbolism
The fourth culturalparadigm, organizational ymbol-ism, is rooted in both symbolic anthropologyand
symbolic organization theory. Marketing scholars
working n this area would searchforpatternsof sym-bolic discoursewhere culture s a metaphor or shared
symbols and meanings. The most common method-
ological approachhas been ethnographic, houghcer-
tain inquiries might be pursuedby survey researchmethods.
A major opic for research n this area s marketingsocialization. Both recruitmentand trainingof new
marketingand sales personnelare culture-relatedac-
tivities that might be interpretedn terms of the par-ticularsymbols attachedto both formal and informal
socialization.PepsiCoInc., forexample, is known for
a corporateculturethat encouragesinternalcompeti-tiveness among marketingmanagersas a simulation
of the competitiveness in the industriesin which it
operates.Coca-Cola,in contrast, s knownfor a much
moreconservative,traditional orporate ulturewhereinternalconsensus is deemed important n order to
presenta unitedfront in the marketplace.These two
packaged goods companies derive a substantialpor-tion of their overall revenue from the same product
categories, but theirprocedures or employee social-
ization would be extremelydifferent.
In some respects, personnelselection is the singlemost crucial human resources decision in manage-ment and yet is almost never studied by marketingscholars.To worktogetheras a team, marketingper-sonnelneed to understand ot only theirown jobs and
their interrelationshipso the jobs of others, but alsothe values, norms, and ideologies of the entire com-
pany and of the departmental ubunit.The organiza-tional symbolism perspectivecan be useful in inter-
preting heculture,especially orwell-establishedirms.
As Schein(1984, p. 10) notes:"Becausecultureserves
the functionof stabilizingthe externaland internalen-
vironmentof anorganization, t mustbe taught o new
members.It wouldnot serve its functionif every gen-erationof new memberscould introducenew percep-
tions, language, thinking patterns,and rules of inter-
action. For culture to serve its function, it must be
perceived ascorrectand
valid,and if it is
perceivedthatway, it automaticallyollows that t mustbe taughtto newcomers."
An organizationalymbolismperspectivemightbe
helpful in understandinghe dilemma of how to so-
cialize newcomers into the currentorganizationalor
marketingdepartment ulturewithoutdiminishingthe
creativity and innovativeness that different perspec-tives frequentlybring. Does a strong programof mar-
keting socializationdampencreativityof expression?
Perhaps his is one of the major ssues to be addressed
in studyingbrandmanagement ystems in well-estab-
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lished firms. It is an important ssue to practitionersas well, because chief executive officers have com-mented on declining innovativenessand entrepreneu-rial thinking on the part of marketing managers(Webster1981).
A final avenue for research on marketingsym-bolism is in the domain of personalselling. There isa literatureon the importanceof brand symbols toconsumers
Levy 1959).It would be
interestingo look
at the importanceof organizationalsymbols from asales perspective.Most of the selling literature enterson formal termsof a transaction n evaluatingvalue,but organizationalculture and other less tangible as-
pects of a vendor firm are also critical for a potentialbuyer. For example, not only the technical capabili-ties of IBM's Personal System/2 but also the sym-bolic aspectsof the IBM culturearetransmittedo the
buyerat the point of sale. How much of the variancein purchasedecisions can be explained by such ex-
changes of organizationalvalues?
Structural/PsychodynamicPerspectivein Marketing
The fifth culture paradigmis groundedin both the
structuralism f Levi-Strauss(1963) and transforma-
tional organization heory (Turner1983). Here orga-nizationalculture is seen as a metaphorfor the un-
conscious mind and the organization tself is a form
of humanexpression.Perhapsthe most interestingresearchquestion is
how a companydevelops as an expressionof the will
of its founders. Though little use has been made of
historical research in marketing(Savitt 1980), thisquestionwouldbe excellent for applicationof a set of
methods using archivaldata to interprethow an or-
ganizationgrows. Especially pertinenthere would be
thestudyof firmswe thinkof as being"market-driven,"
companies such as Procter & Gamble in consumer
packagedgoods, GeneralElectric in durablegoods,IBM in industrialproducts,and AmericanExpressin
services. Whatis it aboutthe foundersof these com-
panies thatwas translatednto specific organizational
arrangementsonduciveto being market-driven?What
is it thatdrives certaininventorsandentrepreneurso
create organizationsto market their products whileothersare content to have their ideas exploited?
The five organizational ultureparadigmsprovide
many directions for research on topics relevant to
marketingmanagement.Note that the levels of in-
vestigationdiffer among the paradigms.In the com-
parativemarketing managementperspective, culture
is approachedas a backgroundvariableandhence in-
quiry is at the level of the environment.In the con-
tingency marketingmanagementperspective, culture
is seen as an independentvariableand hence inquiryis at the level of the organization. In the three re-
maining paradigms(marketingcognition, marketingsymbolism, andstructural/psychodynamism),ultureis examined at the individual-managerevel.
Summary and Conclusion
Marketing cholarsseekingto develop conceptsof or-
ganizational culture and apply them to marketing
problemsface two challenges. First, they must delveinto the rapidly developing literature on organiza-tional culture andunderstand he variousdefinitional,
conceptual,andmethodologicalssues (outlinedbrieflyhere). For their research to be credible, they must
clarify, and defend, the choices they have made in
addressing hese issues. Their choices will includethe
theoreticalapproachpreferredand the methodological
approachused. Second, they mustdevelop theoretical
structures hat relate carefully defined culturalvari-ables to the marketingphenomenathey are trying to
understand.
The importanceof understandingorganizationalculture issues in a marketingmanagementcontext is
undeniable.For instance,of the priorityresearch op-ics listedin a recentMarketing cienceInstitute1988)
publication,the MSI cites an urgentneed for research
on "developingand maintaininga customerand mar-
ket focus" (p. 7)-implying anunderstanding f both
the role of marketing n an organizationand how a
company can become more customer-oriented.Ad-
ditionally, the MSI reportcalls for more researchon
integratinga customer orientationwith a focus on
qualityas a managementprocess. We considerthese
and relatedissues in our discussion of how the fiveorganizational ultureparadigmsaffect marketingre-
search.The literaturewe review holds tremendousprom-
ise for marketing cholarswho want to begin this ex-
ploration.It is time to move beyond structural xpla-nationsof marketingmanagement,of "whathappensaroundhere," to an understandingof "why things
happenthe way they do." The potential is great for
both building richer theories of marketingmanage-ment and addressingsignificantproblemsof market-
ing practice.
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