Joint Venture Agreements in the Qatari Gas Industry by Talal Abdulla Al-Emadi

Author:Talal Abdulla Al-Emadi
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9783030126230
Publisher: Springer International Publishing

2.2 A Structuration Perspective of Organisational Culture

According to Giddens, structuration theory is based on the analytical assumption that every action has three structures which are closely integrated: domination (power); signification (meaning); and legitimation (morality).45 In considering organisational culture, Whittington proposes a novel interpretation of Giddens’ structuration theory that links managerial agency and social structure.46 Managers, he proposes, gain their agency by participating in a social system (i.e. an organisation), which is enabled and constrained by its structural properties, i.e. the “rules of conduct and allocation of resources”.47 According to his interpretation, managers are actively engaged in social structures by exploiting the tension stemming from the ambiguity of the rules governing the reproduction of social structure, and from the contradictory role they exert as a result of their multiple organisational memberships.48 Thus, a structuration perspective of an organisation would position managerial agency as action and an organisation as social system. Organisational culture, would therefore, consist of the structural properties of the rules and resources on which actors draw to enable and constrain action within an organisation. Organisational culture, managerial agency and organisation have been successfully appended to a sociological framework. Drawing upon Whittington’s interpretation, Sahay and Walsham propose a framework to consider the possible implications of organisational culture as a social structure for shaping managerial agency in an organisation and the way in which organisational culture could influence and be influenced by the role of managerial action.49 Sahay and Walsham’s framework is sensitive to the “mutually constitutive” role of both agency and structure, which builds on the central theme of Giddens’ structuration theory, the duality of structure.50 According to Giddens, the duality of structure implies that the structural properties of a social system are both “the medium and the outcome of the practice that constitutes those systems”.51 The conception of organisational culture and managerial agency as duality avoids the normative view of actors as “cultural dopes” who are unable to act outside the established course of action provided by the common culture.52 Instead, the reconciliation between agency and structure considers the possibility that organisational culture could be diversified (heterogeneous) and changed (dynamic).

First, Giddens’ structuration theory portrays a heterogeneous perspective of organisational culture, given that it regards it as “composed of many different people, each with a complex structure in their mind, none of which can be thought of as fully shared”.53 Gregory challenges the taken-for-granted perception of organisational culture as shared and homogeneous, in that such perception obscures the dynamic process of “cross-cultural” interaction of subgroups with different occupational, divisional and ethnic backgrounds.54 In addition, Parker understands organisational culture as a fragmented unity—involving the micro and the macro, the general and the unique, the structure and the agent—both as a constraint and as an everyday accomplishment.55 Similarly, McGrath acknowledges the effect of ethnic, occupational and geographic differences in creating a fragmented perspective of organisational culture, yet she recognises the forces of common organisational culture that coordinates action.56 This is consistent with Giddens’ perception of the properties of organisational structure as often

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