By analyzing areas where the cultural understandings beneath thesurface of company life are partly exposed,managers can gainpractical new insights into the nature of their organizations.How an Organizations
Rites Reveal Its Culture
Janice M. Beyer
Harrison M. Trice
he concept of corporate culture has greatpopular appeal; this appeal is obvious fromthe recent phenomenal sale of books on thesubject. But is "corporate culture" just anotherbuzzword that will pass out of 留學生dissertation網fashion? Canany new, lasting, practical insights be gainedby looking at our corporations and other organizationsas cultures? We believe the answerto both questions is yes; the purpose ofthis article is to show why.Popular treatments of organizationalculture usually gravitate toward one oftwo extreme views: (1) An organization's cultureis so obvious it can be immediatelysensed by outsiders when they step in thedoor, or (2) an organization's culture is soelusive it can be revealed —and then onlypartially —only by outside experts after
lengthy study.The trouble with the first view isthat it holds scant promise of telling managers
anything new. In this view, culturebecomes an ail-encompassing concept withfew distinguishing characteristics; it merelyprovides a new vocabulary to repackage familiarideas and prescriptions about styles ofleadership, employee attitudes, interpersonalrelations, organizational structure, andstrategy, with an admixture of cultural featuressuch as symbols, myths, values, ornorms. The trouble with the second view isthat it is frustrating. If organizational culturesare so inaccessible, it is unclear what, ifanything, managers can do to understand,manage, or change them. While the first viewis unsatisfying because it deals withsuperficialitiesthe second view tantalizes with the promise ofdeep insights waiting to be discovered, thenmakes their discovery too difficult to be practical.A way out of this dilemma is to explorenatural, observable outcroppings ofculture —places where the cultural understandingsbeneath the surface of organizationallife are partially exposed. By analyzing
Exhibit 1
A LIST OF DEFINITIONS OF FREQUENTLY STIHJIED CULTURAL FORMS*
A relatively elaborate, dramatic, planned set of activities that combines various forms
of cultural expressions and that often has both practical and expressive consequences.
Ritual A standardized, detailed set of techniques and behaviors that manages anxieties but seldom
produces intended, practical consequences of any importance.
Myth A dramatic narrative of imagined events, usually used to explain origins or transformationsof something. Also, an unquestioned belief about the practical benefits of certaintechniques and behaviors that is not suported by demonstrated facts.Saga An historical narrative describing (usually in heroic terms) the unique accomplishmentsof a group and its leaders.
Legend A handed-down narrative of some wonderful event that has a historical basis but has#p#分頁標題#e#
been embellished with fictional details.
Story A narrative based on true events-often a combination of truth and fiction.
Folktale A completely fictional narrative.
Symbol Any object, act, event, quality, or relation that serves as a vehicle for conveying meaning,usually by representing another thing.
Language A particular manner in which members of a group use vocal sounds and written signsto convey meanings to each other.
Gesture Movements of parts of the body used to express meanings.
Physical Setting Those things that physically surround people and provide them with immediate sensory
stimuli as they carry out culturally expressive activities.
Artifact Material objects manufactured by people to facilitate culturally expressive activities.
* Adapted from Janice M. Beyer and Harrison M. Trice, "Studying Organizational Cultures Through Rites
and Ceremonials" {Academy of Management Review. October 1984).
these outcroppings in their own organizations,
managers can gain practical insights.
RITES AS OUTCROPPINGS OF CULTURE
Organizational culture is usually defined inmanagement literature as a network of sharedunderstandings, norms, and values that aretaken for granted and that lie beneath the surfaceof organizational life. However, culture
is more than this. In order to create and maintaina culture, these understandings, norms,and values must somehow be affirmed andcommunicated to an organization's membersin some tangible way. We call this tangiblepart of culture "cultural forms"; such formsare occasions in which underlying, unstatedunderstandings are brought to the surface. Inthis sense, cultural forms are outcroppings ofculture. Exhibit 1 provides a list of definitionsof some cultural forms.Organizational stories provide familiarexamples of cultural forms. Storiesabout top managers usually express and affirmimportant organizational norms andvalues. For example, the story that formerIBM president Tom Watson praised an employeewho denied him entry into a restrictedarea of the company because he was notwearing his badge shows that IBM employeesshould and do uphold company rules.
We do not mean to imply, however,that the occasions that qualify as culturalforms have only expressive consequences. Inorder to survive, most organizations need toproduce something of practical value to society.Most organizational activities are intendedto realize practical ends; however,they may also have an expressive, culturalfunction. The British anthropologist EdmundLeach has pointed out that human actions can
serve both to do and to say things; thus people'sorganizational activities often have amixture of practical and expressive consequences.Some of these activities —such astelling the story about Tom Watson —are primarilyexpressive of cultural values. Otherexamples, such as management training and
committee meetings, have both practical andexpressive consequences.In the following analysis, we will#p#分頁標題#e#
emphasize the expressive, cultural side of organizationalevents because we think this sideis often overlooked. We do not want to denythe practical side, only to balance it with theawareness that most practical activities alsogenerate expressive consequences. To overlookthese expressive consequences is to miss
http://www.ttc-switch.com/thesis_sample/much of the significance of what is reallyhappening in organizations. It is also to miss
opportunities to convey desired cultural messagesand thus help to shape an organization'sculture. Only by attending to both sets oconsequences can we really understand andeffectively manage organizations.
This article deals primarily with organizationalrites because, in performing the
activities of a rite, people generally use othercultural forms —certain customary language,
gestures, ritualized behaviors, artifacts, settings,and other symbols —to heighten the
expression of shared understandings appropriateto the occasion. These shared understandingsare also frequently conveyed throughmyths, sagas, legends, or other stories associatedwith the occasion. Thus rites provide a
Janice M. Beyer is currently professor ofmanagement at New York University and editorof the Academy of Management Journal. Shehas been interested in organization culture sinceher earliest research, which dealt with how thepresence or lack of shared understandings affectsscientific research and the governance ofuniversity departments. She has also published
more than 50 papers on such topics as organizational
design, interorganizational relations,
discipline, power, research utilization.
and processes of implementation. Dr. Beyer is
active in the Academy of Management and
Eastern Academy of tAanagement. in which she
has held various offices. She has also served as
a consultant to a variety of organizations, including
hospitals, colleges, large corporations,
small businesses, and charitable organizations.
richer outcropping of cultural understanding
than do single cultural forms.
In addition, we focus on rites because
they are tangible, accessible, and visible.
Identifying the meanings they carry,
however, requires interpretive skills not ordinarily
taught in business schools or used by
practicing managers. We believe, however,
that experienced managers are familiar enough
with the organizational context to make a
working interpretation of organizational rites.
We also believe that many managers can learn
to interpret their organizations' rites and that
the insights they gain in the process will
be useful for the enlightened managing and
changing of their organizations' cultures.
However, the most important reason
for focusing on organizational rites is that
many managers conduct or sponsor them
without being fully aware of it. Many practical#p#分頁標題#e#
managerial activities also act as cultural
rites that are interpreted by employees and
others as reflecting what management believes
in, values, and finds acceptable. Unless
expressive consequences are considered, both
the activities chosen and the ways of carrying
them out may inadvertently convey cultural
messages that are inconsistent with the
desired culture.
For example, corporate drug-testing
programs that administer reliable tests on an
involuntary, random basis might, practically
speaking, be very effective in locating drug
users, but such "efficient" programs could undermine
existing corporate cultures and thus
be disastrous in expressive terms. They carry
the unmistakable message that all employees
are under suspicion; they also cost a lot of
money. Thus many managements have decided
to employ drug testing only in cases
where drug abuse is a suspected cause of poor
work performance and to link such testing to
employee assistance programs designed to
help confirmed abusers rehabilitate themselves.
The latter type of program may be relatively
"inefficient" in locating drug users in
practical terms, but it will probably be effective
in expressive terms because it is more
consistent with most corporate cultures and
with the genera] values of U.S. workers.
Managers must become sensitive to
the possible expressive consequences of their
activities; moreover, they must modify those
activities to remove culturally inconsistent
elements. This is the only way they can ensure
that strong cultural messages are being
sent about what their organizations stand for.
Managers who understand the duality of their
actions will be better able to make those actions
effective in both practical and cultural
terms.
THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF RITES
Human actions have both practical and expressive
consequences at the same time;
moreover, people tend to be more aware of
some of these consequences than they are of
others. Some of the consequences are evident;
others may be hidden. As Exhibit 2
shows, a common rite such as training new
managers can have four kinds of consequences.
In one program we studied, in addition
to the selection and training of promising
candidates (thereby marking them as transformed
sufficiently to deserve being elevated
to managerial roles), cultural messages were
conveyed to participants and others who
knew of the programs about the relative priorities
of different managerial tasks in the
company, the managers who provided role
models to be emulated, and the true importance
of the managerial role. In the terminology
of cultural anthropology, this program
was a rite of passage —a rite whose main cultural#p#分頁標題#e#
function is to ease the transition of people
who are moving from one social status to
another.
Our research on organizational life
suggested that there are other sets of common
activities that function as cultural rites but
that have different expressive consequences.
By comparing anthropological accounts of
tribal societies with management writers'
descriptions of life in modern organizations,
we were able to identify five other common
rites that had distinctly different expressive
consequences; they are presented in Exhibit 3,
along with a brief summary of the discussion
that follows. We will begin our discussion
with a more detailed description of rites of
passage.
Rites of Passage
In his book Rites of Passage (Emil Mourry,
1909), the Dutch scholar Arnold Van Gennep
Harrison M. Trice is professor of organizational
behavior at the School of Industrial Relations,
Cornell University. His long-standing interest
in organizational cultures comes from a background
in sociology and anthropology and
from research on the role of rites and
ceremonials in personnel departments. In addition,
he has recently completed a two-decade
study of the charismatic leadership in two
social-movement organizations. He is currently
completing a book with Janice Beyer entitled
Organizations as Cultures, to be published by
Ballinger Press. At Cornell, he teaches courses
on organizational cultures, the study of occupations,
and work organizations and troubled
employees. Professor Trice also maintains an interest
in organizational innovation and change
and is coauthor (with Janice Beyer) of Implementing
Change: Alcoholism Policies in
Work Organizations (Free Press. 1978). He is
the author or coauthor of 12 other books, including
Alcoholism in America [McGraw-Hill,
1978), An Occupation in Conflict: A Study of
Ihc Personnel Manager (ILR/Comell. 1969).
and Spirits and Demons at Work: Alcohol and
Other Drugs on the Job {ILR/Comell. 1979).
mentioned similarities in many different
tribal societies in customary behaviors that
accompany universal and unavoidable events:
pregnancy and childbirth, the onset of sexual
maturity, betrothal and marriage, and death.
Because such events create marked changes
in status for the individuals involved. Van
Gennep called their attendant customary
behaviors "rites of passage." He grouped
these behaviors into three distinct consecutive
subsets, which he called rites of separation,
rites of transition, and rites of incorporation.
The apparently intended consequence
of these rites was to restore equilibrium in
social relations that had been disturbed by
an individual's transition from one social status#p#分頁標題#e#
to another.
A good example of rites of passage
in modern organizational life is the process of
induction and basic training in the United
States Army. The rites of separation begin
when a recruit reports to an induction center
and is then transported to a camp where
he receives a uniform and a severe haircut,
has to make his own bed in a ritualized fashion,
learns to salute and march, is repeatedly
humiliated, and is in many other ways
stripped of his past identity and status. The
next phase, the rites of transition, occurs during
basic training, when the raw recruit learns
the practical skills associated with his new
identity — shooting guns, marching, and
obeying promptly and without question.
Even his body is rebuilt — through calisthenics;
long, arduous marches; and other physically
demanding exercises. Toward the end of the
transition period, the recruit is repeatedly
tested, presumably to determine what new
permanent role he is capable of assuming in
the organization. The rites of incorporation
begin with a relatively permanent assignment
to a specific unit, followed by parades, a
flag ceremony, speeches, and the issuing of
awards to recruits who have performed exceptionally
well. The culmination of the incorporation
rite is the issuing of insignia
designating the recruit's newly assigned, relatively
permanent status. At this point, the recruit
is frequently given a leave; he then goes
home to discover that he has indeed been
transformed and has received a new identity.
Although this example may seem irrelevant
to modern corporate life, Thomas
Rohlen observed in his book For Harmony
Exhibit 2
EXAMPLES OF FOUR TYPES OF SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF RITES FOR TRAINING NEW MANAGERS
Practical Consequences
Evident A thorough evaluation of candidates' potential and improvement in their administrative skills so
that only the best qualified candidates are promoted to management positions.
Hidden The relative priorities placed on various areas of performance in the company are communicated
and enforced; members of management who act as trainers sharpen and reinforce their own skills;
new and old managers size up one another's strengths and weaknesses.
Expressive Consequences
Evident The transformation of the successful candidate's social identity among people both within and
outside of the organization.
Hidden The enhancement of the prestige of the managerial role within the company; the motivation of
nonmanagement personnel to perform according to priorities; the development of social and emotional
bonds among managers.
10
and Strength: Japanese White Collar Organizations
in Anthropological Perspective (University
of California Press, 1974) that managerial#p#分頁標題#e#
trainees in the Japanese banking
industry go through similarly intensive rites
of passage. Rohlen reported that similar incompany
training rites are employed by as
many as one-third of all medium-to-large Japanese
companies, with apparently successful
consequences in terms of employee productivity
and commitment. The training he observed
at the Uedagin Bank illustrates how
elaborate the sequence of events can be. In the
rite of separation, trainees and their parents
were invited to an entrance ceremony, during
which the president of the bank gave a speech
congratulating the parents on raising such fine
children and reassuring the trainees and their
families that taking this job would be like
joining a large family that takes good care of
its members. The presence of current trainees
in uniform, the prominent display of the company
logo, the singing of the company song —
all symbolized the cohesiveness and continuity
of the trainees' new "family."
The next step in the training program
was the successful completion of several
rites of transition, each demanding that the
trainees submit to new ordeals. The first rite
was a two-day trip to a nearby army camp
where the trainees were subjected to some of
the rigors of basic training; marching under
the direction of a sergeant and sweating their
way over obstacle courses, they wore castoff
army fatigues that symbolized their shared
lowly status. They were told that a large company
required order and discipline and that
military training was the best way to teach
these qualities —and they accepted this explanation.
They were also taken periodically to
a Zen temple for a two-day session in meditation
and other Zen practices. At the temple
they were subjected to a strict regimen that
included eating tasteless gruel and meticulously
observing a whole series of rituals.
Perhaps the most arduous ordeal of
all was a 25-mile marathon walk held at the
end of the training. Trainees were told to walk
the first 9 miles together in a single body, the
next 9 in designated groups, and the last 7
alone and in silence. Past trainees monitored
their conformity to the rules and tempted
them with cold drinks, which they were not
allowed to accept. The first phase, walking
and talking together, was relatively pleasant.
During the second phase, intergroup competition
emerged, leading the trainees to escalate
their pace even though competition had not
been encouraged. The result was that many
trainees could not stand the pace and had to
drop out. The final phase was very painful
and difficult, but the trainees who finished
Exhibit 3
A TYPOLOGY OF RITES BY THEIR EVIDENT, EXPRESSIVE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES#p#分頁標題#e#
Types of Rites Example
Evident Expressive
Consequences
Examples of Possible
Hidden Expressive
Consequences
Rites of
passage
Induction and basic Facilitate transition of Minimize changes in ways people
training, U.S. Army
Rites of
degradation
Firing and replacing
top executive
persons into social
roles and statuses
that are new for
them.
Dissolve social identities
and their
power.
Rites of
enhancement
Mary Kay seminars
Rites of
renewal
Organizational development
activities
carry out social roles.
Reestablish equilibrium in ongoing
social relations.
Publicly acknowledge that problems
exist and discuss their details.
Defend group boundaries by redefining
who belongs and who doesn't.
Reaffirm social importance and value
of role involved.
Spread good news about the
organization.
Provide public recognition of individuals
for their accomplishments;
motivate others to similar efforts.
Enable organizations to take some
credit for individual
accomplishments.
Emphasize social value of performance
of social roles.
Refurbish social struc- Reassure members that something
Enhance social identities
and their
power.
tures and improve
their functioning.
is being done about problems
Disguise nature of problems.
Defer acknowledgment of problems.
Focus attention toward some
problems and away from others.
Legitimize and reinforce existing systems
of power and authority.
Rites of
conflict
reduction
Rites of
integration
Collective bargaining
Office Christmas
party
Reduce conflict and
aggression.
Encourage and revive
common feelings
that bind members
together and commit
them to a
social system.
Deflect attention away from solving
problems.
Compartmentalize conflict and its
disruptive effects.
Reestablish equilibrium in disturbed
social relations.
Permit venting of emotion and temporary
loosening of various norms.
Reassert and reaffirm, by contrast.
moral rightness of usual norms.
11
took great personal pride in that accomplishment.
Rohlen suggests that the marathon walk
taught the values of perseverance, self-denial,
and rejection of competition as the route to
collective accomplishment.
In addition to these ordeals, the
trainees were expected to achieve practical expertise;
they studied bank operations and
pursued a variety of other scheduled activities.
Rohlen reports that every day except
Sunday was filled with 14 hours of supervised
activity. Unfortunately, he did not describe#p#分頁標題#e#
the final phase of these rites —the rite in
which the employees were incorporated into
the bank.
All complete rites of passage have
the three phases identified by Van Gennep. In
a company in upstate New York, the separation
phase included several days of testing
and screening a large group of self-selected
candidates. Those candidates who survived
the initial screening were then sent to three
days of further evaluation at a live-in assessment
center. These two successive screenings
helped successful trainees let go of their prior
status and assigned them a temporary, limbolike
status. The next phase, transition, usually
puts initiates through a series of ordeals
designed to introduce them to new experiences.
These ordeals also symbolize the diffi-
12
culties they must overcome and the rigors they
must practice in their new roles. Managerial
trainees in this company were subjected to
one week of fast-paced, difficult instruction
and one week of sensitivity training. The last
phase, the rite of incorporation, introduces
initiates to surrounding social networks as
new members of that status. In the company
observed, all production was stopped and
new managers were introduced to other employees
in a brief speech by the production
superintendent on the shop floor. The speech
was followed by a cocktail party, which top
management attended.
Researchers at the University of
Michigan recently identified another rite of
passage called "parting ceremonies." The rite
was given this name because it occurred in
organizations that were going out of business—
that is, in organizations in which the
employees were parting from one another. In
these rites, members of the "dying" organizations
held social gatherings to ease both their
leave-taking and the changing of their social
identities. Many of the behaviors observed at
parting ceremonies — the telling of stories, the
discussion of new jobs, the partying, the picture
taking, and the exchange of addresses —
also frequently occur when individual members
or small groups leave an organization.
The most formalized of these occasions is the
retirement dinner, but smaller parties are often
held for members who leave for other
reasons.
We began this section with the examples
from the U.S. army and the Japanese
bank because these particular rites are both
powerful and elaborate. They illustrate what
rites of passage could be, not what they are
currently like in U.S. corporations. Even the
example of management training in the upstate
New York company we described
earlier —which is the most complete rite of
passage we have observed in U.S industry —#p#分頁標題#e#
lacked the drama and impact of the military
and Japanese examples. Typical U.S. corporate
training programs seem pale and ineffectual
by comparison.
Powerful, extensive rites of passage
do, however, exist in U.S. worklife. They ease
the entry into risky occupations such as law
enforcement, firefighting, and mining, but
they generally occur in educational institutions
or through informal socialization by fellow
workers on the job rather than in internal
management-sponsored programs. Thus managers
have little impact on these potent occupational
rites in the United States. In the
absence of comparable organization-based
rites and other cultural forms, U.S. workers
often form stronger allegiances to their occupations
than they do to their work organizations—
an outcome that may be neither desirable
nor inevitable.
Rites of Degradation
In his article "Conditions of Successful Degradation
Ceremonies" (American Sociological
Review, March 1956), the sociologist Harold
Garfinkel named the next type of rite the degradation
ceremony. A vivid example of this
rite can be found in a ceremonial practice of
the Ashanti, a tribal society in central Ghana
in West Africa. The Ashanti chief was placed
on an ancestral stool as part of his installment
into office; if the tribe decided that it no
longer wanted him to be chief, he was "destooled."
His sandals were removed so that he
had to walk barefoot, and he was placed on
the ancestral stool, which was then withdrawn
from under him so that his buttocks
bumped on the ground. In this way he was reduced
to being a commoner.
The procedures used in the rites of
degradation that sometimes accompany the
removal of high-status officials in modern organizations
rarely inflict physical pain, but
they can be just as humiliating as the experience
of the Ashanti chief. As in rites of
passage, the events in rites of degradation
seem to fall into stages. First, other organizational
members focus attention on the person
to be degraded and publicly associate his or
her behavior with organizational problems
and failures. An important part of this initial
stage is the language used by these other organizational
members — language that Michael
Moch has called "degradation talk" or "chewing
ass." Moch observed a production manager
being repeatedly degraded by his plant
manager's references to difficulties in his private
life and by the plant manager's attribution
of various problems to the production
manager's failures.
Second, the individual is discredited
by some supposedly objective report. In the
firing of chief excecutives, consultants are often#p#分頁標題#e#
hired to produce data and analyses
documenting that certain detected problems
are associated with the CEO. The consultants'
status as outsiders and the credentials they
possess symbolize their supposed objectivity;
their activities are actually rituals designed to
produce a necessary artifact —a report that
demonstrates to all the erroneous decisions
made by those to be deposed.
Third, the person is publicly removed
from his or her position. Military organizations
again provide a telling example:
13
the dramatic cashiering and "drumming out"
of officers from the U.S. Marine Corps and
similar ceremonies in the other services. Businesses
often skip the ceremony and take
abrupt action; in one company, some managers
came in Monday morning and found
that all their furniture, plants, and pictures
had been removed over the weekend. At Apple
Computer, on the other hand, the recent
removal of cofounder Steven Jobs was painfully
drawn out. After months of tension and
conflict. President John Sculley, backed by
the board of directors, first removed Jobs's remaining
operating authority as head of the
Macintosh Division, then moved his office
across the street, and finally announced to
the press that there was no role for Jobs in the
future of the firm.
In the final step of rites of degradation,
a successor is chosen, often with such
ceremonial activities as search committees,
an extensive search for and wooing of candidates,
and the expenditure of much time and
effort —all of which symbolize the importance
of the position involved.
A dramatic example of a truncated
degradation rite was provided by the events
surrounding the impeachment proceedings
against Richard M. Nixon and his subsequent
resignation from the presidency. Another ex-
14
ample may be found in the personal attacks
that. Lee lacocca reports, were launched
against him in 1975 by Henry Ford II. As in
the cases of Jobs, Nixon, and lacocca, degradation
rites stop when the degraded person
"voluntarily" withdraws from office or from
membership in the system.
Truncated degradation rites are
probably not as effective as full-fledged
degradation rites because the informal power
of the degraded person is not totally dissolved.
In the cases of Nixon and lacocca,
there are no signs that the deposed men have
much remaining influence in the organizations
they left, though Iacocca has repeatedly
raided Ford's executive ranks. But neither individual
has sunk into total obscurity, and lacocca
has, of course, more power and influence
now as head of Chrysler than he ever
had at Ford. The case of Steven Jobs probably#p#分頁標題#e#
represents an unsuccessful rite of degradation,
one that was complicated by the fact that Jobs
was cofounder of Apple and held a substantial
portion of its stock. Whether for these
reasons or because of his personal qualities,
Jobs had enough influence with important
members of the firm to hire away five of Apple's
key people. His case suggests that the
ceremonial degradation of persons with
ownership rights is harder to achieve than the
degradation of appointed or elected officials.
The evident intended consequences
of rites of degradation are to dissolve the social
status and associated power of those persons
who are subjected to the degradation. In
corporations and other modern organizations,
these rites occur relatively infrequently;
they are usually reserved for the
removal of relatively high-status or otherwise
influential members. However, with the current
rash of hostile takeovers and other
mergers, such rites are likely to occur more
frequently. Some hidden consequences can be
detected from our examples: These rites provide
a way to publicly acknowledge problems
and to discuss their details; group boundaries
are defended by redefining which individuals
belong to groups and which do not; and the
importance and social value of the role involved
are reaffirmed. Of course, the most
important practical consequence is that the
no-longer-desired leader is forced to leave a
position of power.
Rites of Enhancement
We have given the name "rites of enhancement"
to ceremonial activities that enhance
the personal status and social identities of organizational
members. The U.S. presidential
inauguration ceremony is one well-known
example of rites of enhancement. Other examples
include the ceremonious conferral of
knighthood in England, the awarding of
Nobel prizes to scientists and statesmen in
Sweden, and the Oscar and Emmy awards
given to U.S. motion picture and television
performers.
The Mary Kay Cosmetics Company
may provide the best-known examples of the
corporate use of rites of enhancement. The
plethora of awards and titles given by this
company to its high-performing members is
clearly intended to enhance the identities of
those who receive them. During elaborate
meetings called Mary Kay seminars, gold and
diamond pins, fur stoles, and the use of pink
Cadillacs are awarded to saleswomen who
achieve sales quotas. The awards are presented
in a setting reminiscent of Miss America
pageants; they are held in a large auditorium,
on a stage in front of a large, cheering
audience, with all the participants dressed in
glamorous evening clothes.
Underlying this dramatic rite is the#p#分頁標題#e#
story of how Mary Kay's determination and
optimism enabled her to overcome personal
hardships and to found her own company.
The company's bee-shaped pin is a symbol of
Mary Kay's optimistic belief that with help
and encouragement everyone can "find their
wings and fly." The pink Cadillac is clearly a
symbol of exalted status, since Mary Kay herself
drives one.
Other corporate examples abound:
the awarding of bronze stars at Addison-
Wesley Publishing, the "You Want It When?"
award at Versatec, special jackets at Diamond
International, and so forth. Most companies
have some type of award; however, few are
bestowed as ceremoniously as the awards at
the Mary Kay seminars. All awards are intended
to realize the practical consequence of
rewarding desired behaviors so that these
behaviors will be repeated and emulated by
other employees.
These examples also illustrate a
hidden expressive consequence of rites of enhancement,
a consequence that is diametrically
opposed to the consequence of degradation
ceremonies: Rites of enhancement spread
good news about the organization. Besides
providing public recognition of individual
accomplishments that all members benefit
from, these rites enable the organization to
take some share of the credit for these accomplishments.
Another hidden consequence of
other familiar examples of rites of enhancement,
such as the conferral of tenure in academia
or the accession of persons to office in as-
15
sociations in general, is the affirmation of the
importance of that social role's performance
for the organization.
Rites of Renewal
This type of rite includes a variety of
elaborate activities intended to strengthen existing
social structures and thus improve their
functioning. Examples include most organization
development (OD) activities: management-
by-objectives (MBO) programs, job redesign,
team building, quality-of-worklife
programs, quality circles, and so forth. These
activities tend to fine-tune rather than to fundamentally
change organizational systems;
they are based on a combination of humanistic
and scientific values. For example, team
building is justified by the belief that there is
a family-life bond within work groups that
can be used for the company's benefit. Job design
is justified by scientific findings showing
that workers' feelings are affected by the nature
of their work and by the belief that making
constructive changes in that work will result
in higher productivity.
Most OD programs use certain
standardized sets of techniques; such techniques
are rituals in the sense that few have
been demonstrated to have intended, practical#p#分頁標題#e#
effects. Team building efforts typically involve
a sequence of rituals. The consultant
begins by interviewing participants to generate
themes for discussion. These interviews
are followed by group discussions in which
the participants rank and examine problems
and then attempt to find and work on solutions
and devise steps to realize them. A more
extensive intervention called Grid Organization
Development has six specific phases,
usually lasts for three to five years, and is
built around an artifact called the managerial
grid, a rather simple two-dimensional scheme
for representing the practices of individual
16 managers. Other artifacts commonly used in
OD activities include questionnaires and inventories,
organizational charts and other diagrams,
blackboards and flip charts, and
closed-circuit television systems. A large
vocabulary of specialized language, including
words like "feedback," "behavior mod,"
and "confrontation," is used by the initiated
to describe these activities.
To label these OD activities as rites
of renewal is not to deny that they sometimes
have important practical consequences. We
are suggesting, however, that they seldom
drastically alter existing organizations and
that many of their important consequences
are symbolic and expressive. Some of the
possible hidden consequences of such rites of
renewal include reassuring members that
something is being done about problems, disguising
the nature of real problems, deferring
the problems' acknowledgment, and focusing
attention toward some problems and away
from others. In addition, rites of renewal
generally reinforce the existing power systems
that form the basis for the renewed social
arrangements.
Rites of Conflict Reduction
A variety of features in organizational life —
hierarchies of formal authority, social stratification,
division of labor, differential power
and resources of age groups, and all sorts of
other differences between persons —tend to
produce pervasive conflict and aggressive behavior.
Some of the conflicts produced are so
pervasive that they give rise to subcultures
and even countercultures. Because this kind
of conflict and the accompanying aggression
are disruptive and potentially damaging to
social life, people develop rites to reduce
conflicts.
A. R. Radcliffe-Brown's descriptions
of the peace-making ceremonies of the North
Andamen Islanders in his book The Andamen
Islanders (New York Free Press, 1964)
provide a vivid example. In these ceremonies,
dancers from two contending factions mingled
randomly to form two groups, each new
group consisting of about equal numbers#p#分頁標題#e#
from each faction. One group of dancers then
gave outlet to their feelings of aggression by
violently shaking the members of the other
party. In response, members of the other
group showed complete passivity, expressing
neither fear nor resentment. In this manner
collective anger was appeased, wrongs
were forgiven, and peace was temporarily
restored.
A familiar example of a rite developed
to reduce conflict in modern work organizations
is collective bargaining. This rite
often begins when union and management
present each other with a long, widely divergent
list of demands and proposals. Each side
prepares these artifacts (1) to disguise its real
position and to prepare to explore problems
causing conflict and (2) to reassure constituents
and other observers thai specific complaints
will be considered. The lists also
symbolically evoke the myth that this rite involves
bargaining between equals, as does the
setting in which the rites take place. Buried
somewhere in the profusion of demands are
the realistic outcomes expected by both sides.
Both sets of bargainers may have a good idea
what the final settlement will be, but union
members and many segments of management
do not have such inside knowledge. To demonstrate
resistance to "unfair" demands to
constituents, numerous ritualized "false
fights" take place; these fights sometimes last
late into the night, symbolizing the tough resistance
each side is making to the demands
of the other. In reality, these fights involve
considerable informal cooperation. For example,
when the parties are getting close to tacit
agreement, a union representative may become
openly hostile, threaten to walk out,
and start to leave the bargaining table. Members
of management will calm that person
down, speak of possible compromises, point
to troublesome areas where cooperation is
emerging, and generally attempt in ritualistic
ways to reduce the union representative's
ritualistically generated anger.
Another common conflict-reduction
rite in modern organizations is the com-
'[W]e focus on rites because they are tangible,
accessible, and visible. . . . We also believe
that many managers can learn to interpret
their organizations' rites and that the
insights they gain in the process will be
useful for the enlightened managing and changing
of their organizations' cultures!n
17
mittee. Organizations form joint labormanagement
committees, affirmative action
committees, and so forth. Widely practiced
rituals such as agendas, minutes, and motions
provide accepted ways for these committees
to proceed. Committees do not need bo make
substantive changes in order to reduce conflict#p#分頁標題#e#
because their very existence and their activities
symbolize the organization's willingness
to cope with problems and discontent.
The mere holding of meetings with local
managers helped a new manager of General
Motors' Chevrolet Division to reduce the
fears and hostilities of local managers. In
similar ways, the activities of university ombudsmen,
committees on judicial ethics in the
American Bar Association, consumer affairs
departments in retail stores, and faculty
senates help to mollify hostile parties.
Conflict-reduction rites often include
other important symbols. As taking action
symbolizes authorities' willingness to
cope with problems, encouraging participation
symbolizes their willingness to pay attention
to the complaints and ideas of the participants.
The settings and procedures used
symbolize how far authorities are willing to
go in recognizing the claims of participants.
Membership alone puts members on a symbolically
equal footing. Many techniques
such as brainstorming, nominal groups, and
18
the delphi procedure have been developed to
facilitate participation from all committee
members. Most of the techniques utilize some
method that ensures equal participation, and
the meetings take place in settings that are designed
to symbolize equality. All these symbols
help committees realize their major expressive
consequences: to minimize and at
least temporarily smooth over differences
that cause conflict. At a practical level, committees
often realize agreement and cooperation
in the process.
However, these rites also have a variety
of hidden expressive consequences. One
such consequence is to divert attention from
solving the problems that generated the conflict.
Other consequences include containing
the conflict and reestablishing social relations
that have been disrupted by it.
Rites of Integration
As organizations and other social systems
grow larger, they differentiate internally into
subgroups. The major evident expressive consequence
of rites of integration is the revival
of shared feelings that unite subgroups and
commit them to the larger system by increasing
their interaction. Such ceremonials are
consequently very inclusive and public. The
mix of participants is especially important; its
integrative effects will depend on how successfully
a particular rite incorporates members
of diverse subgroups. Most large organizations
(and all societies) have many rites of
integration.
As their businesses grow, exceptional
managers seem to recognize the need
for rites of integration. One of the many lessons
Tom Watson learned from John H. Patterson,
the long-term president of the National#p#分頁標題#e#
Cash Register Company, was the value
of bringing far-flung sales staff together for
conventions. As Thomas and Maria Belden
observed in their book The Lengthening
Shadow: The Life of Thomas /. Watson (Little,
Brown, and Company, 1962), "There were
conventions for all of the company salesmen
at which bands played, flags flew in the gusty
Ohio winds, and men were exhorted to work
and to love their work and to know how to
work." These conventions not only gave the
salesmen valuable information about selling,
they "unified the far-flung company, bound it
into a family with the factory serving as
home and the officers as the center of loyalty.
The sales convention was Patterson's . . . way
of maintaining unity as the NCR stretched to
the far corners of the country, of keeping a
small-company spirit along with big-company
organization and dividends."
After World War II, when International
Business Machines had grown into
"gray shapelessness," Watson developed similar
but more encompassing rites of integration
lo unify both field and factory personnel.
Huge conventions were held in an
elaborate tent city constructed on thirty acres
near the IBM factory at Endicott, New York.
Paved streets ran between the tents, and terraces
planted with flowers surrounded them.
Meetings were held in a Barnum and Bailey
circus tent. There were many ceremonial
events: the group picture, tours of the factory,
awards, songs of praise, and visits by distinguished
guests. By 1950, however, even with
the "tent flaps raised, there was no longer
room for the swelling ranks of the company."
Thereafter, regional meetings were held and
the color and inclusiveness of the Endicott
meetings faded. Many companies, of course,
have annual conventions of their salespeople;
the contents of such rites reflect the cultures
of the companies involved.
Christmas parties and annual picnics
are other common examples of rites of integration
that occur in many organizations.
During these rites, managers and nonmanagerial
employees interact in settings and
activities that lessen the social distance between
them. Eating, talking, and drinking together
symbolize shared values favoring
equality and community. The use of alcohol
lowers inhibitions, permitting less guarded
interactions than are usual among persons of
divergent status. Participants may engage in
patting, backslapping, hugging, kissing, and
other gestures of affection and approval
rarely used in regular work settings. Under
such circumstances, they may achieve a temporary
sense of closeness. At Christmas parties,
some of the rituals and artifacts associated#p#分頁標題#e#
with the Christmas legend are
usually included, such as the Christmas tree,
traditional food and drink, and the exchange
of gifts, often distributed by someone dressed
as Santa Claus. Annual picnics often involve
ritualized games (like a softball game between
different work units or statuses) that act out
conflicts from the work setting.
Work-related social gatherings that
serve as rites of integration have perhaps the
fewest practical consequences of any set of
rites; they come closest to being purely cultural
or expressive occasions. Even at these
events, however, practical matters are often
discussed and other business is conducted.
Thus while practical consequences are not essential
to these rites, they occur nonetheless,
making even company parties a mixture of
the practical and the expressive.
19
The annual meetings of corporate
boards of directors and of the governing
boards of nonprofit organizations provide
other examples of rites of integration. These
meetings act out and preserve the myth of the
effective influence of such constituencies.
Reports are given by management, tough and
embarrassing questions are asked and ritualistically
responded to, and votes are taken
according to well-established rites. However,
the major consequence is expressive: Members
of potentially disparate groups are united
to voice concern for the prosperity and continuity
of the organizations involved. Helen
Schwartzman's analysis of meetings in her article
"The Meeting as a Neglected Form in Organizational
Studies" in Barry M. Staw and
L.L. Cummings, Eds., Research in Organizational
Studies, Vol. 8 (JAI Press, 1986) concludes
that "a meeting is a powerful and ongoing
symbol for an organization because it
assembles a variety of individuals and groups
together and labels the assembly as 'organizational
action.' In this way . . . it . . . constitutes
and reconstitutes the organization over
time." These expressive, symbolic consequences
can occur whether or not the meetings
result in any important decisions or have
other practical results.
Annual meetings of professional associations
are another example of integrative
rites. Members give and hear papers, do
recruiting and job hunting, and participate in
many other practical activities. Their expressive,
integrative function is evident as participants
party and feast in various groupings,
usually with considerable alcohol
consumption and relatively uninhibited conviviality.
In these gatherings, members often
make special efforts to interact with strangers
and knit them into the group. These powerful
rites, however, do not promote integration#p#分頁標題#e#
within professional organizations; rather,
they pull professional members away from
employing organizations toward integration
within a cosmopolitan professional community.
THE PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF RITES
This analysis is intended as a first step in understanding
rites and ceremonials as outcroppings
of organizational culture. The six types
20
'Managers must know whether the ceremonial
expressive side of their programs reinforces
or undermines desired, existing cultural
values and beliefs. . . . Managers who are less
involved with technical details may he better
able to detect and assess the cultural
messages carried by company programs!'
we have identified are important, widespread,
and frequent occurrences in corporations
and other organizations. Our types are
intended to help managers and other analysts
think about these familiar events in new ways
and call their attention to important occurrences
that they might otherwise have overlooked.
Like all pure types, our types will not
fit the observed instances perfectly, but they
provide useful yardsticks against which observed
events can be compared and assessed.
In particular, some events may be a mixture
of more than one type of rite. We do not believe
that our list of types is exhaustive; it is
merely a reasonable starting point for further
refinements and additions.
Managing Cultures
Because they communicate and affirm takenfor-
granted shared understandings of an organization's
culture, the six types of rites also
provide entry points for managing and
changing organizational cultures. At the
most basic level, managers must learn to assess
not only the technical consequences of
their own activities and the activities of those
they supervise, but also their possible expressive
consequences as rites. Managers must
know whether the ceremonial, expressive
side of their programs reinforces or undermines
desired, existing cultural values and
beliefs. Because of their intended technical
consequences, organizational rites are unfortunately
often designed and carried out by
technical experts who are unaware of their
expressive side. Managers who are less involved
with technical details may be better
able to detect and assess the cultural messages
carried by company programs. Practical, culturally
effective alternatives can usually be
chosen and implemented.
In addition, research has shown
that such familiar activities as training,
recruitment and selection, and program
evaluation may have expressive consequences
that are more important than their technical
ones. For example, one study found that the
desired technical effects of management#p#分頁標題#e#
training (changes in knowledge and performance)
were minimal compared with expressive
effects that significantly reduced anxiety
about organizational change. In another example,
a program evaluation study was
responsible not only for goals clarification
(an intended technical consequence) but also
for generating further negotiation and compromise
between subcultures (an expressive
conflict-reducing outcome). Managers who
are insensitive to the valuable expressive consequences
of these rites might discontinue
them on technical grounds, thereby unwittingly
losing their expressive benefits. Only
by becoming sensitive to such expressive consequences
of their activities and programs
can managers adequately evaluate and manage
all aspects of them.
Because rites are important activities
in any organization, managers also need
to learn and practice ceremonial skills. Some
flair for the dramatic and the expressive in
speech and action are clear assets for conducting
effective rites. For managerial roles
with many ceremonial duties, these skills
probably should be among the stated qualifications.
Karl Weick expressed the point in
more general terms in his article "Cognitive
Processes in Organizations" in Volume 1 of
Research in Organizations, edited by Barry
M. Staw (JAI Press, 1979): "Managerial work
can be viewed as managing myth, symbols,
and labels because managers traffic so often
in images; the appropriate role for the manager
may be the evangelist rather than the accountant."
Managers must also realize that because
rites help maintain the continuity of
cultural systems, they may impede organizational
adaptability. Managers must consequently
pay close attention to managing or- 21
ganizational rites so that they do not dampen
or divert change efforts. Existing rites can
have unintended, even deleterious consequences
for planned change, and may thus
need to be modified or supplanted as part of
change efforts. Managers should therefore
learn how to gauge the extent of both the
desired and undesired consequences of rites.
An effective manager will be able to make
and use such assessments to continue,
modify, or terminate ceremonial organizational
activities.
One caveat is in order, however: Because
rites arise so frequently and universally
in human societies, managers probably
will not be able to suppress popular rites
whenever they want. A better strategy may be
to try to "domesticate" such rites—to shape
their practice and manage their occurrence so
that their conservative consequences can be
minimized.
Managers who wish to cultivate
change must think creatively in order to#p#分頁標題#e#
modify existing rites or to invent new ones to
express new ideas and values. In the process,
they will need to find ways to build upon the
22
old rites, for no organization is likely to welcome
the wholesale alteration of its culture.
Managers will encounter less resistance if
they understand and appreciate the existing
culture before they try to change it, and then
use that understanding and appreciation to
affirm and reinforce the direction of the
desired change. New beliefs and values can be
expressed by adding new forms or changing
those used in current popular rites; some of
the meanings conveyed by existing rites could
be changed simply by changing one or two
elements, such as the setting and the performers.
For example, the cultural meaning of
an internal appeals committee might be
changed by moving its deliberations away
from the general manager's office to a location
on the plant floor, or by including fellow
employees as well as members of management
in those deliberations. In like manner,
the cultural meanings of existing rites of passage
could be changed by incorporating previously
neglected stories about the organization
and its early heroes that reflect desired
beliefs and values.
As managers begin to evaluate their
activities as rites, they will find that some of
these rites are ineffective as cultural forms.
Desired cultural values will be absent or compromised
to the extent that they convey no
consistent messages about the desired culture.
In such instances, managers will need to
decide whether to create new, more vigorous
rites or to try to revive tired old ones. New
cultural forms can be added to try to invigorate
old rites, but managers may find the
gradual replacement of such rites more effective.
They should avoid immediate substitutions
for or drastic overhauls of such rites;
even tired ceremonies may have residual sentiments
attached to them, and management
may awaken resentment if it callously eliminates
them. For example, a new bank president
who had tried to reinvigorate a formal
company dinner as a meaningful rite of integration
felt he was unsuccessful. Instead of
recommending that he discontinue the dinner,
a consultant suggested that he try instituting
a picnic or other informal social
event, as well as other activities that would
help people lose their awareness of differences
in status. If the picnic becomes popular
and works better as a rite of integration, he
can gradually try again to modify the dinner,
or perhaps allow it to wither away by gradually
withdrawing financial support.
The cultural forms needed to
modify existing rites are occasionally already
present in organizational subcultures. If such#p#分頁標題#e#
elements can be incorporated, the modified
rites may be more acceptable to the organization's
members than rites that are entirely
new. As we suggested to the bank manager,
managers can also invent and establish new
rites that express values consonant with the
direction of desired change. If the new rites
are successful, the old rites that express old
values may lose their appeal and wither away.
Rites of passage and enhancement are good
places to begin; rites of integration and conflict
reduction should be useful in dealing
with conflicts that emerge during the change.
Rites of degradation are problematic because
they provoke resentment and make people
feel insecure, but they may be necessary in instances
that require drastic change. Existing
rites of renewal are dangerous; they should
be used only to effect minor cultural change
and should be avoided when major change is
desired.
change processes into motion. Major change
requires the invention and establishment of
new patterns of behavior —new roles that
must be devised, accepted, learned, and
enacted. The social interactions required to
invent and establish new roles could be called
"rites of creation"— rites for establishing new
scripts of behavior and embedding them in ongoing
social arrangements. Once established,
individuals could be resocialized to fill the
new roles through special rites of passage,
and rewarded when they performed well in
those roles through rites of enhancement.
Rites of creation are probably more
likely to succeed if they are carried out initially
on a small scale. Limiting participation
will make it easier to choose participants
whose beliefs and values are in line with
whatever changes are involved. Furthermore,
the desired changes can be treated as a pilot
project; if they don't come up to expectations,
they can be dismantled with less expense, embarrassment,
and disruption.
Other areas in which organizations
could benefit from appropriate rites include
eliminating a role without degrading its oc-
Possible New Rites
There are many gaps in our typology waiting
to be filled by other observers. For example,
a new type of rite is badly needed to set major 23
cupants and introducing technology (such as
robotics) that takes over some employee
tasks. Perhaps such rites have already been
invented. Intuitive managers often recognize
the need for ceremony; if they don't, workers
will often invent a ceremony of their own.
People have always managed to develop and
celebrate shared understandings; wise managers
will help them do so.
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAFHY
Readers interested in additional, in-depth examinations#p#分頁標題#e#
of rites and ceremonials in the workplace
can find them described in detail in Harrison M.
Trice, "Rites and Ceremonials in Organizational
Cultures" in Research in the Sociology of Organizations,
Vol. 4, edited by Sam Bachrach (lAI Press,
1985); in Harrison M. Trice and Janice M. Beyer,
"Studying Organizational Cultures through Rites
and Ceremonials" {Academy of Management Review,
October 1984) and in Harrison M. Trice,
James Belasco, and Joseph Alutto, "The Role of
Ceremonials in Organizational Behavior" (industrial
and Labor Relations Review, October 1969).
For a discussion of the twins of "do" and
say" in human actions, see Edmund R. Leach's article
"Ritual" in International Encyclopedia of the
Social Sciences. Vol. 13 {Free Press, 1968). For a
definitive statement oi manifest and latent consequences,
see Robert K. Merton, 'The Unintended
Consequences of Purposive Social Action" (American
Sociological Review, December 1936). A fascinating
account of rites and ceremonials in a Japanese
organization may be found in Thomas P.
Rohlen's article "Spiritual Education in a Japanese
Bank" (American Anthropologist, October 1974)
and in his book For Harmony and Strength: A Japanese
White Collar Organization in Anthropologi-
24 cai Perspective (University of California Press,
1974). On the American scene, the following
pieces are strongly recommended: Stanley G.
Harris and Robert I. Sutton, "Functions of Parting
Ceremonies in Dying Organizations" (Academy of
Management Journal. March 1986) and Albert A.
Blum, "Collective Bargaining; Ritual or Reality"
(Harvard Business Review, November-December,
1961). The accounts of events at International Business
Machines and the quotations used come from
Thomas Graham Belden and Maria Robins Belden,
The Lengthening Shadow: The Life of
Thomas J. Watson. (Little, Brown, and Company,
1962). For a good example of a company picnic as
a rite of integration, see R. Richard Ritti and G.
Ray Funkhauser, The Ropes to Skip and the Ropes
to Know: Studies in Organizational Behavior
(Grid, 1977); for a dramatic description of a rite of
degradation, see N. W. Biggart, "The Creative-
Destructive Process of Organizational Change:
The Case of the Post Office" (Administrative
Science Quarterly. September 1977); and for an
applied approach to the role of rites in changing
cultures, Harrison M. Trice and Janice M. Beyer,
'Using Six Organizational Rites to Change Culture"
in Ralph H. Kilmann, Mary J. Saxton, and
Roy Serpa (Eds.), Gaining Control of the Corporate
Culture (Jossey Bass, 1985). A very real application
to routine worklife can be found in Helen#p#分頁標題#e#
Schwartzman's study of the ubiquitous meeting,
'The Meeting as a Neglected Form in Organizational
Studies" in Barry M. Staw and L. L. Cummings
(Eds.), Research in Organizational Behavior,
Vol. 8 (JAI Press, 1986). Finally, because these cultural
forms carry meanings, a reference to the nature
of ideologies in organizational behavior is appropriate.
Such a reference may be found in Janice
M. Beyer, "Ideologies, Values, and Decision Making
in Organizations" in Paul C. Nystrom and William
H. Starbuck (Eds.), Handbook of Organizational
Design, Vol. 2 (Oxford University Press,
1981).
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