“Come, Join Our Family”: Discipline and Integration in Corporate Organizational Culture

This article critically examines primaryprocesses and effects of the so-called neworganizational culture that is organized on theprinciples and practices of Total Quality Management(and its variations) and increasingly practiced incorporate organizations in the 1990s. The paperspecifically analyzes the effects of the organizationalcultural practices of family and"team" on the employee and discusses their role incorporate discipline, integration, and control. Data aredrawn from field research conducted in a largemultinational corporation and the analyses andinterpretive propositions are informed by a critical socialpsychoanalytic perspective. The paper disputes theconventional view that the practices of the "newculture" and its purported reform of thehierarchical, specialized, conflict-ridden workplaces oftraditional industrial organizationsempower employees and providemeaningful relationships in the workplace.It is argued, on the contrary, that these new designer culturalpractices serve as processes of regulation, discipline,and control of employee subject selves.     

Personal and Organizational Determinants of Perceived Absence Norms

A two-phase study employed a combination ofqualitative and quantitative methodology to studyabsenteeism in a complex, hospital setting. The primaryfocus was to identify the bases of employees' beliefs about what is acceptable and expected in termsof absence behavior. Through a series of employeeinterviews, two different absence cultures wereidentified. We found evidence that employees' normativeperceptions were influenced by their prior personalabsence, and by the average level of absence within boththeir immediate work group and the absence culture towhich they belonged. Perceived norms were also shown to predict future individual absence (totaldays absent) 1 year later. Theoretical and practicalimplications of this research were discussed.