We Don't Do That Here: Using Cognitive Work Analysis to Learn About Organizational Culture

COGNITIVE WORK ANALYSIS

What is it like to be an administrative assistant in local government? Is it the same as being an administrative assistant in state government? In a software firm? When it comes to the part of the job that involves information, much of the work seems similar. Most administrative assistants find, manipulate, store, retrieve and present information. They do some of this information-related work for themselves, but much of what an administrative or executive assistant does is in support of a manager. When we think about devising new information systems for people who do similar work, what difference does it make where they work? Does the organizational culture matter?

In a study of the information culture of government support staff personnel and its implication for managerial decision-making, I used cognitive work analysis (CWA) to inform the questions and to provide the analytical framework used to learn about the organizational culture that I believe frames information culture. That is, organizational culture determines behavioral constraints regarding information-related activities (information culture) in this environment, for example creating, retrieving, storing, transferring or exchanging information at work. In this article, I discuss organizations, organizational culture, the constraining effect of institutional forces on the behavior of organizational members and how using CWA as an analytical framework promotes learning about them.

Organizations

An organization can be defined as an economy or market as well as an adaptive social structure. In an organization, people are joined in shifting alliances and work toward goals that may or may not be shared by others. Further, they may be constrained in attaining those goals by forces internal and external to the organization, forces of which they may not be aware.

Organizations may be rational - a formal system with defined job titles, work rules and hierarchies. It is fairly easy for an outsider to figure out who is doing what, how they're doing it and with or to whom. For example, Vicente, who reviews the elements of an organization in his work on CWA, appears to describe a typical rational system, that is, one that is purposeful, exhibits organized collective behavior, has a rational criterion for decision making, offers mechanisms for choice and engages in effective planning.

Alternatively, organizations may be natural, with a focus on people and behavior. People in an organization come to work with their own desires, needs and goals, which they will pursue in addition to, or instead of, the organization's needs and goals. Or, an organization may be open, a perspective which examines the organization's inner life as well as its interactions with the environment. Note that the open organization is not without boundaries. Rather, it is engaged simultaneously in two ongoing types of activity - activities that maintain the organization and activities that change the organization.

Organizations may not fit neatly into one type. Some parts of the same organization may be very open, such as marketing. Other parts, such as research and design, may have to operate in a more or less closed system in order to preserve intellectual property rights.

Organizational Culture

When we think of organizational culture, generally what comes to mind is how the organization feels to those on the inside. What does it feel like to work there? Culture can be briefly described as shared group assumptions. It is a way of looking at the world and solving problems. Culture determines what we find important, how we show it is important and what people consider the correct and incorrect ways to act within the organizational setting. Culture is so important that we teach it to new group members so that they will also do the right things, in the right ways, thereby preserving us (the organization) and our ways.

When we go into an organization, we get a glimpse of its culture by examining the artifacts - things such as furniture or how people dress; espoused values - what people say are their values; and underlying assumptions - assumptions which determine how the organization sees itself in relation to its environment.

This integrated view of the organization - one entity whose parts work together to present a united front to the outsider - is only one way of many to examine organizational culture. The existence of formal and informal structures such as departments, divisions, subgroups or multinational units all work against the likelihood that there is one culture in any given organization. If culture formation centers on mission and strategy, goals, means, measurement and correction, it is not surprising that different subgroups in the organization will have different cultures as they pursue their own missions and develop their own strategies and goals in their struggle to gain control over scarce resources in the organization.

Integration is only one perspective used in analyzing organization culture. There are at least two other perspectives - differentiation and fragmentation - which take into account varying levels of conflict and tension.