Organization and Management Theory OMT

AOM Symposium 

The Macro-Structures and Micro-Processes of Cultural Mixing: Exploring Opportunities for Synthesis

We hope you will consider attending our symposium at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting for an engaging moderated panel discussion on the topic of cultural mixing in organizations.  This session may be of interest to scholars studying culture and innovation from the perspectives of categories and category spanning, institutional complexity, sensemaking, and social entrepreneurship, as well as those with a more general interest in innovation at the cultural frontier.

Tuesday, Aug 12 2013 1:15PM - 2:45PM 
WDW Yacht and Beach Club Resort, Grand Harbor Salon VI

Program Session #: 1019

Division Sponsors: OMT, MOC, ENT

Participants:

Co-organizer: Matthew Grimes; U. of Alberta

Co-organizer: Tyler Wry; U. Penn.

Moderator: Joe Porac; NYU

Panelist: Adam Cobb; U. Penn.

Panelist: Joep Cornelissen; VU U. Amsterdam

Panelist: Matt Kraatz; U. Illinois

Panelist: Giacomo Negro; Emory

Panelist: Paul Tracey; Cambridge

Panelist: Klaus Weber; Northwestern

Summary 
A focus on culture – defined as shared meaning systems that stabilize action among groups of actors by anchoring interpretive and evaluative processes – is a key feature among macro organizational theories. While culture is evident at multiple levels of analysis (e.g., in logics, categories, frames, and identities) and at multiple stages of the organizational life cycle (e.g., new venture creation, growth, death) which are variously emphasized by different theories, there is a common assumption that firms which fail to resonate with relevant cultural beliefs risk problems associated with a lack of legitimacy.  Despite these hazards, combining elements from different meaning systems – or cultural mixing – is a common practice, implicating both organizations and their products. As such, this session is oriented around an important, yet unresolved, tension:  if cultural mixing is problematic, why is it so prevalent across empirical domains and how can we account for instances where it is positively received?  We intend for the session to provide the opportunity for the cross-pollination of ideas, a discussion on how best to conceptualize the linkages and overlap between these theories as they pertain to cultural mixing, and finally an agenda for developing new theory on the topic.

Apologies for cross-postings.

See you in Orlando!