Memes and organisational culture : what is the relationship?

Abstract

Organisational culture and memes have generally been studied as independent phenomenon. This thesis examines the relationship between memes and culture within the context of organisations. By actively exploring the metaphysical landscape of organisations alongside traditional organisational cultural and memetic analysis, this research brings new perspectives. The study of organisations is more than 100 years old, while the study of culture is arguably as old or older. The study of organisational culture is more recent, but it emerged from research on organisations and culture. Memes are a new idea, heralded as a new way of approaching the landscape of ideas and the force of the mega-corporations, religions or ideologies. The study of memes has been justifiably criticised for its lack of theoretical foundations and its fad like nature partly because it is drawing on metaphors borrowed from the science of genetic transmission. This leaves the research area in a theoretical void once the initial analogies have been explored. The study of organisations and culture has been extensively explored and yet there is still no single definition of organisational culture. The challenge with the study of memes and organisational culture is that definitions are ambiguous, the thinking continues to evolve and there is no agreed model that defines memes or organisational culture. In addition, while there is discussion around the relationship between biological and cultural evolution, there is very little research comparing memes and organisational culture. This research uses a variety of techniques to explore five case study organisations in Ireland, the United States and in Australia. Using Plato as the theoretical foundation, the research draws from both Western philosophy and the Western esoteric tradition to bring a multileveled understanding. By using academic and metaphysical methods, the research explores what Plato described as the visible and intelligible worlds within the context of organisations. The metaphysical perspective is gained using systematic meditation based techniques to explore the non-visible component of organisations. The insights gained during the metaphysical mapping are compared to the results from open-ended interviews and the Organisational Cultural Assessment Instrument (OCAI) to generate comparisons between conventional and metaphysical perspectives and between case studies. Through analysis of the material, a model has emerged that reveals memes and culture from a metaphysical perspective.

Date of Award	2014
Original language	English