Cultures of ambiguity

Ian P. McLoughlin, Richard J. Badham and Gill Palmer
Additional contact information
Ian P. McLoughlin: University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, i.p.mcloughlin@ncl.ac.uk
Richard J. Badham: Macquarie University, Australia, Richard_badham@uow.edu.au
Gill Palmer: Monash University, Australia, gill.palmer@buseco.monash.edu.au

Work, Employment & Society, 2005, vol. 19, issue 1, 67-89

Abstract: Organizational actors involved in cultural change programmes have a consciousness and experience that is often fragmented, contradictory and ambivalent. Studies documenting ambivalence have, however, tended to assume that there is a relatively clear and unambiguous change programme about which employees are ambivalent. This article argues that the nature of such programmes is more uncertain and ambiguous than this suggests. Drawing on a six-year study of the introduction of a cultural change programme in the coke-making plant of an integrated steelworks, this article details how cultural ambivalence intertwines with practical ambiguities in the course of such programmes to create complex cultures of ambiguity

Keywords: ambiguity; ambivalence; change; control; culture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:19:y:2005:i:1:p:67-89

DOI: 10.1177/0950017005051284

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