Nursing Administration
NURSE ADMINISTRATION
ABSTRACTS
ABSTRACT OF RESEARCH ARTICLE BY SONYA HARDIN RN MSN
RILEY, PATRICIA {1983}.A Structurionist Account of Political Culture. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, 414-437.
The theory of structuration provided the theoretical framework for a qualitatative study comparing political symbols of two professional firms –one routinized and one nonroutinized. Distinct political cultures were found in each organization.
The findings are presented in the form of themes categorized into Dandridge, Mitroff, and Joyce’s [1980] conceptualization of verbal, action, and material political symbols. A synopsis of differences in the verbal, action, and material symbols bet ween the two organizations is discussed according to structure ,significance, and domination. For example, in the analysis of verbal symbols the difference between the two organizations in terms of significance is hierarchial. The nonroutinized firm made pervasive use of verbal political symbols; the routinized firm had two separate cultures : a highly political culture in the higher management levels and an apolitical culture at the lower management level .The category of legitimation supported competition as the key structure in the nonroutinized firm whereas, the routinized firm made every effort to obey those in power. The third category , domination ,indicated that a difference existed between organizations in thier image of power. The routinized firm equated resources with power and control; the nonroutinized firm viewed the use of power as victimizing.
The research question of the study concerned discovery of political symbols in organizational cultures and transformation of these symbolic structures across the subgroups within organizations. The sample was a stratified two-group comparison, from within two firms classified as highly professional subsidiaries of a large parent organization. Taped interviews from respondents at the partner, manager, and consultant levels of each firm provided the data; twenty interviews from each organization [N =40] were semi-transcribed from tapes. Two researchers reviewed the transcripts and identified symbolic themes through the procedure of content analysis. A third researcher arbitrated major discrepancies. Interrater reliability after discrepancy arbitration was .79 using Scott’s pi.
The strengths of the study are: 1] a strong review of literature links the theory of structuration to the problem; 2] qualitative methodology lends itself to the research question in this new area of inquiry; 3] the methodology generates areas for future research; 4] the problem is clearly and concisely stated ; 5] definition of terms are clear; 6] the relevance of political cultures to organizations allows one to understand why the organization is what it is; 7] the design of the study is adequately described; 8] the design controlled threats to internal validity by using three researchers for theme analysis;
9] population sampling and selection is well described; 10] results are clearly presented; 11] results are displayed appropriately; 12] the findsings can generate future research.
The weaknesses of the study are: 1] no recommendation is made concerning methodology improvement; 2] more detailed information about data analysis is needed; 3] steps taken to validate the findings are discussed; 4] the question of confouding variables is not adressed;5] the method used for subject selection does not pertmit generalizability of findings; 6] more discussion is about threats to internal and external validity; 7] a lact of control over the interview process identified by hte researcher may produced the observed differences in results; and 8] the interview questions were not developed through initial interview techniques.
Key Words: structuration, political symbols, qualitative, signification, legitimation, dominance, organizational culture, organizational politics, political culture, power