ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Edition

DECIPHERING CULTURE 213Researchers often attempt to avoid this danger by providingtheir analysis to the members of the organization before it is published.This step has the advantage of also testing, to some degree,the validity of the information. However, it does not overcome therisk that the members of the organization who clear the data forpublication may not be aware of how the analysis might make othersin the organization more vulnerable. Nor does it overcome therisk that the members of the organization who review the materialmay want to play it safe and forbid the publication of anything thatnames the organization. For the most part, therefore, the ultimateethical responsibility falls to the researcher. Whenever a researcherpublishes information about an individual or organization, he or shemust think carefully about the potential consequences. Where Ihave named organizations in this book, I have either gotten permissionor have decided that the material can no longer harm organizationsor individuals.The dilemmas one may encounter are well illustrated in the followingexample. A doctoral student interviewed a large number ofmanagers and observed the behavior of a subgroup in a company fornine months in order to decipher and describe its culture. The studywas carefully done and the final write-up of the organization wasfairly well disguised. The write-up was intended to report objectivelywithout evaluating. When it was presented to the organization forclearance and final approval, members of the group pronounced thedescription to be accurate but asked, “Couldn’t you say it in a waythat would not make us look so bad?” (It should be noted that onlysome insiders had this reaction.)One of the managers who did not like the report discovered thata company policy formulated within the preceding year prohibitedthe publication of case studies about the company—probably for reasonsof avoiding inaccurate impressions. Several insiders who felt thatthey had an obligation to the student fought to have the descriptionreleased, but several other insiders were sufficiently nervous about thedescription—even though it was completely disguised—that it took