University Organizational Culture through Insider Eyes: A Case Study of a Writing Program

Abstract

Using a case study approach, the authors examined university administrator and instructor perspectives about a writing program's organizational culture. In so doing, members of the writing program were invited to participate in interviews over a three-year period. The case study suggests that examples of culture through a three-lens perspective (integration, differentiation, and fragmentation) provided a more nuanced reading of the program's identity than a single lens could. The authors suggested that this wider frame of organizational culture for understanding policy and practice has implications for leadership in such areas as personnel evaluation and the encouragement of experimentation with teaching.