Reframing Systems Disasters With Three Perspectives of organizational Culture

Abstract

This paper presents the major literature on systems disasters and how organizational culture is portrayed in this literature. The paper then outlines the three cultural perspectives used by Martin 2002 to describe organizational cultures: integration, differentiation, and fragmentation. The paper explores show these perspectives influence interpretations about the disasters described. The paper concludes that the effect of an organization’s culture on safety, reliability, and disasters can be fully understood only when all three perspectives are applied.