1. “Engineering Culture:
Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation” by Gideon Kunda
What is the book about? Organizational Theories
Where? Silicon Valley, SysCom Metaphor (Morgan) Theory Commentary
When? 1990s (6 months of field work)
Who? Kunda, MIT student, Grade 2 Organization as Transactional ‘Give & take’ – transactional (Williamson)
administrative support and Grade 4 tech economy cost theory Hard work in return for appearance of security
workers support (management)
Organization as Power Game Power = “getting things done the way you
How? Participant observation ethnography
Why? Opportunity to study corporate power
power and politics (Mintzberg) want them done”
Power is wielded through ‘informal’ ritualised
messages (e.g. lunchtime seminars, annual
picnics, etc.)
Main Themes Organization as Similar to Z Proceed based on intimacy, subtlety and trust
‘family’ (or Organizations BUT – dark side of the ‘family’ – can be a
Kunda exposes the intentionality of Tech ‘culture’?) (Ouchi) veneer for abuse or control
company's management use of various methods
of normative control to propagate its claims as a Methodology Critique
familial work environment that operates
informally and allows for a flexibility which  “Going native” dangers – too close, friendships, unrepresentative sampling
promotes individual responsibility as the primary  2-Year write-up period in Tel Aviv. No further contact with sources
one’s career success.  Focused on tech workers. Ignored support workers, mostly female & non-
white.
A rewarding and life-long employment is the
company’s promise in exchange for one’s
personally commitment of their creativity and
initiative in the process of producing products
that are marketable and successful in generating
revenue. Kunda establishes that pervasive efforts
of Tech, from a well-espoused ideology that
involves “a moral purpose” as part of its daily
culture where repetition of Tech’s s mask an
elaborate and subtle form of normative control in
which the members' minds and hearts become
the target of corporate influence for the pursuit of
corporate, and by chance individual, revenue.
Kunda, G. (2006). Engineering culture: Control and commitment in a high-tech corporation. Temple University Press.