From Lapel Pins to Coffee Cups: Links Between Corporate and Material Culture, Lessons From IBM (January-March 2021)
Archeologists have developed tools and practices for studying ancient objects, such as pots and swords, which are used to study today's societies, by sociologists and cultural anthropologists. All learned to analyze objects for insights on human behavior. Can historians use the same approach to study corporate cultures? The evidence says yes, even though students of corporate culture are largely sociologists, economists, business management professors, and consultants. Our purpose is to demonstrate what such artifacts can teach us about modern firms. IBM is our case study, because it was recognized as both iconic and emblematic of large-scale twentieth century business. It is a company whose employees, and sociologists, historians, and business management experts agree long had and continues to operate within a highly defined corporate culture. We proceed first by defining briefly corporate and material cultures, to remind the reader of what is generally understood about these concepts. Then, we provide a short introduction to IBM, again more to refresh one's knowledge of a well-documented firm. Next we move to a description of a selection of material objects, describing their role in IBM's activities. It is here that we discuss, for example, lapel pins and coffee cups. To do that we situate those objects into Edgar Schein's model of organizational culture, since his is one of the most widely accepted constructs of corporate culture. This essay concludes with insights drawn from our discussion. As an archeologist does, this article presents numerous images as direct evidence of IBM's material culture.
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