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The concept of organizational culture has been central to the development of concepts, such as the learning organization and organizational learning, which are important within the field of adult education. However, the functionalist models of organizational culture, which have often relied on ethnographic and/or anecdotal studies of organizations in an attempt to discern the "culture" of an organization, do not appropriately account for individual learning and agency. Functionalist models result in descriptions of the "universal" culture of organizations and prescriptive lists of findings that link cultures to productivity and profitability. They de-emphasize individual learning and agency and often result in culture being used as a tool by managers for normative control. According to a critical model of organizational culture, though, an organization will maximize productivity and profitability when workers learn their cultures through informal and incidental learning that counter the norming attributes found within the institutional components of social architecture. An alternate model of "social architecture," functioning within the "new work order," reduces dependence on the discourse of social anthropology and provides recognition of individual agency and critical reflection to combat normative control while not divorcing the individual from his or her social and cultural context. (Contains 16 references.) (MO)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert