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Drinking beer and understanding organizational culture embodiment

Catarinense Plateau University (UNIPLAC), Brazil, mtfpereira{at}terra.com.br

Eduardo Davel

Télé-université (TELUQ), the distance learning university within the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), Canada, davel.eduardo{at}teluq.uqam.ca

Neusa Rolita Cavedon

School of Management at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS), nrcavedon{at}ea.ufrgs.br

Although organizational researchers have gained in terms of different perspectives of thought and reflexivity regarding the subject of organizational culture, they have neglected studying the embodied dimension of organizational culture. The purpose of this article is to use embodiment perspective to enlighten understanding of organizational culture. We do that by giving special attention to: a) a pioneering empirical anthropological study that deals with the culture—embodiment relationship and b) an organizational ethnography in which work colleagues engage in the after-work beer drinking ritual. This double emphasis suggests that organizational life become first meaningful in the experiential immediacy of employees and organization. In this very moment organizational culture signification is not yet representational, but perceptual. Thus, the main contribution of this research is to show that organizational culture is more than a cognitive-representational abstraction: it is also a perceptual-embodied experience.

Key Words: alcoholic beverage • body • embodiment • ethnography • experiential immediacy • organizational culture • organizational ritual • perceptual experience

Human Relations, Vol. 61, No. 7, 1007-1026 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0018726708093906


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