Cultural complexity: a new epistemological perspective

Abstract

Culture is a complex process. Many authors show the importance of the concept of culture in organizations. The question which arises is how to approach the cultural problematic of organizations. The paper proposes that the traditional ways – based on the Cartesian epistemology – do not match with the cultural complexity, since it simplifies too much to be satisfying. This paper proposes a new paradigm called “complexity thinking” which seems to be more appropriate for studying culture in organizations. Furthermore, the paper outlines the concepts and principles of this epistemology that could be seen more as a strategy than a ready‐for‐use method in approaching culture in learning organizations.