There is an increasing awareness about the multiplicity of cultural orientations in organizations. The idea that a single, overall organizational culture creates unity among people in organizations, and the counter-idea that organizations typically are characterized by stable and well-demarcated subcultures are increasingly being disputed. Emphasis on ambiguity as a central feature of organizational culture is a response to the dominance of the idea that a culture (or a subculture) is a clear and known entity that creates unity and harmony within an organization.

In general in social and organization studies, there are good reasons to more seriously consider ambiguity than is common. In the management area, topics like leadership, strategy and quality are seldom as clear and obvious as we may think. Careful cultural research must take contradictions and uncertainties seriously, even within a cultural category, whether it is the organization, the management, the division, the occupational community, the shop floor or society. In investigating cultural ambiguity, the criteria are themselves very ambiguous.

Egalitarianism is a topic that frequently is characterized by confusion and contradiction. In organizations managers frequently emphasize the family-like, informal and communitarian spirit, but everyday practices and relations often deviate from this ideal. The more confusion, contradiction and uncertainty we relate to the sphere of non-culture the less ambiguous culture appears and the less need there is for an ambiguity perspective on culture.

The symbolic system itself appears to be quite the opposite of ambiguous – through it the organization’s members develop common understandings about the character of their workplace. Ambiguity in structural arrangements and organizational processes does not necessarily call for a perspective that focuses on ambiguity as an aspect of organizational culture. Culture and social structure are not the same. Ambiguous social structures may be accompanied by cultural meaning patterns that reflect them in a way that creates shared understandings. Thus a conventional view of culture can deal rather well with many cases of organizational ambiguity.