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220 Lorna Heaton

networks which are not wholly based in any single territory.” Many
transnational cultures are occupational. Hannerz suggests that,
while it makes sense to see them as a particular phenomenon, they
must at the same time be seen in their relationships to territorially-
based cultures and argues that their real significance lies in their
mediating possibilities. While “transnational cultures are penetrable
to various degrees by the local meanings carried in settings and by
participants in particular situations” (251), they also provide points
of contact between different territorial cultures.
The important point here is that occupational culture need not
be a subset of national culture. Rather, the two are distinct and in-
terrelated. Those involved in CSCW system design share a common
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“CSCW culture” , but they also reflect and interpret this profes-
sional culture within the framework of their territorial cultures, just
as professional training and perspectives lead them to interpret ele-
ments of territorial culture in certain ways. A given situation, say
the design of a particular CSCW system, can be understood in cul-
tural terms as the product of what is unique (national culture) and
what is shared by all (occupational culture). The resulting combina-
tion of the two will necessarily differ between cultures and even be-
tween systems in the same national culture, because conditions can
never be identical.
Finally, there is organizational culture, which is perhaps best
understood as a root metaphor. Starting with the premise that or-
ganization rests in shared systems of meaning, and hence in the
shared interpretative schemes that create and recreate that mean-
ing, it directs attention to the symbolic or even “magical” signifi-
cance of even the most rational aspects of organizational life and
calls for recognition of the complexity of everyday (organizational)
life. Erez and Earley (1993, 69) cite a number of empirical studies
that suggest that national or societal culture must be considered
along with organizational culture in order to fully understand the re-
lation of an organization’s culture to its functioning.
In summary, for the purposes of this research culture is defined
as a dynamic mix of national/geographic, organizational, and profes-
sional or disciplinary variables in constant interaction with one an-
other. Culture changes according to context and over time, and
should be understood not in terms of pre-existing, fixed categories,
but as resources, accumulations of actions, patterns that constitute,
reinforce and transform social life. In short, culture is continually
constructed and reconstructed.