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42 MANAGING KNOWLEDGE WORK AND INNOVATION

symbolically and materially, for identifying their sense of purpose with the
values that are designed into the organization’ (Willmott, 1993, pp. 515–516;
italics author’s own). Naturally this ‘leader-led’ organizational culture will
be characterized by an organizational (core) value system that represents the
long-term interests of the firm. This represents the basis of cultural (norma-
tive) control in organizations.
Importantly, in this literature strong organizational cultures are those that
are shared across the firm, strengthening the firm through integration and
enhanced productivity. This integration perspective on organizational culture
(Martin, 1992) and much of the literature that advocates the promotion of a
strong organizational culture posit culture as an organizational variable that
can be directly shaped by the behaviour and core values of the leaders and man-
agement of the firm. These core beliefs permeate the whole organization over
time and serve to influence the values and norms of behaviour of the rest of the
workforce. There is an emphasis on homogeneity, consensus and, importantly,
within the context of a knowledge-intensive firm, predictable behaviour which,
in this context, is characterized by an impressive work ethic and communitar-
ian loyalty (Alvesson, 2004). This view has persisted over time and more recent
literature in this area reinforces the idea that normative control is an important
aspect of the enabling context for knowledge work (Pyoria, 2007). What tends
to be overlooked here, however, is that whilst predictable behaviour is sought
with regard to knowledge workers displaying responsible autonomy, in other
respects predictable behaviour is not advocated as this may not necessarily lead
to innovation and creativity.
The way in which leaders of firms can actively create and shape organiza-
tional culture is explained in detail in Schein’s work (l982, 1993). He suggests
that leaders are in a position to implement primary embedding mechanisms
and secondary reinforcement or articulation mechanisms, which will symboli-
cally reflect and are consistent with the dominant, core values held by the lead-
ers. Specific employment policies and practices such as the criteria used for
recruitment and selection, performance management and reward are examples
of what Schein refers to as primary embedding mechanisms. Organizational
design and structure together with formal statements of organizational phi-
losophy typically found in firms’ mission statements are examples of secondary
reinforcement mechanisms. Schein suggests that if leaders of firms implement
all 12 mechanisms in a consistent and coherent manner then, over time, core
organizational values will become shared values across the workforce leading to
performance and productivity improvements. Alvesson (2004) also emphasizes
the importance of symbolism and symbolic leadership, as an important aspect
of creating and sustaining a strong organizational culture within knowledge-
intensive settings.
From this perspective, if the leader of a knowledge-intensive firm wished
to emphasize the importance of knowledge sharing – as might be expected in
knowledge-intensive firms – then mechanisms that directly or indirectly rewarded
knowledge sharing would need to be introduced. For example, knowledge work-

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