The Ecstasy of Tragedy : An Ethnography of Hospice

Abstract: Culture is a double-edged sword in organizational research. Certain researchers consider culture the key to understanding organizations while others see it as a pseudo-scientific and faddish term. Similarly in the private sector, some argue that it is an essential part of their company’s success while others treat it as a high-scoring word in corporate-speak-bingo. This dissertation lies somewhere in between these positions. This dissertation explores the organizational culture of hospice care based on three years of volunteering (bi-weekly), two months of non-participant observations, and 30 interviews (17 semi-structured and 13 unstructured). It makes the case that while some organizations are not subject to distinct or persistent cultures in an anthropological sense, other organizations display cultural continuity in ways that resemble clans, tribes, or communes. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the cultural reproduction of such an organization – hospice. Building on work within affective theory and new-wave organization culture, this dissertation discusses the role that ecstasy plays in the persistence of communal bonds in hospice, and it explores different social- and psychological processes within hospice that leads to the maintenance of its norms, symbols, and values.