Photograph Analysis: A Method to Capture Organizational Belief Systems

This chapter explores some empirical evidence about theories of customers, and uses the data to describe the theories in a sample of existing organizations. It examines the self-conscious displays of customer activities for the tacit theories of customers underlying them. Annual reports typically contain several kinds of content, among them photographs of customers. Analysis of photographs is a small but growing approach to social research. The photographs tell a story about the meanings and assumptions of customers shared among organization members. The survival of many organizations depends on how well they satisfy customers and anticipate the needs of new markets. Most of the techniques proposed by students of organizational culture involve lengthy interviews with organizational members, or participant observation, or extended contact with them in a clinical mode. Theories of customers operate at an ephemeral, complex level of organizational life, requiring these more qualitative and natural language research techniques.