A theory of the cultural evolution of the firm: the intra-organizational ecology of memes

The Meme's-Eye View

To understand the powerful implications of recognizing the meme, rather than the organization or the routine, as the unit of selection within cultural bodies, we need to return one last time to the biological analogy before it has taken us as far as it can conceptually and we may jettison it in order to consider the unique characteristics of cultural evolution in organizations. Dawkins coined the term 'meme' in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene. The book's title (perhaps too clever for its own good, since it tends to confuse people who have heard of the book, but have not read it) refers to the following argument. Given that, for the reasons we have discussed and that Dawkins goes into much greater detail to show, the gene and not the organism as a whole is the unit of selection and that which gets replicated and passed down from generation to generation, we need to realize that what evolution leads to over time is not survival of the fittest organisms, but survival of the genes best able to reproduce themselves. Obviously, in most cases, these two are congruent: the genes best able to reproduce themselves are those inside the fittest organisms. But it means that since reproduction usually increases the frequency of a gene faster than mere longevity of the organism holding the gene, we should not be surprised by cases in nature such as the cannibalism of the female preying mantis, who bites the head off the male during copulation. Likewise, since siblings share genes, we should not be surprised by the evolution of altruistic behavior such as bees who sting us in kamikaze missions to protect their brothers and sisters in the hive, or rather to protect the genes they share with them.

We should expect the same with memes and organizations. All evolution proceeds from competition for a scarce resource. This is the Malthusian element of Darwin's theory: once there is not enough of a necessary resource for all replicators to have offspring, selection occurs as some are able to replicate and others are not. What is the scarce resource that memes are competing for? It is human attention. They are competing for the chance of human beings noticing their public expression (in writing, routine, cartoon form or whatever), to internalize them, and then to reproduce them. An important way that memes may acquire reproductive advantage is by their contribution to the success of the organization of which they are a part, through the benefits of the traits that they effect. But this is far from the only way. In the first place, contributing to organizational success may not be as important if the contribution is not also recognized as contributing to that success. If managers misunderstand the source of organizational success, they may reproduce the wrong memes. If managers are more interested in furthering their own career than coming to the aid of their organization, they may be expected to reproduce memes they interpret as furthering that self-interest. The organization, its routines, its cultural distribution, will reflect that.