Abstract
This thesis employs dialectical theory in the organizational context to understand organizational culture. The specific organization studied was Café Opulence, a vegan restaurant with a unique organizational culture maintained by both employees and customers. The purpose of this study was twofold: 1) to understand and analyze Café Opulence’s organizational culture through the lens of dialectical theory; 2) to offer a new insight to existing organizational scholarship through showing how organizational cultures in general can be examined through identifying dialectical tensions. The analysis showed the existence of the three prevailing dialectical tensions: connectedness-seperateness, openness-closedness, and predictability-novelty, at Café Opulence. Two additional dialectical tensions were also added, including the authentic-inauthentic and implicit-explicit control tensions. The study demonstrates the viability of extending dialectical theory into organizations. Although results were not generalizable, it will provide a source for more in-depth inquiry into the ways in which organizational culture is studied.