For some time organizational theorists have been calling for increased attention to and appreciation of the role of specific contexts in organizational processes. One group of researchers has heeded this call by treating the organization as a cultural phenomenon. This approach has raised many questions, including (1) What is cultural in an organization? (2) How does the cultural relate to the communicative in organizational life? (3) What descriptive framework guides inquiry of organizations as cultural phenomena? and (4) What are the advantages and goals of treating the organization as culture? In pursuing answers to these questions, researchers may gain insights regarding the salient symbols and meanings, topics, concepts, and premises in organizational communication; the role of speech contexts in organizational life; and the forms of speech used in completing communal tasks. By discovering and describing these features, researchers will be able, in principle, to construct a theory of a case which is adequate to its task. Additionally, they will develop a descriptive framework and contribute to a fund of studies for use in comparative research. (FL)