This paper reviews some key ideas that have emerged from recent research into administrative practices in education and their relationship to organizational culture. "Culture" is defined as a system of knowledge and conceptions that members of an organization use for giving meaning to and coping with problems that they experience. The paper focuses on the processes through which an organization's historically evolved culture is modified and augmented by administrators as they organize themselves and others. The first section demonstrates that the process of organization can be seen as a form of cultural action through which shared social realities and assumptions are created, renegotiated, or terminated. The second section considers power and structure--two key resources typically used to control the significant and legitimate aspects of educational institutions. Section 3 illustrates the role administrators play in distributing cultural knowledge (or "cultural capital") during the educational process. Finally, it is argued that despite some limitations, cultural analysis of administrative talk and other actions is crucial to fully understanding the nature and consequences of the concepts of "organization" and "development." (PGD)