Work and society: Patterns of organisational culture

Abstract

Workplaces are shaped in their functioning by a general national culture, or for that matter a sub-national or regional culture. However, the use here of the term ‘national culture’ does not constitute a commitment to the proposition that everywhere in the world there is a single national culture (and a single political culture) which will be co-terminus with a specific ‘state’ in the Weberian sense, that is to say, an entity with a defined territory, exercising a monopoly of force over that territory. This ideal-typical formulation is closely approached in some places, not so closely in others, and oniy weakly articulated elsewhere. For present purposes it is sufficient to say that a ‘culture’ having influence on a workplace organisation can be co-terminus with a territorial state, but it need not be. We simply need to look at individual cases and specify the parameters of the given situation. The focus of this paper, however, is on organisational culture (Frost, Moore, et al., 1985; Schein, 1985). In any sort of workplace that has existed for some period of time with a degree of stability there will develop a set of norms, values, and behaviors that will be characteristic of that particular workplace (Woodworth, Meek, et al. 1985; The Economist 1990). Such a very simple definition does not require us to posit either the universality of one or several types of organisational cultures, nor need we abandon all hope of being able to go beyond making statements about the organisationat culture of each individual workplace. Next we must also ask: what are the sources of a given organisational culture? Here we can distinguish between exogenous and endogenous sources. The former will comprise those elements of the organisational culture which derive from the organisation’s environment, however defined (Dertouzos, et al, 1989). The latter refer to those elements that derive from within the organisation itself (Kamerman and Kahn, 1987). Both types will occur simultaneously and will modify each other in the very process of interacting. The further question of what is an endogenous and what an exogeneous element can be answered only with reference to a definition of the organisation’s boundaries. The difficulties here, will be much like those raised in the study of the business firm by economists who need to define what ‘membership’ in the firm means and what the consequences are of various alternative definitions of membership. One other aspect of an organisation culture approach needs to be considered. The wider national or regional/sub-national culture which helps shape the organisation culture works at both the individual and the systemic or