research results. Organisational culture is seen as being an entity of a systemic and holistic character that objectively exists. It consists of specific elements (subsystems) which function within cause and effect correlations. The most often mentioned elements of organisational culture include values, norms, basic assumptions, cultural patterns, heroes, stereotypes, myths, stories, rituals and taboos.
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The functionalist view of culture puts emphasis on balance, harmony and order, which are related to research into the problem of internal integration. Therefore, the subjects of interest are not subcultures or counter-cultures which, by definition, limit the internal integration of culture. According to E. Schein, organisational culture develops within two key orientations. The first is the need for internal integration, which is manifested in the strength or homogeneity of culture, and the other is the striving for the external adaptation, which is manifested in its competitiveness. A balance between these two dimensions results in creation of an effective, positive organisational culture61. Internal integration can be viewed at as coherence and the strength of internal relationships, determining the way organisation functions as a whole. The levels of internal integration of functioning organizations may differ. One can create a continuum from full integration to complete disintegration, using the criticism of functionalism made by representatives of the conflict theory, such as R. Dahrendorf and L. Coser62 (Tab. 2). A fully integrated organisation is a hypothetical entity, which never occurs in reality. It is theoretically possible only in the context of a total institution, which is a very special, extreme case of organisation. Full disintegration means the breaking of the organisational whole into smaller entities, as a result of decentralist tendencies. A fully disintegrated organisation is of a transitory and temporary character, as after reaching the critical point of system disintegration it can no longer be perceived as a whole.
| Integrational concept | Coercive concept |
| Organisation is permanent and stable | Organisation undergoes permanent changes |
| Organisation is a system of functionally integrated elements | Organisation is a system of random, temporary relationships between its elements |
| Organisation functions in the context of social order | Organisation functions in the context of a social conflict |
| Organisation elements contribute to maintaining the system as a whole | Organisation elements contribute to the disintegration and the change of the whole system |
| All existing organisations are based on a sharing of their common values by their members | All organisations are based on coercion of some members by others |
| Organisation is a whole | Organisation may be perceived as a whole |
An organisation can be maintained as a whole (integrated) by external or internal factors. In order to maintain it as a whole, it has to be integrated externally, institutionally and legally. Organisational coherence can also be studied from the system and internal perspectives. This makes it possible to look for the sources and mechanisms of integration on all levels and in all sub-systems. Strategy can be an important factor uniting an organisation – if both individual members and social groups (colleagues, employees and interest groups) identify themselves with the aims of the organisation, then this facilitates the integration of the whole system. Another factor that strengthens this integration in the area of strategy further is support for the organisation’s aims from broader social groups, and not only the organisation’s own members. This takes place when the ←34 | 35→organisation’s mission meets the conditions of social responsibility. An organisation is more integrated structurally when individuals approve and understand their place within the organisational structure and power relationships accompanying it, and when the structure is a reflection of the internal social diversification of the organisation and the external social structure.
Naturally, just as the areas of strategy, structure and culture can be treated as elements creating integration in situations when the aims, power structure or system of values at the level of individuals, social groups and organisations within a society are coherent, one can also see a contrary tendency (Tab. 3). An organisation’s disintegration arises from the lack of strategic, structural or cultural coherence. However, it has to be understood that both integrational and disintegrational forces can contribute to an organisation’s development.
Tab. 3: Levels and areas of the internal integration of an organisation. Source: Own work.
The extent of an organisation’s integration can change considerably with time. Internal reasons for these changes are usually difficult to foresee and are of a revolutionary character. They include, among others, the processes of takeovers and mergers, which happen in many globalised economic sectors. It is usually easier to diagnose the internal factors behind changes in an organisation’s integration level.
In conclusion, the functionalist view of organisational culture, being the oldest, classical and most popular cognitive perspective in the social sciences, has a number of characteristic features.
1.
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2.2 Elements of organisational culture
The differently interpreted models, elements and types of culture remain of key significance to the functionalist understanding of organisational culture. Thus, for the purpose of the conducted analysis, I propose to assume that the elements of a functionalist organisational culture are not other organisational sub-systems, such as strategy or organisational structure, but the strictly cultural variables, including values, basic assumptions, norms, artefacts and so on. A model could include those correlations between important variables describing organisational culture allowing us to predict the states of culture. This would fulfil the neopositivist postulates of causative relationships between variables and verifiability. This means that the model would offer the possibility of generating hypotheses concerning culture, and then, with the use of research methods, to reliably verify or at least potentially falsify them. Another consequence of creating a cultural model would be the generation of typologies (classifications) of the types of organisational culture, distinguished by significant criteria. Having made these assumptions, one can begin with the analysis of elements, move on to models and finish with the types of organisational culture and the methodology of studying them.
Values, norms and cultural models that are developed and spread in a given social group can be considered the fundamental elements of culture. ←36 | 37→In the case of organisational culture, the group which is based on the community of values, norms and cultural patterns is organisation. The elements of organisational culture were first distinguished by E. Schein, P. Bate, A. Pettigrew and other authors in the 1970s. Culture elements are of key importance to the neopositivist-functionalist-systemic paradigm because their assumptions are of a systemic
