ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Edition

6ASSUMPTIONS ABOUTMANAGING INTERNAL INTEGRATIONIf a group is to accomplish tasks that enable it to adapt to its externalenvironment, it must be able to develop and maintain a set ofinternal relationships among its members. The processes that buildand develop the group occur at the same time as the processes ofproblem solving and task accomplishment. What we ultimately findto be the culture of the group will reflect both externally and internallyoriented processes. The processes that allow a group to internallyintegrate itself reflect the major internal issues that any groupmust deal with, as shown in Exhibit 6.1 and as was reviewed inChapter Four.Creating a Common Languageand Conceptual CategoriesTo function as a group, the individuals who come together mustestablish a system of communication and a language that permitsinterpretation of what is going on. The human organism cannottolerate too much uncertainty or stimulus overload. Categories ofmeaning that organize perceptions and thought filter out what isunimportant while focusing on what is important. Such categoriesnot only reduce overload and anxiety but also are a necessary preconditionfor any coordinated action.Two children on a see-saw not only need to be able to signaleach other that they want to operate the see-saw together; they alsoneed some verbal or nonverbal means of signaling when to push and111