ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Edition

THE LEVELS OF CULTURE 31given member of the culture could, from time to time, behave accordingto variant as well as dominant orientations (Kluckhohnand Strodtbeck, 1961).Basic assumptions, in the sense in which I want to define thatconcept, have become so taken for granted that one finds little variationwithin a social unit. This degree of consensus results fromrepeated success in implementing certain beliefs and values, as previouslydescribed. In fact, if a basic assumption comes to be stronglyheld in a group, members will find behavior based on any otherpremise inconceivable. For example, a group whose basic assumptionis that the individual’s rights supersede those of the group memberswould find it inconceivable that members would commit suicideor in some other way sacrifice themselves to the group even if theyhad dishonored the group. In a capitalist country, it is inconceivablethat one might design a company to operate consistently at a financialloss, or that it does not matter whether or not a product works.In an occupation such as engineering, it would be inconceivable todeliberately design something that is unsafe; it is a taken-for-grantedassumption that things should be safe. Basic assumptions, in thissense, are similar to what Argyris has identified as “theories-inuse”—theimplicit assumptions that actually guide behavior, thattell group members how to perceive, think about, and feel aboutthings (Argyris, 1976; Argyris and Schön, 1974).Basic assumptions, like theories-in-use, tend to be nonconfrontableand nondebatable, and hence are extremely difficult tochange. To learn something new in this realm requires us to resurrect,reexamine, and possibly change some of the more stable portionsof our cognitive structure—a process that Argyris and othershave called “double-loop learning,” or “frame breaking” (Argyris etal., 1985; Bartunek, 1984). Such learning is intrinsically difficultbecause the reexamination of basic assumptions temporarily destabilizesour cognitive and interpersonal world, releasing large quantitiesof basic anxiety.Rather than tolerating such anxiety levels, we tend to want toperceive the events around us as congruent with our assumptions,