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The danger of conservatism is one of the key cultural threats in modern organisations that function in environments undergoing constant change. The most important elements in this case include maintaining and transferring the same values, cultivating tradition and striving for action without any change to the status quo. Although a conservative orientation supports the enterprise’s stability, too much conservatism can be dangerous to each business entity. Conservative enterprises isolate themselves from information, resist changes and can be effective only if their sector is very stable, which is found less and less often.
6 Hierarchical culture – egalitarian culture
The division according to the hierarchic criterion combines cultural and structural problems with issues of organisational power. This classification is sometimes used in analyses of bureaucratic or power-oriented organisational cultures, for example in the public sector101. Another area of research includes the attempts to build systemic relationships between a hierarchic culture and organisational strategy and structure102, as well as organisational learning103.
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The favouring of hierarchisation is linked with a belief that people differ, and an organisation reflects this diversity. Thus, organisations should include a number of management levels, and there should be a significant diversification of rights, privileges and benefits among different groups of employees. Special significance should be attached to maintaining discipline and strengthening the authority of power. Hierarchic organisations are dominated by the acceptance of a strong diversity of employees. They clearly prefer elitist thinking, and emphasise the significance of the discipline and order created by the power structure.
The striving for equality is a consequence of the belief that people deserve similar rights, and that an organisation is a reflection of such fundamental equality. Thus, organisations should have a flat structure and limit the number of management levels as much as possible – broad diversification of employees’ rights, privileges and benefits is unwelcome. Equality gives rise to the following attitudes in organisations: emphasising similarities between employees, favouring egalitarian thinking, orientation towards spontaneity, and the flexibility of structures and power relationships.
Tab. 10: Hierarchic vs. egalitarian cultures. Source: Own work.
| Features | Hierarchic culture | Egalitarian culture |
| Inequalities between positions | Striving for the consolidation of inequalities between different positions in an enterprise. | Striving for the levelling of differences between different positions. |
| Wage differential | Accepting large differences between the wages for different positions. | Striving for the limitation of differences in wages. |
| Management style | Autocratic | Participatory |
| Level of centralisation of decisions | Centralisation of decisions | Decentralisation of decisions |
| The source of organisational hierarchy | Natural and objective; a belief that employees occupying lower positions in an organisation usually have fewer skills than employees on higher levels. | Social, conventional; hierarchy is related to different roles, determined for pragmatic purposes. |
| Stability of the power hierarchy | Hierarchy should be stable. | Hierarchy should be flexible and undergo changes. |
| Relationships between employees | Subordinates are dependent on their superiors. | Superiors and subordinates are interdependent. |
| Privileged position of employees on higher levels | Employees at higher levels of the organisation should have privileges. | Everyone in the organisation should have equal rights. |
| Concept for exercising power | The dominant concepts emphasise the significance of the superiors and the process of managing employees. | The dominant concepts emphasise the significance of employees and their involvement and participation in the managerial process. |
The dimension of hierarchy vs. equality is primal with regard to the dimension defined as authoritarianism vs. democracy (participation). Authoritarianism means striving for a one-person, unquestioned decision-making process in an organisation, while democracy means striving for a group (fully participatory) decision-making process. The dimension of hierarchy vs. equality is also primal in relation to the dimension of power centralisation104.
7 Individualist culture – collectivist culture
The dimension of individualism vs. collectivism was popularised in the cultural research into organisations conducted by G. Hofstede, and is also used as an axis for the analysis of organisational cultures. This typology is most often used to indicate the relationships between a type of culture and a type of manager’s personality105, but it is also linked with the level of entrepreneurship106, ←57 | 58→involvement107, the level of confidence and social capital108, as well as many other variables.
Individualism means putting the value of an individual before the interests of a social group. This is related to a striving for the freedom of individuals and a ←58 | 59→belief that individual interests are the most important. According to this belief, organisations should focus on the motives and competences of individuals, rather than teams. Fulfilling individual interests can lead to success at the level of the whole organisation, as it favours rivalries and competitive attitudes, as well as nonconformist behaviour. An organisation is perceived as a group of individuals who have conflicting interests. The community approach (or in other words, collectivism) is the belief that the interest of a social group is more important than individual interests, and in an organisation this is manifested by an orientation towards group goals, even against individuals, while the preferred attitudes are conformism and collaboration.
Tab. 11: Individualist vs. collectivist cultures. Source: Own work.
| Features |