The Basic Social Process in the Culture of the Self-Sufficient Organization. An Application of Grounded Theory

Abstract

The hereby research encompasses the results of an analysis conducted based on the grounded theory methodology over the qualitative data that were gathered through a national project regarding the organizational development of the mental health institutions. After the finalization of the project, the interest for the grounded theory methodology and the reconsideration of the organizational development notion and of the role of the consultant in this process have all lead to a re-analysis of the qualitative data procured in one of the hospitals included in the project. Our approach resulted in an explanatory model of how the organization works and the factors that can affect various changes during its development. This explanatory model holds at its center a basic psychological and social process that represents the perception of the organizational system as closed on certain coordinates, although structurally open. This very perception and the behavior of maintaining the system within closed coordinates allow only for a dual functioning and so the natural result is the emergence of a self-sufficient culture. The central feature of this particular culture is the replacement of the formal organization and its goal of caring for the mentally challenged with an organization reduced to its sole goal of survival.