ABSTRACT
If learning about the real feelings underlying one's behaviour towards others and their behaviour to oneself can be painful and even distressing, then a conference that provides opportunities for such learning must provide some measure of security both for its members and for its staff. The basis of this protection is the way the conference is institutionalized. The structure of the conference institution — its design, formal organization, and management — has been described in the previous chapter. I shall now attempt to describe the kind of culture that we try to build up. The culture, together with the structure, forms the texture of the institution, gives it its 'life' witbin which individuals can exist and know something about where they are; can move and know something about whence they come and where they go. The culture of the conference is its customary and traditional ways of thinking and doing tilings, which, eventually, is shared to a greater or lesser degree by staff and members alike. It covers a wide range of behaviour — methods of work, skills and knowledge, attitudes towards authority and discipline, and the less conscious conventions and taboos. In any institution 'cultural congruence', the extent to which the culture 'fits' the task of the institution, is as important for effective task performance as structural fit.
