Culture, Surveys, Culture Surveys and Other Obfuscations (original) (raw)
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The Many Faces of Culture: Making Sense of 30 Years of Research on Culture in Organization Studies
The Academy of Management Annals, 2015
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A number of survey instruments measuring organizational culture can be found in the literature. Many of these have been reported to suffer from construct and methodology related weaknesses. Specifically, these have been found to either have insufficient theoretical basis or result in a narrow depiction of the multidimensional construct of organizational culture. In this article, the authors report the construction of a scale for measuring organizational culture that starts with a sound theoretical model to identify dimensions that comprehensively cover the content domain of organizational culture. Exploratory factor analysis has been used to extract seven factors. When interpreted, these factors align well with the starting theoretical model. The scale thus developed has been found to be internally consistent and demonstrates construct validity.
European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 2014
Methodological reviews within the organizational culture domain have repeatedly called for additional research evaluating the reliability and validity of survey measures of organizational culture. In this review, we first trace the development of survey research within the organizational culture tradition, focusing specifically on the category of instruments that assess aspects of culture related to organizational effectiveness. Although surveys of this kind are the most direct diagnostic assessments of organizational culture, our review suggests that research support is generally inadequate to establish the reliability and validity of the majority of instruments in this category. Next, our review identifies several considerations that are unique to the development and validation of culture effectiveness surveys, and thus warrant special attention. We identify three key challenges for future culture researchers to address: testing nested models, aggregating data to the organizational level, and establishing criterion-related validity. Finally, using archival data collected with the Denison Organizational Culture Survey, we present an empirical illustration of the three challenges identified above and conclude by considering limitations and opportunities for future research.
Cross-cultural equivalence of the organisational culture survey in Australia
SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 2001
The aimof this study is to assesswhether the cross-cultural equivalence of theO rganisational Culture Survey (OCS) persist in an Australian context. The nature of the instrument is presented whi ch includes a clear statement of its South African origin and its' place within a logical positivist paradigm. The sam ple consisted of 326 respondents from a population of managers of the Australian Institute of Management. This s tudy con¢rms the instrument's validity and internal consistencywithin an Australian context, but that further research is required into the functional and conceptual equivalence of the survey items and dimensions underpinning the items to conclusively establish its utility. Finally, aspects of the 'organisational culture'construct underlying t he survey need revision given recent trends in related systems, complexity and chaos theories. OPSOMMING Die doel van hierdie studie is om te bepaal of die kruis-kulturele ekwivalensie van dieOrganisational Culture Survey (OCS) in 'n Australiese konteks standhou. Die aard van die instrument word omskry f wat 'n duidelik standpunt rakende sy Suid-Afrikaanse oorsprong en sy plek in 'n logies-positivisitiese para digma stel. Die steekproef het uit 326 respondente uit 'n populasie bestuurders van die Australiese Bestuursinstituu t bestaan. Hierdie studie bevestig die instrument se geldigheid en interne konstantheid binne dieAustraliese konte ks, maar ook dat verdere navorsing nodig is na die funksionele en konseptuele ekwivalensie van die items en die di mensies wat onderliggend daaraan is voordat die nutswaarde van die instrument ten volle bewys kan word. Ten slotte, moet aspekte van die konstruk 'organisasiekultuur' nader ondersoek word in die lig van verwikkelinge op die terre in van stelsel-, kompleksiteiten chaosteoriee« . Organisational culture Organisational culture remains one of themost contested areas of academic inquiry within the broader ¢eld of organisational studies. It is characterised bycompeting de¢nitions, epistomologies and research paradigms.While controversy exists about virtually all aspects of this construct including the mechanics and extent of its contribution to organisational performance, there is considerable consensus about the importance of organisational culture. The Organisational Culture Survey ( Van der Post, De Coning & Smit, 1997) represents one line of inquiry within this ¢eld. Within this instrument organisational culture refers to: A4 4,252 2,062 0,218 1,341 0,650 A5 4,847 1,835 -0,705 1,167 0,636 A6 5,113 1,593 -0,904 0,871 0,547 A7 4,902 1,900 -0,649 1,460 0,769 A8 5,138 1,870 0,793 1,392 0,744 A9 5,285 1,919 0,845 1,487 0,775 A10 4,887 1,790 -0,731 1,161 0,649 A11 4,966 1,994 0,637 1,629 0,817 A12 4,672 2,043 0,356 1,568 0,768 A13 4,500 1,950 0,299 1,103 0,566 A14 4,025 1,764 0,084 0,681 0,386 A15 4,699 1,969 0,478 1,461 0,742 A16 5,248 1,859 0,896 1,345 0,724 A17 4,193 1,990 0,126 1,343 0,675 A18 4,503 1,821 -0,491 1,287 0,707 A19 5,653 1,517 -1,362 0,972 0,641 A20 3,206 1,903 -0,626 0,599 0,315
An instrument to measure organizational culture
South African Journal of Business Management, 1997
Although statistical evidence seems to be lacking, it is at present widely acknowledged that organizational culture has the potential of having a significant effect on organizational performance. An analysis of sustained superior financial performance of certain American organizations has attributed their success to the culture that each of them had developed. It has been proposed that these organizations are characterized by a strong set of core managerial values that define the ways in which they conduct business, how they treat employees, customers, suppliers and others. Culture is to the organization what personality is to the individual. It is a hidden but unifying force that provides meaning and direction and has been defined as the prevailing background fabric of prescriptions and proscriptions for behaviour, the system of beliefs and values and the technology and task of the organization together with the accepted approaches to these. From the literature, a vast number of di...
CULTURAL WAVES IN COMPANY PERFORMANCE
Research Journal of Economics, Business and ICT, 2011
One of the great challenges companies face today is globalisation and the gradually intensifying market competition under which competitive performance is becoming more and more demanding to assure. Companies respond individually to every challenge. The reason behind the diversity of reactions is that all companies follow different strategies, have different structures and different cultures with distinct sets of beliefs and attitudes. The author of this paper has developed indicators to measure company strategy, structure, culture and performance. The present article focuses on the relationship between the characteristics of organisational culture and company performance. For the evaluation company performance the Kaplan-Norton Balanced ScoreCard model has been used. On the basis of this model financial and nonfinancial indicators are also taken into consideration. To the analysis of organizational cultures Cameron and Quinn's culture diagnostic questionnaire has been applied, which assesses a company's culture on the axis of four cultural types that are clan, adhocracy, market and hierarchy. The empirical research has been performed with quantitative methods in 256 companies. The exploration and identification of the relationship between variables related to performance and organizational culture has been carried out with the help of the path model. During the research the effects variables concerning culture have been made numerical and this led to the conclusion that the rigid hierarchy culture, which employs bureaucratic principles, has negative effects upon company performance. It is much more effective for leaders to develop corporate culture into a supportive clan culture that supports personal development, or focus on the market culture that emphasizes result orientation.
Corporate culture, environment, and strategy
Human Resource Management, 1983
In recent years, it has become particularly fashionable to discuss the dynamics of behavior in organizations in terms borrowed from anthropology. ms is manifest in the prevailing terminology of rituals, stories, myths, and the analysis of symbols, all of which are subsumed by the all inclusive concept of "corporate culture." The popuiarity of Japanese management techniques has been legitimated by such academically grounded research as Ouchi's on "clan" forms of organization and the systemic interdependence of the "7 Ss" of Pascale and Athos. In a pragmatic vein, the concept of a "corporate culture" received full play in the more recent Deal and Kennedy book of that name, and Peters and Waterman have articulated it in terms of the symbolic role of the Chief Executive Officer at asserting and systematically encouraging adherence to a "dominant value" in well managed firms.