Comparison of organizational cultures from a transitional economy and a knowledge economy: Empirical study from Serbia and Southern California

Abstract

In this paper the authors discuss organizational culture with focus on differences between characteristics of organizational culture in traditional economy and knowledge economy. In the literature, knowledge economy is considered to be a platform on which Industry 4.0 is based. In the knowledge economy, knowledge is the key resource while innovation capacity of employees is the key competitive advantage. That places people at the centre of research relating to the success of organizations in the knowledge economy. People are carriers of both; the key resource - knowledge, and the key capacity - innovation. Human capital is usually divided into three categories in scientific literature: 'traditional', 'convertible' and 'creative'. Creative human capital implies the ability to set the tasks independently, the ability to switch between various activities, high professional autonomy, continuing education, and knowledge sharing. Creative human capital is the accelerator of transition from developing economy to knowledge economy. The importance of human capital and the aforementioned key characteristics of the knowledge economy, and its specific aspects relating to knowledge sharing and autonomy of knowledge workers, place the organizational culture at the centre of our research. The main research question in this paper is: Is it possible to identify and measure perception of organizational culture and its various dimensions in Serbia and Southern California using Pareek's OCTAPACE instrument? From the main research question the research hypothesis emerged. In order to answer the research question and to support research hypothesis, the survey was conducted in which the organizations from Serbia were considered to be from transitional economy, and organizations from Southern California were considered to be the standard for the knowledge economy. This paper presents the results of survey conducted on a sample of383 executives and employees from organizations in Serbia and Southern California, using Pareek's instrument for the OCTAPACE model of organizational culture. Given that Industry 4.0 concept requires continuous innovation, education and knowledge sharing that not only depends on the people's skills and attitudes, but also on organizational culture, results from this research should be useful to organizations in transitional economy as they attempt to keep pace with organizations from knowledge economies.