Innovative climate and culture in manufacturing organizations: differences between some European countries

Abstract

In the last decade there has been a growing emphasis on the role of pro-innovative climate and culture in organizational adaptiveness and overall company success. In spite of the growing interest among scholars and practitioners, there is a lack of cross-national studies that explore innovative climate and culture differences. The present study is an attempt to examine the content of the differences in innovative climate and culture in various European countries. A questionnaire for measuring several organizational climate and culture orientations was used. In the present article, only items from the climate and culture innovation scales are analysed. Data were gathered - in the context of the international FOCUS (First Organizational Climate/Culture Unified Survey) project - from 21 manufacturing organizations in 11 European countries. Discriminant function analysis was used to discover which climate and culture innovation items are the best predictors of differentiation between countries. The results show that the countries from Central and Eastern Europe have a relatively distinct position from the countries with a longer market economy tradition. Some methodological problems of this study, as well as the implications of the results for organizational change and development, are discussed.