Abstract
Despite a recent resurgence in the study of organizational culture, insufficient attention has been paid to the impact of the types of organizational culture on employee well-being and productivity in Canadian settings. This study investigated which types of organizational culture are most closely related to employee levels of work-related stress, enjoyment of work and self-perceived productivity. A secondary research interest was to identify the dominant culture type at the studied university in northern Canada. A total of 193 staff members from various departments (e.g., academic services, facilities, student life) completed an online survey containing questions on organizational culture, stress, enjoyment of work and productivity. Three intriguing findings were generated from the data: (1) All four types of organizational culture – clan, hierarchy, adhocracy, market – were identified at the institution; (2) the hierarchy culture was most prevalent, followed by the adhocracy culture, the market culture and then the clan culture; and (3) the type of organizational culture was significantly related to stress, enjoyment of work and productivity. Employees working in a clan culture reported the lowest levels of stress, and highest levels of enjoyment and productivity, followed by those in the adhocracy and hierarchy cultures, lastly the market culture. Important implications include: (1) Organizational leaders need to take into account the role organizational culture plays in employee well-being and workplace functioning, and (2) Organizational leaders should implement strategies to create a workplace culture that promotes employee well-being and productivity.
Highlights
1.1 The Complex History of Organizational CultureOrganizational culture is a phenomenon that has been studied for many a decade, with research tracing back to the 1960s (Kaczka & Kirk, 1968; Litwin & Stringer, 1968)
In addition to intercorrelations between stress, enjoyment of work, productivity and demographic variables, two types of statistical analyses were conducted to answer the research questions: (1) descriptive statistics to determine the dominant type of organizational culture at the studied university; and (2) multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) and post-hoc tests to examine any effects of organizational culture on employee stress, enjoyment of work and self-perceived productivity
We found that organizational culture is significantly related to employee stress, enjoyment of work and self-perceived productivity
Summary
1.1 The Complex History of Organizational CultureOrganizational culture is a phenomenon that has been studied for many a decade, with research tracing back to the 1960s (Kaczka & Kirk, 1968; Litwin & Stringer, 1968). The purpose of this research was to assess the relationship of culture type with job stress, enjoyment of work and self-perceived productivity in a sample of staff members at a small northern university in Canada. This is one of the few studies examining specific type/s of organizational culture, and the link between types of organizational culture (clan, hierarchy, adhocracy and market) with employee stress, enjoyment and productivity. The competing values framework explains that there are four kinds of organizational culture which compete with one another The parameters of this model include focus (internal versus external) and level of stability/control versus flexibility. The hierarchy culture is viewed as a formalized/structured, policy and procedure-governed environment, in which coordination between employees, stability, security, conformity and efficiency are emphasized (Denison & Spreitzer, 1991; OCAI Online, 2012; Sherman et al, 2014)
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