The Relationship between National Culture and Organisational Culture: The Case of Iranian Private Sector Organisations

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between National Culture (NC) and Organisational Culture (OC) in the context of private sector organisations in Iran. This paper outlines some frameworks of NC and OC then looks at some relevant specific cultural perceptions on the part of Iranian managers. The NC and OC of several organizations in Iran were investigated using survey methodology. Questionnaires were distributed through organisations either by email or hard copy. 221 questionnaires were returned. To investigate NC the researcher used the Dorfman and Howell questionnaire. Furthermore, to study OC the researcher used the Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) which is based on the CVF framework. Regression analysis of the results showed that most of the dimensions of NC have insignificant relationship with OC except for the relationship of NC with clan culture. However, the correlations analyses provide some additional support for the association between these two constructs. This paper concludes that company size can serve as an important and significant moderator of the association between NC and OC within these data. Moreover, the results indicate that both education and position serve as significant controls of the association between NC and OC. It is recommended that researchers should consider the industrial cultural effect as a factor that would help for a better understanding of the relationship between NC and OC phenomena.