Elements Of Organizational Culture Research Articles

Organizational culture and knowledge sharing: Empirical evidence from service organizations

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between organizational cultural elements and knowledge sharing. This is a quantitative research by nature. A questionnaire is derived from previous studies. The survey covered seven service organizations in Bangladesh. Regression was adopted to test hypotheses. Out of the four independent variables, trust, communication between staff, and leadership were found to have a positive and significant relationship with knowledge sharing. A surprising finding of this study is that reward system does not have any impact on knowledge sharing. It is reasonable here to conclude that knowledge sharing can be successful in the service industry in Bangladesh with given emphasis on trust, communication between staff and leadership. Key words: Service organizations, knowledge sharing, cultural elements.

An assessment of South Korean police officers' perceptions of organizational characteristics in the post‐reform era

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to develop a broader understanding of police organizational culture in South Korea. More specifically, given its history and culture, the aim is to examine various elements of organizational culture as perceived by line officers and supervisors.Design/methodology/approachThe data for the present study came from a survey of police officers in South Korea who attended training courses at the Korea National Police University (KNPU), and at the Police Comprehensive Academy (PCA), from June through August of 2008. A total of 406 police officers completed the questionnaires representing an overall return rate of 62 percent.FindingsThe results suggest that, overall, police officers across rank and job assignment were dissatisfied, and at best ambivalent, on all dimensions of organizational culture. Lower ranked police officers, relative to other ranks, appear more dissatisfied with managerial support, open lines of communication, and organizational support. Officers who are part of the police administration (e.g. general affairs, public security, intelligence) are less disenchanted with management support, communication, and innovation than are patrol officers and criminal investigators. This study suggests that both rank and job assignment influences South Korean officers' perceptions of their organizational culture.Research limitations/implicationsThis research does not attempt to compare officers' perceptions before and after the Grand Reform, as data are not available for study. In a limited way, it can be interpreted that after over a decade since the implementation of the Grand Reform more work is needed in improving officers' attitudes regarding their organizational climate.Originality/valueUnlike studies done in the USA, which have de‐centralized police forces, this study offers a unique opportunity to examine the organizational culture of a centralized police force. Additionally, this paper examines the extent to which officers' perceptions of police culture are similar along rank, experience, and job assignment variables.

Cultural Encounters in the Banking Sector of Serbia: The Case of Raiffeisenbank

Тhis paper aims to examine the existence of cultural shock, differences and conflicts inside Raiffeisenbank, between personnel belonging to two national cultures (Austrian and Serbian), which could, conditionally, be regarded as representatives of ’’Western’’ and ’’Eastern’’ cultural models. The focus of the research was on elements of organizational culture, such as horizontal and vertical relationships, the type of leadership, the extent of formalization of procedures and work tasks, the types of motivations for different parties, but also on certain elements of work cultures (e.g., the respect of time limits, attitude toward extended working hours, etc.). Specific focus was placed on the role of cultural mediators, whose function was to mediate in the process of adaptation by the representatives of local national culture to novelties in the organizational culture imported from the outside, but also in the process of adaptation by foreigners to the local culture. The case study comprises a short history of Raiffeisenbank, analysis of written documents, and in depth interviews with individuals who could be regarded as “typical” in the examined cultural encounters.

Are There Important Differences in Success and in Organizational Culture between Family Companies in Production and Service Sector in Slovenia?

Are There Important Differences in Success and in Organizational Culture between Family Companies in Production and Service Sector in Slovenia? In this article we will introduce the development of those organizational culture elements, which influence importantly on company successfulness in family companies. The research was performed in 24 Slovenian companies with 524 responded survey questionnaires from field of services, consultancy and computer equipment, trade counter, production, road freight traffic and civil engineering. With this analysis we found out the answer to the question in family loyalty to the company, management style, loyalty and mutual trust system, strategic emphasis, criteria for successful business operations, stimulation (rewarding), process of continuous improvement, business ethics of the company, organization, values of the employees, and satisfaction of the employees in those companies. The collected data are important from the aspect of the organizational culture influence on the future growth or eventually their stagnation.

The Relationship Between Organizational Culture and Implementation of Clinical Practice Guidelines

The context in which critical care providers work has been shown to be associated with adherence to recommendations of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs). Consideration of contextual factors such as organizational culture may therefore be important when implementing guidelines. Organizational culture has been defined simply as "how things are around here" and encompasses leadership, communication, teamwork, conflict resolution, and other domains. This narrative review highlights the results of recent quantitative and qualitative studies, including studies on adherence to nutrition guidelines in the critical care setting, which demonstrate that elements of organizational culture, such as leadership support, interprofessional collaboration, and shared beliefs about the utility of guidelines, influence adherence to guideline recommendations. Outside nutrition therapy, there is emerging evidence that strategies focusing on organizational change (eg, revision of professional roles, interdisciplinary teams, integrated care delivery, computer systems, and continuous quality improvement) can favorably influence professional performance and patient outcomes. Consequently, future interventions aimed at implementing nutrition guidelines should aim to measure and take into account organizational culture, in addition to considering the characteristics of the patient, provider, and guideline. Further high quality, multimethod studies are required to improve our understanding of how culture influences guideline implementation, and which organizational change strategies might be most effective in optimizing nutrition therapy.

Civil Service Reform in China: Impacts on Civil Servants' Behaviour

AbstractChina's civil service reforms sought to improve the performance of civil servants by introducing more competitive selection processes, incentives to reward performance, and tightened monitoring and supervision. The impact of the reforms was undermined by clashes with other policies being implemented at the time and by a failure to address elements of organization culture that have rewarded various forms of illegal behaviour, such as corruption. Empirical material for our study is drawn from government data and the experience of civil service reform in three Chinese urban areas (Beijing's Haidian district, Changchun and Ningbo) since the 1990s.

Instructor beliefs and their mediation of instructor strategies

PurposeThe overall aim of this research is to investigate how aspects of organizational culture enable or constrain the facilitation of learning in the workplace.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative design was used involving 100 semi‐structured interviews conducted with air traffic controllers operating in three centers in Australia. The data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach in an attempt to uncover the lived experience of those interviewed.FindingsThe study illustrates how elements of organizational culture evidenced in collectively held values and beliefs mediated the approaches used by on‐the‐job‐training instructors. Three collectively held values and beliefs were identified: belief in ability; the value of performance in demonstrating ability; and the need to exude confidence. The degree to which instructors espoused these beliefs influences the type of instructional strategy they used. Three predominant strategies of engagement with the trainee were identified: acting on, working with, and working against the trainee.Practical implicationsThe evidence here suggests that programs aimed at facilitating skills development for on‐the‐job‐training instructors need to focus on the existing knowledge and beliefs of those personnel and to provide opportunities for challenge and confrontation of those belief systems.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to a growing understanding of the socio‐cultural influences present in workplace learning and the role of stereotyping and power in enabling or constraining the learning in the workplace.

The process of leadership, innovation and decision making through the influence of values

Slovene enterprises involved in the process of ownership transformation represent an important management challenge to organisations and their management concepts. The enterprise business strategy considers various business resources, the existing enterprise's culture and values, the changes in the distribution of work and informational structure. To achieve good results in enterprise management as well as good economic results, knowing the elements of organisational culture is of utmost importance. Values form an integral part of organisational culture and they influence the management of an enterprise. This study aims at establishing whether there are differences in the values held by managers or executives and those held by other employees; moreover, it aims at establishing whether there are differences in values among enterprises, considering their sphere of activity and their size. For the enterprise to be able to act innovatively and not to cling to its old habits and customs, it is necessary that all the workers in the enterprise and above all its management (top, middle and lower) act innovatively, using the knowledge and considering the values of the internal and external environment of the enterprise. We performed enquiries in 150 enterprises in the Republic of Slovenia in the central region of Slovenia. These inquiries showed that the values of managers and those of other employees represented a significant contribution to a successful transition.

Organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), TQM and performance at the maquiladora

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to explore the relationship between the organizational culture (organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB)), TQM practice and organizational performance of the manquiladora companies.Design/methodology/approachA structural equation modelling based on a cross‐sectional survey (N=230) is conducted.FindingsAs multinational companies (MNCs) implement innovative management methodology such as the TQM practices, their organizational cultural elements play significant roles towards the outcome. The organizational culture, represented by OCB, significantly impacts how TQM is managed and implemented. Furthermore, the results point out “soft TQM elements” have more significant impact than “hard TQM elements” towards firm's performance.Research limitationsThe study includes a specific location (Maquiladora) only.Practical implicationsThe findings suggest that management should also focus on the intrinsic motivations of employees represented by OCB rather than the sole emphasis on training and education.Originality/valueThe study supports the perspective that underlines the importance of the balance between soft and hard TQM, as well as the significance of OCB for a successful implementation of TQM.

Organizational Culture, Innovativeness, Market Orientation and Firm Performance in South Africa: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

ABSTRACT For a sample of South African firms, this paper analyzes the relationships of firm performance and a set of organizational measures which includes organizational culture and climate, market orientation and innovativeness. These organizational measures are drawn from three different disciplines–organizational behavior, strategy and economics. The replicative study is framed in an extended model of competing organizational values which have been used in 13 countries including three transition economies (Vietnam, China and Russia). The work has also been done under a variety of conditions–for example, the US in a period of study growth, Thailand during the Asian Crisis and Hong Kong after the handover to China. Comparisons are made between South African results and those of firms from a group of five industrial countries. Market Orientation is the most important explainer of performance of the South African firms, and Innovativeness is also important. Specific elements of Organizational Culture are apparently less important in South Africa than elsewhere.

Organizational culture and firm effectiveness: An examination of relative effects of culture traits and the balanced culture hypothesis in an emerging economy

Efforts to delineate the performance implications of organizational culture elements continue. The study examines the effects of four major organizational culture traits, involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission, on measures of firm effectiveness, using data collected from manufacturing firms in Turkey. It is hypothesized that each cultural trait will exert positive effects on overall firm performance and a wide variety of effectiveness measures, independently from the effects of others. In addition, the view that a balanced combination of the four traits yields superior firm performance than an imbalanced combination is subjected to empirical testing. The results indicate that the mission trait is the most prominent of the four traits in terms of fostering overall firm performance, sales growth, market share growth, and ROA. In addition, a firm's ability to develop successful new products is influenced primarily by the adaptability and consistency traits. Employee satisfaction is determined for the most part by the involvement trait. Finally, while imbalanced combinations of certain pairs of cultural traits exert the expected negative effects on performance indicators, others seem to have positive effects.

Power-Influence in Decision Making, Competence Utilization, and Organizational Culture in Public Organizations: The Arab World in Comparative Perspective

This article proposes and tests an integrative model of multiple associations between power-influence sharing in decision making, work-related outcomes (WRO), and organizational culture in public sector organizations in Saudi Arabia. The analysis is based on a survey of public administrators (n = 390). To date, little research has successfully addressed these conceptual linkages, especially in public sector organizations. The structural equation model analyses show that participative practices are significant predicators of effective utilization of competence (knowledge, skill, and ability). This in turn has an impact on perceptions of WRO including information sharing, decision quality, predictability and acceptability of authorized decisions by employees, job satisfaction, and motivation. The results also suggest that elements of organizational culture have some impact on both decision making and perceived WRO. The study has profound implications for organization development and leadership, particularly in bureaucracies in transition. It is essential for public organizations to understand the importance of human capital utilization and complexity of adjusting decision processes, as well as organizational norms at various stages of capacity development.

Reframing the service environment in the fitness industry

Understanding how to be competitive within the fitness industry requires a fundamental awareness of the service environment at the club level. To date, research on the fitness industry has placed considerable focus on the notion of service quality, particularly such elements as equipment, programmes, facilities and ancillary services, and its role in client satisfaction and retention. Recent research suggests that an organization's culture – the values, beliefs and assumptions that reflect how things are done within an organization – may be perceived outside the organization as well. The objective of the study was to examine the relationships between what have thus far been identified as key service elements for fitness organizations, organizational culture values, and the attitudes and intentions of client members from one private fitness company operating in Canada. Findings showed that both the service elements and the corporate values were significantly associated with members' satisfaction and intentions to stay. The findings suggest that what has typically been conceptualized as the service environment of fitness clubs should be revised to include organizational culture elements.

Elements of innovative cultures

AbstractOrganizational culture is an important determinant of sustained innovativeness and financial performance. Though it is easy to appreciate the important role culture plays in making an innovation successful, it is difficult to change culture. One way of changing culture could be to identify elements of innovative culture and then imbibing the ones relevant to a given organization. In this paper, we have identified, based on past research, eight elements of organizational innovative culture: innovative mission and vision statements, democratic communication, safe spaces, flexibility, collaboration, boundary spanning, incentives, and leadership. We believe that assimilating these elements of organizational culture will enable organizations to support and sustain innovative activities. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The relationship between leadership practices and organisational culture : an education management perspective

The relationship between leadership practice of the principal and school culture was investigated and recommendations on the skills principals need to establish a school culture conducive to teaching and learning are provided. Two standardised questionnaires were used to measure the existing leadership practices and organisational culture in 30 schools. Correlations between leadership practices and school cultures were determined by means of linear regressions and portrayed by scatter plots. It was found that each of the leadership practices tested was positively related to either of the two main elements of organisational culture: sociability or solidarity. The findings provided a sound basis for the appointment of principals able to cultivate a positive school culture. Keywords : correlation; culture; education; leadership; management; organisation; relationship South African Journal of Education Vol. 26 (4) 2006: pp. 609-624

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT Conference Paper Abstracts.

Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings includes abstracts of all papers and symposia presented at the annual conference, plus 6-page abridged versions of the “Best Papers” accepted for inclusion in the program (approximately 10%). Papers published in the Proceedings are abridged because presenting papers at their full length could preclude subsequent journal publication. Please contact the author(s) directly for the full papers. ArticlesOPERATIONS MANAGEMENT Conference Paper Abstracts.Published Online:30 Nov 2017https://doi.org/10.5465/ambpp.2006.27174885AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsDownload CitationsAdd to favoritesTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail AbstractThe article presents abstracts regarding topics of operations management, including how operations management serves as a problem-solving system, the benefits of utilizing multiagent systems with international supply chains, and how a Six Sigma system displays elements of organizational culture and quality.FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 2006, No. 1 Permissions Metrics in the past 12 months History Published online 30 November 2017 Published in print 1 August 2006 InformationCopyright of Academy of Management Journal is the property of Academy of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder’s express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.KeywordsINDUSTRIAL productivityPROBLEM solvingQUALITY control -- StandardsSIX sigma (Quality control standard)ABSTRACTSDownload PDF

Book Review S. Røed-Larsen, J. Stoop and E. Funnemark Shaping Public Safety Investigations of Accidents in Europe

Shaping public safety investigations of accidents in Europe is a book edited by Sverre Røed Larsen, John Stoop and Espen Funnemark. The book is a report from the European Safety, Reliability and Data Association (ESreDA), published in 2005 by Det norske Veritas (ISBN 82 5150304 3). The book consists of two parts. The first part of the book, written by the three editors, provides an overview of the current state-of-the-art of public safety investigations of major accidents in Europe. The second part of the book consists of eight papers by different authors, dealing with different topics related to in-depth investigation of accidents. The book explicitly lists the audience it is intended for – a rare feature in scientific books. The primary target groups for the book include national governmental bodies responsible for safety, accident investigation boards, consultants in the field and researchers. The objective of the book is not merely to describe the current state-of-the-art of safety investigations of accidents in Europe, but to influence such investigations; hence the title shaping public safety investigations. The book notes that major changes in the approach taken to in-depth investigation of accidents have taken place in recent years in Europe. Traditionally, these investigations were intended merely to identify the immediate causes of an accident. Today, accident investigations increasingly also aim for the prevention of accidents. This means that modern accident investigations adopt a much broader perspective on contributing factors than past investigations did, looking, for example, for elements of organisational culture and safety management that may contribute to accidents. Moreover, the organisation of safety investigations is changing. In the past, ad hoc commissions were created to investigate each accident, and dissolved once the task was accomplished. Today, accident investigation boards are often permanent institutions that cover a broader range of tasks, sometimes including the monitoring of safety by investigating unwanted events that do not end up as major accidents.

Learning by example

PurposeTo provide positive benchmarking examples of hospitality, tourism and leisure small management enterprises in the area of organizational culture.Design/methodology/approachExtreme case sampling was used; locating information‐rich key informants or critical cases. A total of 89 small businesses were researched including hotels (and guest houses), restaurants, pubs, visitor attractions and leisure opportunities.FindingsSemi‐structured interviews were analysed using an iterative approach based on the assumptions of Argumentation Theory. Results suggest that best‐performing small to medium‐sized (SME) operations in the hospitality, tourism and leisure industry share certain elements of culture including: supporting values such as building the future together, cooperative setting of missions and strategies, development of teamwork and organizational learning.Research limitations/implicationsThe research completed is illustrative of positive benchmarking elements of organizational culture. Further research, however, could also look at negative features which may hinder the success of hospitality, tourism and leisure industry SMEs.Practical implicationsThe work provides clear suggestions for hospitality, tourism and leisure industry SMEs to improve managerial practice, focusing on five main cultural dimensions: organizational performance, teamwork, building the future together, building the ability to learn, and collaborative setting of strategies.Originality/valueThis paper begins to fill the gap of a very under‐researched area: benchmarking organizational culture in hospitality, tourism and leisure industry SMEs. Both academics and practitioners will find it very illuminating.

The Correlation Analysis Between Supervisory Action And Organization Culture To Individual Performance Of Junior Accountant In Public Accounting Firm With Job Satisfaction As Intervening Variable

The objective of this research is to analyze the impact of supervisory action, organizational structure, job satisfaction and individual performance junior accountants in public accounting firm. This study reports the results of a survey of 276 junior accountants from 17 small public accounting firms and 6 big public accounting firms. Purposive method is used to define the sample. This study find that the two major elements of supervisory action recommended by the AECC, leadership and mentoring, and assignments, do not give impact on the job satisfaction. Work condition give impact on the job satisfaction but job satisfaction do not give impact on the individual performance. This study also find that the three elements of organizational culture, bureaucratic and innovative culture were negatively correlated but do not give impact on the job satisfaction, unexpectedly, supportive culture was positively correlated but do not give impact on the job satisfaction. However, there are no significant differences between small public accounting firms and big public accounting firms for the supervisory actions and job satisfaction. But there are significant differences between small and big public accounting firms for the individual performance. Keywords: supervisory action, organization culture, individual performance, job satisfaction

Organizational Culture and Bathing Practice

SUMMARY This case study describes how, following an experimental study, an Oregon nursing home instituted a new, more effective bathing practice for residents with dementia, designed to increase their pleasure and comfort and decrease resistive, self-protective behaviors. Key elements of organizational culture that supported the practice change are examined: creating a shared vision, returning decision-making to residents, empowering caregivers and believing that change is possible.