Revista Reflecţii Academice © 2013 Centrul de Excelenţă

Revista Reflecții Academice The Assessment of
the Organizational
Culture –
Comparative Study
Public Organizations
vs. Companies
Lecturer Mihai Ovidiu CERCEL, PhD National University of
Political Studies and
Public Administration and
Academy of Economics
Study
Abstract: In this article
we intend to present the
theoretical framework of a
new tool for assessing the
organizational culture of a
company, an instrument
better adapted to the
Romanian business and
social environment, by
measuring simultaneously
the individual cultural
values modeled by the
society that he belongs to
and the cultural values
modeled by the company
where he is working. Such
a model will provide an
easy understanding of
societal values’ influence
on organizational culture,
and of the discreet way in
which
organizational
culture
positively
or
negatively
affects
employee
performance
and,
ultimately,
the
company itself.
Keywords: GLOBE
research, hybrid model,
ECORG model,
evaluation.
1.
Characteristics of organizational culture in
Romania
1.2.
At Society level
The GLOBE research (Global Leadership and
Organizational
Behavior
Effectiveness)
was
a
sophisticated project at global scale, which involved
considerable human and material forces. The project
lasted 10 years and included 62 companies, aiming to
measure the nine so-called fundamental attributes or
dimensions of organizational culture, and then evaluate
how they shape the leadership in analyzed companies
(Bibu N., Brancu L., 2008). The results grouped the
countries in ten "clusters", based on cultural proximity.
The following clusters were identified: British Europe,
Eastern Europe, German Europe, Latin Europe, Northern
Europe, Latin America, Sub -Saharan Africa, Middle East,
South Asia and Confucian Asia (Grove, 2005).
Regarding the space that we are interested of, namely
the European continent, GLOBE study results show that,
in terms of organizational culture, Europe can be cut into
two areas: the Northern area, which includes states that
are above an imaginary line joining the UK and Austria
and Southern area, which includes the entire South of the
continent, from Portugal to Georgia, including Central and
Eastern European countries in this subspace. (House, R.
J. and others, 2004)
The GLOBE model reveals a desire for change in
Romanian society. Thus, researches has shown that
societal practices (the society as it is) of organizational
culture are very close to the Romanian Eastern European
cluster, while the societal values (the society as it should
be) migrates towards the Latin cluster and even British
cluster. Explanation of similarities with Eastern European
cluster lies near the geographic and a long common
history shared by countries in the region, while the
differences can be explained by the uniqueness of the
Latin origin of language ("a Latin island in a Slavic sea")
and religion, mostly Orthodox, in a geographic area in
which Catholicism and Protestantism are better
represented. (Bibu, Petrisor, and others, 2007).
These differences of organizational culture at society
level are translated at the level of organization in a
cultural conditioning of values, attitudes, perceptions,
behaviors and rules specific to each individual.
Furthermore, over these societal cultural differences
overlap each individual characteristic values (regional
specificities, education, training, experience, etc.) and
values and norms imposed to the organization by its
leaders.
© 2013 Centrul de Excelență Academică, Bucureşti, România 2 Volumul 2 Numărul 2, Decembrie 2013 Revista Reflecții Academice The result of these interactions is a sui generis mixture, specific to each organization, of
values, beliefs, attitudes, norms and rules, rituals and symbols that form the organizational
culture. Thus we can explain why an organization's culture differs from other similar culture in
terms of industry, ethnic composition of employees, size of turnover, number of employees,
training them, etc.
1.3.
At organization level
Each company is a social group by itself, with its own values derived from both the mission
and vision of stakeholders, and the interactions among employees. Thus, each company will
have an organizational culture driven both by leaders and employees. Education at home and
at school, geographic area, urban-rural differences, previous work experience, age, etc., are
all factors that determine individual variations in organizational culture. These differences,
sometimes major ones, other times relatively minor, ultimately modulate the organizational
culture of each company. All these values acquired or learned during lifetime, shape the
individual behaviors and further the behaviors of the organization. (Nastase, 2004)
We noted that regardless of the size of the organization, its turnover, field of activity, or
human resources capabilities, there is a certain pattern of behavior and attitudes of the
organizations that we find, in varying proportions, within all companies in a given society.
Unlike the internationally ideal culture, where constructive styles are dominant, in the case of
Romanian companies the ideal organizational culture is a balance of constructive and
aggressive defensive style (with higher scores for the opposition, competitive and power
orientations) and passive aggressive styles (with higher scores for dependent orientation). In
our opinion, these differences regarding the organizational culture of Romanian companies
determine different behaviors, perceptions and attitudes of the Romanian employees. These
differences can be explained by taking into account the influence of the societal values in
modeling the organization culture at company level.
For this reason, a full analysis of organizational culture at company level must determine all
these influences that shape the organizational culture of each individual, based on the values
of the society in which the respective individual was raised and educated and reaching to the
values of the company where he operates. (Cercel, 2011)
2.
Proposition of a hybrid model for assessing the Organizational Culture
A full analysis of organizational culture at the company level must determine not only the
organization's climate and staff behaviors and attitudes, but must investigate in depth, trying
to highlight the societal values of all members of the organization. In our opinion, a complete
analysis at the company level must determine all influences that shape the organizational
culture of each individual, starting with the values of society in which he was raised and
educated up to its company’s values. Thus, we used the results obtained in research to build
a hybrid, complex model, able to provide a detailed image of the organizational culture,
adapted to the business environment in Romania. This model brings together societal values
of employees and their organizational values.
The model that we are proposing use a bottom-up approach, respectively from organizational
culture values of individuals to determine organizational culture of the whole, as a result of
individual societal values and organizational behavior existing at the company level. Taking in
consideration all the results above, we proposed a new instrument – that we called ECORG
(Evaluation of the Organizational Culture), a hybrid organizational culture assessment model,
which puts together the analysis of societal values and evaluation of the organizational values
of employees.
Thus, the ECORG model attempts, through 14 indexes, to assess the organizational culture
of the respondents by using four indexes to quantify their societal values and ten indexes to
3 © 2013 Centrul de Excelență Academică, Volumul 2 Bucureşti, România Numărul 2, Decembrie 2013 Revista Reflecții Academice quantify their organizational values. The 14 indexes were inspired from Hofstede model
(regarding the societal values) and partly from Denison and Human Synergistics model
(concerning the organizational values), to which we added our own indexes (Participatory
Attitude, Assuming Responsibilities and Flexibility). Also, following discussions in focus
groups we reduced to four the number of statements which determine each index. Thus, we
believe that the indexes proposed by the ECORG model have borrowed only the name of the
above mentioned models – the questionnaire, the statements necessary to determine each
index and their numerical formula, are the researcher’s own contribution.
Regarding research methodology, we chose to test the model via Linkedin web platform. The
online respondents were selected from about 35 000 people across the country, with various
age, gender, education and professional background, and working in organizations of different
sizes and from all sectors. Also, the sample comprises both respondents who are in
management positions and simple employees.
Given the research limitation (sample formed by 66 respondents), we can’t define a model
benchmark. For that reason we choose to test the capability of the model to describe the
organizational culture by analysing the data obtained through different segmentations and to
compare the results to the previous studies realized for Romania (Hofstede and GLOBE for
societal values and Human Synergistics for organizational values)
The results are shown in the following graphic representations:
Figure 1: The Ecorg results, segmented
by gender
Figure 2: The Ecorg results, segmented
by age
According to figure 1, we can affirm that there are no differences in terms of organizational
culture between men and women. Figure 2 shows that young employees are more willing
than the average to contribute to the common effort of the company. They understand
probably better that the success of their organization means a better future for themselves.
Also, they are more willing to work as a team compared to their older colleagues.
The figure 3 illustrates that the new employees are more enthusiastic to develop new
competencies; they are more inclined to listen the organization’s customers and to take into
consideration their comments. The segmentation through the position in the organization
(Figure 4) shows that the managers have a more developed sense of organization’s values;
they are more inclined to pay attention to the clients and more interested to develop the team
work.
© 2013 Centrul de Excelență Academică, Bucureşti, România 4 Volumul 2 Numărul 2, Decembrie 2013 Revista Reflecții Academice Figure 3: The Ecorg results, segmented
by age within the same organization
Figure 4: The Ecorg results, segmented
by position within the company
Figure 6 points up that the companies which are acting in services industry are more eager to
hear their clients, while this concept is almost unknown for public organizations. Moreover, the
public organizations suffer from the point of view of attention to client needs, a low degree of
involvement and are more rigid in accepting change. Figure 6 shows that employees from
small and medium companies (companies with sales lower than 1.000.000 Euro) are more
flexible that the bigger ones, are more willing to promote the team work and to they are aware
that the good results of their company are directly linked to their own welfare.
Figure 5: The Ecorg results, segmented
by activity sector
3.
Figure 6: The Ecorg results, segmented
by annual sales
Conclusions
We think that the ECORG tool provides more information to a manager about the
organizational culture of the assessed company, allowing the measurement of employees’
organizational values, or otherwise verify the consistency between the vision required by its
leaders and the organizational culture of its employees, and the societal values of individuals
in the organization. In our opinion, the results obtained during the test phase are promising,
© 2013 Centrul de Excelență Academică, Bucureşti, România 5 Volumul 2 Numărul 2, Decembrie 2013 Revista Reflecții Academice the tool was able to capture the societal characteristics of Romanian employees, consistent
with the results of scientific studies conducted using Hofstede and GLOBE models, and
characteristics of the culture at organization level, highlighted within our research using
Denison and Human Synergistics models.
To conclude, the test of the ECORG tool on a sample of 66 respondents gave conclusive
results on the evaluation of organizational culture. Given the research limitations (small
sample sizes and non-probabilistic selection of respondents), we cannot state that these
results validate the proposed instrument, however it was a first step, promising for further
research by increasing the sample and ensure its statistical representation across the country.
Also, increasing the sample will allow us to better define the benchmark of the model, which
will mainly include Romanian companies.
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