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Measuring organizational cultures: a qualitative and quantitative study across twenty cases

Administrative Science Quarterly, June, 1990 by Geert Hofstede, Bram Neuijen, Denise Daval Ohayv, Geert Sanders

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In order to test the relationships between the three values factors (V1 through V3), the six practice factors (P1 through P6), and the two promotion and dismissal factors (H1 and H2), we did a second-order factor analysis of the scores on the eleven dimensions represented by these factors, plus five demographic indicators--sex, age, seniority, education and nationality--across the twenty units. We found the following three clusters: (1) V3 (larger need for authority), P1 (process-oriented), H2 (dismissal for off-the-job morals), and mean age, which we call a "bureaucracy" cluster; (2) V2 (strong work centrality), P3 (professional), and higher mean education level, clearly a "professionalism" cluster; and (3) V1 (stronger need for security), P4 (closed system), H1 (promotion on past merits), and Dutch rather than Danish nationality, which we call a "conservation" cluster.

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The three other practice factors, P2, P5, and P6 were not associated with other variables in the second-order analysis. The second-order analysis shows values and practices to be distinct but partly interrelated characteristics of culture. Apart from the "conservation" cluster, which reflects mainly national cultural differences among the two nations studied, the other two present major dichotomies among organizations known from organization sociology. The first, bureaucracy, opposes the mechanistic vs. organic systems described by Burns and Stalker (1961), and the second shows that the distinction between local and cosmopolitan also has a values component.

All in all, the results of the multivariate analysis of the survey data confirm our second hypothesis. We did find a discrete number of independent dimensions of organizational cultures, and these dimensions are well rooted in organizational theory and refer to quite classical distinctions among organizations. The six dimensions of perceived practices, P1 through P6, can be seen as a checklist for practical culture differences between organizations.

Relationships between Organizational Culture and Other

Organizational Characteristics

In our third hypothesis we assumed that organizational cultures are partly predetermined by nationality, industry, and task, partly related to organizational structure and control systems, and partly unique products of idiosyncratic features like the organization's history or the personality of its founder. Nationality, industry, and task of a unit are directly observable features. The results reported above show that nationality, as well as education, age, seniority, and hierarchical level, strongly affected the answers on questions dealing with values. For the answers on questions dealing with perceived practices no such dominant effect of demographic characteristics was evident.

For the organization's task, the scoring profiles of the twenty units on the six practice dimensions showed that dimensions P1 (process vs. results), P3 (parochial vs. professional), P5 (loose vs. tight), and P6 (normative vs. pragmatic) relate at least partly to the type of work the organization does and to the type of market in which it operates. In fact, these four dimensions form a major part of the industry culture, a frequently neglected component of the organizational culture (Pennings and Gresov, 1986). The two remaining dimensions, P2 (employee- vs. job-oriented) and P4 (open vs. closed) seem to be independent of the industry but more determined by the philosophy of founders and top leaders.

Business Services Industry

Measuring organizational cultures: a qualitative and quantitative study across twenty cases

Administrative Science Quarterly, June, 1990 by Geert Hofstede, Bram Neuijen, Denise Daval Ohayv, Geert Sanders

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