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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The interview checklist contained questions like the following: "What are special terms here that only insiders understand?" (to identify organizational symbols); "What kind of people are most likely to make a fast career here?"; "Whom do you consider as particularly meaningful persons for this organization?" (to identify organizational heroes); "In what periodic meetings do you participate?"; "How do people behave during these meetings?"; "Which events are celebrated in this organization?" (to identify organizational rituals); and "What things do people very much like to see happening here?"; "What is the biggest mistake one can make?"; "Which work problems can keep you awake at night?" (to identify organizational values). Interviewers were free to probe for more and other information if they felt it was there.

The interviews were used to create a qualitative, empathic description of the culture of each of the twenty cases. The following are extracts from two of the twenty unit gestalt descriptions made on the basis of the interviews:

The TKB case. TKB is a 60-year-old production unit in the chemical industry. Many of its employees are oldtimers. Stories about the past abound. Workers tell about how heavy the jobs used to be, when loading and unloading was done by hand. They tell about heat and physical risk. TKB used to be seen as a rich employer. For several decades, the demand for its products exceeded the supply. Products were not sold, but distributed. Customers had to be nice and polite in order to be served. The money was made very easily. TKB's management style used to be paternalistic. The old general manager made his daily morning walk through the plant, shaking hands with everyone he met. This, people say, is the root of a tradition that still exists of shaking hands with one's colleagues in the morning. Rich and paternalistic, TKB has long been considered a benefactor, both to its employees in need and to the local community. Some of this has survived. Employees still feel TKB to be a desirable employer, with good pay, benefits, and job security. A job with TKB is still seen as a job for life. TKB is a company one would like one's children to join. Outside, TKB is a regular sponsor of local sports and humanitarian associations: "No appeal to TKB has ever been made in vain."

The working atmosphere is good-natured, with a lot of freedom left to employees. The plant has been pictured as a club, a village, a family. Twenty-fifth and fortieth anniversaries are given lots of attention; the plant's Christmas parties are famous. These celebrations are rituals with a long history, which people still value a lot. In TKB's culture, or, as people express it, in "the TKB way," unwritten rules for social behavior are very important. One doesn't live in order to work, one works in order to live. What one does counts less than how one does it. One has to fit into the informal network, and this holds for all hierarchical levels. "Fitting" means avoiding conflicts and direct confrontations, covering other people's mistakes, loyalty, friendliness, modesty, and good-natured cooperation. Nobody should be too conspicuous, in a positive or a negative sense. TKB-ers grumble, but never directly about other TKB-ers. Also, grumbling is reserved for one's own circle and is never done in front of superiors or outsiders. This concern for harmony and group solidarity fits well into the regional culture of the geographical area in which TKB is located. Newcomers are quickly accepted, as long as they adapt. The quality of their work counts less than their social adaptation. Whoever disrupts the harmony is rejected, however good a worker he or she is. Disturbed relationships may take years to heal: "We prefer to let a work problem continue for another month, even if it costs a lot of money, above resolving it in an unfriendly manner." Company rules are never absolute. The most important rule, one interviewee said, is that rules are flexible. One may break a rule if one does it gently. It is not the rule-breaker who is at risk, but the one who makes an issue of it.