Surveying organizational culture to explore grid-group cultural theory: Instrument design and preliminary empirical results
International Journal of Organizational Analysis
ISSN: 1934-8835
Article publication date: 6 May 2014
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this study was to develop a valid and reliable measurement instrument for organizational culture on the basis of grid-group cultural theory (GGCT).
Design/methodology/approach
The study consisted of three phases. In a first phase, the literature was reviewed and experts on GGCT were consulted in order to design an item pool for the typology. In a second phase, a pilot study was done in two organizations of the Belgian federal government to evaluate this original item pool. The third phase consisted of the actual data gathering in seven organizations within the Belgian federal government.
Findings
The study showed that it is possible to measure organizational culture based on GGCT. The authors used confirmatory factor analysis to examine the underlying structure of the data and found support for the existence of four culture scales. Scale reliabilities in the third phase of the study were satisfactory and ranged between 0.703 and 0.848.
Research limitations/implications
The current research was not specifically designed to evaluate content validity. Further research is needed to explore this issue. It would also be interesting to develop a GGCT-based measurement instrument for the team level.
Practical implications
The measurement instrument can be used by practitioners to describe and assess their organizational culture.
Originality/value
This study introduces a novel way to measure organizational culture, using a promising theoretical framework.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors of this paper are grateful to Perri 6, Annelies De Schrijver and Kim Loyens for their many helpful comments and suggestions on the survey items. Of course, only the authors are responsible for any possible weaknesses of the paper (including the operationalization of the measurement instrument).
Citation
Wouters, K. and Maesschalck, J. (2014), "Surveying organizational culture to explore grid-group cultural theory: Instrument design and preliminary empirical results", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 224-246. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-11-2011-0529
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited