How Organizational Culture Can Affect Employees and Organizations
Introduction
The 1980s witnessed a surge in popularity to examine the concept of organizational culture as managers became increasingly aware of the ways that an organizational culture can affect employees and organizations. This interest led management scholars and practitioners to undertake research investigations resulting in numerous articles, including a complete issue of Administrative Science Quarterly (September 1983), Organization Dynamics (Autumn 1983) and Journal of Management Studies (May 1986) being devoted to corporate or organizational culture issues. In marketing literature, despite the importance given to the study of culture in the 1960s towards understanding consumer behavior, particularly in market segmentation, communication, diffusion of innovations, and cross-cultural comparisons (Engel et al., 1968; Zaltman, 1965), relatively few studies have investigated organizational culture and its impact on marketing management issues (Deshpande and Webster, 1989). These studies include those that have recognized the importance of corporate culture in modeling selling effectiveness (Weitz et al., 1986), implementation in marketing strategy (Walker and Ruekert, 1987), customer orientation within organizations (Bonoma, 1984; Deshpande et al., 1993), and strategic market planning (Deshpande and Parasuraman, 1986; Mahajan et al., 1987).
The pervasiveness of an organization’s culture requires that management recognize the underlying dimensions of their corporate culture and its impact on employee-related variables such as satisfaction, commitment, cohesion, strategy implementation, performance, among others. However, relatively few empirical studies have examined these relationships. For example, Sheridan (1992) examined the organizational culture-employee retention link among college graduates in accounting firms, while Vandenberghe (1999) investigated that link among nurses in hospitals. Other studies, such as Buono et al. (1985), examined the effects
The 1980s witnessed a surge in popularity to examine the concept of organizational culture as managers became increasingly aware of the ways that an organizational culture can affect employees and organizations. This interest led management scholars and practitioners to undertake research investigations resulting in numerous articles, including a complete issue of Administrative Science Quarterly (September 1983), Organization Dynamics (Autumn 1983) and Journal of Management Studies (May 1986) being devoted to corporate or organizational culture issues. In marketing literature, despite the importance given to the study of culture in the 1960s towards understanding consumer behavior, particularly in market segmentation, communication, diffusion of innovations, and cross-cultural comparisons (Engel et al., 1968; Zaltman, 1965), relatively few studies have investigated organizational culture and its impact on marketing management issues (Deshpande and Webster, 1989). These studies include those that have recognized the importance of corporate culture in modeling selling effectiveness (Weitz et al., 1986), implementation in marketing strategy (Walker and Ruekert, 1987), customer orientation within organizations (Bonoma, 1984; Deshpande et al., 1993), and strategic market planning (Deshpande and Parasuraman, 1986; Mahajan et al., 1987).
The pervasiveness of an organization’s culture requires that management recognize the underlying dimensions of their corporate culture and its impact on employee-related variables such as satisfaction, commitment, cohesion, strategy implementation, performance, among others. However, relatively few empirical studies have examined these relationships. For example, Sheridan (1992) examined the organizational culture-employee retention link among college graduates in accounting firms, while Vandenberghe (1999) investigated that link among nurses in hospitals. Other studies, such as Buono et al. (1985), examined the effects