Week-03
Psychological Reports, 2006,99,67 1-674. O Psychological Reports 2006
PRELIMINARY ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE SCALE FOCUSED O N ARTIFACTS '
TOMAS BONAVIA
University of Valencia
Summary.-In this preliminary study, an Organizational Culture Scale was devel- oped to assess cultural artifacts according t o Schein's typology (1985). It includes a set of cultural artifacts t o measure the extent t o which an organization is more or less traditional. A total of 249 managers from a range of different companies responded to the items. Preliminary analysis yielded a one-dimensional scale with 14 items with high internal consistency and homogeneity.
The concept of organizational culture has attracted broad scholarly in- terest and a number of questionnaires have been developed to measure it. For example, Ashkanasy, Broadfoot, and Falkus (2000) reviewed 18 scales published between 1975 and 1992. Interestingly, only three of these focused on measuring "patterns of behavior," according to Schein's typology (1985). The others considered a deeper level, that is, values and beliefs. However, none focus on artifacts, which are the first level of Schein's typology. This paper was intended to be an initial inquiry into this gap since, as Rousseau (1990) affirmed, the most visible leveIs of organizational culture can be ap- propriately studied quantitatively.
Schein (1985) distinguished three levels of culture: artifacts and crea- tions, values, and basic assumptions. H e treated basic assumptions as the es- sence of culture and values and behaviors as observed manifestations of the cultural essence. As Schein affirmed (1999, p. 15) "The easiest level to ob- serve when you go into an organization is that of artifacts: what you see, hear, and feel as you hang around." Therefore, the definition of artifacts includes directly observable elements, e.g., dress codes, physical space, tech- nology, as well as other more subtle components, such as the way status is demonstrated by members, how decisions are made, communications, dis- agreements and conflicts, balance between work and family, etc. The essen- tial difference between values and basic assumptions is that both inform ob- servers of the meaning the artifacts have, understanding "why" people d o what they do in an organization. For this reason, "survey responses can be viewed as cultural artifacts and as reflections of the organization's climate, but they do not say anything about the deeper values or shared assumptions
'Address correspondence to Professor Tomas Bonavia, Facultad de Psicologia, Departimento de Psicologia Social, Av. Blasco Ibaiiez, 21, 46010 Valencia, Spain or e-mail (Tomas.Bonavia@ uv.es).
672 T. BONAVIA
that are operating" (Schein, 1999, p. 86). However, this does not mean that Schein found no utility in evaluating artifacts. In fact, after defining the busi- ness problem, they are the first necessary step toward deciphering the com- pany's culture.
To measure the most visible level of any organization culture, a scale was developed. It included a set of cultural artifacts to measure the extent to which an organization is traditional. The scale was conceived with the goal of obtaining two poles of the same continuum. Higher scores on the scale mean that the organization is traditional, while lower scores mean the in- verse (half the items are reverse-scored). With this purpose, a study of cul- tural artifacts deemed most relevant was undertaken: strategy; human rela- tionships; selection schemes; promotion and dismissal; training programs; motivation, evaluation, and incentives; absenteeism and rotation; communica- tion processes and conflict resolution; type of structure, rules, and technol- ogy; climate and environment.
Although the definition might be criticized, the most characteristic traits of any traditional culture are (see Table 1) short term perspectives; overesti- mating the economic goals; highly competitive and markedly individualistic; promotion based on personal friendships and family ties; creativeness and capacity for innovation by the employee unvalued; importance of customs and traditions; evaluation schemes and controls based on failure and not on success; avoidance of conflict at all costs; centralized, rigid, and bureaucratic structure; new technologies not encouraged; minimum use of marketing strat- egies; and no importance given to environmental conservation.
METHOD The sample was obtained using a variety of procedures, including com-
pany and management listings, personal contacts within organizations and institutions as well as key people such as consultants, executives, or manag- ers. The collection of information took four months. Four hundred and fifty questionnaires were given to a broad range of Spanish companies, 249 of which were returned from approximately 120 organizations, together with nine incomplete questionnaires that were eliminated from analysis. The return rate was between 55 % and 57 %. Of the respondents, 2 11 were men (84.7 % of the total sample) and 37 women (14.9%)) plus one individual who did not specify sex. The average age was 38.3 yr. (SD=8.5, range=25 to 63).
The initial scale of 24 items was rated on a 6-point Likert scale an- chored by 1: Totally disagree and 6: Totally agree. T o develop a question- naire measuring a relatively specific construct (DeVellis, 1991) only those items with a corrected item-total correlation > .40 were retained for a prelimi- nary analysis of item reliability, internal consistency, and factor structure (see Table below). Ten items were eliminated from the analysis, so the final ver-
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE SCALE 673
sion included 14 items. Total scores ranged from 14 to 84 (M = 41.8, SD = 12.2) with higher scores reflecting more traditional culture. Cronbach alpha was 2 6 .
The intercorrelation matrix for 14 items was submitted to an explor- atory factor analysis using principal axis analysis with a varimax rotation (Boyle, Stankov, & Cattell, 1995). The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin ratio (KMO = .86) was high. The Bartlett test of sphericity was significant ( p < .0001). The exploratory factor analysis yielded three factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.0. The first factor accounted for 36.1 % of the variance whereas two other factors accounted for 9.2 % and 7.4 % of the variance, respectively (eigenval- ues of factors were 5.1, 1.3, and 1.0). An examination of the Scree plot (Cattell, 1966) indicated that structure was appropriately described as having one factor. Factor loadings and communalities for the one factor solution are presented in Table 1. All items loaded strongly on the factor (all factor load- ings > .45).
TABLE 1 ITEMS, CORRECTED ITEM-TOTAL CORRELATIONS (rTo,), AND FACTOR STRUCTURE FOR FINAL
14 ITEMS OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE SCALE OF ARTIFACTS (ENGLISH VERSION)
In this company: r,,, Factor h 2 Loading
--
1. Generally, a long term vision of things is valued more." 2. The focus on problems takes into account mainly their effects on
economic factors, with little consideration of the impact on peo- ple.
3 . Human relations are principally based on cooperation, consen- sus, and rou well-being (the contrary of competitiveness and individuaf weg-being)."
4. The most important bases for promotion are personal friendships and family ties.
5 . Creativeness and capacity for innovation are valued in employ- ees."
6. In this com any, it is often heard "it has aly:ys been done like that" or "tgis is the proper way of doing it.
7. The aims of systems of evaluation and control are to punish more than to reward.
8. Conflict is treated as a normal aspect of company life, from which valuable experience can be gained."
9. The structure is highly centralized, i.e., the majority of matters have to pass through very few hands.
10. The structure is flexible, i.e., it ada ts quickly and successfully to changes that may affect its survivah
11. The rules and regulations favor unnecessary bureaucracy that must be rigorously respected.
12. There is a constant concern to keep the technology up to date." 13. Marketing strategies such as segmentation and market research
are used.* 14. My company is really concerned about the conservation of nature
and takes measures to this respect."
"Reverse-scored items.
674 T. BONAVIA
As a first approach, which needs to be confirmed with further research, these preliminary findings indicate the scale may be further developed for assessing traditional-culture artifacts. The common variance explained was only 36.1% and this result is considered a limitation of the scale. Moreover, construct validity must be examined and evidence presented for concurrent, predictive, as well as content validity. Social desirability can also be subject- ed to empirical inquiry. These lines of research are required for application of items in the real world. Such effort is clearly needed because "Culture becomes a powerful influence on members' perceiving, thinking, and feeling; and these predispositions, along with situational factors, will influence the members' behavior" (Schein, 1985, p. 320). As a consequence, conceiving organizations in a traditional way may be too narrow because culture influ- ences strategy, structure, and procedures of any organization with major im- plications.
REFERENCES
ASHKANASY, N. M., BROADFOOT, L. E., &FALKUS, S. (2000) Questionnaire measures of organiza- tional culture. In N. M. Ashkanasy, C. P. M. Wilderon, & M. F. Peterson (Eds.), Hand- book of organizational culture C climate. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Pp. 131-145.
B o n ~ , G. J., STANKOV, L., &CATTELL, B. (1995) Measurement and statistical models in the study of ~ e r s o n a l i t ~ and intelligence. In D. H. Saklofske & M. Ziedner (Eds.), International handbook of personality and intelligence. New York: Plenum. Pp. 417-446.
CATTELL, R. B. (1966) The scree test for the number of factors. Multivariate Behavioral Re- search, 1, 245-276.
DEVELLIS, R. F. (1991) Scale development: theory and applications. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. R o u s s ~ ~ u , D. (1990) Assessing organizational culture: the case for multiple methods. In B.
Schneider (Ed.), Organizational climate and culture. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass. Pp. 153-192.
SCHEIN, E. H. (1985) Organizational culture and leadership. London: Jossey Bass. SCHEIN, E. H. (1999) The colporate culture survival guide. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Accepted September 26, 2006