Organizational culture and effectiveness: A study of values, attitudes, and organizational outcomes

a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Organizational culture is defined as a set of beliefs, values, and assumptions that are shared by members of an organization (Schein, 1985). These underlying values have an influence on the behavior of organizational members, as people rely on these values to guide their decisions and behaviors (Schein, 1985). Extrapolating from the influence culture has on the behavior of organizational members, much has been written about the impact of culture on an organization's effectiveness (e.g., Schein, 1985, Quinn, 1988. While the extant research is promising, more empirical evidence of the manner in which organizational culture impacts effectiveness is warranted. Previous research has explored the direct relationships between specific culture domains and specific effectiveness measures (e.g., Quinn and Spreitzer, 1991; Cameron and Freeman, 1991; Denison and Mishra, 1995; Denison, 1990). The purpose of this research is to delve deeper into the relationship between organizational culture and organizational effectiveness by exploring both direct and indirect effects. Siehl and Martin (1990) suggested that culture influences employee attitudes and that those attitudes, in turn, impact organizational effectiveness. We offer an empirical examination of this assertion by testing the mediating effect of employee satisfaction on the culture-effectiveness relationship. Frazier et al. (2004) describe mediating variables as constructs that "establish 'how' or 'why' one variable predicts or causes and outcome variable" (p. 116). Although the relationship between culture and effectiveness is relatively well established in the literature, "how" and "why" this relationship exists has not been adequately addressed. This manuscript attempts to begin to fill that void by exploring employee attitudes as one possible explanatory mechanism through which an organization's culture comes to impact its performance

Correlates of Satisfaction, Learnin and Success in Business Gaming

"The Emory University Intercollegiate Business Game [1] is an annual opportunity for colleges and universities in North America to compete in business game competition. Twenty-six such schools in the United States and Canada competed in the 1974 Intercollegiate Business Game (I.B.G.). This paper presents preliminary research findings of a mail survey of the participants in the competition. The purpose of the research was to identify those factors that correlate with: (1) participant satisfaction (2) perceived learning, and (3) team success.

Organizational culture and effectiveness: A study of values, attitudes, and organizational outcomes

That organizational culture influences firm effectiveness is an assumption implicitly held by many managers and management researchers, although few empirical studies have provided detailed insight into the relationship. This manuscript addresses this dearth of research by examining employee attitudes as a potential mediator of the relationship between organizational culture, as operationalized by the competing values framework [Quinn, R.E., Beyond Rational Management. San Francisco: Josey-Bass; 1988.], and diverse measures of organizational effectiveness. Results of this study, which was conducted in 99 healthcare facilities across the US, provide evidence that suggests that employee attitudes mediate the culture-effectiveness relationship.Organizational culture Employee Attitudes Organizational Effectiveness