Organizational climate and the conditions that determine the "personality" of an organization represent important factors in determining the managerial behavior. Climate and behaviors are strongly influenced by organizational culture. Managerial behavior is determined by the variety of ways of realizing functions and by their attitude to employees and subordinates. These features of the each manager’ behavior is defined management style. This study examined the relationship between individual’s personality, organization’s personality, the environmental factors and managerial behavior. Data were collected from thirty enterprises (micro, small and mediums) from Bihor County. The results obtained from these sources suggested that the size of the lead group has a great influence on managerial behavior.culture, organization, personality, managerial behavior

Bucurean Mirela

Costin Madalina-Adriana

English

Research Papers in Economics

633 
 
THE IMPACT OF ORGANIZATION'S PERSONALITY ON MANAGERIAL 
BEHAVIOR 
Bucurean Mirela 
University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics 
Costin Mădălina-Adriana 
University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics 
 
Organizational climate and the conditions that determine the "personality" of an organization represent 
important  factors  in  determining  the  managerial  behavior.  Climate  and  behaviors  are  strongly 
influenced by organizational culture. Managerial behavior is determined by the variety of ways of 
realizing functions and by their attitude to employees and subordinates. These features of the each 
manager’ behavior is defined management style. 
This study examined the relationship between individual’s personality, organization’s personality, the 
environmental factors and managerial behavior. Data were collected from thirty enterprises (micro, 
small and mediums) from Bihor County. The results obtained from these sources suggested that the size 
of the lead group has a great influence on managerial behavior. 
 
Keywords: culture, organization, personality, managerial behavior 
 
Cod JEL lucrare: M10 
 
1. The influence that culture have on organization’s personality  
Organizational culture is a way of thinking, a specifically way to see problems and solve them and a 
sense of belonging to a team. This feeling exists because people have found that everything works fine 
within the organization. Taking into consideration Edgar Schein's view, organizational culture is formed 
primarily to resolve two problems that any organization faces with: adaptation to external environment 
and internal integration. 
Personality is the key element behind any organization and what it stands for, and the story that its 
products tell to customers. Every business element, from interactions with customers to the product 
packaging is an element of organization personality, and these are the aspects that inspire customers’ 
delight or indifference
483.  
Organizational culture has a number of economic and social effects on the organization as an open 
system, on its employees and on the management practices. For employees, knowing organizational 
culture provides the understanding of organization’s history and the behavior that will better fit to the 
community  they  belong.  Employees  will  adhere  to  the  specific  values,  to  the  philosophy  of  the 
organization, strengthening their confidence that they achieve the objectives in which they strongly 
believe. The organizational culture provides numerous criteria by which managers can make a useful 
behavior control in order to stop unwanted events and to acquire those accepted in that organization. 
Many  experts  consider  that  organizations  that  have  strong  cultures  also  obtain  remarkable  results, 
although it is difficult to make a link between organization culture and its performance
484. 
The main organizational culture’s functions can be
485:  
- It defines the boundary between one organization and others. 
- Conveys a sense of identity for its members. 
                                                       
483 Bhargava, Rohit, Personality not included, Why companies lose their authenticity and how great brands get it 
back, McGraw Hill Publishing, New York, 2008, p.5. 
484 Burdus, Eugen, Management Treaty, Economic Publishing, Bucharest, 2005, p.261. 
485 http://www.scribd.com/doc/23413135/Organizational-Culture, accessed on 18.04.2010, at 15:55. 634 
 
- Facilitates the generation of commitment to something larger than self-interest. 
- Enhances the stability of the social system. 
- Serves as a sense-making and control mechanism for fitting employees in the organization. 
In certain organizations there is strong culture because managers and employees respond positively to 
the  stimulus  from  the  organization  due  to  their  alignment  towards  the  organizational  values.  In 
organizations where people have minimal alignment towards organizational values we can talk about 
weak culture. In strong cultured organization people don’t challenge organizational thinking in spite of 
the  fact  that  they  have  different  thoughts,  psychology  and  ideas  for  it.  The  charismatic  style  of 
management, the friendly atmosphere among people or the evangelical belief in the organization’s 
values can provide a strong organizational culture. 
The requirements of a good organizational culture can be considered the following
486: 
- There should be openness and humility in the nature and behavior of every person in the organization 
from top to bottom. 
- The environment in the organization should induce accountability and personal responsibility.  
- The employees should have freedom of taking risks with their new ideas but within their limits. 
- Managers should encourage employees to experiment and convert the aspects that they consider 
negative into positives ones.  
- The organizations should work only on the basis of clarity, transparency and reliability between the 
people and the organization.  
- By integrating the people to put the effort collectively multiplies the organizational strength.  
- Collaboration with organizational culture consultants whose theories can lead to business success. 
Organizational culture’s orientation towards results and performance can be done by achieving the 
sense of employee’s satisfaction and by induction of loyalty feeling. For obtaining and maintaining a 
strong culture, employees must be treated with respect and encouraged to take initiative, be creative in 
everything they do and it is necessary for managers to set some reasonable clear standards, and to give 
them enough autonomy
487. 
 
2. Factors that determine the managerial behavior 
Organizational climate determines factors or variables that influence members and groups' activities and 
attitudes  in  an  organization:  rules  and  regulations,  organizational  or  environmental  constraints, 
decision-making strategies and motivating people, means of transmission of information, etc. The main 
dimensions of organizational climate are
488: 
- The structure of tasks and the methods used for accomplishing the tasks are well controlled and 
organized. 
- The relationship reward-punishment: additional rewards for promotion and increased salary are based 
on performance and merit, rather than other considerations, such as seniority, favoritism etc. 
- The centralization or decentralization of making decisions. 
- Increasing people's achievements or desire to do good work and contribute to company performance. 
- Increase training and development and the degree to which the organization seeks to support training 
and development performance. 
- Security and risk or the degree of pressure and employees’ uncertainty feelings and anxiety. 
- The general feeling that individuals have a good job. 
- The employee’s sureness that their work is approved and appreciated by supervisors. 
- The organization knows that the objectives can be achieved in a flexible and innovative way. 
                                                       
486 http://www.scribd.com/doc/23288238/Organizational-Culture, accessed on 18.04.2010, at 12:56. 
487 Nica, Elvira, Managerial Psychology, Economic Publishing, Bucharest, 2008, p.23. 
488 Prodan, Adriana, Successful Management, Polirom Publishing, Iasi, 1999, p. 91.  635 
 
Managerial behavior cannot be independent of any of these components which form the organizational 
climate. For example, at the upper levels of the hierarchy there is a wider space of freedom on setting 
goals, decision making and motivational strategies, the monitoring arrangements, etc.  
Behavioral scientists agreed that there isn’t an ideal recipe that managers should follow in order to 
obtain success. Each manager organizes and leads in the way that he/she considers is better for the 
organization. Even if there are some rules concerning organizational management, each manager will 
interpret and adapt them according to his/her natural mode of being
489. 
Often it is assessed the participatory management because of the involvement of all employees in 
problem solving and decision making hence, due to favorable effects on performance. But not always 
such a management style is positive when a change is to be made within organizations. 
Between organization culture and managerial behavior within it there is a direct link. An organizational 
culture  may  lead  to  a  positive  behavior  by  promoting  values.  Also,  managers  in  an  organization, 
through their daily behavior by performing roles and performance management may foster an ethical 
behavior within the organization. 
To  maintain  the  organization  culture  and  the  managerial  behavior  at  a  high  level,  the  following 
recommendations will be useful
490: 
-  Realism  in  determining  objectives  and  values  support  in  accordance  with  the  organization’s 
possibilities.  
-  Encouraging  all  initiatives  within  the  organization  that  contributes  to  maintenance  of  the  culture 
accepted by managers and employees. 
- Allow the expression of different opinions that belong to organization’s employees.  
-  Development of training programs for managers and employees, which can contribute to the cultural 
values promoted by the organization. 
Graphically, the relationship between environmental factors, individual’s personality, organization’s 
personality and managerial behavior can be represented like this: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
Figure nr. 1 Factors that determine the managerial behavior 
 
                                                       
489 Burciu, Aurel (coord.), Introduction in management, Economic Publishing, Bucharest, 2007, p.131. 
490 Burdus, Eugen, Management Treaty, Economic Publishing, Bucharest, 2005, p.265. 
Managerial Behaviour 
Organization’s 
Personality 
Individual’s 
Personality 
Environmenta
l Factors 636 
 
 
3. How does the size of the group influences the managerial behavior? 
When talking about managerial behavior, we can identify eight roles managers play according to the 
size of the lead group
491: 
- President Controlling and coordinating team members, recognizing their talent and focusing more on 
what is feasible rather than imaginative and exciting. 
- Involved Assumes all the needed actions instead of forming the employees' thoughts and decision-
making abilities. 
- Innovator Demonstrates a creative thinking. 
- Evaluative The ability to analyze problems and make suggestions objectives. 
- Organization’s employee Role based on the implementation of ideas by taking those skills which 
transfer ideas and plans into practice. 
- Team’s employee Requires a good understanding of needs and support of employees. 
- Resources investigator Searches for resources and ideas outside of the team and support team’s efforts 
in achieving goals. 
- Implementer Ensures that the objectives are achieved on time and at a high standard. 
When trying to enhance managerial skills it is imperative for managers to understand that their behavior 
is interpreted differently according to a  subordinate's personality. Indeed, the same  message that a 
manager is communicating (even if the content is the same) could be interpreted in several different 
ways depending on the personalities of the subordinates
492. 
Managers  tend,  depending  on  the  group  he  leads,  to  adopt  a  certain  behavior.  Although  the  ideal 
conditions  are  difficult  to  meet,  managers  choose  their  teams  from  the  best  people  they  have, 
encouraging their flexibility role. There is a need for managers to distinguish between the roles assumed 
by each team member. Knowing the expectations of colleagues, the manager may end the tension and 
avoid the group collapse earlier. 
In order to give a real answer to the question presented in the subtitle 3, we made a research on a 
number of thirty organizations from Bihor county (ten of them were micro enterprises; ten were small 
and the last ones middle).  The thirty managers had to note the following decisional situations from 1 to 
10, taking into account the frequency of using them within their enterprise, (using 10 for the most 
frequent):  manager  makes  decisions,  manager  “sells”  decisions,  manager  presents  and  discuss 
decisions, manager presents the attempt of making decisions and manager defines the limits (the groups 
make the decisions). The table below represents the final values calculated by simple arithmetic average 
for each type of enterprise that we studied. 
Type of 
enterprise 
Decisional situations 
manager 
makes 
decisions 
manager 
“sells” 
decisions 
manager 
presents and 
discuss 
decisions 
manager 
presents the 
attempt of 
making 
decisions 
manager 
defines the 
limits (the 
groups make 
the 
decisions) 
micro 
enterprise  1  3  8,5  9,5  10 
small 
enterprise  8  5,5  9  9  7,5 
middle 
enterprise  9,5  9,8  4  1,5  1 
                                                       
491 Prodan, Adriana, Successful Management, Polirom Publishing, Iasi, 1999, p. 96. 
492 http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/136076050_3.html, accessed on 18.04.2010, at 20:00. 637 
 
Table nr. 1 Final value of decisional situations 
Group size can influence the decision-making style. From the sample of firms that we surveyed, is seen 
that,  when  talking  about  groups  of  1-9  employees,  managers  prefer  to  make  decisions  taking  into 
account employees' proposals and establishing the limits, when group increases at 10-49 employees, 
managers prefer to make decisions, present and discuss them with the employees and when talking 
about  groups  larger  than  49  employees,  managers  “sell”  and  make  decisions  without  employee’s 
participation. 
The results of our research can be graphically presented in the following way: 
 
Figure nr. 2 The correlation between employees group and making decisions styles 
 
4. Conclusions 
Organizations are evolving, adaptive, strategic, and rule-based cultures which act on and respond to 
changing internal and external environments. 
The cultural match between an individual and an organization is determined by the degree to which the 
individual's personal traits fit the organizational culture, or perhaps vice versa. A lower cultural match 
may indicate that the individual is drained of important resources by having to continuously adjust to 
the  workplace  environment.  A  higher  cultural  match  suggests  the  potential  for  a  more  satisfying 
interaction for both the individual and the organization. 
In  order  to  increase the  organization’s performance,  managers  have  to  ensure  that employees feel 
comfortable  in  the  specific  organizational  environment,  they  feel  motivated  by  this 
environment and they will be able to achieve organizational goals. 
The success of any company depends in part on the match between individuals’ personality, manager’s 
personality and organization culture and personality. Organizational culture is the set of operating 
principles  that  determine  how  people  behave  within  the  context  of  the  company.  All  the  different 
behaviours  of  people  need  to  have  the  same  base:  beliefs,  values,  and  assumptions  that  dictate 
individual’s actions.  
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Manager makes 
decisions
Manager ”sells” 
decisions
Manager 
presents and 
discuss decisions
Manager 
presents the 
attempt of 
making decisions
Manager defines 
the limits (the 
group makes the 
decisions)
1:9 Employees
10:49 Employees
50:249 Employees638 
 
Managers need an accurate understanding of the organization’s culture in order to direct activities in a 
productive way and to avoid the destructive influence of having employees who are not committed to 
the company’s goals. 
 
5. Bibliography: 
1. Bhargava, Rohit, Personality not included, Why companies lose their authenticity and how great 
brands get it back, McGraw Hill Publishing, New York, 2008 
2. Burciu, Aurel (coord.), Introduction in management, Economic Publishing, Bucharest, 2007 
3. Burdus, Eugen, Management Treaty, Economic Publishing, Bucharest, 2005 
4. Nica, Elvira, Managerial Psychology, Economic Publishing, Bucharest, 2008 
5. Prodan, Adriana, Successful Management, Polirom Publishing, Iasi, 1999 
6. http://www.scribd.com/doc/23413135/Organizational-Culture, accessed on 18.04.2010, at 15:55. 
7. http://www.scribd.com/doc/23288238/Organizational-Culture, accessed on 18.04.2010, at 12:56. 
8.  http://www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/136076050_3.html,  accessed  on  18.04.2010  at 
20:00 
 
 
 
   

Aurel (coord.), Introduction in management,

http://www.scribd.com/doc/23288238/Organizational-Culture, accessed on 18.04.2010,

http://www.scribd.com/doc/23413135/Organizational-Culture, accessed on 18.04.2010,

Management Treaty, Economic Publishing,

Personality not included, Why companies lose their authenticity and how great brands get it back,

Successful Management, Polirom Publishing, Iasi,

THE IMPACT OF ORGANIZATION'S PERSONALITY ON MANAGERIAL BEHAVIOR

http://anale.steconomiceuoradea.ro/volume/2010/n1/099.pdf

THE IMPACT OF ORGANIZATION'S PERSONALITY ON MANAGERIAL BEHAVIOR

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