The development and application of a procedure to measure culture strength in organizations

The objectives of this exploratory research were to 1) operationally define culture strength, 2) develop a procedure for measuring culture strength in organizations, 3) and demonstrate the culture strength measurement procedure in one or more organizations. I used the culture strength measurement procedure in two organizations-a large research organization at a major university and the headquarters organization of a regional provider of life insurance products and services. I used analogies from materials engineering and psychology to help conceptualize and operationally define culture strength. I studied the effectiveness of five culture strength measures (intensity, core values, cultural behavior, effects from external forces, and the gap between the existing and desired culture) to predict three criterion variables (employee commitment, job satisfaction, and group cohesion). I constructed my measurement instrument using mostly existing scales modified for my application. I developed a scale to measure the force effect relationship. I found work groups with stronger cultures had smaller gaps between their existing values and their desired values, had many people whose behavior reflected the desired values, had people whose behavior reflected many of the 53 values used in the survey instrument, had a small set of work group values held tightly by their people, and that small set of work group values closely mirrored the set of values held tightly by all members of the organization. I used a canonical correlation analysis for the culture strength measures at the individual level and rank order correlations for culture strength measures at the work group level. I found culture gaps and its factors (as determined through a factor analysis) were consistently good predictors of the criterion variables. Cultural behavior, a measure of the percentage of people whose behavior reflects a set of mostly positive values, was also a good predictor of the criterion variables. The effects scale was not an effective measure of culture strength in this research.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1993

Author dc:creator

• Mallak, Larry A.

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Kurstedt, Harold A.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-05222007-091403

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/27845