THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS: COMPANY CULTURE AS A REFLECTION OF FOUNDER PERSONALITY IN ENTREPRENEURIAL ORGANIZATIONS

This dissertation explores the connection between founder personality and organizational culture in founder-led entrepreneurial companies. With a focus on how founder personality affects culture, it draws from the literature in upper echelon/top management teams, family business and organizational psychology – notably the Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA: Schneider, 1987) and Person-Organization fit (P-O: O'Reilly, Chatman, & Caldwell, 1991) theories. Using a combination of ethnographic, psychological and organizational data from the founders and employees of four small firms from multiple industries, and a broader survey study of 336 respondents from 23 firms, it finds support for O’Reilly et al., (2014)’s CEO Personality-Culture link in the small-company setting. It also validates two new findings: 1) that employee personality traits can trump founder personality as an influence on culture, and 2) that founder involvement can moderate the impact of founder personality on culture. The dissertation concludes with plans for further research into the personality-organizational culture effects and thoughts about the applicability of these results for founders and consultants.

Grantor dc:publisher

Temple University. Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Kyser, Diana

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Hill, Theodore L.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Andersson, Lynne Mary
• Blau, Gary J.
• Di Benedetto, C. Anthony

• Organizational behavior
• Psychology, Personality
• Entrepreneurship
• ASA
• Big five
• Founder
• Organizational culture
• Personality
• Person-organization fit

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT- This Rights Statement can be used for an Item that is in copyright. Using this statement implies that the organization making this Item available has determined that the Item is in copyright and either is the rights-holder, has obtained permission from the rights-holder(s) to make their Work(s) available, or makes the Item available under an exception or limitation to copyright (including Fair Use) that entitles it to make the Item available.

Licence dc:rights.uri

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

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12613/1680

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholarshare.temple.edu:20.500.12613/1680