A Configuration Model of Organizational Culture

Abstract

The article proposes a configuration model of organizational culture, which explores dynamic relationships between organizational culture, strategy, structure, and operations of an organization (internal environment) and maps interactions with the external environment (task and legitimization environment). A major feature of the configuration model constitutes its well-defined processes, which connect the elements of the model systematically to each other, such as single-and doubleloop learning, operationalization of strategies, legitimization management, and so on. The model is grounded in a large review of literature in different research areas and builds on widely recognized models in the field of organization and culture theory. It constitutes a response to the call for new models, which are able to explain and facilitate the exploration of the empirical complexity that organizations face today. The configuration model of organizational culture is of particular interest to scholars who investigate into cultural phenomena and change over time.

The gains and pains of mixed national group work at university

“…Universities may differ in their organisational cultures, including their values, strategies, structures and operations (Dauber, Fink and Yolles, 2012), and they may have different social integration policies and strategies. As a result, students' opinions at other universities could be significantly different from those in this study.…”

Entrepreneurship culture, total factor productivity growth and technical progress: Patterns of convergence towards the technological frontier

“…We think that this knowledge is not simply the sum of all the stages and processes in each firm, the country where the company is located may also have an impact. Moreover, regarding organizational culture, Hofstede et al (1990) highlight that there is a significant difference between national culture and organizational culture, nevertheless, firms are embedded in societies defined by certain national culture values (Dauber, Fink and Yolles, 2012). For this reason we think that the institutional context of a firm has become important once more.…”

“…In any society, the dominant beliefs and basic values or culture (Dauber, Fink and Yolles, 2012;Hatch and Cunliffe, 2006), institutionalise forms of behaviour, ideas of technical and social progress, educational levels and normative frameworks which are either conducive to, or hinder, the stock of ideas and knowledge and technical and social progress; these behaviours and normative frameworks transfer to a society's aggregate production function, forming part of its total factor productivity, through different types of entrepreneurs or entrepreneurship (Schumpeter, 1934(Schumpeter, , 1950, and their rootedness (or institutionalisation) in society (Aldrich and Zimmer, 1986;Alvarez et al, 2011;Thorton et al, 2011).…”

The Cultural Analysis of Soft Systems Methodology and the Configuration Model of Organizational Culture

“…The model suggests an equal appreciation of domains and processes (e.g., guidance, single-loop learning) so as to understand cultural dynamics. This enables a better understanding of the efficiency of a change process within an organization (Dauber et al, 2012). With regard to the project-based organization, strategy, that Source.…”

“…This process is influenced by the history of the system, that is, what happened before. Dauber et al (2012) do not explicitly depict the history of an organization in their model, though the model from Allaire and Firsirotu (1984) describes the external environment as being composed of society, history, and contingency. However, this automatically happens once an intervener engages with the different domains and processes.…”