With an emphasis on Hawassa University, the study was set out to examine the organizational cultures of HEIs in Ethiopia in both existing and preferred situations. The study used a mixed methods approach and an explanatory research design. Respondents from the four colleges and institutes of Hawassa University selected using purposive sampling included academic personnel, administrative employees, and students. Out of the 436 surveys issued, 396 respondents, 60 were members of the academic staff, 120 were members of the administrative staff, and 216 were students, completed and returned the questionnaires correctly. The respondents were chosen using a simple random sampling procedure. Additionally, two student councils, three college deans, and two administrative staff directorates were purposely chosen to participate in the interview. Through surveys and interviews, both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered. Both descriptive statistics (percentage and mean) and inferential statistics (ANOVA) were applied to the data in order to analyze it. Even though Hawassa University’s staff and students prefer a clan culture, the study’s findings revealed that hierarchy culture is the institution’s predominant organizational culture. In addition, it is discovered that the hierarchy in the present and the clan in the favored contexts are a little stronger and more prominent than the other cultural types. However, out of the six cultural dimensions, the clan culture type is based on the dominant traits, organizational leadership, strategic emphasis, and success criteria, whereas in the preferred situation, management of employees and organizational glue are perceived as being adhocracy and market culture, respectively. In general, an organization’s culture influences not only the performance of its employees but also the effectiveness of the organization as a whole. Therefore, higher education officials must seek to change the current organizational culture of their institutions in order to serve the requirements and interests of stakeholders and to improve the overall performance of their organizations.