Exploring the national and organizational culture mix in service firms

Abstract

Using representative samples of U.S. and Japanese retail service firms, this study explores whether one particular type of organizational culture is the best with respect to business outcomes (performance and customer satisfaction) or whether the optimum culture depends on the national context in which the firm is embedded. The findings suggest that there is a significant interaction effect of organizational culture with national culture on outcomes. Specifically, the relationships between the importance placed on the cultural values of stability, people orientation, and detail orientation and outcomes are significantly greater for Japanese than for U.S. service retailers. On the other hand, the relationships between the values of aggressiveness, innovation, and outcome orientation and outcomes are greater for U.S. retailers. Further, the findings show that firms whose cultures match those of their home countries exhibit lower levels of outcomes when they operate in other countries with different cultural values. Implications are given for how service retailers might be designed and managed for purposes of improving business outcomes.

Quantitative analysis of organizational culture in occupational health research: a theory-based validation in 30 workplaces of the organizational culture profile instrument

“…Though the size of the longer scale makes it impractical for large scale population-based studies, the 26-item scale would benefit from further validation that would also review the group-level properties of the measure. A related concern is that factor analysis requires at least 10 to 20 subjects per item to achieve a reliable solution [30] and studies have failed to meet this requirement when using either the 54-item scale [31-34] or the 26-item scale [35,36]. These studies were characterized by overall small employee sample sizes.…”

Organizational culture as differentiator in international retailing

“…In particular 'an understanding of the cultural characteristics of international retail organizations has not yet attracted sufficient research attention'. This deficit seems to hold true more generally for service firms (Webster & White, 2010).…”

“…This chimes with the general tenor amongst (international) human resource management (HRM) academics and practitioners who regard vibrant organizational cultures (such as a 'people-for-profit' culture, Cawood, 2008) as best competitive differentiator (Bloom, 2011;Convenience Store News, 2011;HRM International Digest, 2012;Webster & White, 2010). In an industry such as retailing where most business aspects can be easily copied due to their high visibility (Dawson, 2007), ownership advantages in the form of an inimitable culture have been particularly postulated as competitive advantage.…”

Product Innovation: Impact of Organizational Culture in Product Innovation

“…Possession of positive cultural characteristics provides the organisation with the necessary ingredients to innovate. (Ahmed, 1998) (Webster & White, 2010)Organisational culture can be conceptualised and quantified in terms of the widely shared and strongly held values of a firm's employees. An organizational culture that supports creativity and innovation could be developed through the use of HR intervention such as employee involvement and learning and development (Satsomboon & Pruetipibultham, 2014).…”