Individual Perceptions of Organizational Cultures: A Methodological Treatise on Levels of Analysis

Abstract

Data from a survey study of organizational cultures in 20 organizational units in Denmark and the Netherlands were re-analyzed at the individual level, after elimination of between-unit variance. A factor analysis showed individuals' values to be composed of six dimensions, and individuals' perceptions of their organiza tion's practices of another six dimensions, entirely different from the dimensions found earlier to apply at the organizational level. The scores on these new dimen sions are related to various demographic characteristics of the respondents. This case is used for a methodological treatise stressing the need to choose the proper level of analysis for the problem at hand, a need which is too seldom recognized.

The impact of societal cultural values and individual social beliefs on the perceived effectiveness of managerial influence strategies: a meso approach

“…A methodological fallacy occurs when data available from one level are applied to another level without being statistically accommodated. An ecological fallacy is committed when, for example, group (e.g., society) level data are disaggregated to form variables at the individual level and investigations are made at this lower level, whereas a reverse ecological fallacy is committed when data at the individual level are aggregated to construct group indices for higher-level analysis (e.g., Hofstede et al, 1993;Hofstede, 2001). We tried to avoid these fallacies through our statistical techniques, which allowed us to conduct both individual-level analyses and the second-level analyses that included cultural values.…”

A Test of the Leadership-Culture-Performance Modelwithin a Large Dutch Financial Organization*.

“…For instance, one of the three items of`employee orientation' in Koene's study (1996) is`management is generous with little things.' The organizational-culture operationalization from Hofstede et al's (1990) (from which Koene derived his items) contains even more items that explicitly refer to leadership behavior (see also Hartis Bond, 8c Luk, 1993). Note that Hofstede et aL (1990: 311) concluded that '...key leaders undoubtedly shape organizational cultures....' He cannot possibly have obtained this conclusion from the same questionnaire study where leadership was (unintentionally) included in the measurement of organizational culture.…”

A quarter century of Culture's Consequences: a review of empirical research incorporating Hofstede's cultural values framework

“…Thus, we argue that excluding these studies would create an incomplete picture of Hofstede's impact. In addition, analyses of the same data at different levels of analysis do not necessarily lead to equivalent findings or replication of dimensions (Leung and Bond, 1989;Hofstede et al, 1993Hofstede et al, , 2001). To accurately sort the studies into the proper level of analysis, we scrutinized each study's theory and method section to determine the level at which the study was conceptualized and analyzed, respectively.…”