The Organizational Culture of a Major Social Work Institution in Romania: A Sociological Analysis

Abstract

This study aims to document the specific organizational culture existing in the General Directorate for Social Work and Child Protection (DGASPC) in the Gorj county, Romania. This is a major social work institution in Romania, but one which (like most other social work institutions in this country) have rarely been subject to the type of sociological research as the one reported in this article. The present analysis can help leaders in this organization and other similar organizations to assess and improve the cultural aspects that can influence the achievement of objectives, as well as the quality of the social services provided to service users. Our study has included 286 participants that hold various positions at DGASPC Gorj (social workers, psychologists, and educators). The chosen investigative instrument is the organizational culture assessment instrument (OCAI), a questionnaire designed to interpret organizational phenomena, developed by Cameron and Quinn and based on the conceptual framework of the “competing values framework”. The authors have identified four types of culture (clan, adhocracy, hierarchy, and market culture) and the tool allows an analysis of organizational culture based on the employees’ perception of the existing culture as well as also on their preferences regarding the way they would like to change the organizational culture in the future. The results show that the dominant culture is the hierarchy culture, closely followed by elements of clan culture. Other cultural dimensions are also explored and reported (leadership, success criteria, etc.).

Defining the differences in corporate culture in wood-processing and forest enterprises

“…Therefore, focusing on performance is crucial in an effort to survive. In this context, the corporate culture represents a major element of business management, which is supported by existing studies (Ogbonna and Harris 2000;Škerlavaj et al 2011;Rezaei et al 2016;Mullakhmetov et al 2019;Vlaicu et al 2019) and has a significant impact on their performance. An overview of actual literature associated with the corporate culture is given in this paper.…”

Transitioning to Sustainable Administrative Gatekeeping in Access to Social Grants for South African Adult Persons with Disabilities

“…A literature review revealed that interest in the present subject matter has mainly been related to disability in the workplace, with an emphasis on mainstreaming, discrimination, or how to accommodate adult PWDs in the workplace, as well as the impact of social grants for adult PWDs on recipients. The following are the main findings from the international literature by Maestas et al [19], Loyalka et al [20] and Wind et al [21], as well as those studies on the CRPD by Murungi [18], Ladner [22], Walker [23], Vlaicu et al [24] and Xu and Chen [25].…”

Instrumento de evaluación de la cultura organizacional: revisión sistemática de su aplicación

“…• Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Atribución-CompartirIgual 4.0 Internacional (CC BY-SA 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.es https://www.produccioncientificaluz.org/index.php/rvg Twitter: @rvgluz _______________Revista Venezolana de Gerencia, Año 27 No. 97, 2022 contextos organizacionales logrando resultados valiosos tanto en el ámbito académico como profesional (Vlaicu, 2019).…”

“…Los estudios realizados en instituciones del área de la salud (Heritage, et al 2014;Van Huy et al 2020) Hay un número significativo de estudios realizados en otros sectores industriales, entre los que se encuentran electricidad, sector financiero, construcción, sector forestal, logística, hotelería, telecomunicaciones y servicios sociales. A pesar de la diversidad de contextos organizacionales, se pueden apreciar notables similitudes en los resultados de la mayoría de estos estudios, marcado por una cultura actual predominante de tipo Jerarquizada (Dela-Garza-Carranza et al, 2010;Kargas y Varoutas, 2015;Ližbetinová et al 2016;Soares et al 2018;Vlaicu et al 2019), y una cultura deseada de tipo Clan (Ližbetinová et al, 2016;Lorincová et al, 2020;Teräväinen et al, 2018).…”