Organizational culture inventory (Cooke and Lafferty, 1989)
This instrument assesses organizational culture under 12 headings:
- Humanistic-helpful – organizations managed in a participative and person-
centred way. - Affiliative– organizations that place a high priority on constructive relationships.
- Approval– organizations in which conflicts are avoided and interpersonal rela-
tionships are pleasant – at least superficially. - Conventional– conservative, traditional and bureaucratically controlled organi-
zations. - Dependent– hierarchically controlled and non-participative organizations.
- Avoidance– organizations that fail to reward success but punish mistakes.
- Oppositional– organizations in which confrontation prevails and negativism is
rewarded. - Power – organizations structured on the basis of the authority inherent in
members’ positions. - Competitive– a culture in which winning is valued and members are rewarded
for out-performing one another. - Competence/perfectionist– organizations in which perfectionism, persistence and
hard work are valued. - Achievement– organizations that do things well and value members who set and
accomplish challenging but realistic goals. - Self-actualization– organizations that value creativity, quality over quantity, and
both task accomplishment and individual growth.
MEASURING ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE
Organizational climate measures attempts to assess organizations in terms of dimen-
sions that are thought to capture or describe perceptions about the climate.
Perceptions about climate can be measured by questionnaires such as that developed
by Litwin and Stringer (1968) which covers eight categories:
- Structure– feelings about constraints and freedom to act and the degree of
formality or informality in the working atmosphere. - Responsibility– the feeling of being trusted to carry out important work.
- Risk– the sense of riskiness and challenge in the job and in the organization; the
relative emphasis on taking calculated risks or playing it safe. - Warmth– the existence of friendly and informal social groups.
312 ❚ Organizational behaviour