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http://hdl.handle.net/1947/9664
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| Title: | Assessing organisational culture in a group context using the organisational culture profile |
| Report number: | DSTO-TR-2143 |
| AR number: | AR 014-212 |
| Classification: | Unclassified |
| Report type: | Technical Report |
| Authors: | Fidock, J.
Talbot, S. |
| Issue Date: | 2008-06 |
| Division: | Land Operations Division |
| Abbreviation: | LOD |
| Release authority: | Chief, Land Operations Division |
| Task sponsor: | DGFLW |
| Task number: | ARM 04/013 |
| File number: | 2007/1009810 |
| Pages or format: | 32 |
| References: | 2 |
| DSTORL/DEFTEST terms: | Organisational culture
Organisational change
Change management
Group behaviour
Values |
| Abstract: | The aims of this paper are twofold: first to describe a workshop approach designed to explore cultural characteristics of organisations in support of strategic planning; second, outline the development of the Organisational Culture Profile (OCP) to support such planning in a group context. A workshop was held to assist in exploring possible cultural changes required to support the aspirations of the logistics community within the Australian Defence Organisation. The OCP used in conjunction with data captured from group discussions provides: a snap shot of the extant logistics culture; a means of getting relevant stakeholders to reflect on those cultural attributes that would best support organisational aspirations; and a means of identifying gaps to inform the development of intervention strategies. Reflection on the group completion of the OCP suggests it will be of use in other Defence contexts, including enhancing understanding of the cultural changes that may be required to support the Hardened and Networked Army. |
| Executive summary: | The use of the Organisational Culture Profile (OCP) in a group context represents a novel extension to the quantitative approach employed by O’Reilly et al. (1991) for measuring culture.1 The authors undertook a review of the relevant literature and were unable to find any reported examples of the OCP being used in this way. This paper reports on the development and application of the OCP for use in a workshop designed to explore cultural characteristics of organisations in support of strategic planning. Some of the strengths associated with group completion of the OCP and other features of the workshop included: • Group completion of the OCP supported collective discussion in a way that was consistent with the social nature of culture. Culture is manifested through shared values, beliefs, and norms which shape or inform behaviour. Collection of data about culture via the usual individual administration of the OCP removes any opportunity for a social phenomenon to be discussed in a social context. • The group based completion of the OCP led to participants discussing and justifying their reasons for placing a value statement in a particular category, thus providing context for making sense of the allocation and meanings participants ascribed to the value statements. It is only through interaction provided by the group setting that this is able to occur. • Both individual administration and group completion of the OCP can highlight areas of consensus and difference, but only in a group context can such differences be explored and discussed with personnel embedded within the same organisation. • The elicitation of cultural descriptions of the current and future Defence logistics system and subsequent gap analysis provided a fresh approach to supporting strategic planning. Perceptions of the approach and its utility in supporting the development of the Defence Logistics Transformation Plan suggest that such an approach would be of use in support strategic planning in other contexts. Weaknesses associated with the workshop and group completion of the OCP included: • Both individual administration and group completion of the OCP can be a frustrating undertaking for participants. This is due to use of the Q-sort method, which forces people to limit how many value statements can be allocated to outlying categories. This was made more problematic by the perception that there were more value statements that were ‘positive’ than ‘negative’. One way of addressing the constraints imposed by the Q-sort method is to convert the OCP value statements into a series of Likert-type questions that could then be administered via a survey instrument. Such an approach has been employed in other Defence research. Sarros et al. (2005) also describe the development of such an instrument2. Whilst such approaches generate efficiency gains, the richness of information is significantly reduced. • The emphasis on achieving consensus may inhibit the airing of contrary views from less dominant participants. However, there are a variety of group facilitation techniques that can assist in minimising such effects, such as encouraging people to reflect on the extent to which they have contributed to the discussions. Other considerations: • The workshop approach described in this paper would lend itself to being used to support change management initiatives that have a cultural component, for example the Hardened and Networked Army. 1 O'Reilly, C. A., III, Chatman, J., & Caldwell, D. F. (1991) People and Organizational Culture: A Profile Comparison Approach to Assessing Person-Organization Fit, Academy of Management Journal, 34(3), 487. 2 Sarros, J. C., Gray, J., Densten, I. L., & Cooper, B. (2005) The Organizational Culture Profile revisited and revised: An Australian perspective, Australian Journal of Management, 30(1), 159-182. |
| Appears in Collections: | DSTO Formal Reports
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