A comparative study of organizational strategy and culture across industry

Abstract

Purpose

The present study examines the strategy and culture of 32 Indian organizations belonging to seven industry segments namely construction, banking, information technology (IT), pharmaceuticals, power, steel, and telecom. Further it also examines the linkage between the organization's strategy and the culture of the organization.

Design/methodology/approach

It has used the typology suggested by Miles and Snow and organizational culture assessment instrument developed by Cameron and Quinn which is based on the competing values framework of Quinn and Rohrbaugh. The Miles and Snow framework suggests four organizational strategies namely, prospector, defender, analyzer and reactor. Organizational culture is categorized into four types: adhocracy, clan, market, and hierarchy.

Findings

The findings indicated that there are significant differences in the strategy and culture of organizations belonging to different industry segments. Prospector strategy is most widely used by the telecom industry and least in construction. The analyzer strategy was reported to be most frequently used by the IT sector and defender and reactor strategy were used by the construction sector. Adhocracy culture was most prevalent in the pharmaceutical sector. Clan, market, and hierarchy culture were most prevalent in the construction industry. Further organizations using prospector strategy were high on adhocracy culture. Both clan and adhocracy cultures were found more in organizations with analyzer strategy. Organizations with defender and reactor strategy were high on hierarchy and clan culture, respectively.

Practical implications

This study asserts that different culture and strategy is used in Indian organizations.

Originality/value

The contribution of the study lies in examining the differences in culture and strategy of organizations belonging to different industry segments.

Citation

Gupta, B. (2011), "A comparative study of organizational strategy and culture across industry", Benchmarking: An International Journal, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 510-528. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635771111147614