Surveying organizational culture to explore grid-group cultural theory: Instrument design and preliminary empirical results

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study was to develop a valid and reliable measurement instrument for organizational culture on the basis of grid-group cultural theory (GGCT).

Design/methodology/approach

The study consisted of three phases. In a first phase, the literature was reviewed and experts on GGCT were consulted in order to design an item pool for the typology. In a second phase, a pilot study was done in two organizations of the Belgian federal government to evaluate this original item pool. The third phase consisted of the actual data gathering in seven organizations within the Belgian federal government.

Findings

The study showed that it is possible to measure organizational culture based on GGCT. The authors used confirmatory factor analysis to examine the underlying structure of the data and found support for the existence of four culture scales. Scale reliabilities in the third phase of the study were satisfactory and ranged between 0.703 and 0.848.

Research limitations/implications

The current research was not specifically designed to evaluate content validity. Further research is needed to explore this issue. It would also be interesting to develop a GGCT-based measurement instrument for the team level.

Practical implications

The measurement instrument can be used by practitioners to describe and assess their organizational culture.

Originality/value

This study introduces a novel way to measure organizational culture, using a promising theoretical framework.

Citation

Wouters, K. and Maesschalck, J. (2014), "Surveying organizational culture to explore grid-group cultural theory: Instrument design and preliminary empirical results", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 224-246. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-11-2011-0529