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"Filled with case studies from firms such as GT Automotive, GE Healthcare China, Vale, Dominos, Swiss Re Americas Division, and Polar Bank, among others, this book (written by Dan Denison and his co-authors) combines twenty years of research and survey results to illustrate a critical set of cultural dynamics that firms need to manage in order to remain competitive. Each chapter uses a case as a means to illustrate an important aspect of culture change focusing on seven common culture-change dilemmas including creating a strategic alignment, keeping strategy simple, and more"--

This paper examines the link between organizational culture and effectiveness for foreign-owned firms operating in Russia. Beginning with a model of organizational culture developed in the United States, the paper presents a multimethod analysis of culture and effectiveness in a transition economy. We argue that effectiveness in Russia relies more on adaptability and flexibility than it does in the United States. Furthermore, the legacy of the Communist era forces firms in Russia to deal with a workforce with a unique time perspective and a unique set of subcultures that often undermine attempts at coordination and integration. We first explore these ideas using survey data on 179 foreign-owned firms operating in Russia and compare the results to those obtained for firms in the United States. We then present four case studies designed to ground the results in the Russian context, and to document cultural dynamics not captured by the model.

This paper develops a model of organizational culture and effectiveness based on four traits of organizational cultures; involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission. These traits are examined through two linked studies: In the first, qualitative case studies of five firms are used to identify the traits and the nature of their linkage to effectiveness; In the second, a quantitative study provides an exploratory analysis of CEO perceptions of these four traits and their relation to subjective and objective measures of effectiveness in a sample of 764 organizations. The results show support for the predictive value of the traits, and help to illustrate the complementarity of qualitative and quantitative methods for studying organizational cultures. Two of the traits, involvement and adaptability, are indicators of flexibility, openness, and responsiveness, and were strong predictors of growth. The other two traits, consistency and mission, are indicators of integration, direction, and vision, and were better predictors of profitability. Each of the four traits were also significant predictors of other effectiveness criteria such as quality, employee satisfaction, and overall performance. The results also showed that the four traits were strong predictors of subjectively-rated effectiveness criteria for the total sample of firms, but were strong predictors of objective criteria such as return-on-assets and sales growth only for larger firms. This paper suggests that culture can be studied as an integral part of the adaptation process of organizations and that specific culture traits may be useful predictors of performance and effectiveness. The paper also illustrates how qualitative case studies and inductive theory building can be combined with quantitative comparisons and theory-testing to make progress on specific aspects of organizational culture research.

While the study of mature organizations and bureaucracies is well established, there has been comparatively little examination of the creation and development of new organizations. What work has been done is highly fragmented, primarily by discipline, and concentrates on different facets of a complex phenomenon. Following a literature review and classification this article attempts a conceptual integration; it proposes a system dynamics model for the creation and development of one particular organizational type: new, technology based organizations. Drawing upon concepts from ecology, the central concept of the model is that new venture creation takes place within, and is thus dependent upon, a larger context of "ecosystem" consisting of environmental resources (technical expertise, capital, services) and existing inhabitants (individuals, firms, and institutions). Intraorganizational factors are also discussed including a set of proposed measures for new venture success. The article closes with some suggestions for the direction of future research and describes a research project the authors have recently begun.

The concept of paradox has received increasing attention in the study of leadership, but these new ideas have not yet had much influence on empirical leadership research. This paper examines the development of these ideas in the literature and attempts to clarify what influence they might have on empirical research. One general implication of the paradox perspective, that more effective leaders generally display a more complex and varied set of behaviors, is then examined empirically with respect to Quinn's (Quinn, R. E. 1984. Applying the competing values approach to leadership: Toward an integrative model. J. G. Hunt, R. Stewart, C. Schriesheim, D. Hosking, eds. Managers and Leaders: An International Perspective. Pergamon, New York; Quinn, R. E. 1988. Beyond Rational Management: Mastering the Paradoxes and Competing Demands of High Performance. Jossey-Bass Inc., San Francisco, CA.) model of leadership roles. This model is one of few that allows for an empirical test of some of the central ideas developed by the paradox perspective. The paper also contrasts the recent emphasis on cognitive complexity in the organizational literature (Weick [Weick, K. 1979. The Social Psychology of Organizing. Random House, New York.], Kiesler and Sproull [Kiesler, S., L. Sproull. 1982. Managerial response to changing environments: Perspectives on problem sensing from social cognition. Admin. Sci. Quart. 27548–570.], Streufert and Swezey [Streufert, S., R. W. Swezey. 1986. Complexity, Managers and Organizations. Academic Press, Orlando, FL.]), with the relative lack of attention given to behavioral complexity. Cognitive complexity, the paper argues, may well be a necessary condition for the effective practice of leadership. Behavioral complexity, however, must certainly be the sufficient condition. Leadership must inevitably be performed through action, not cognition, and it would thus appear to be time for leadership researchers to begin to develop theories of behavioral as well as cognitive complexity. The paper also examines several existing leadership theories that are consistent with this point of view (Mintzberg [Mintzberg, H. 1973. The Nature of Managerial Work. Harper and Row, New York; Mintzberg, H. 1975. The manager's job: Folklore and fact. Harvard Bus. Rev. 5349–61.], Yukl [Yukl, G. 1981. Leadership in Organizations. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.]; Bass [Bass, B. M. 1981. Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership: A Survey of Theory in Research. Free Press, New York.]), and have (in effect) already offered useful definitions of behavioral complexity. The empirical results of this study come from a study of 176 executives whose leadership role behavior is rated by their subordinates, and whose effectiveness is rated by their superiors. The analysis relies upon a nontraditional analysis technique based on multidimensional scaling that is well suited to this unorthodox analytic problem. The results show that the more effective executives exhibit a greater variety of leadership roles than their less effective counterparts, and that these roles are much clearer to their subordinates. The results also show that more effective executives show much more of the underlying structure of leadership roles proposed by the Quinn model than do less effective executives. Finally, this paper suggests that the concepts of paradox and behavioral complexity are instrumental to a fuller understanding of managerial leadership, and concludes with a discussion of the future research agenda in this area.

"Filled with case studies from firms such as GT Automotive, GE Healthcare China, Vale, Dominos, Swiss Re Americas Division, and Polar Bank, among others, this book (written by Dan Denison and his co-authors) combines twenty years of research and survey results to illustrate a critical set of cultural dynamics that firms need to manage in order to remain competitive. Each chapter uses a case as a means to illustrate an important aspect of culture change focusing on seven common culture-change dilemmas including creating a strategic alignment, keeping strategy simple, and more"--Provided by publisher