ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AS A SOURCE OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

This study examines the types of strategies and operating cultures of organizations in terms of their effectiveness at the individual, work-unit, and organizational levels of analysis. The framework focuses first on the relationship between the type of strategy adopted by organizations and their operating cultures, based on contingency or “fit ” theories proposing that different cultures are appropriate for different types of strategies. The theoretical framework used in this study also focused on the relationship between organizational culture and effectiveness. This relationship was considered in terms of both “adaptive” theories of cultures—which propose that certain types of cultures promote effectiveness regardless of environmental and strategic factors--and contingency theories—which propose that such strategic factors moderate the relationship between culture and effectiveness. This paper presents a summary of the research efforts