A Study of the Relationship between Types of Organizational Culture and the

AbstractThe main purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the type of organizationalculture and the degree of total quality management acceptability at the Iranian public universities based onthe faculty members' perceptions. Four research questions were examined the relationship between fourtypes of cultures(developmental, rational, hierarchical and group cultures) and six TQM indices(leadership,strategic planning, customer focus, information and analysis, human resource management, and processmanagement).A descriptive –correlation research method was employed. The statistical population includedall tenure faculty members during 2005 -06 academic year from which a sample size of 330 was selectedrandomly through a cluster and multi-stage sampling method(263 subjects answered the questionnaires. Thedata gathering tools included two researcher –made questionnaires based on Likert’s five degree scale. Theorganizational culture questionnaire consisted of 42 items and the TQM questionnaire included 57 items, andtheir reliability coefficients were estimated 0.93 and 0.96 respectively.The results of regression analysis indicated a positive significant relationship between developmentalculture and the degree of acceptability of TQM in two dimensions including strategic planning and processmanagement.The relationship between group culture and TQM acceptability was positive and significantwith regard to leadership and human resource management. Rational and hierarchical cultures had positiveand significant relationships with all TQM indices. In sum, hierarchical organizational culture correlationwith TQM acceptability in the universities was stronger than the correlation of the other three types ofculture