Citation

Kwantes CT, Boglarsky CA. Int. J. Cross Cult. Manag. 2004; 4(3): 335-354.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1470595804047814

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The objective of our study was to examine whether there are differences in how employees in six occupations (Accounting, Management Information Systems, Marketing, Production, and Secretarial/Clerical) describe the organizational culture in which they felt they would be most effective. The differences found within the context of one national culture were differences in degree rather than in kind. Members of each occupational group indicated that an organizational culture that emphasizes constructive interpersonal relationships, participative management, and values individual work initiative and task accomplishment is preferred. Management Information Systems emerged as having significantly more extreme preferences in their description of an ideal organizational culture. Additionally, it was found that the professional occupations had distinctly different degrees of preferences for specific types of organizational culture than the non-professional occupations. The dominant type of work (person-oriented vs. task-oriented) also had an effect on organizational culture preferences.