Ramos V. Psicologia.com. 2012; 16:7.
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Artículo original
The relationship between cultural and non-cultural
elements as a way to describe organizational context
Valentina Ramos1*; Filomena Jordão2
Resumen
El contexto organizacional ha sido considerado dentro de los estudios inter-culturales, siendo
un elemento importante para la comparación y para la explicación de las dinámicas
organizacionales. A través del presente estudio pretendemos dar respuesta a las siguientes
preguntas de investigación: ¿Cuáles son los valores organizacionales que podemos encontrar en
entidades radicadas en Oporto, Portugal? y ¿cómo estos valores organizacionales se relacionan
con características no-culturales como son la forma jurídica, el sector de la economía, el tamaño
y la edad de las organizaciones analizadas? El presente estudio se clasifica como exploratorio,
derivado en correlacional. La metodología empleada para recoger información fue cualitativa y
el análisis de datos se realizó cuantitativamente, utilziando la información publicada en 100
sitios web, identificando 24 valores organizacionales, recogidos en seis categorías. Aunque
tuvimos resultados que se corresponden con estudios realizados en otros contextos, también
encontramos elementos contradictorios como el caso de valores como la comunicación, la
igualdad social y el reconocimiento social dentro de las organizaciones públicas, y la identidad
en las organizaciones privadas. También obtuvimos resultados que, a pesar de ser esperados, no
aparecieron, como el caso de las relaciones sociales en las empresas pequeñas. Por último,
tuvimos nuevos resultados como la semejanza entre empresas jóvenes y viejas, y la semejanza
entre empresas del sector secundario y el terciario. Este estudio puede servir de una referencia
importante en la realización de intervenciones dentro del contexto cultural donde se aplicó, así
como en la realización de estudios comparativos con otros contextos nacionales e
internacionales.
Abstract
The context has been considered mostly in cross-cultural studies and we contend that it became
necessary when comparing results from previous studies and then trying to explain the
organizational dynamics. By means of the present study we intend to answer the following
questions: What are the organizational values that we can find in Porto's organizations?
Moreover, how are these organizational values related to non-cultural characteristics such as
legal form, economic sector, size and age of the organizations analyzed? This was an exploratory
and correlational study. The methodology for gathering data was qualitative but the analysis of
data was quantitative. We used the public information supplied by 100 organizational websites
to identify 24 organizational values that were grouped in six categories. Although we obtained
some results that correspond with previous studies from other contexts, we also found some
data that contrasted with those that were revealed in other studies: such as communication,
social equality and social recognition values in public organizations, and identity in private
organizations. There were also results that, although expected, did not appear (e.g., the social
relationship in small businesses). We also found new results such as the similarity between
Psicologia.com ISSN: 1137-8492
© 2012 Ramos V, Jordão F.
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Ramos V. Psicologia.com. 2012; 16:7.
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young and old organizations, and the similarity between the secondary and the tertiary
economic sector. This can be an important reference in further interventions in this context and
in performing comparative organizational studies.
Keywords: Organizational culture, organizational values, non-cultural characteristics, cultural
context.
Recibido: 12/09/2011 Aceptado: 24/01/2012 Publicado: 27/02/2012
* Correspondencia: valia_ramos@yahoo.es
1y2 Centro de Psicologia, Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, Universidade do Porto.
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When authors want to expand their theories or results to other situations (other people,
organizations or countries) they always find a problem with regard to the context. The results
must be analyzed with reference to the context in which they are produced. Even if these results
are the same, they cannot be interpreted in the same way, since the situations differ. For
Silverthorne (2005), cross-cultural studies help us to understand the differences and similarities
between cultures where the study is taking place. However, the consideration of the context
continues to be a problem for many researchers.
According to Gelfand, Leslie and Fehr (2008), in order to perform psycho-sociological
studies in organizations diferent levels of context can be present: individual context, work unit,
organizational context, industrial context and societal culture. That is the reason why
researchers have to note carefully the cultural level where the study is going to take place. But
organizations' behavior is not only a consequence of their culture. The above authors also
suggest that this issue has been ignored in the realization of cross-cultural studies. For Gelfand
et al. (2008), non-cultural elements also influence the organizational dynamic, and therefore the
relationship between cultural and non-cultural elements should also be considered.
Values in organizational culture
Organizational values are one of the elements that form the culture and they were
considered as its "bedrock" (Campbell, 2004; Hofstede, Neuijen, Ohayv, & Sanders, 1990;
Payne, 1991; Posner, Kouzes, & Schmidt, 1985; Shein, 1996; Trice & Beyer, 1993; Vandenberghe
& Peiró, 1999).
Studies using organizational values to predict organizational culture commonly became
theories, as in the case of the proposals suggested by Hofstede and Schwartz (Berry et al., 1997),
but we think that to generalize theories to other cultures and contexts is not always the best
solution. Values are "an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence
is personally or socially preferable to its opposite" (Rockeach, 1973, cited in Dolan & García,
1998, p. 63). For this reason, organizations are responsible for identifying which values are
better related to their goals. Using values from previous studies to characterize an existing
culture can lead to the problem of forgetting or ignoring the values that are being presented in
the specific situation under analysis.
Values can be explicit when we can identify which strategies are being used to shape
values amongst employees in organizations (Patten, 2004). Organizational values can also be
implicit when they direct workers' and organizations' behavior, but cannot be found explicitly in
any document. They may even prove contradictory with explicit values (Jaffe & Habbershon,
2002) and they can be related to informal expectations.
Values can also be defined as being actual or desired. Actual values express the
organization's state at the present moment and answer the following question: what is the
organization and why does it perform in the way that it does? (Ramsey, 2006). Desired values
express the final values. They are the collective vision of the organization and answer the
following question: where is the organization going and why (is it going in that direction)?
(Dolan & García, 1998).
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Non-cultural elements for organizational context
Organizations not only function by virtue of their culture. According to Gelfand et al.
(2008), cross-cultural studies have commonly ignored non-cultural factors relating to their
researches and theories. In specific cultural contexts we found studies linking values and noncultural elements, such as: legal form (Benítez, 2006; Cortés, Taverner, & Gascó, 1998; Felcman,
1999), economic sector (Brentani & Kleinschmidt, 2004; Lau & Ngo, 2004; Lytle & Timmerman,
2006; Morales, 2001), size (Choueke & Armstrong, 2000; Cornelissen & Thorpe, 2001; Graham
& Nafukho, 2007; Nafukho, Graham, & Muyia, 2009; Nieto, 2008; Saenz & Acevedo, 2009;
Tonge, 2001), age (Alloza, 2008; Dickinson, 2000; Hannan, 2005; Hannan, Pólos, & Carroll,
2007; Menhart, Pyka, Ebersberger, & Hanusch, 2003; Mucha, 2005; Ocampo, Fajardo, & Suaza,
2007), among others.
However, those studies that linked values with non-cultural elements have not always
accomplished the same results. The non-cultural element studied was not always used in the
same way or with the same definition in all researches. The organizational and regional contexts
were also different. We also think that to describe the relationship between cultural and noncultural context we need to consider more than one non-cultural element because organizations
are complex systems (Dransfield & Dransfield, 2003; Katz & Kahn, 1989; Simon, 1973)
characterized by more than one interaction.
Our research was undertaken in conjunction with the proposal of Gelfand et al. (2008)
using non-cultural elements to describe the organizational context. For this reason, we studied
the relationship between organizational values as a descriptor of the organizational culture, and
legal form, economic sector, size and age as its non-cultural elements.
The first contribution that we wish to make in this paper is to recognize the importance
of (the) context in organizational studies. Moreover, we develop a new approach in relating
cultural with more than one non-cultural element to describe the organizational context. If our
results show that there is a relationship between cultural and non-cultural elements, then we
can predict the existence of certain values according to non-cultural organizational
characteristics.
The two questions that directed our study were: What are the organizational values that
we can find in Porto's organizations, and: How are these organizational values related to noncultural characteristics such as legal form, economic sector, size and age of the organizations
analyzed?
Method
This is an exploratory and correlational study. The methodology for gathering data was
qualitative but the analysis of data was quantitative. The research followed a non-experimental
procedure and data were obtained transversally.
Sample
We selected 100 organizations from Porto, with a sample distribution as displayed in
Table 1. Organizations were randomly selected from public sources of organizational data,
specifically from Portuguese organizational directories. The excluding criterion was the absence
of a current website.
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Table 1
Sample distribution according to the legal form of organizations
Legal Form
Organizational non-cultural characteristics
Public
Private
Total
Primary Sector*
0
3
3
Secondary Sector
10
2
12
Tertiary Sector
41
44
85
Micro-business*
3
0
3
Small business
19
3
22
Medium size business
15
19
34
Large business
14
27
41
Young (less than 10 years old)
4
9
13
Adult (between 10 and 50 years old)
38
34
72
Old (more than 50 years old)
9
6
15
Economic sector
Size
Age
Note: *Indicates variables that were removed from analysis due to the organizations
distribution.
The economic sector was classified according to Fourastié (1949) into primary,
secondary and tertiary. The organizational size was classified according to international
parameters included in the Article 100º of the Portuguese Labour Code (República, 2009) as
small, medium-size and large businesses. We could not find a standard classification for
organizations according to their age. So we classified the organizations according to their age in
three groups: "young" for organizations less than 10 years old, "adult" for organizations between
10 and 50 years old, and "old" for organizations more than 50 years old. This classification can
sometimes be related to "new", "old" and "very old" distinctions made in previous studies
(Cooper , 2005; Menhart et al., 2003), taking into account the number of years that the analysed
organizations had existed.
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Material and procedure
The information came exclusively from corporate websites and it acted as a means to
extract the explicit and implicit organizational values. This information was displayed in
publications, legal documents, documents concerned with strategic planning issues (such as
mission, vision and explicit values), quality policies, statistical data, and other similar
documentation in the public domain.
These materials were selected due to the accessibility to public information on the
Internet. We cannot guarantee that the information published on the websites has a
correspondence with the actual values, but at least they can be considered as desired values
because they define the image that the organization wishes to communicate. This is reliable
according to the goals of the study.
Data analysis
The qualitative method using content analysis helped us to explore the websites'
information in order to identify the organizational values. We used the Nvivo8 program for this
purpose.
To analyse the statistical relationship between organizational values and non-cultural
organizational characteristics we used the SPSS 17.0 program. We used non-parametric
statistical tests: Mann-Whitney and Krukal-Wallis tests.
Results
The results are divided into two sections according to our research questions:
qualitative analysis, referring to the identification and conceptualization of the organizational
values, and quantitative analysis, which corresponds to the statistical analysis and comparison
between different characteristics of the organization.
Question 1: What are the organizational values that we can find in organizations in
Porto?
In the analyzed documents we found both implicitly and explicitly 24 organizational
values that we grouped in six categories. The organizational values' categorization and grouping
was arranged taking into account the meaning of each value. Each organizational value and
group of values is followed by a description. This can be seen in supplementary material.
Quality was the group of organizational values with the highest frequency, while
Identity was the least frequent.
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Question 2: How are these organizational values related to non-cultural
characteristics such as legal form, economic sector, size and age of the
organizations analyzed?
The values and groups of values identified were re-grouped according to each noncultural characteristic of the organizations analysed, in order to measure their internal
heterogeneity.
The Mann-Whitney test proves differences in organizations according to their legal form
(see Table 2). We use the mean rank to compare the categories that represent the organizational
value.
The groups of values most prevalent in public businesses are Communication, Social
Relationship and Material Values. The groups of values most common in private businesses are
Identity and Quality. The group of values regarding Client Relationship represents no difference
according to the legal form (see Table 2).
Table 2
Organizational differences according to their legal form
Legal Form
Mann-Whitney
Public
Private
Mean Rank
Mean Rank
.000
63.93
37.60
Opening up
.127
54.47
46.69
Report of action
.883
50.70
50.30
Communication between businesses
.000
64.89
36.68
Communication between people
.016
56.07
45.15
Image
.198
49.06
51.88
.000
42.06
58.61
Family values preservation
.003
45.55
55.25
Sense of belonging
.006
45.56
55.25
.017
43.48
57.25
Discipline
.106
48.53
52.39
Experience
.002
41.91
58.75
Worker's skills
.005
42.91
57.79
Categories and sub-categories of organizational
Asymp. Sig.
values
Communication
Identity
Quality
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Service's quality
.031
44.33
56.43
.068
55.90
45.31
Customization
.006
44.43
56.33
Customer service
.000
39.46
61.11
Relation to client
.261
53.55
47.57
.001
60.71
40.69
Self-actualization
.357
51.62
49.42
Defense of national cultural values
.185
53.44
47.68
Social equality
.006
55.93
45.28
Social recognition
.023
44.26
56.50
State relations
.000
67.91
33.77
Respect for the environment
.953
50.57
50.43
.029
56.88
44.37
Capital
.191
53.03
48.07
Physical characteristics of the organization
.074
45.92
54.90
Marketing strategies
.008
47.00
53.86
Pursuit of the Legislation
.000
63.66
37.85
Client relationship
Social relationship
Material Values
Note: p-value considered were p < .05., p < .01., and p < .001.
In public businesses we can find individual values related to the groups of values
mentioned. In the Communication group we have the values of communication between
businesses and communication between people. In the Social Relationship group we find the
values of social equality, social recognition and state relations. Also, in the Material Values
group, we can find the value of pursuit of the legislation.
In private businesses there are also individual values associated with the groups of
values mentioned. In the Identity group we find the preservation of familiar values and the
sense of belonging values. In the Quality group we can discern the values of experience,
workers' skills and service quality.
In general, we were unable to find any differences in the distribution of organizational
values considering the economic sector (see Table 3). The differences found are in accordance
with individual values. Communication between people, relation to clients and pursuit of the
legislation are the values that statistically predominate in the tertiary economic sector.
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Table 3
Organizational differences according to their economic sector
Economic Sector
Mann-Whitney
Secondary
Tertiary
Mean Rank
Mean Rank
.148
38.25
50.52
Opening up
.650
52.04
48.57
Report of action
.963
48.83
49.02
Communication between businesses
.057
36.00
50.84
Communication between people
.028
36.00
50.84
Image
.391
46.50
49.35
.825
50.21
48.83
Family values preservation
.618
51.17
48.69
Sense of belonging
.462
45.58
49.48
.350
56.08
48.00
Discipline
.104
54.17
48.27
Experience
.155
59.04
47.58
Worker's skills
.615
45.50
49.49
Service's quality
.077
61.96
47.17
.573
44.71
49.61
Customization
.800
50.46
48.79
Customer service
.587
52.58
48.49
Relation to client
.004
29.13
51.81
.568
44.67
49.61
Self-actualization
.345
46.00
49.42
Defense of national cultural values
.321
54.63
48.21
Social equality
.374
44.42
49.65
Social recognition
.883
50.04
48.85
Categories and sub-categories of organizational
Asymp. Sig.
values
Communication
Identity
Quality
Client relationship
Social relationship
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State relations
.079
37.71
50.59
Respect for the environment
.793
49.83
48.88
.207
39.54
50.34
Capital
.974
48.83
49.02
Physical characteristics of the organization
.925
49.63
48.91
Marketing strategies
.305
45.50
49.49
Pursuit of the Legislation
.020
32.88
51.28
Material Values
Note: p-value considered were p < .05., p < .01., and p < .001.
To define which category represents the group of values and/or the individual value(s)
according to the organizations' size, we used a Post-Hoc test. As a result we obtained the finding
that Social Relationship is the group of values that is least present in small businesses (see Table
4). This difference exists between small and medium size organizations, and between small and
large organizations. However, we found two individual values that are more present in small and
medium-size organizations than in large organizations: the customization and the customer
service values.
Table 4
Organizational differences according to their size
Size
Mann-Whitney
Small
Medium
Large
Mean Rank
Mean Rank
Mean Rank
(G1)
(G2)
(G3)
.095
39.48
47.78
55.12
Opening up
.431
43.18
49.65
51.59
Report of action
.920
49.77
48.38
49.10
Communication between businesses
.026 b
39.16
46.19
56.61
Communication between people
.412
44.36
48.29
52.07
Image
.612
50.86
47.96
48.87
.321
50.16
45.01
51.68
.253
47.55
46.32
52.00
Categories and sub-categories of organizational
Asymp. Sig.
values
Communication
Identity
Family values preservation
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Sense of belonging
.185
53.43
45.24
49.74
.404
55.16
44.84
49.15
Discipline
.404
50.36
50.38
47.12
Experience
.148
57.66
43.68
48.77
Worker's skills
.609
53.75
47.69
47.54
Service's quality
.096
59.70
47.65
44.38
.257
41.41
54.10
48.84
Customization
.010
57.16
52.51
41.71
Customer service
.000 b
63.82
51.24
39.20
Relation to client
.078
45.86
42.78
55.84
.007 a b
32.36
54.71
53.20
Self-actualization
.182
46.00
51.74
48.34
Defense of national cultural values
.259
49.30
53.35
45.23
Social equality
.042
40.00
51.51
51.74
Social recognition
.934
47.30
49.07
49.85
State relations
.016 b
36.02
51.68
53.74
Respect for the environment
.717
48.18
50.32
48.34
.002 b c
38.73
41.54
60.70
Capital
.271
47.00
46.01
52.55
Physical characteristics of the organization
.291
48.00
44.44
53.32
Marketing strategies
.006
56.57
46.87
46.71
Pursuit of the Legislation
.000 b c
35.36
44.00
60.46
Quality
Client relationship
Social relationship
Material Values
Note: p-value considered were p < .05., p < .01., and p < .001.
a
Significant p-value for relation between G1 and G2 according to Post-Hoc test.
b Significant
p-value for relation between G1 and G3 according to Post-Hoc test.
c Significant
p-value for relation between G2 and G3 according to Post-Hoc test
Still on the subject of the organization's size we found another result in the Material
Values group. This group presented significant differences between large organizations and
small organizations, and between large organizations and medium size organizations. Other
individual values predominating in large organizations are the communication between
businesses and the state relation values.
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Age was the last characteristic analysed (see Table 5). Our study indicates that there
exists a difference between young, adult and old organizations. In general, Communication is a
group of values that characterizes young organizations. Within this group we have three
individual values that represent this differentiation: the opening up, the communication
between businesses and the communication between people values.
Table 5
Organizational differences according to their age
Age
Mann-Whitney
Young
Adult
Old
Mean Rank
Mean Rank
Mean Rank
(G1)
(G2)
(G3)
0.001 a c
75.15
49.15
35.63
Opening up
0.018 b
63.85
50.99
36.60
Report of action
0.061
58.23
49.94
46.50
Communication between businesses
0.044 b
65.88
49.53
41.83
Communication between people
0.018
66.54
48.96
44.00
Image
0.236
51.92
49.42
54.47
0.005 c
52.00
47.00
66.00
Family values preservation
0.001
48.46
47.93
64.60
Sense of belonging
0.385
55.62
49.06
53.00
0.083
53.12
46.99
65.07
Discipline
0.332
47.50
50.29
54.10
Experience
0.066
41.85
49.19
64.27
Worker's skills
0.146
55.27
47.42
61.13
Service's quality
0.810
45.85
51.06
51.87
0.039 a
69.27
46.98
51.13
Customization
0.737
46.12
51.21
50.90
Customer service
0.765
53.15
50.84
46.57
Relation to client
0.164
62.96
49.40
45.00
Categories and sub-categories of organizational
Asymp. Sig.
values
Communication
Identity
Quality
Client relationship
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Social relationship
0.136
63.62
47.18
55.07
Self-actualization
0.025
58.69
48.93
50.93
Defense of national cultural values
0.278
58.81
48.60
52.40
Social equality
0.169
53.69
48.33
58.13
Social recognition
0.791
51.19
49.50
54.70
State relations
0.059
63.96
49.82
42.10
Respect for the environment
0.001
51.54
48.22
60.57
0.013 a
69.50
45.61
57.50
Capital
0.797
52.58
49.70
52.53
Physical characteristics of the organization
0.022 c
49.85
47.21
66.87
Marketing strategies
0.286
54.69
50.47
47.00
Pursuit of the Legislation
0.033 a
68.23
47.59
49.10
Material Values
Note: p-value considered were p < .05., p < .01., and p < .001.
a
Significant p-value for relation between G1 and G2 according to Post-Hoc test.
b Significant
p-value for relation between G1 and G3 according to Post-Hoc test.
c Significant
p-value for relation between G2 and G3 according to Post-Hoc test
Other groups of values that characterize young organizations are the Client Relationship
and Material Values, but this happens only when comparing young and adult organizations.
There are no significant differences when young organizations are compared with old
organizations.
In the Material Values group we find two individual values with different orientations:
the pursuit of the legislation is significantly present in young organizations and the physical
characteristics of the organization are significantly present in old organizations.
Furthermore, old organizations have the Identity group as a significant characteristic
when compared with adult organizations. However, there are no significant differences when
old organizations are compared with young organizations.
Discussion
Our results show that there are values that we can find specifically in organizations that
performed in Porto with significant differences relating to non-cultural elements. Next, we will
explain the results that we consider to be relevant according to other studies that were carried
out previously, albeit in other contexts.
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Organizational values and legal form
Although we found statistical differences between public and private organizations, our
results did not always match previous studies. For example: the Communication, Social
Equality and Social Recognition group of values were present as a characteristic of public
organizations, while, according to Felcman (1999) and Cortés et al. (1998), this is not possible.
For these authors, public organizations have a low orientation to people and usually have
problems with communication. Our result may indicate, then, that these values do not represent
actual values, but desired values. So, maybe they do not characterize the organization but are
instead an indicator of where the organization wants to go to.
Felcman (1999) used Hofstede's cultural classification to relate public businesses to the
type of apathetic culture characterized by attachment to rules and a strong relation to
bureaucracy. This may not be in consonance with the group of values that represent a concern
about people's needs, but may explain the presence of the state relations value as a
characteristic of public organizations.
For Felcman (1999), private organizations also have a low orientation to people.
Therefore, we can say that the presence of the Identity group of values also contradicts his
theory. According to this, private organizations that were analysed in our study could be using
their values "oriented to people" as a way of attaining their organizational goals and not because
they care for their employees. Nevertheless, they are still values that regulate organizational
behaviour and characterize this type of legal form.
Organizational values and the economic sector
Despite being able to find studies that justify differences between the tertiary and
secondary economic sector (Brentani & Kleinschmidt, 2004; Burke, 1999; Lau & Ngo, 2004;
Lytle & Timmerman, 2006; Morales, 2001), we didn't find any groups of organizational values
that expressed these differences - except in the case of the pursuit of the legislation value. In
this situation, the organizations from the tertiary sector are characterized by a search of what is
established in legislative and normative documents. A possible explanation comes from Casales
(2001), who describes the effectiveness of certain types of behaviour in groups with
unstructured tasks, as in the case of most service organizations. When the task is not structured,
the effective way to manage these organizations is through rules and control, which are present
in normative documents.
Organizational values and organizational size
In the case of size, we found results that we were not expecting. For example, the Social
Relationship group was less present in small organizations. However, we found previous studies
explaining the presence of values related to social interaction as a characteristic of small
businesses (Lepoutre & Heene, 2006; Saenz & Acevedo, 2009). This difference leads us to
suppose that small organizations display a natural tendency of social interactions, and
consequently this is not a value that they need to communicate or to develop.
However, for small companies we found other results that confirm the literature.
Customization and customer service are found to be values that are mostly present in this type
of organization. This corresponds to theories that explain the fact that small organizations have
to be more flexible because they do not have a strong structure to solve their daily challenges.
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Moreover, product customization is a way of maintaining their competitive advantage (Dean,
Tu, & Xue, 2009; Graham & Nafukho, 2007; Nafukho et al., 2009; Tonge, 2001).
In large organizations we find communication between businesses as a strong
characteristic and we can say that this is because these types of organizations have a sizeable
structure that allows to develop external communication, and they can create groups for this
purpose (Cornelissen & Thorpe, 2001; Geerardyn, 2004; King, 2009).
In the case of medium size organizations, we find that they have some values that they
share with small businesses and other values that they share with large businesses. In
agreement with Tonge (2001), we find that this is because the frontier between small, medium
and large companies is not only determined by the number of workers, but by other
characteristics such as the market share, the management structure and the independence of
actions.
Organizational values and age
Young organizations are characterized by the Communication group of values, and we
find the explanation for this in the article by Hannan et al. (2007). These authors explain that
new businesses do not have developed structures or functions yet, so they have to use all the
elements of communication in order to create them. This also justifies the presence of the Client
Relationship and the Material Values group of values in young companies.
In old organizations we have the Identity group of values and this is also present in the
studies made by Mucha (2005) and Dickinson (2000), explaining that old organizations are
concerned about their identity as they wish to portray a modern image. For this type of
organization, identity has to be revised and reformulated.
One of the most interesting results obtained through this research is that young and old
organizations have more in common with each other than young and adult organizations, and
also more than adult and old. This may be explained using the "liability to newness" and the
"liability to obsolescence" theories (see the Organizational Ecology theory in Hannan et al.,
2007). Both models can justify why young and old organizations need to make an effort to
survive, albeit for different reasons.
However, despite sharing values, they are not identical: while young organizations need
to form their own system of structures and relations, old organizations need to adapt theirs to
environmental demands.
Limitations of the study
Our research has some limitations that hinder the possibility of exploiting our results
more advantageously. In the first place, we can say that the use of information from public
websites can be a problem. They do not guarantee that the values are communicated in order to
make the organization seem more attractive, nor that the values are current values, nor that the
values define a desired behaviour of the organizations, and thus these values do not represent
actual values.
On the other hand, the sample of organizations should be increased in order to consider
other categories within each organizational characteristic, such as the economic sector and the
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size. Increasing the number of organizations would make it possible to improve the
differentiations between them.
Other limitations arise from the fact that there are some problems in finding common
classifications in certain categories, which would allow a comparison with other researchers'
results. This was the case with the organizations' age, since the number of years that we
considered as defining the categories of young, adult and old organizations are not the same in
studies with regard to this topic. This problem renders any comparison between our results and
the results obtained from other researches difficult.
For these reasons, and also because we obtained new results, we have to create
explanations for the phenomena that were not reported in previous studies. Furthermore, this
can be seen as a challenge encouraging further studies.
Conclusions
The study confirms the existence of some distinct values that represent organizations.
This relation between values and non-cultural elements describes the cultural context of the
organizations in the region studied. As a result of our research, we found which organizational
values characterize organizations in Porto according to their legal form, economic sector, size
and age.
Some relationships between values and organizational characteristics were confirmed
by means of the data obtained in other studies but other results were new and/or contradictory.
In any case, the studies from which we took examples to talk about our results were undertaken
in different cultural contexts. Once more, this fact confirms the need to develop cultural studies
that describe a specific context.
The results that we obtained and that had some correspondence with previous studies
were the following: in small businesses we found customization and customer service values, in
large businesses we found the presence of the communication between businesses values and in
young organizations we found the Communication group of values.
The results that we can
consider as contradictory, according to previous studies, were the presence of the
Communication, Social Equality and Social Recognition group of values in public
organizations, and the Identity group of values in private organizations. We also found that in
small businesses social relationship was not a value.
Finally, we discovered two results to be new: there was no difference between
organizations that performed in the secondary and tertiary economic sector, except for the
pursuit of the legislation value. Moreover, we found a similarity between young and old
organizations that had been theorized but never previously proved, and authors could not yet
provide an explanation for this phenomenon.
Despite these limitations, we undertook a study never before carried out, relating more
than one non-cultural element of the organizations to the organizational values that they
communicate. For this reason, we can consider that the results obtained can be extended as a
method for studying organizational cultural context. This is a useful way to study organizational
culture because we do not necessarily have to enter an organization in order to get to know its
general characteristics. Using the published information we have access to the behaviour that
every organization wants to communicate. Although values may not be explicit in the documents
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that we have access to, we can use the explicit behaviours from these documents to implicitly
identify organizational values.
In addition, when the researchers know the relationship between values and noncultural characteristics, this knowledge can act as a predictor. In fact, this helps to find
explanations for organizational behaviours according to their context. In future researches, the
non-cultural elements can be considered simultaneously, and not separately, as in this study.
We were unable to achieve this goal due to our natural sample distribution.
This type of research can be the starting point for studies that wish to contextualize the
organizational culture by regions, countries and continents. Perhaps, in the end, we share more
similarities than differences.
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Supplementary Material
Frequency and description of organizational values
Categories and subcategories
of Description
organizational values
Code
Resources
Code
References
The way that the interchange of information occurred 122
inside and outside the company, and how the
organization facilitates this interchange between other
organizations and between people
243
Opening up
Information availability of the organization trough 39
communication, for everyone to know the organization.
57
Report of action
Informational interchange of the organizational 8
activities, processes and main goals, produced between
the company and its clients (both internal and
external), and between the company and its near or
distant environment
10
Communication
between
businesses
Activities performed by the organization directed 43
towards communicational support to other companies,
accomplishing its interface role
125
Communication
between people
Inside and outside organizational support for the 27
interchange of the workers
44
Image
Actions aimed to pursue the wished perception that 5
people have of the organization, through the use of
communication and behaviours
7
Recognition of the workers as members of the 26
organization, and practitioners of its values
52
Family
values Maintenance of traditional characteristics and values in 12
preservation
those organizations which have a familiar foundation
16
Communication
Identity
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Sense of belonging Implication of the employees to their organization.
14
36
Organizational characteristics that represent standards 161
of the services offered to their customers
348
Discipline
Desired employee's characteristics related to certain 6
behaviours that demonstrate respect and observance of
the institutional rules
9
Experience
Amount of years that the organization have since its 49
creation
78
Worker's skills
Knowledge and capabilities of the employees and 45
interest of develop them for the success of the job
performance
92
Service's quality
Performance characteristics that allows bringing an 61
excellence service to clients according to their demands
169
Way that the organization relates to their customers
210
Quality
Client relationship
107
Customization
Organizational capability of being flexible, in order to 24
adapt to clients wishes in a manner that the final
product can respond to customer's expectations and
not in the other way, when de client have to accept the
product as it is
38
Customer service
Perspective of the company to take into account the 37
clients opinions, keeping ethic in this behaviour
86
Relation to client
Strictly work interchange between the client as the 46
service requirer and the company as the entity with the
capacity to respond to this demand
86
Way that the organization uses to develop its social 138
goals, with particular interest in problems and cultural
287
Social relationship
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values of the Portuguese society
Self-actualization
Defense
national
values
Existence of an interest in promoting individual 6
development from spiritual grounds
8
of Organizational commitment to national values of the 24
cultural Portuguese society present in the organizational
behaviour
45
Social equality
Same opportunity and impartiality between workers, 18
respecting individual characteristics.
37
Social recognition
Presence of the organization in Portugal or abroad.
112
State relations
Organizational responsiveness to its social object that 35
includes the contribution to the State and the
Portuguese Government
Respect for
environment
49
the Actions that the organization do to avoid 6
contamination and to protect natural resources and the
environment
74
11
Physical and economical elements that characterize the 105
organizational
224
Use of the economical issues to bring more value to 17
organization
20
Physical
Elements of the corporations such as space, 37
characteristics of localization, number, quality of the facilities and other
the organization
descriptors
71
Marketing
strategies
11
Material Values
Capital
Managerial approach to customers and clients for the 7
development of the service
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Pursuit of
Legislation
the Manifestation to the accomplishment to the laws by the 44
organization
122
Note: The Code Resources and the Code Reference are showed according to NVivo8 program
form of presentation of the results. The Code Resources indicates the amount of documents
analyzed and the Code Reference indicates the amount of lines codified in the analysis,
containing the organizational value.
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Correspondencia
Valentina Ramos
CPUP, FPCE, Universidade do Porto,
Rua do Dr. Manuel Pereira da Silva, 4200-392
Porto, PORTUGAL.
E-mail: valia_ramos@yahoo.es
Cite este artículo de la siguiente forma (estilo de Vancouver):
Ramos V, Jordão F. The relationship between cultural and non-cultural elements as a way to
describe organizational context. Psicologia.com [Internet]. 2012 [citado 27 Feb 2011];16:7.
Disponible en: http://hdl.handle.net/10401/5459
25
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