Electronic copy available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1744040 SMA_2010_Proceedings-Page0028 A GENERIC THEORY OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Daniel Dauber, WU -Vienna University of Economics and Business (daniel.dauber@wu.ac.at) Gerhard Fink, WU -Vienna University of Economics and Business (gerhard.fink@wu.ac.at) Maurice Yolles, Centre for the Creation of Coherent Change & Knowledge (C4K) (m.yolles@ljmu.ac.uk) Abstract This paper aims at developing a generic model of organizational culture, which (1) connects to recognized properties and processes of organizational theory, (2) reduces complexity, (3) provides a powerful and extensible construct, (4) allows for epistemic distinctions like objects, events, boundaries, processes and environments, and (5) provides structured response to problem situations. We suggest a model that distinguishes between the internal environment (organizational culture, strategy, structure, operations) and external environment (legitimization environment, task environment) of an organization. The presented generic model of organizational culture allows for diagnostic analyses in order to map and create typologies depending on context. Introduction This paper offers a theoretical construct exploring organizational culture from the perspective of thematic fields of organization theory. The approach focuses on redefining existing concepts of organizational or corporate culture in a way that a new concept of organizational culture fits thematic classes of organization theory. It requires further elaboration and development of a questionnaire to be applied and tested across different contexts and samples. The presetend model has the capacity to provide pragmatic meaning in case studies and may contribute to the identification of dysfunctions in organizations. This is the first approach to take a view from the thematic fields of organization theory on research into organizational culture. Theories of organizational culture revisted and link to organizational theory The construct of organizational culture has been subject to research for some decades. Various models can be found across different disciplines of research. Generally, approaches to organizational culture can be classified into two categories: (1) dimensions approach (e.g. Hofstede et al., 1990; Sagiv & Schwartz, 2007), (2) interrelated structure approach (e.g. Schein, 1985; Hatch, 1993; Homburg & Pflesser, 2000; Allaire & Firsirotu, 1984). The dimensions approach is one of the most prominent approaches to cultural constructs, in particular for quantitative research. Classic anthropological research designs have partly lost ground due to the paradigm of cultural dimensions by Hofstede (1980, 2001) and paved the way for new research contexts that required the quantitative measurement of cultures. Hofstede et al. (1990) and Sagiv & Schwartz (2007) emphasize that organizational culture dimensions considerably differ from national culture dimensions. Nevertheless they are related to each other. Sagiv & Schwartz (2007) explain that organizations operate under pressure of societal values. A generic model of organizational culture needs to illustrate these findings by The interrelated structure approach of organizational culture is characterized by bidirectional links indicating interdependence, i.e. linear or recursive processes that illustrate certain relationships between domains of a model. While there exists a great variety of heavily cited models (Schein (1985) [10.682 times cited], Hatch (1993) [482 times cited], Homburg & Pflesser (2000) [343 times cited] and Allaire & Firsirotu (1984) [482 times cited]), we have chosen Schein (1985) and Hatch & Cunliffe (2006) as a starting point for the development of a generic