Translating "Soft" Changes into "Hard" Dollars: Financial Returns from Organisational Culture Improvement

Eric J Sanders, MBA and Robert A Cooke, Ph.D

Page 3 of 11

The Organisational Culture Inventory

While culture can be assessed either quantitatively or qualitatively, survey-based quantitative measures provide the type of data that are useful for relating culture to performance. The survey used in the studies reviewed here is the Organisational Culture Inventory (OCI). The OCI measures the operating cultures of organisations in terms of behavioural norms, or "what's expected" of members. It includes 120 statements describing behaviours that might be expected or implicitly required of members of an organisation.

The results of the assessment are mapped onto a circumplex, a circular graph divided into twelve sections like the hours on a clock. The twelve sections represent twelve behavioural styles that cluster and statistically factor into three types of cultures:

• Constructive cultures, including Humanistic-Encouraging, Affiliative, Achievement and Self-Actualising behaviours.

• Passive/Defensive cultures, including Approval, Conventional, Dependent and Avoidance behaviours.

• Aggressive/Defensive cultures, including Oppositional, Power, Competitive and Perfectionistic behaviours.

The scores for members of an organisation are aggregated, plotted on a profile and, in the process, converted to percentile scores based on norms drawn from years of research that allow objective comparison of styles within and across organisations.

Next: Page 4: Culture in relation to Earning/Sales Ratios and Volatility