Editorial summary. This is our text summary of an article published by frontiers. Charts, figures, and the author’s full voice are at the original — read it there .
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Editorial verdict
Competent empirical study with meaningful findings on culture-OCB relationships, but limited by sample imbalance, European overrepresentation, and convenience sampling — findings for Clan culture (n = 201) are the best supported, whereas the Adhocracy results rest on 66 respondents and were not significant for altruism; treat culture-specific predictions with caution.
Executive summary
This study investigates how different organizational culture types influence employees' discretionary workplace behaviors, specifically Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB). The authors argue that the predominant organizational culture type predicts both the level and kind of OCB that employees demonstrate. Using a cross-sectional survey of 513 employees across more than 150 organizations worldwide, the study operationalizes culture through the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), assigning each respondent to one of four perceived culture types — Clan, Adhocracy, Market, and Hierarchy — and measures five OCB dimensions: altruism, conscientiousness, sportsmanship, civic virtue, and courtesy. Kruskal–Wallis H-tests reveal statistically significant differences across culture types for four of the five OCB dimensions (p < 0.05), with conscientiousness showing no significant variation. Clan culture ranked significantly higher than Market and Hierarchy on altruism, sportsmanship, civic virtue, and courtesy; Adhocracy did so on civic virtue and courtesy, but not on altruism and, for sportsmanship, only against Hierarchy. Clan and Adhocracy did not differ significantly from each other. Three of five directional hypotheses were partially confirmed; two were rejected. The authors conclude that organizations can anticipate employee behavioral profiles based on their dominant culture type, and suggest, drawing on earlier work (Podsakoff et al., 1997) rather than their own data, that moving toward a Clan or Adhocracy culture would improve OCB and organizational effectiveness; the study measured neither culture change nor organizational effectiveness.
Key insights
- 1Clan culture ranked significantly higher than Market and Hierarchy on altruism, sportsmanship, civic virtue, and courtesy; Adhocracy did so on civic virtue and courtesy, but not on altruism and, for sportsmanship, only against Hierarchy.
- 2Conscientiousness was the only OCB dimension showing no statistically significant variation across culture types, suggesting it may be perceived as a baseline work expectation rather than a discretionary behavior influenced by culture.
- 3Civic virtue — representing commitment to organizational governance — was highest in Clan and Adhocracy cultures, contradicting the hypothesis that Market culture, with its results-orientation, would drive this behavior, suggesting that concentrated authority in Market cultures may suppress voluntary organizational participation.
Practical takeaways
- Organizations seeking to increase employees' spontaneous helping, collaborative, and participatory behaviors can examine whether their dominant culture type — as identified through the OCAI — aligns with the OCB profile they wish to cultivate, given the study's finding that Clan and Adhocracy cultures are associated with higher OCB levels.
- The authors propose that managers can move a culture toward Clan or Adhocracy characteristics through team-building exercises and training that foster trust and collaboration, and by rewarding risk-taking and innovation; the study did not measure these interventions or compare their effect across culture types.
Frameworks mentioned
Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI)
A diagnostic instrument developed by Cameron and Quinn (2011) that identifies and measures an organization's prevailing and desired culture type across four categories: Clan, Adhocracy, Market, and Hierarchy.
Competing Values Framework (CVF)
A foundational organizational culture framework developed by Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1983) on which the OCAI is based, used to map organizational effectiveness criteria along competing dimensions.
References
- Journal of Applied Psychology (1983).Organizational citizenship behavior: its nature and antecedents.
- Journal of Management (2000).Organizational citizenship behaviors: a critical review of the theoretical and empirical literature and suggestions for future research.
- Jossey-Bass (2011).Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture.
- Management Science (1983).A spatial model of effectiveness criteria: towards a competing values approach to organizational analysis.
- Heliyon (2021).The individuals' discretionary behaviors at work. An overview and analysis of its growing interest.
- International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS) (2022).IT governance, culture, and individual behavior.
- Journal of Applied Social Psychology (2012).Organizational citizenship behavior and turnover intentions: do organizational culture and justice moderate their relationship?.
- Sustainability (2019).Exploring relationships among organizational culture, empowerment, and organizational citizenship behavior in the South Korean professional sport industry.
- Journal of Management (2009).Unpacking employee responses to organizational exchange mechanisms: the role of social and economic exchange perceptions.
- Journal of Applied Psychology (1997).Organizational citizenship behavior and the quantity and quality of work group performance.
Source & Provenance
frontiers
Fernandes, Pereira, Wiedenhoft
June 1, 2023
Research Study
Multi-Region
Original source metadata is preserved. AI analysis is generated separately.
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