Cultural typologies and organizational environment: A conceptual analysis

Abstract

In the past two decades, culture has been the object of study for purposes of understanding organizational environment. Several contexts are examined in order to understand this variable which, coming from anthropology by way of the observation of social groups in different geographic regions, will be observed in this study as a variable belonging to a specific social group: The Organization. This study carries out a comparative analysis of five typologies of organizational culture, examining their similarities and differences. The typologies compared are those of Schneider (1996), Handy (1978), Quinn and McGrath (1985), Trompenaars (1994), and Hofstede (1991). The method of research is exploratory. Toward the end of the article, a model is proposed that incorporates the typologies referred to in the existing bibliography. What is proposed in this model is intended to assist in the determination of paradigmatic worldviews for the analysis of organizational culture by virtue of broad similarities across existing cultural variables and dimensions. © 2008 by The Haworth Press. All rights reserved.