strength, while a culture preventing an organization from adapting to changing environments can lead to that stagnation and failure (Harvey, 1982). Thus organization’s it is important to distinguish the type of organizational culture that helps adapt to the needs of environments to increase the effectiveness. organization’s Based on the previous literature (Ernest, 1985; Gordon, 1990; Schein, 1985; Wallach, 1983), Sriramesh, Grunig and Buffington (1992) and Sriramesh, Grunig and Dozier (1996) have conceptualized organizational culture as a continuum in which authoritarian culture is at one end of the spectrum and participatory culture at the other, meaning that highly authoritarian culture can be interpreted as low-participatory culture and Sriramesh, Grunig and Dozier (1996) attribute the following to vice versa. authoritarian culture: a closed system with top down decision making based often on authority, tradition, and trial and error; little concern for the lives of employees outside the organization; placing value on tradition and conservative values; and employees tending to separate their personal goals from the goals. This authoritarian organization’s culture is similar to hierarchical culture (Deshpandé, Farley, & Webster, 1993), which emphasizes predictability, order, rules and regulations in a bureaucratic organization where the role is mainly an administrator. leader’s In contrast, participatory culture uses an open-system approach to management. An open-system approach assumes that organizations exist in a complex environment, and that firms continuously need to adapt to forces in the external environment (Harvey, 1982). As for the relationship with its environment, participatory culture is more likely to value knowledge about the organization, while authoritarian culture is more likely to
strength, while a culture preventing an organization from adapting to changing environments can lead to that organization’s stagnation and failure (Harvey, 1982). Thus it is important to distinguish the type of organizational culture that helps adapt to the needs of environments to increase the organization’s effectiveness. Based on the previous literature (Ernest, 1985; Gordon, 1990; Schein, 1985; Wallach, 1983), Sriramesh, Grunig and Buffington (1992) and Sriramesh, Grunig and Dozier (1996) have conceptualized organizational culture as a continuum in which authoritarian culture is at one end of the spectrum and participatory culture at the other, meaning that highly authoritarian culture can be interpreted as low-participatory culture and vice versa. Sriramesh, Grunig and Dozier (1996) attribute the following to authoritarian culture: a closed system with top down decision making based often on authority, tradition, and trial and error; little concern for the lives of employees outside the organization; placing value on tradition and conservative values; and employees tending to separate their personal goals from the organization’s goals. This authoritarian culture is similar to hierarchical culture (Deshpandé, Farley, & Webster, 1993), which emphasizes predictability, order, rules and regulations in a bureaucratic organization where the leader’s role is mainly an administrator. In contrast, participatory culture uses an open-system approach to management. An open-system approach assumes that organizations exist in a complex environment, and that firms continuously need to adapt to forces in the external environment (Harvey, 1982). As for the relationship with its environment, participatory culture is more likely to value knowledge about the organization, while authoritarian culture is more likely to