Daniel R. Denison

Culture in Family‐Owned Enterprises: Recognizing and Leveraging Unique Strengths

Through years of consulting experience and culture research, a fuller picture of family firms began to emerge. It became increasingly clear that family business sustainability and accomplishment were rooted in something deeper, something beyond superficial explanation. Belief in the innate value and uniqueness of family business culture drove collaboration on this project between the disciplines of family business and organizational behavior. The goal was to critically examine family business culture and performance relative to nonfamily firms. The Denison Organizational Culture Survey, a cultural assessment tool that has linked corporate culture to financial performance, was administered to a sample of 20 family businesses and 389 nonfamily businesses, allowing us to compare their cultures. The results showed that the corporate cultures of family enterprises were more positive than the culture of firms without a family affiliation. Family enterprises scored higher on all 12 dimensions of the assessment tool. Despite the small sample, several of these differences were statistically significant. This suggests that family firms perform better because of who they are. In addition, recent research that shows they also perform better because of what they do strategically. Their histories and shared identities provide a connectedness to time-tested core values and standards of behavior that lead to bottom-line success.

Linking organizational culture and customer satisfaction: Results from two companies in different industries

This article presents a test of the relationship between organizational culture and customer satisfaction using business-unit data from two different companies. The first study examines 32 regional markets of a residential home-building company and the second study examines 148 automobile dealerships. The Denison Organizational Culture Survey (DOCS) is used to measure organizational culture, while customer satisfaction data were collected from customers themselves by independent third parties. With a few exceptions, the culture measures related significantly to customer satisfaction, explaining 28% of the variance for the home-building markets and 11 – 28% of the variance for the auto dealerships.

Do consistent corporate cultures have better business performance? Exploring the interaction effects

Past research has shown a close connection between organizational culture and effectiveness, but nearly all of this research has examined the direct effects of culture on performance outcomes. In contrast, this article examines the idea that the effects of cultural consistency on organizational performance may differ depending on the levels of other culture traits. Data from 88,879 individuals in 137 public companies using the Denison Organizational Culture Survey were paired with three objective measures of organizational performance and used to examine the interaction effects of consistency with mission, adaptability, and involvement. Consistency shows a significant positive interaction with all three traits in predicting market-to-book ratios and sales growth. Firms that are both consistent and adaptable, for example, are high performers. In contrast, the results show a significant negative interaction when predicting return on assets. The implications of these results are discussed with respect to future culture and effectiveness research.

Diagnosing organizational cultures: A conceptual and empirical review of culture effectiveness surveys

This review traces the development of survey research methods within the organizational culture tradition and focuses specifically on those instruments that measure the aspects of culture that are related to organizational effectiveness. Our review suggests that the reliability and validity of most instruments in this category is quite limited. This review outlines the recommended logic for the development and validation of culture effectiveness surveys and identifies three key challenges for future culture researchers to address: (1) the confirmatory testing of nested models, (2) the guidelines for aggregating data to the organizational level, and (3) the establishing of criterion-related validity. Using data from the Denison Organizational Culture Survey, we present an empirical illustration of the three challenges identified above and conclude by considering limitations and opportunities for future research.

Managing cultural integration in cross-border mergers and acquisitions

Cross-border M&A has become one of the leading approaches for firms to gain access to global markets. Yet there has been little progress in the research literature exploring the role that culture may play in the success of these ventures. Poor culture-fit has often been cited as one reason why M&A has not produced the outcomes organizations hoped for (Cartwright & Schoenberg, 2006). Cross-border M&A has the added challenges of having to deal with both national and organizational culture differences. In this chapter we review the literature on cultural integration in cross-border M&A and provide a framework designed to help manage the integration process throughout the M&A lifecycle. This framework presents culture assessment and integration as a crucial component to reducing poor culture-fit as a barrier to M&A success.

Managing stakeholders in team‐based innovation

Purpose – Team‐based innovation requires a balance of creative and pragmatic processes both within teams and between teams and their organizational stakeholders. However, prior research has focused primarily on the internal team dynamics that facilitate innovation, paying comparatively little attention to team‐stakeholder dynamics. The purpose of this study is to address this limitation by studying the impact of team‐stakeholder networks and shared cognition on the effectiveness of innovation teams.Design/methodology/approach – This study investigates the knowledge and trust linkages between 51 new product development (NPD) teams and their organizational stakeholders using a mixed methods design that combines network analysis, surveys, and qualitative interviews. Multiple indicators of team effectiveness were collected at various stages of the innovation process.Findings – The results show that effective NPD teams establish knowledge ties with many non‐redundant organizational stakeholders and foster a hi...

A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Leadership Assessment: Comparing 360-Degree Feedback Results from Around the World

How generalizable are 360-degree feedback instruments in different cultures? Research investigating the validity and utility of these instruments across the globe is scarce, yet, extraordinarily important. This chapter investigates the utility of a 360-degree feedback instrument across the globe, as well as how different raters from various cultures perceive leaders.

Integrated change: creating synergy between leader and organizational development

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to share with organizations a method for integrating organizational culture change and leadership development within one balanced corporate initiative. Design/methodology/approach – This paper describes the benefits of organizational culture and leadership development, the steps taken to design such a program within a large, global manufacturing organization, and the benefits of the integrated program. Findings – Integrating organizational culture with leadership development can help create a clear ‘‘line of sight’’ between the individual and the organization and builds broader accountability for the success of organizational change initiatives. Practical implications – Integrated culture and leadership programs can be designed within any environment. This case study serves as an example to provide readers with ideas for how to create and implement similar programs in other organizations.

Leader-Culture Fit Around the Globe: Investigating Fit as Layered within Organizations and National Cultures

Abstract nOn a global scale, leadership takes place within a complex environment that is molded both by national culture and organizational culture influences. This chapter explores leader-culture (L-C) fit in this global context. Drawing together distinct perspectives on national culture and organizational culture, we identify potential contingencies of L-C fit across these levels. In addition to identifying key gaps and areas for future exploration, we also discuss the practical uses of fit when selecting and developing leaders. Overall, we argue that researchers and practitioners could benefit from an expanded perspective on cultural fit to simultaneously address aspects of national and organizational culture.

Organizational Culture and Coaching

We draw on examples from research and practice to describe three ways in which coaching and culture are intertwined. To be effective, coaches must understand and adapt to the cultural context, while also increasing the cultural awareness of the individuals they coach. Coaching can also be used to facilitate the cultural transformation of an organization. And finally, there are cases in which the objective of the transformation is to create a “coaching culture” characterized by the core principles and behaviors used by coaches.