NHRD Journal - National HRD Network

• Ethnographic studies: This technique is
particularly important in social sciences,
though organizational sciences have
increasingly used it. It involves a long period
of systematic observation by a researcher.
During the phase of observation, the
observer almost merges with the culture s/
he is studying. Extended time required for
such studies, however, is a drawback.
• Action research - This method is being
increasingly employed in social
development sector. However, its use in
organizations is limited.
In an important contribution, Trice and Beyer
(1984) proposed that organizational culture
can be studied through rites and ceremonies
followed in an organization. Metaphors can
be useful in studying culture (Morgan, 1997).
Quantitative Techniques
Organizational culture is an all-encompassing
concept that needs to be broken into
manageable proportions for study (Meek, 1988).
The quantitative measurement of culture
focuses more on what a culture has (Smircich,
1983). A general agreement seems to be that
quantitative approaches are more capable of
measuring the general, shallow level of culture,
and qualitative studies are more capable of
penetrating the deeper levels of value system,
assumptions, etc (Ashkanasy, Broadfoot, and
Falkus, 2000). Quantitative methods try to
capture the manifestation of culture only,
which may occur as a behavior (a manifest
action) or a thought or feeling. These methods
do not have the capacity to penetrate and
directly touch the deeper layers of culture.
Several instruments have been developed, but
unfortunately they vary widely in format, items,
etc. These instruments can be clubbed in two
broad categories (Ashkanasy et al., 2000):
• Typing scales - These classify organizations
into particular taxonomies.
• Profile scales - These describe the culture of
an organization.
Ashkanasy et al. (2000) reviewed 18 scales of
organizational culture. Some of these scales
measure norms while some other measure
values. Of these, complete reliability and
validity assessment was reported for only two
scales and partial reporting was available for
four other scales. It should be noted here that
reliability and validity assessments help
determine the scientific soundness of an
instrument, and hence one should avoid using
scales with unknown reliability and validity.
An important issue to consider here is the
scientific equivalence of scales when
translating scales for usages in local languages.
One way of ensuring this is back-to-back
translation (Brislin, 1986). This is an accepted
procedure for translating scales in some other
language. In this procedure, a bilingual
translator translates the original scale into a
local language. Then a second bilingual
translator translates the local language version
back into the original language of the scale
(mostly English). A third bilingual compares
the original and back-translated version and
the discrepancies are sorted out.
Concluding Remarks
It is important to realize the importance of
organizational culture in the efforts aiming at
organizational change. Though it would be
erroneous to assume that even an insider
would have complete grasp over organizational
culture (let alone an outside consultant), it is
useful to adopt scientifically discussed and
tested techniques of interpreting organizational
culture. This paper offers a brief review of such
techniques which can be useful for
practitioners dealing with issues of
organizational culture and change.
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November 2007 NHRD Journal