Chapter 6 – Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI)
6.1 Competing Values Framework
The Organisational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) is based upon the Competing
Values Framework.
An average count of around 40 dimensions return regularly in management literature,
essays and courses about organisational culture. For example: strength, congruence,
strong, weak, speed of feedback, degree of risk-taking, people orientation, response to the
environment, clarity, direction, conflict resolution, performance emphasis, and human
resources.
All these phrases are divided in 4 quadrants by
• Horizontally: left: internal focus and integration to right: external focus and
differentiation.
• Vertically: top: flexibility and discretion to bottom: stability and control.
This framework is called the Competing Values Framework and is used as a basis for
many methods and theories.
For example the Competing Values of Total Quality Management32 are shown below:
Total Quality Management (TQM) is one of the most applied organisational change
methods in the last two decades. It is focused on increasing an organisations’
effectiveness by setting quality objectives.
The number of successful implementations of TQM is not sky-high, Cameron and Quinn
derived from TQM literature that this has mainly two causes33:
1. only partial deployment;
2. failure to integrate TQM and culture change.
Each quadrant is named after its most recognisable characteristics: Family or Clan,
Adhocracy, Market and Hierarchy. Cameron and Quinn have named the quadrant that lies
in between ‘internal focus and integration’ and ‘flexibility and discretion’ the
Clanquadrant. ‘Clan’ has a bit of a negative sound or emotional value, and it can just as
good be called ‘Family’.
The questionnaire is divided in six clusters. Each part consists of four statements amongst
which the respondents are to divide one hundred points. The four statements are linked to
the four quadrants. The first phrase can be placed in quadrant A (Family), the second
phrase can be placed in quadrant B (Adhocracy), etc.
The six clusters of phrases are the following:
• Dominant Characteristics
• Organisational Leadership
• Management of Employees
• Organisational Glue
• Strategic Emphases
• Criteria of Success
The questionnaire can be found in Appendix III.
Scores given to each quadrant are totalled and the averages are transposed onto the graph.
The graphs are a visual representation that can be easily interpreted and compared with
other outcomes.
In order to be able to determine not only the current Organisational Culture, but the
Organisational Culture that is desired by the employees as well, a set of two
questionnaires has been handed out. One to fill out bearing in mind the situation as it has
been for the last couple of years. The second and identical questionnaire, to complete
when thinking of what would be the perfect working environment as the respondent
would like to experience it.
The questionnaire has been distributed amongst IS personnel at the six DHL IS entities:
Danzas NL, Danzas Belux, VGL NL, VGL Belux, DHL NL, DHL Belux. Or
locationwise: Rotterdam Boompjes, Grimbergen, Driebergen, Ternat, Hoofddorp en
Diegem. A total number of 222 sets of questionnaires were handed out throughout the
Benelux IS departments.
When analysing the outcome there are three different kinds:
- the current Organisational Culture (by the employees);
- the desired Organisational Culture (by the employees);
- the required Organisational Culture (by management).
6.4 The required 3D IS Benelux Organisational Culture
Having taken a look at all the outcomes received from the various departments and
carefully reading and interpreting the graphs from the book of Cameron and Quinn, the
workgroup decided upon creating a required Organisational Culture for the 3D IS
Benelux department:
In values: Family: 20 – Adhocracy: 20 – Market: 37 – Hierarchy: 23.
The choice for this required Organisational Culture is based upon analysis of the DHL
departmental scores as well as examples from Cameron and Quinn.
6.4.1 From analysis of DHL departmental scores
In a service providing department the best developed characteristic should undoubtedly
be the Market focus. It is of most importance to properly value the customers’ needs if
delivering quality service is the main focus. Customers of the 3D IS Benelux department
are both internal and external users. Users of for example computers, networks,
applications, telephony and information databases.
When it is well known what services and support the customers desire exactly, it is easier
to deliver the proper services and support them. Extensive communication with the IS
customers is a vital source of information to obtain the necessary knowledge on what is
wished for. Listening to the customer is a key issue.
Keeping track of developments in the rapidly changing environment of Information
Technology is also important. Applying new techniques that can improve the customers’
business processes or just make life easier, simply enhances the service level. Customers
might ask for new techniques themselves, though it is much better to be able to surprise
them with improvements. Keeping in close contact with suppliers is a useful method for
this.
Both Family and Adhocracy are characteristics that are equally important as they are
highly valued by IS personnel. This can be concluded from the questionnaires answered
about the desired Organisational Culture. IS personnel enjoy working in a friendly
environment that leaves them sufficient space to develop their own solutions and take
their own decisions. Additionally they prefer not to be lived by the pleasing of the
customer.
From a management point of view Family and Adhocracy are, in this case, only
necessary to keep personnel satisfied. If DHL would have been an organisation in growth
and still be working on obtaining a larger market share, the developing and thus
Adhocracy would be of much more importance. Then there would be markets and
competitors to conquer, which is not the case in this situation.
Family feeling largely contributes to the working atmosphere amongst personnel. In order
to be a professionally operating organisation, the Family feeling should not be too present
as it can slow down change and progress. A group of employees that is extremely
cohesive can be very difficult to handle.
Hierarchy is absolutely necessary as the 3D IS Benelux department is large and complex.
The various functions often have overlap with one another. Processes, procedures and
line-management increase the clarity about responsibilities, which can also be shared
between functions.
6.4.2 From examples from Cameron & Quinn
In Cameron and Quinns’ Diagnosing and Changing Organisational Culture many
examples are presented for various organisations and industry groups. The organisations
that are closest to the 3D IS Benelux department are the “Multinational Manufacturer”
and the branch of “Retail and Wholesale Trade”. The first because of the multinational
aspect, the second because of the customer focus.
A balance between
- the above visual representations of two organisations and
- the earlier written analysis of the questionnaires reviewed,
result in a proposal for a required Organisational Culture for 3D IS Benelux.
This proposal matched with the ideas the workgroup had after reviewing the received
questionnaires and has been well received by the IS Management Team.