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Norwegian Organisational Culture. A Case Study From A Norwegian Organisation
Norwegian Organisational Culture. A Case Study From A Norwegian Organisation
RESEARCH PAPERS
IN ECONOMICS AND FINANCE
JOURNAL HOMEPAGE: www.ref.ue.poznan.pl
Hanna Mielniczuk1
1
Brickendon Consulting, Poland; https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7286-5922
ABSTRACT
This work presents the concept of organisational culture, with a particular emphasis on Norwegian organisational cul-
ture. It explains why organisational culture plays an important role in an organisation’s success and features the main
determinants of Norwegian organisational culture which distinguish it from other organisational cultures and support
the coherent functioning of the organisation. The main goal of the work is to identify the organisational culture profile of
the selected Norwegian organisation culture and to check the compliance of the cultural profile of the organisation under
analysis with the determinants of Norwegian organisational culture, which were established on the basis of the work of
Norwegian researches such as B. Espedal, T. Grennes or J. Bru. The assessment of Norwegian organisational culture sho-
wed that Norwegian organisations are dominated by a clan-like culture, also showing the features of female culture, and
thus based on trust, cooperation and compliance of goals. The research carried out for the purposes of this study showed
the compliance of the cultural profile of the studied enterprise with the profile of Norwegian organisational culture – the
responses of the employees of the Beta Hotel allow us to draw conclusions that the company is also dominated by the clan
culture and features of female organisational culture. The questionnaire also made it possible to identify the type of culture
desired by the Beta Hotel staff – the preferred type of culture still shows the dominance of the clan culture, which allows
for the implications that employees are satisfied with the current situation in the company. The results of the study show
that employees of an organisation identify with their internal system of values, which may translate into the effectiveness
of their work and social relations, and, as a result, the success of the organisation.
Keywords: organisational culture, dominant type of culture, questionnaire survey, enterprise, Norway.
- The culture of adhocracy – a type of culture points should be given to the answer that most
that is oriented towards innovation and creativi- accurately reflects the reality. For example, if
ty. The main task of the enterprise is to produce answer A is the best reflection of the real situ-
and improve the offered goods and services so ation, answers B and C are somewhat close to
that they become difficult to replace. Non-ste- the actual state, and answer D is the least accu-
reotypical ideas and risky proposals are valued, rate, then one can allocate, e.g., 60 points to an-
and the emphasis is on flexibility and innovation swers A, 15 points to answers B and C each, and
that enable increased resources and profits. It 10 points to answers D. The most important
is also important to quickly adapt to new con- condition has been met, with the total num-
ditions and be able to predict the situation in the ber of points being 100. The questions have to
future. The name of the adhocracy culture type be answered twice – the first time the answer
comes from the phrase ad hoc, which suggests should be given on the basis of the current si-
ad hoc, dynamic and temporary activities – te- tuation in the surveyed enterprise in order to
ams in an organisation are created for a speci- identify the current type of culture. The second
fic task, and then resolved immediately after time, one needs to answer the same questions,
solving a given problem, which facilitates ada- but taking into account the desired state in the
ptation in a situation of uncertainty. The mana- organisation – it aims at determining the type
gement encourages the search for non-standard of culture that is preferred by the employees of
solutions, and supports entrepreneurship and the organisation. Therefore, it is a type of cul-
creativity (Cameron, Quinn, 2015). ture that allows the company to function more
effectively and respond more efficiently to the
challenges of the environment. In the following
2. Methods work, a modified OCAI questionnaire is used –
The research subject is a Norwegian organi- the original questions in English were transfor-
sation whose name has been anonymised and med in a way to make them more understan-
replaced with the name „Beta Hotel”, which in dable and accessible, bearing in mind that for
the following work corresponds to the analy- the purposes of the study, the questionnaire
sed hotel. The audited entity operates as a jo- will be completed by company employees with
int-stock company that has been offering hotel varying levels of English. The questionnaire has
services since 2014 and is located in Tromso in also been translated into Norwegian, due to the
the northern part of Norway. The analysed en- fact that a significant part of the employees is of
tity’s employees form the following organisa- Norwegian nationality, and moreover, the main
tional units: a group of strategic leaders, a ma- focus of the work is placed on the Scandinavian
nagement team, middle managers / superiors, organisational culture. Table 1. shows a modi-
administration, reception, kitchen / waiters fied OCAI questionnaire.
and a cleaning team. The tool that was used to The survey was conducted in an online form
diagnose the organisational culture of the Hotel – the original concept of conducting a stationa-
Beta is the questionnaire for organisational cul- ry survey among hotel employees through the
ture assessment (OCAI) by Cameron and Quinn. distribution of surveys by the manager had to
OCAI is one of the most common tools for me- be changed due to the dynamically developing
asuring organisational culture, verified by tho- situation related to COVID-19. As a result of the
usands of companies in their research. OCAI is announced pandemic and the necessity to clo-
considered to be an exceptionally useful and se the Beta Hotel for an indefinite period, most
precise tool in the analysis of the most impor- of the employees were dismissed or suspended
tant aspects of an organisation’s culture. OCAI from their duties for an indefinite period. The-
allows for measuring six key dimensions of or- refore, collecting data from employees of the
ganisational culture, relating to the following Beta Hotel was very difficult – there were only
characteristics of an organisation: leadership, a few employees left, therefore 27 responses
employee management, what binds the orga- were obtained. The respondents represented
nisation together, strategy and success criteria. various organisational units: kitchen / waiters
The questionnaire aims to establish the domi- (20 people), mid-level managers / superiors (3
nant type of culture in the enterprise, using the people), reception (2 people), cleaning team (2
types of hierarchy, market, clan and adhocracy people). It is worth mentioning that before this
(Cameron, Quinn, 2006). The questionnaire situation, about 100 employees were employed
consists of six questions with four answers. In at the Beta Hotel.
each question, 100 points should be divided The data was collected through the Google
among four answers, depending on the degree Forms platform at the turn of February / March
to which the given answer reflects the actual 2020. The author was constantly in contact
situation in the analysed organisation. Most with the Employee’s Manager of Beta Hotel.
10 Hanna Mielniczuk / Research Papers in Economics and Finance 4 (4) 2020
Due to new conditions, the author transfor- be concluded that the employees are satisfied
med the questionnaire into an online survey with the situation and work in the organisation.
that was sent to the Manager, who then sent The employees’ small need for change is direc-
the survey to the remaining employees. The ted towards the market culture – currently it
employees of the Beta Hotel filled out an online constitutes 16% of the cultural profile of the
questionnaire and the data was automatically Beta Hotel, while – according to the employees
saved by the Google Forms which was then visi- – it should be 13%. This means that despite the
ble for the author. low importance of the will to overcome compe-
tition, aggressive strategy or focus on the final
results in the current profile of the Beta Hotel,
3. Results the employees feel the need to reduce activities
The results were compiled in a graphical related to competition, tough requirements
form using Microsoft Excel and a profile of the and achievements. According to Cameron and
organisational culture of the Beta Hotel was Quinn (2015), whether an organisation needs
created on the basis of the obtained responses, a dominant culture or a harmonious culture
presented in Diagram 1. All diagrams presented depends on the type of challenges that a given
in this research were developed independently company has to face. Considering that compe-
based on the results of the study. tition in the hotel industry is growing year by
When analysing the cultural profile of the year, a poor market culture may pose a threat to
Beta Hotel presented in Diagram 1, one can the functioning of the organisation. The chan-
notice that the discrepancies between the cur- ge desired by the employees could weaken the
rent and the desired state are very small, noti- Beta Hotel’s position on the market, bearing in
ceable primarily in the area of market culture. mind that the current share of the market cultu-
The graphical representation of the organisa- re in the overall profile is small. Therefore, one
tion characteristics shows that the dominant can assume that in the case under study, the
culture profile, both now and in the desired ver- proposed change is beneficial only from the po-
sion, is the clan culture, which currently acco- int of view of employees who prefer a friendly,
unts for 37.5% of the overall profile of the Beta cooperative relationship with their superiors
Hotel. The culture of hierarchy (25%), followed and tend to reduce aggressive, results-oriented
by adhocracy (21.5%) and the culture of the behaviour. The chart also shows that employ-
market (16%), which constitute the smallest ees prefer a slightly higher level of adhocracy
share in the organisational culture profile of culture, which means that the importance of
the Beta Hotel, are much less important in the creativity and innovation should be increased
overall profile. Based on the results obtained, at the Beta Hotel. The desired change seems to
one can conclude that the Beta Hotel puts em- be beneficial from the point of view of contem-
phasis on teamwork, good relations between porary customers who, having a wide range of
employees, as well as knowledge sharing. The hotel services to choose from, are looking for
employees’ replies also indicate that the Beta creative solutions tailored to their individual
Hotel has a friendly atmosphere that fosters a needs on the market. This imposes obligations
sense of responsibility and commitment. The
management emphasises the value of respect Current Preferred
and loyalty, and is characterised by highly deve- Clan
loped coordination and organisational skills. A 40
fairly high score in the area of hierarchy culture 35
indicates that despite the clan’s culture, which 30
25
is the dominant profile, the Beta Hotel values 20
well-organised everyday life, which is possible 15
thanks to the applicable regulations and rules. 10
5
The profile of the Beta Hotel therefore suggests Hierarchy 0 Adhocracy
that it is a formal place which, however, bases
its activities on teamwork and strong ties. The
results of the study also show that, according to
the employees, innovative ideas and non-stan-
dard solutions are valued, which is indicated by
a significant percentage of the adhocracy cultu-
re (21.5%) in the general cultural profile. The Market
profile of the culture preferred by the employ-
ees is very similar to the current organisational Diagram 1: Profile of the organisational culture
culture of the Beta Hotel, based on which it can of the Beta Hotel
Source: own study
12 Hanna Mielniczuk / Research Papers in Economics and Finance 4 (4) 2020
on hotel service providers to constantly im- responses, one can conclude that employees
prove their offer, which will stand out from the need somewhat clearer rules and principles of
competition. The proposed change is also bene- conduct that would strengthen the sense of sta-
ficial for the employees of the Beta Hotel, who bility and security.
are thus encouraged to seek non-stereotypical By analysing individual questions of the qu-
ideas and creative proposals. The results also estionnaire, it is possible to assess what profile
show that employees prefer a slightly higher of the organisational culture dominates in spe-
influence of the hierarchy culture in the organi- cific areas of the organisation, so the following
sation (+ 2%), which may suggest that they lack are taken into account: dominant features of
clear guidelines for the daily tasks outsourced. the Beta Hotel, leadership, employee mana-
The clearly dominant culture of the clan means gement style, what binds the organisation to-
that the way of making decisions is not centrali- gether, strategic emphasis and success criteria
sed, and the employees have a lot of freedom in presented in Diagrams 2-7.
the way of solving given problems. Based on the
Current Preferred Current Preferred
Clan Clan
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
Hierarchy 0 Adhocracy Hierarchy 0 Adhocracy
Market Market
Clan Clan
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
Hierarchy 0 Adhocracy Hierarchy 0 Adhocracy
Market Market
Clan Clan
40 40
30 30
20 20
10 10
Hierarchy 0 Adhocracy Hierarchy 0 Adhocracy
Market Market
Diagram 6: Strategic emphasis Diagram 7: Criteria of Success
Source: own study
Hanna Mielniczuk / Research Papers in Economics and Finance 4 (4) 2020 13
Analysing the results in individual areas of luding Alf Christian Thorkildsen, former CEO of
the Beta Hotel (Diagrams 2-7), one can conclu- Seadrill Norge As. However, the OCAI question-
de that in most areas there is compliance with naire used does not directly test these aspects
the general profile of the Beta Hotel – the clan of the organisation’s functioning, so it cannot
culture remains the dominant profile, with a be determined whether these values are valued
smaller share of adhocracy and hierarchy cul- at the Beta Hotel. However, based on the data
ture, and also it can be seen that in some cases of the Beta Hotel, which can be found on their
there are slight discrepancies between the cu- LinkedIn profile it is known that the organisa-
rrent and the desired culture. For example, in tion employs employees of many nationalities
the area of leadership, employees declare the (including Bulgaria, India, the Philippines, Po-
need to change towards a culture of hierarchy, land), which gives the basis for the conclusion
which may indicate that they lack the sense of that also in terms of equality, the organisatio-
security and stability that a leader should evo- nal culture of the Beta Hotel corresponds to the
ke. In the case of the style of human resource characteristics of the Norwegian organisational
management, a lower influence of the market culture.
culture and a stronger culture of adhocracy are
desirable, which means that employees lack
creative, ad hoc projects that dynamise work 4. Discussion
at the Beta Hotel, and also indicate the need Despite the disadvantages of the selected
for a response to employee initiatives. On the tool, which is not able to thoroughly analyse
other hand, in the area of dominant organisa- a given culture, due to its purely quantitative
tional features, the employees of the Beta Hotel nature and the limited number of respondents,
believe that the strength of the influence of the caused by the sudden situation related to the
hierarchy culture should be higher, which may COVID-19 pandemic, it can be stated that the
suggest that everyday functioning in the orga- research objectives have been completed – the
nisation is unclear or opaque, and therefore a questionnaire allowed for the analysis of the
higher hierarchy is needed. main areas of the organisational culture of the
Comparing the profile of the organisatio- Beta Hotel and comparing it with the determi-
nal culture of the Beta Hotel with the key de- nants of the Norwegian organisational culture.
terminants of the Norwegian organisational On the basis of the conducted study, it can be
culture, one can notice compliance in most concluded that the cultural profile of the Beta
aspects. Treating employees as partners and Hotel is consistent with the profile of Norwe-
mutual trust are key aspects of Norwegian gian organisational culture – both profiles
corporate culture, which is compared to a clan show a strong correlation with the culture of
culture (Grennes, 2006). The study showed the clan and the female type of culture. When
that the clan’s culture is dominant in the pro- interpreting the above research results, it sho-
file of the Beta Hotel, which indicates that its uld also be noted that most of the respondents
organisational culture is in line with the Nor- in the research carried out belonged to lower-
wegian standard – the emphasis is on values -level organisational units (kitchen, waiters,
such as cooperation, participation and respect. cleaning team). The presented results illustrate
As Espedal (2009) emphasises, the main stan- the view of the units that are subject to mana-
dards of Norwegian organisational culture are gement and are not at the top of the hierarchy.
cooperation, partnership and trust, which can Therefore, it should be taken into account that
be found in the Beta Hotel, as evidenced by its if the questionnaire were completed by em-
general cultural profile. Norwegian organisa- ployees representing all positions, including
tional culture is also characterised by a very the management team, the results of the study
weak correlation with male culture, thus fo- would be different and would present a view of,
cusing on results and profit, competitiveness among others, the management and leadership
and tough requirements towards employees also from the perspective of senior managers,
(Grennes, 2006). A similarity can therefore be which would probably change the overall pic-
seen in the weak strength of the market culture ture of the Beta Hotel’s profile. However, the
(16%) in the overall profile of the Beta Hotel – result of this survey allows us to examine the
the organisation is not oriented towards achie- level of employee satisfaction with the cur-
vement, competition and aggressive behaviour. rent culture in the enterprise and may indicate
The determinants of Norwegian organisational to the management where changes should be
culture also include the emphasis on equality made in the functioning of the organisation. In
and fairness, which we can learn from the Nor- the examined case, the employees show satis-
wegian manager June Kristine Lima Bru, who faction with the current culture, which allows
interviewed eight key managers in Norway, inc- us to conclude that they are satisfied with the
14 Hanna Mielniczuk / Research Papers in Economics and Finance 4 (4) 2020
current culture, the profile of which is con- the success of the entire organisation (Peters,
sistent with the determinants of Norwegian or- Waterman, 1982).
ganisational culture. I am convinced that my article will be a
valuable source of information for other re-
searchers who want to learn more about the
5. Conclusions determinants of Norwegian organisational cul-
The research carried out for the purposes ture. When writing my thesis, I encountered
of this study showed the compliance of the cul- considerable difficulties in finding materials
tural profile of the studied enterprise with the on the topic. I also believe that my work will be
profile of Norwegian organisational culture. useful for company managers who should pay
The responses of the employees of the Beta Ho- attention to the organisational culture of their
tel allow us to draw conclusions that the com- companies. Especially the Norwegian organi-
pany is dominated by the culture of the clan sational culture – departing from the hierarchy
and the features of female organisational cul- and control model, building a sense of security
ture, which are main indicators of Norwegian and trust among employees, may turn out to
organisational culture (Grennes, 2006). The be a useful hint in the area of management. Ac-
questionnaire also made it possible to identify cording to the global Deloitte Millenial Survey
the type of culture desired by the Beta Hotel 2019, young generations feel disappointed with
staff – the preferred type of culture still shows traditional business motives, which should
the dominance of the clan culture, which im- warn entrepreneurs that the needs of employ-
plies that employees are satisfied with the cur- ees and their morale should not be neglected.
rent situation in the company. This allows us to Perhaps the solution is a bit of the Scandina-
draw the conclusion that the employees of the vian influence in each organisation, because as
organisation identify with their internal system reported by the World Happiness Report 2019,
of values, which may translate into the efficien- Finland ranks first among the happiest nations
cy of their work and the relationships of their in the world, followed by Denmark and Norway
superiors and colleagues, and, as a result, also third.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my very great appreciation to the Management of the Beta Hotel for allowing the
study to be carried out on the example of the Beta Hotel and for their assistance with the collection of my data.
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