| A survey of 469 municipal employees from 18 Ontario cities was conducted to examine the relationship between organizational culture and organizational structure. The reviewed literature on organizational culture, and refinements made to it in the study, suggest that culture and structure are both means of coordinating and controlling organizational activities and decision-making, and are therefore competing, substitutable mechanisms of social control and coordination.; The evidence collected generally supports this view, but cautions the reader against treating culture and structure as singular or monolithic phenomena. Instead, culture and structure can be more aptly described as families of distinct elements, each exerting a different influence. Culture was decomposed into four key dimensions (Merit & Elitism, Trust, Responsiveness, Task Orientation), and eleven sub-dimensions (Professionalism, Performance & Reward, Competitiveness, Fairness, Team Spirit, Entrepreneurial ism, Standards & Codes, Self-correction, Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Power), and structure was decomposed into seven dimensions (Decision Hierarchy, Participation, Rule Observation, Documentation, Job Autonomy, Job Specification, Institutional Formalization & Centralization). Some combinations of the cultural and structural elements confirmed that culture and structure are indeed inversely related, whereas other combinations produced the opposite effect. The most common and most significant patterns, however, supported the substitutable view. Those relationships were moderated by other factors, such as education, seniority, and gender.; The proposed substitutive model of culture and structure elaborates related constructs, such as institutional boundary, environmental turbulence and complexity, task ambiguity, decision-making congruence, and need for control.; The study also tested for the relative influences of the municipal organizations and of the professions/work disciplines on the enculturation and structuration of the workplace, and found that while organizational influences are somewhat stronger than discipline-based effects, both exert broad influence on workplace culture and structure. Some elements of structure and culture respond more strongly to organizational influence, while others principally respond to occupational influence.; The study also attempts to synthesize disparate facets of organizational culture research into a new model of organizational culture generation and maintenance, combining the functionalist and social constructionist views of organizational culture.; Lastly, future avenues of inquiry are sketched, based on the study's contributions. |
