| Past research with private-sector organizations suggests that improvements in key traits of organizational culture can improve organizational performance. There has been limited research examining this relationship in public-sector organizations. This study examined the relationship between the two main theoretical constructs of organizational culture and organizational performance (i.e., customer satisfaction) in a federal government agency by measuring cultural trait scores with the Denison organizational culture survey (DOCS) and organizational performance with a 13-item customer satisfaction survey (CSS). The DOCS was sent to 17,790 employees across 10 business units and the CSS was sent to a stratified, random sample of 10,000 of their customers. A 2 X 4 ANOVA tested the hypothesis that work units in a high customer satisfaction (CS) condition would have significantly higher DOCS scores than those in a low CS condition and found no significant effect ( F = 2.79, p < .10). A trend towards the alternative hypothesis may exist which future research may detect with a more robust design (e.g., n > 10). T tests conducted with the 4 DOCS cultural traits did find a significant effect (ps < .05) for 2 of the 4 traits, consistent with research findings in other service-oriented organizations showing these 2 traits have a significant effect on CS. The study will create social change by improving the effectiveness of the federal government which, in turn, will impact American society. The impact on 1.6 million federal employees would include improved job satisfaction, lower turnover and occupational stress. Other benefits of the study would include higher quality and faster, more reliable services and products at lower cost delivered daily by those federal employees to approximately 290 million Americans. |
