| Researchers are increasingly observing that the "culture of organizations has an important influence on [organizational] effectiveness" (Denison & Mishra, 1995, p. 220) and have theorized that the use and manipulation of culture may be a viable approach to leveraging potentially constraining environmental circumstances in building an organization's effectiveness and competitive advantage. Organizational culture as used in this dissertation is defined as "A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to their problems." (Schein, 1992, p. 12). Although thousands of studies have been performed around the world measuring organizational culture in business and corporate settings, only a handful of studies, including this study, have been performed in the correctional institution sector (Corcoran, 2005). This study was completed at a state correctional institution using a multimethod approach consisting of surveying the 749 employees using Denison's Organizational Culture Survey (Denison & Neale, 1994), interviews with selected five employees, and archival content analysis of three organizational documents. Surprisingly, the correctional institution scored higher in the mission trait quadrant, not the consistency trait quadrant, and there were multiple missions seen between the employees' perceptions and organizational documents. |
