| This study deals with the relationships of organizational culture type, size and organizational type to organizational innovation. Previous studies in organizational innovation have focused primarily on the role of organization structure, size and demographics. However, innovation researchers have recently recommended the inclusion of organizational type (Damanpour, 1991) and organizational culture (Deshpande, 1985) in such studies.; The domain of interest, higher education, for this study is particularly important. Research indicates that higher education institutions are both a source of demand and supply for innovation and thus face intense pressure for innovation implementation. Higher education scholars often refer to colleges and universities as cultural entities and note that organizational culture plays a product and process role in organizational decision-making (Kuh and Whitt, 1988).; The primary purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of organizational culture type, size and organizational type to innovation implementation in institutions of higher education. With a response rate of 48%, institutions reported implementation of technical innovations with higher frequency than administrative innovations. Specifically, creating wholly new programs and services was the most frequently occurring innovation. Since culture appears to influence decision-making (citation), organizational culture content was measured using the Competing Values Framework (Quinn and Cameron, 1999) as a basis for analysis. It was discovered that most institutions of higher education report a dominant culture type of Clan.; One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) yielded a statistically significant difference between the mean scores on total innovation for each of the dominant culture types. In addition, the dominant culture type of adhocracy was affiliated with higher organizational innovation than the other dominant culture types of clan, hierarchy or market. Additional analysis examined the association between dominant culture type and innovation type. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) yielded a statistically significant difference between the mean scores on technical and administrative innovation for each of the dominant culture types. However, the dominant culture type of adhocracy was associated with higher levels of innovation for both types—technical and administrative.; Regarding organizational size, the findings were somewhat surprising and inconsistent with prior studies on organizational innovation (Damanpour, 1991). Organizational size, measured as number of full-time employees had a low correlation with organizational innovation.; Regarding organization type, state/local affiliated institutions (e.g., public) were associated with innovation implementation than either religious-affiliated or independent-affiliated private institutions.; In summary, organizational innovation in institutions of higher education is associated with dominant organizational culture type and organizational type. Culture scholars suggest that an institution's organizational culture type and external operating environment should be compatible (Cameron and Quinn, 1999). For institutions of higher education, the prospect of innovation implementation is associated with culture type, in particular, the characteristics of the adhocracy culture type. |
