Organizational culture and knowledge management success: assessing the behavior-performance continuum

Traditionally, culture has been assessed by qualitative methods. However, quantitative approaches such as culture surveys offer important advantages for both cross-sectional organizational research and knowledge-based cultural change initiatives. The organizational culture inventory© (OCI), an instrument designed for such uses, profiles the culture of organizations and their sub-units in terms of behavioral norms and expectations. Following a review of seminal concepts relevant to organizational culture, this paper presents a framework depicting the relationship between culture and outcomes that are consistent with successful KM environments. An examination of the data provided by approximately 60,000 OCI respondents indicates that the inventory is a powerful indicator of outcomes, which are related to both individual and organizational criteria.