Are National and Organizational Cultures Isomorphic? Evidence from a Four Country Comparative Study

This pilot study investigates whether organizational practices as observed through differing organizational cultures systematically replicate or reject national values. It is among the first to project delineated, narrow national cultural portrayals of Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Denmark against pattern-specific organizational cultures. Through country cluster analysis and correlation tests, the results achieve significance along all three dimensions. Trust allocations, authority perceptions and independence assertions were significant predictors for organizational traits of knowledge sharing practices, structure and control utilization, respectively. This demonstrates the value of assessing national values in conjunction with organizational culture in order to further understand the origins of corporate behaviour and the mechanisms that can help promote organizational effectiveness.