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228 Chapter 7

Table 7.1
Four types of organizational culture

High solidarity Low solidarity
High sociability 1. Communal culture 2. Networked culture
Low sociability 3. Mercenary culture 4. Fragmented culture

One way of exploring cultures is to classify them into types. There are many ways
to differentiate organizational culture. Goffee and Jones (2000) identifi ed four types
of organizational culture. In their research, they used two dimensions to create the
four distinct types. The fi rst dimension, sociability, is a measure of friendliness. A high
sociable culture indicates that people within the culture tend to be friendly to each
other without expecting something in return. Sociability is consistent with a high
people orientation, high team orientation, and focus on process rather than outcomes.
Solidarity, the second dimension, measures the task orientation. High solidarity means
that people can work together toward common goals very well even they may have
personal disputes or confl icts.
This classifi cation scheme produces four types of organizational cultures as shown
in table 7.1 . These are described in greater detail below:

• A communal culture can give its members a sense of belonging, though it also is
task-driven. Leaders of this culture are usually very inspirational and charismatic. The
major negative is that they often exert too much infl uence and other members are
rarely heard from.
• In a networked culture, members are treated as friends and family. People have
close contact with each other and love each other. People are willing to help each
other and share information. The disadvantage of this culture is that people are
so kind to each other that they are reluctant to point out and criticize the poor
performance.
• A mercenary culture focuses on strict goals. Members are expected to meet the goals
and get the job done quickly. Since everyone focuses on goals and objectivity, there
is little room for political cliques. The negative is that those with poor performance
may be treated inhumanely.
• In an organization with a fragmented culture, the sense of belonging to and iden-
tifi cation with the organization is usually very weak. The individualists constitute the
organizations, and their commitment is given fi rst to individual members and task
work. The downside is that there is a lack of cooperation.