Syftet med denna uppsats är att på grundval av tidigare forskning sammanställa vad vi anser aktivt efterföljarskap att innebära. Detta för att sedan skapa en djupare förståelse för hur aktiva efterföljare bidrar till upprätthållandet av organisationskultur. En fallstudie på Maxi ICA Stormarknad Vetlanda har tillämpats som undersökningsdesign, med en induktiv ansats. En kvalitativ metod har använts där fokusgrupper, intervjuer, observationer och granskning av organisatoriska dokument har genomförts för att producera den empiriska datan.

Syfte: Syftet är att öka förståelsen för hur olika yrkeskategorier uppfattar organisationskultur och med den förståelsen belysa vikten av hur sjukhus kan arbeta med organisationskultur för att kunna möta framtidens växande och åldrande befolkning.                                                    Metod: Studien har en kvalitativ forskningsstrategi med en abduktiv ansats som behandlar fenomenet organisationskultur. Studiens datainsamlingsmetod består av en kombination av och med enskilda intervjuer, fokusgrupp, observationer och insamlade dokument som bygger på och stärker varandra.                                                                                                       Slutsats: Vi har genom denna studie fått en ny insikt i att yrkeskategorier i första hand relaterar organisationskultur till sig själva och att det kan vara individens sätt att uppfatta sin plats i organisationen. Organisationskultur blir således något som var och en förhåller sig till utifrån sin egen referensram och att den enskilda professionen, arbetsuppgiften, enheten, verksamhetsområdet eller sjukhuset återspeglar sättet att se på organisationskultur. / Purpose: The purpose is to increase the understanding of how different job types apprehend organizational culture which light the importance of how hospitals can work with organizational culture. This to be able to meet the increasing needs of future growing and ageing population in a more comprehensive effort. Method: The study has a qualitative research strategy with a cross-sectional approach which examining the organizational culture as a phenomenon. The data consists of separate interviews, focus group, observations and collected documents all of which build upon and bolster each other in an effort to support the hypothesis. Conclusion: Through this study we received new insight and knowledge which made us understand that individuals relate organizational culture to themselves, which can be the individual's way of perceiving their place in the organization. Organizational culture is furthermore something that individuals relate to through their own frame of reference and that the individual's profession, assignment, unit, work area or hospital influences the way individuals look upon organizational culture.

Under åtskilliga år har organisatorisk förändring i form av sammanslagningar av organisationer varit en fortlöpande del av den operativa strategin för flertalet organisationer. Detta för att uppnå organisationell mångfald, tillväxt och rationalisering. Vad man emellertid har förbisett att ta hänsyn till är att vardera organisationen besitter en specifik organisationskultur som präglas av gemensamma och delade meningar om organisationens värderingar, normer, grundläggande antaganden och verklighetsuppfattningar. För att få till stånd en ny och framgångsrik enhet krävs en omskapad organisationskultur, där de anställda från de skilda organisationerna erfar en ny gemensam och delad mening om organisationens satta grundstenar. Vad denna studie vill bidra med är en ny vinkel beträffande en förändrad organisationskultur där man ser till de anställdas upplevelse utifrån de individuella karaktäristiska dragen; neuroticism, extrovert, öppenhet, vänlighet och målmedvetenhet, vilket kan komma ha betydande relevans för att uppnå en lyckad sammanslagning. Detta med anledning av att en individs beteende torde härstamma från personligheten, där personligheten belyser en individs karaktäristiska och organiserande sätt att känna, tänka och handla i olika situationer. Det är framförallt i situationer där vanor och rutiner förändras som de individuella karaktäristiska dragen blir intressanta att studera för att kartlägga hur en individ svarar på detta. En deduktiv ansats kommer därav att tillämpas med avsikten att studera en förändrad organisationskultur med en ny vinkel, vilket i detta fall är utifrån individuella karaktäristika drag. Med stöd från tidigare forskning byggs teser, vilket sedan prövas mot empirisk data som samlats in med hjälp av en organisation som genomgått en sammanslagning. Utifrån uppsatsens syfte har en kombination av metoder tillämpats i avsikt att analysera informationen från enkätundersökningen. Uppsatsens diskussion och slutsats grundas på de enkätsvar som samlats in från den specifika organisationens anställda, bortsett från ledningsgruppen. Utifrån resultaten kan det antydas att studien mätt det som var åsyftat att mäta. Däremot kunde denna studie inte påvisa att samband finns mellan dessa variabler, vilket förklaras i sista avsnittet bero på ett flertal aspekter. / For several years, organizational change in the form of mergers has been an ongoing part of the operational strategy for most organizations. This is to achieve organizational diversity, growth and rationalization. What, however, has failed to take into account is that each organization possesses a specific organizational culture of common and shared views on the organization's values, norms, basic assumptions and perceptions of reality. In order to establish a new and successful unit requires a recreated organizational culture, where employees from different organizations are experiencing a new common and shared sense of organization set foundations. What this study would like to contribute is a new angle regarding a change in organizational culture that looks to the employee experience based on the individual characteristic features; neuroticism, extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness, which may have significant relevance for achieving a successful merger. This is on account of that an individual's behavior derives from personality features, which highlights the personality of individuals and how they feel, think and act in different situations. It is mainly in situations where the habits and routines changes as the individual characteristic features will be interesting to study to identify how an individual responds to this. A deductive approach will hence be applied with the intention of studying a change in organizational culture with a new angle, which in this case is based on individuals’ characteristics traits. With support from previous research theses have been built, which were tested against empirical data gathered with the help of an organization that has undergone a merger. Based on the purpose of the essay is a combination of methods applied in order to analyze the information from the survey. Thesis discussion and conclusion is based on the survey responses collected from the specific organization's staff, apart from the management team. From the results it can be inferred that the study measured the different variables correctly. In contrast, this study could not conclude that there were any significant relationship between these variables, which is explained in the last section of the thesis.

When applied successfully, the QM initiatives TQM and Lean enhance an organization´s ability to meet and exceed the expectations of the customers as well as co-workers and other stakeholders. There are however also QM initiatives that fail and one reason for this is the organization’s inability to create a supportive culture, a culture that rests on a number of values which aim at improving the quality and thereby customer satisfaction. Even though this is known by both practitioners and researchers, little has been written on how to achieve a QM culture in practice and there are not many methodologies and tools designed directly with purpose of creating this culture. In addition, the measurements used for monitoring organizational success focus mainly on ‘hard’ process or financial measures such as lead-time reduction and operating income.   The purpose of this thesis has been to ‘examine how a strong organizational culture can be created and to contribute with knowledge about how to create and measure a QM culture’. To fulfill this purpose, a number of case studies have been carried out and a questionnaire has been developed in order to measure the presence and importance of a number of QM values. The research presented in this thesis reinforces the fact that culture is an important factor to take into account when applying QM initiatives. A structured way of working with culture and the development of a strategy on how the culture in the organization will be changed is needed. This in combination with methodologies and tools aiming directly at enhancing a QM culture. The research also shows that the relationship between organizational culture, values and behaviors needs to be considered when working to create a strong QM culture. Most of the methodologies and tools found in the case studies aim directly at reinforcing the ‘right’ behaviors in the organization, hence enhancing the underlying values. For instance, the way an organization works with selection, e.g. recruitment and promotion, based on behaviors rather than documented merits is one methodology found in the research. The leadership was found to be important when it came to building or strengthening the culture. Managers are considered key players and need to act as role models, displaying the desired behaviors themselves. The managers need to be present among their co-workers and aware of how their own actions affect the possibility to build a strong QM culture. Another conclusion drawn is the need to measure the ‘softer’ side of QM. One starting point when applying a QM initiative should be the assessment of the existing culture in the organization as a complement to the ‘harder’ measures. The research presented in this thesis suggests that the questionnaire that has been developed could be an appropriate tool for this purpose. If the existing culture in an organization does not support the values within QM, the behaviors of managers and co-workers that are needed to improve quality and thereby customer satisfaction could be hard to achieve. / Framgångsrikt tillämpade kan kvalitetsledningsinitiativ (QM initiativ) som TQM och Lean förbättra organisationers förmåga att möta och överträffa kundernas likväl som medarbetarnas och andra intressenters förväntningar. Det finns dock QM initiativ som misslyckas och en av anledningarna är oförmågan att skapa en stödjande kultur. En kultur som vilar på ett antal värderingar med syfte att förbättra kvaliteten och därmed kundtillfredsställelsen. Även om detta är känt av både praktiker och forskare så finns det inte mycket skrivet om hur man uppnår denna kultur i praktiken. Dessutom finns få utvecklade metoder och verktyg som syftar direkt till att skapa en QM kultur. Förutom detta så är de flesta mätningar som används för att följa organisationers utveckling främst av det hårda slaget, dvs. finansiella eller processorienterade mätningar t.ex. ledtidsreducering och rörelsekapital. Syftet med den här avhandlingen har varit att "undersöka hur en stark organisationskultur kan skapas och att bidra med kunskap om hur man kan skapa och mäta en kvalitetsledningskultur". För att uppfylla detta syfte har ett antal fallstudier genomförts och en enkät har utvecklats för att mäta förekomsten och betydelsen av ett antal QM värderingar. Den forskning som presenteras avhandlingen stärker det faktum att kulturen är en viktig faktor att ta hänsyn till vid tillämpningen av QM initiativ. Det finns ett behov av ett strukturerat arbetssätt för att påverka kulturen samt att utveckla en strategi för hur kulturen i organisationen ska kunna skapas. I kombination med detta så finns även att behov av metoder och verktyg som syftar direkt till att stärka QM kulturen. Forskningen visar också att sambandet mellan organisationskultur, värderingar och beteenden måste tas i beaktning när man arbetar för att skapa en stark kultur. De flesta metoder och verktyg som påträffats i fallstudierna syftar direkt till att stärka "rätt" beteenden i organisationen, och därigenom förstärka de underliggande värderingarna. Även ledarskapet är viktigt när det gäller att skapa eller stärka kulturen. Chefer är nyckelaktörer och måste agera som förebilder och själva uppvisa önskade beteenden. Hur organisationer arbetar med urval, dvs. rekrytering och befordran, baserat på beteenden snarare än dokumenterade meriter är en metod som påträffats i forskningen. En annan metod funnen är ”storytelling” som kan användas för att återberätta historier från organisationen som visar på beteenden som stärker önskade värderingar. En slutstats som dras är att det finns ett behov av att mäta de ”mjukare” sidorna av QM. Utgångsläget vad gäller den befintliga kulturen när man ska tillämpar QM initiativ bör mätas för att komplettera de ”hårdare” mätetalen. Forskningen som presenteras i avhandlingen visar att den enkät som utvecklats skulle kunna användas som ett verktyg för att göra dessa mätningar. Antingen för att mäta utgångsläget innan man börjar tillämpa Lean eller TQM eller som ett sätt att kontinuerligt följa upp och behålla fokuset på värderingar och kulturen i en organisation. Om kulturen som råder i en organisation inte stödjer QM värderingar kan det vara svårt att få de beteenden från chefer och medarbetare som krävs för att förbättra kvaliteten och därmed kundnöjdheten.

A frequently cited reason for poor quality of care in the ambulatory care setting is the lack of optimally designed systems to address care for those with preventive or chronic care needs. Organizational theory suggests that culture plays an important role in the shaping of these types of programs. The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to understand through descriptive and regression analysis of secondary data, the relationship between the existence of cultural characteristics such as collegiality, quality emphasis and autonomy, and the systems employed to improve quality of care within primary care practices. The study uses an integrated theoretical framework consisting of organizational culture, social network and organizational learning theories to better understand the rationale for the relationships. The analysis is an outgrowth of a previous National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) project conducted in Minnesota where 300 staff across 42 office practices were asked to answer questions on a self-report survey to assess the presence and function of clinical practice systems. To evaluate organizational culture, validated questions from the work of Kralewski and colleagues were also asked. Descriptive analysis results showed a large range in consistency of practice system use, with clinical information systems as most used and care management systems as least used. Results of the multivariate analysis showed collegiality and quality emphasis as significantly related to the use of practice systems. More specifically, both collegiality and quality emphasis were seen to positively influence the use of clinical quality evaluation and improvement systems and an emphasis of quality was seen to positively influence the use of clinician reminders and clinical information systems. A statistically significant relationship between autonomy and practice systems use was not seen. As the study shows that culture does influence the use of certain systems for care improvement, it provides an increased understanding and avenue for intervention/change in the continued quest for improved quality of care. Policymakers and practice leadership may want to focus energy on understanding primarily whether the culture of practices places an emphasis on quality and collegiality. Ultimately it may foster the use of practice systems for quality of care improvement.

The primary purpose of this dissertation is to examine if there is a significant relationship between organizational culture and tolerance of corrupt practices among the Non-Governmental Organizations located in Kenya. Despite the fact that NGOs have been attributed with a strong organizational culture, previous literature indicates that there is a connection between the organizational culture and decisions to engage in corrupt practices. Another purpose is to investigate tolerance of corrupt practices and determine the dominant organizational culture among NGOs. The study applied the competing values framework, which describes four dimensions of organizational culture. Mixed methods techniques were used to collect data from a sample of 185 participants selected from 30 organizations in Nairobi. The organizational culture data was collected using the organizational culture assessment instrument while tolerance of corruption was collected using ten scenarios in the first phase. The qualitative data was collected through telephone interviews with six participants. Statistical analysis was conducted using descriptive statistics to test for the most dominant culture and tolerance of corrupt practices. Clan dimension was the most dominant dimension, while some of the practices were perceived as less corrupt and likely to occur. Bivariate correlations revealed the number of years working in an organization was associated with the acceptance variable, while clan culture was correlated to corrupt variable. The three propositions were not supported by the multivariate analysis of variance. However, the second proposition could not be tested due to lack of adequate data to compare. In sum, the study did not find a significant relationship between the dimensions of organizational culture and the tolerance of corrupt practices. The study has helped in exposing some of the areas requiring further strengthening and is also useful in setting the agenda for future research.

This study investigates how the culture of an organization is related to the job satisfaction and turnover intentions of government accountants. I show that perceived organizational support serves as a mediator between organizational culture and both turnover intentions and job satisfaction. I evaluate how cultural effects have changed over time, and assess how the relations between the hypothesized associations differ between supervisory and staff accountants. I also look for differences in how accountants and primary care nurses may perceive organizational culture. I develop the constructs of interest, describe the proposed relationships, develop hypotheses, describe the sample frame, provide a detailed review of the methodology and describe the results. I conclude with a discussion of implications and limitations.

Människor rör sig runt i en större omfattning jämfört med förr i tiden. Detta har medfört ett ökat intresse bland forskare att studera just kommunikation och organisationskultur inom organisationer och företag. Oavsett vilken bransch och marknad en organisation verkar inom har dessa ämnen blivit aktuella att studera och reflektera kring hur organisationens helhet (strukturen, anställdas gemenskap, ledarskapet etc.) faktiskt fungerar. Våra forskningsfrågor är: Hur kan kommunikationen påverka organisationens kultur; mellan ledaren och anställda samt anställda sinsemellan? Hur kan ledarskapets kommunikation påverka organisationskulturen på företaget? Vårt syfte med detta arbete är att undersöka olika organisationers interna kommunikation, hur denna kan påverka organisationskulturen samt ledarskapet och hur de samspelar med varandra. Det kan bidra till mer kunskap till de organisationer som känner att den interna kommunikationen brister i organisationsledet. Rapporten kan även bidra till att organisationer blir medvetna om ämnesområdet. Detta arbete går ut på att få en djupare förståelse för det valda ämnet, vilket innebär att det är en studie som har en kvalitativ karaktär som vi studerat utifrån ett hermeneutiskt synsätt. Vi har därmed ställt helheten i relation till rapportens olika delar för att få en djup och bred förståelse kring de utvalda ämnesområdena. För att få svar på våra forskningsfrågor har vi i vår studie använt oss av både sekundära och primära datakällor. Vi har valt att även använda oss av intervjuer, specifikt semistrukturerade intervjuer. Vi har intervjuat respondenter som har ett ansvarsområde (ledar-/chefsroll) inom liknande branscher och storlek (storlek beräknat på antal heltidsanställda) och anställda som inte har ansvarsområden. Intern kommunikation är mest optimal när samtliga anställda, både med och utan ansvarsområde, i en organisation känner till kommunikationskanalerna, kulturen samt de visioner och mål som råder. Ett väl sammansvetsat samspel av alla dessa aspekter bidrar till en stark, konkurrenskraftig och framgångsrik organisation. / People are moving around in a greater extent than in the past. This has led to an increased interest among researchers to study communication and organizational culture within organizations and companies. No matter what business and marketing organizations are operating in, the subject has become topical for them to study and reflect on how the whole organization (structure, community members, leadership, etc.) actually works. Our research questions are: How can communication affect the organization's culture; between the leader and the members and the members among themselves? How can leadership communication affect the organizational culture of the company? Main purpose with our paper is to explore various corporate internal communications. As well how this can affect organizational culture and leadership and how they interact with each other. It can contribute to i.e. more knowledge to the organizations who feel that internal communication deficiencies in the organizations different levels. The report can also help the organizations that are not aware of the subject to become aware. Our purpose is as well to gain a deeper understanding of the chosen topic. This means that there is a study that has a qualitative character, which we studied from a hermeneutics approach. It is our intention to get as close to reality as possible. We have placed the various parts of this paper together to get a deep and broad understanding of the chosen field of study. We have chosen to have interviews, specifically semi-structured interviews. We interviewed respondents who have a responsibility (leadership/management role) in similar industries and size (size based on the number of full-time employees) and employees who do not have responsibilities. Internal communications are most optimal when all members of an organization know the channels of communication, culture and the vision and objectives prevails. A close-knit interaction of all these aspects contributes to a strong competitive organization.

Virtual work environments (VWEs) have been used in the private sector for more than a decade, but the United States Marine Corps (USMC), as a whole, has not yet taken advantage of associated benefits. The USMC construct parallels the bureaucratic organizational culture and uses an antiquated information technology (IT) infrastructure. During an effort to upgrade the Marine Corps Combat Development Command's infrastructure to a VWE, the change-agent noticed an immediate resistance towards the VWE and new work methodology. The problem identified for investigation was to discover why a bureaucratic organizational culture, matured through IT savvy and cognitively adept personnel, resists the VWE and new work methodology introduced by the evolution of IT. The explanatory, single case study documented the resistance towards the VWE and new work methodology and recommended a solution to the problem. Due to a noticeable resistance geared towards the adoption of the VWE, the case study and pre-trial preparation began in Fall, 2009 and the data-collection period occurred in the Spring of 2010. The preparation phase entailed developing extensive instruments that burrowed into the participants' technical expertise and willingness to accept change on an individual level. The instruments were validated by an expert panel from the following disciplines: knowledge management, information technology, and psychology, as part of the groundwork. Analysis of the data showed resistance towards the VWE, both collectively as a group and on the individual level. The final report articulates that the data proves the study successfully accomplished the goal. Resistance was found at the user level in the work environment. It stemmed from several key areas: lack of user input, lack of training, user ignorance, and absence of a vision statement. Leadership should review the implementation methodology and decide upon a new course of action. Training in the use of the VWE at entry and advanced levels should be offered to newcomers and be available on a continuous basis. Future change agents must examine the outcomes of similar, previous work in order to gain a better understanding of what makes an initiative fail or succeed.

Background: The reason for conducting this master thesis within the field of knowledge management derived from the realization that there was a need for an increased understanding of the socio-cultural dynamics of the integration and transfer of knowledge in cross-functional new product development projects. Research advocates that organizations with organic project-based environments with fluid team boundaries may aggravate routine-based work and organizational memory, which in turn may lead to an organizations’ inability of capturing and storing existing personalized knowledge for internal storage and future transfer (Koskinen, 2004). For this reason, the conversion of knowledge for re-use between and within projects in an organization is not supported in a natural way (Lindner and Wald, 2011). To this end, organizational culture is critically important in facilitating a knowledge transfer culture within an organization that supports such knowledge conversion processes (Davenport and Prusak, 1998a). Thus, an increased understanding of the socio-cultural dynamics of knowledge integration and transfer in cross-functional projects is viewed as an opportunity to contribute with findings with interest in both industry and academia. Increasing the understanding of organizational culture’s role in knowledge conversion facilitation is particularly seen as an important research area in existing knowledge management research. The study aimed to produce a deeper understanding of these social processes by exploring and interpreting them in their real-life social contexts. Research question: How does organizational culture and knowledge management strategies support as well as hinder knowledge integration and transfer between cross-functional product development teams and specialists in a project-based organization? Purpose: To increase the understanding of the socio-cultural dynamics of knowledge integration and transfer in cross-functional projects. In order to study the socio-cultural elements, a case study in a global Swedish company engaged in new product development was conducted during the spring of 2016. Method: The research design of the study was case study. The empirical data was collected through face-to-face interviews, observations and studying of internal steering documentations. The author found it necessary to adopt an interpretivist epistemological position with a qualitative focus in alignment with employing abductive reasoning in order to understand the collected data and to explore the posed research question. Quality measures with respect to qualitative research studies were cautiously considered. Conclusion: This study found that an organization with a network-based knowledge culture and a standardized process with standards and routines for effective knowledge conversion processes are two sides of the same coin that can support the knowledge integration and transfer between cross-functional product development teams and specialists in a project-based organization. Further, both a single dominant organizational culture and multiple local cultures within an organization can both support and hinder the integration and transfer of knowledge. In extension to this finding, inconsistencies in the knowledge integration and transfer processes may evolve across these different cultural interpretations which may further support or hinder the social dynamics in an organization. Moreover, my study suggests that a network-based knowledge culture can interact with a standardized process in order to enable effective knowledge integration and transfer routines.