Attitudes Toward Change Initiatives in Corporate Cultures Undergoing Transformation : Two Examples from Moscow

Corporate processes of transformation toward increased innovativeness, competitiveness, and market orientation are furthered if firms bave a definite culture of fostering cbange initiatives. The results of a questionnaire (FOGO), developed by two of the present authors and administered to a German sample (Gebert, Boemer, and Matiaske 1998) and to a Polisb sample (Boemer, Gebert, and Rudolf in press) sbowed that companies wbose culture is perceived to be "open," that is, cbaracterized by values sucb as bope, pluralism, dialogue, freedom, and willingness to learn, are also perceived as being more innovative than companies that tend to be defined as baving a "closed" organizational culture, that is, one dominated by values sucb as barmony, stability, security, order, and clarity. The results of the questionnaire also sbowed that companies operating in a bigbly competitive environment bave more open organizational cultures than those of companies facing little or no competi-