An Organizational Culture Perspective on Role Emergence and Role Enactment

Title: AN ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE PERSPECTIVE ON ROLE EMERGENCE AND ROLE ENACTMENT Sophia V. Marinova, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Directed By: Professor Paul E. Tesluk, Department of Management and Organization Organizational culture has received ample attention both in the popular and scholarly press as an important factor predicting organizational effectiveness by inducing employees to behave effectively (Cooke & Rousseau, 1988; Schein, 1985, 1990). The assertion that culture leads to behavior, however, has received only limited empirical support. The purpose of this dissertation is to explicate the impact of organizational culture on employees' roles and subsequent role behaviors. I propose that four types of cultures (clan, entrepreneurial, market and hierarchy) exert different and at times competing pressures, thus, creating distinct role schemas regarding the range of expected employee behaviors, which in turn, guide distinct forms of employee role behavior (e.g. helping, innovation, achievement and