Organizational Culture Profiles

The purpose of this paper was to construct organizational culture profiles using the “Now” and “Preferred” average scores from the Organizational Cultural Assessment Instrument (OCAI) to get a pictogram of how the current culture for the Medicaid Integrity Group (MIG) matches the preferred culture. Organizational culture is not just any thoughts, values, and actions, but rather the unifying patterns that are shared, learned, combined at the group level, and internalized individual members. The findings of the OCAI provides a clear picture of the MIG’s operating culture in terms of behaviors that is believed, expected, or implicitly required and indicated items that could be changed to alter the current classification of the organization from a hierarchy culture to a clan culture. Conversely, the hierarchy focuses on rules, policies, procedures, efficiency, and control is the direct opposite of the clan that stresses family, loyalty, commitment, cohesion, and morale.

Organizational Culture Profiles

In many organizations, one typically finds that corporate culture affects everyone. Culture is important because it can influence human behavior, can be difficult to change, and its near invisibility makes it hard to address directly. The MIG’s current and preferred culture shown in the OCAI in Appendix A focuses on some core attributes of the organization. The OCAI is a key component to help the MIG understand and conceptualize its organizational culture, its nature, determinants and predictions, as well as the relationships among culture's diverse set of variables. Organizational culture is widely considered one of the most significant factors in bringing about organizational ch...

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...a pictogram of how the current culture for the MIG matches the preferred culture. First, from the perspective of where the organization’s current culture is and secondly, from the perspective of where organization’s culture should be. The MIG’s present culture indicates it experience hierarchy culture but would like to start working more like a clan culture. The organization’s profile indicated a large difference between the current and preferred situation, which means changes are desirable. Organizational culture is just one of the many pieces that make up the puzzle of public sector organizations. As such, it should not be considered the answer to all organizational problems, nor should it be applied to all organizational aspects. The organizational culture profiles can be a starting point to solve problems, but also a way to create problematic solutions.