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Reviewed by Julie M. Slowiak

The Organizational Culture Inventory® (OCI; Cooke & Lafferty, 1983) is an instrument designed to evaluate the culture of organizations in terms of behavioral norms and expectations related to the shared beliefs and values held by organizational members.  The OCI measures what individuals and groups within a company regard as expected of them and will be reinforced and rewarded.  It also allows organizational members to consider a culture that, for them, would be ideal for maximizing business performance, and what types of behaviors would be expected of them in that ideal culture.  Therefore, differences between the current and ideal cultures of an organization can be measured by the OCI (Acumen International, 2000).

The OCI measures 12 sets of normative beliefs and shared behavioral expectations that may influence the thinking and behavior of organizational members, their motivation and performance, and their satisfaction and stress.  Normative beliefs are defined as “cognitions held by an individual regarding others’ expectations for his behavior as a member of a particular group or organization.”  Shared behavioral expectations are “those normative beliefs that are held in common by members of a group or organization” (Cooke & Szumal, 1993).

These 12 sets of normative beliefs and shared behavioral expectations refer to 12 different cultural styles that are placed around a circumplex, with their proximity reflecting their expected degree of association (see Figure 1; Cooke & Rousseau, 1988; Acumen International, 2000; Cooke & Szumal, 2000; Szumal, 2003).  The 12 Styles are²:

The 12 types of norms and expectations are associated with and organized into three general types of cultures (Acumen International, 2000). They are:

The OCI can be administered in a group setting or on an individual basis.  There are two versions of the OCI: a computer-scored and hand-scored version.  Both the computer-scored and hand-scored versions have 120 items.  Each of the 12 styles is measured by 10 items describing behaviors that might be expected or required by members of an organization.  The items are ranked on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 1 (“not at all”) to 5 (“to a very great extent”), indicating the level at which the behavior helps people to “fit in” and “meet expectations” in their organization (Cooke & Rousseau, 1988).  Results are plotted on the Human Synergistics® Circumplex (Human Synergistics, 2000), which can show either a person’s individual normative beliefs (when the viewpoint of only one person is plotted) or the shared behavioral expectations that function within the organization (when the viewpoints of different people are combined). 

As stated earlier, the OCI can be used to measure both the current and ideal organizational cultures.  When assessing current culture, the OCI includes items intended to evaluate business outcomes related to the organization’s culture.  Results provide information about the need and direction for cultural change and potential business results that can come from culture change efforts.  By contrast, when assessing ideal culture, the OCI includes items designed to measure the participants’ readiness for moving the current culture toward the ideal.  Results identify possible sources of support as well as resistance to cultural change efforts.  These results will also project further benefits which organizational members feel will result from cultural change.

The OCI has been researched extensively and is continually evaluated to ensure that its assessments are reliable and consistent over time and across raters (Acumen International, 2000).  No recent documentation on the reliability and validity of this instrument was found; however, Cooke and Szumal’s (1993) research tested three types of reliability – internal consistency, interrater, and test-retest – and two types of validity – construct and criterion-related – on data provided by 4,890 respondents from three versions of the OCI.  Cronbach’s alpha coefficients support the internal consistency of each of the 12 scales, ranging from .65 to .95.  Analysis of interrater agreement found that reliability was high across the three forms and variance in responses was explained by organizational membership.  Test-retest reliability was found to show the stability of scale scores over time.  The results of a factor analysis of the construct and criterion-related validities of the OCI showed support across the three forms.

Cooke and Szumal (1993) suggest a possible weakness of the OCI in regard to its discriminant validity.  It has been found that certain scales (i.e., Conventional, Avoidance, Oppositional, Perfectionistic) show dual loadings on one or more forms.  Dual loadings refer to the overlap of a particular style on two of the three general types of culture.  The researchers state that this may be due to a weakness of the OCI, or it could suggest that the norms for the general culture styles are loosely linked in certain settings.

The OCI is an instrument that can be used in any organizational setting and has many applications.  According to Human Synergistics (2000), the OCI is “the most widely used and thoroughly researched tool for measuring organizational culture in the world.”  The OCI can be used for many things including: identifying areas where change is needed, developing a vision for cultural changes, evaluating the effects of organizational change efforts, and managing diversity and international relations.  Therefore, the OCI is a general instrument that can be tailored to meet the needs o almost any organization.

Acumen International. (2000). Organizational assessment: Organizational culture inventory. Retrieved October 7, 2002, from http://www.acumen.com/?!=products_oa_oci

Cooke, R.A. & Szumal, J.L. (2000). Using the organizational culture inventory to understand the operating cultures of organizations. In N.M. Ashkanasy, C.P.M. Wilderom, & M.F. Peterson (Eds.), Handbook of organizational culture and climate. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Footnotes

² All OCI style descriptions: Research and Development by Robert A. Cooke, Ph.D. and J. Clayton Lafferty, Ph.D.  Copyright 1973-2007 by Human Synergistics International. Reproduced by permission.