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Asian Finance & Banking Review
Vol. 1, No. 1; 2017

Published by Centre for Research on Islamic Banking & Finance and Business

Organizational Culture and Personality Trait Inferences about Organizations


 Ibrahim Aliyu and O. D. Y. Malacky    

Organizational Culture and Personality Trait Inferences about Organizations


Ibrahim Aliyu1

O. D. Y. Malacky 2
1Department of Business Administration, Bauchi State University, Gadau, Nigeria
2Department of Business Administration, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria

Correspondence: Ibrahim Aliyu, Department of Business Administration, Bauchi State University, Gadau, Nigeria, Email: ibrahimaliyu93@yahoo.com
Received: October 14, 2017,        Accepted: October 19, 2017,     Online Published: October 26, 2017  
Abstract

The use of personality traits to describe organization left managers and researchers with the problem of identifying its source in order to take advantages of positive ones and avoid the disadvantages of negative ones. One of the possible sources of personality inference about an organization is organizational culture. Thus, the study identifies the influence of organizational culture on personality trait inference about organizations. Data were collected from 210 staff members of SAJ Food Limited Zaria and analyzed using Multiple Regression on SPSS version 18. The result revealed that organizational culture leads to personality trait inference about an organization. It was also recommended that managers should mind the way policies are design and decision are made in their organizations because it decides the image of the organization in the eyes of the members of the public.


Keywords: Organizational Culture, Personality trait, and personality Trait Inference.

1. Introduction

It is very common to hear people either within (marketers or spoke people) or outside an organization using some slogans/adjectives to describe the organization, based on how they perceived its practices and performance. These slogans, suggest that organizational decision makers and individuals who are responsible for firms’ marketing or advertising attempt to portray companies as having personalities. Perceptions of organizations ’personalities likely are formed not only through these deliberate advertising strategies but also through the type and quality of their products and services, the physical aspects of their places of business, their employees, clients that use their products and services, and social information.

 One important reason for studying personality trait inferences about organizations is that the way a prospective applicant perceives an organization's personality may influence that person's attraction to the organization as a place to work. The decision to apply for a job is related to the general impression that an applicant holds about an organization's overall attractiveness (Belt &Paolillo, 1982). Some organizations are referred to as conservative, dynamic, greedy, reliable, discipline etc. 


An organization that is perceived as conservative or greedy may not be attractive to young innovative skilled candidates, especially when options exist.This by extension will have an effect on customers' satisfaction, since these innovative candidates are very strategic in understanding customer demand, creating a product to match it and attracting new and retaining existing customers.Jerel Michael and Scott 2004()
. When they consider an organization’s culture as positive, that is how they will infer a positive personality trait about the organization and if negative, then negative personality trait. A trait, positive or negative has implication on the business of an organization.

One of the possible sources of such inferences is the organizational culture; the way people perceive the culture of an organization; that is how they will match it with an appropriate personality trait. An organization can base its culture on hierarchy, market or adhocracy. A hierarchy based culture can attract personality traits like a conservative; a market based can be referred to as greedy while adhocracy base can be seen as dynamic. It is against this background that this study is designed to determine the extent to which organizational culture leads to personality trait inference about organizations.The study is guided by the following hypotheses:


H 01: Hierarchy culture does not lead to personality trait inference about organization

H 02: Market culture does not lead to personality trait inference about organization 

H 03: Adhocracy culture does not lead to personality trait inference about organization

2. Literature Review

Schein (1992) defined organizational culture as the pattern of basic assumptions that a given group has invented, discovered or developed in learning to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration. Organizational culture is the practice of an organization.


Webber 1978()
proposed seven characteristics that have become known as the classical attributes of bureaucracy rules, specialization, meritocracy, hierarchy, separate ownership, impersonality, and accountability. According to Cameron and Quinn 2011()
, the organizational culture compatible with this form is characterized by a formalized and structured place to work. The long-term concerns of the organization are stability, predictability, and efficiency. Formal rules and policies hold the organization together. Key values center on maintaining efficient, reliable, fast, smooth-flowing production. Thus, in hierarchy culture, a clear and defined structure must be in place and adhered to.


The market culture, according to Cameron and Quinn 2011()
, the market culture is focused on transactions with factors of external environment such as suppliers, customers, contractors, licensees, unions, regulators and so forth. The core values are competitiveness and productivity. Competitiveness and productivity in market organizations are achieved through a strong emphasis on external positioning and control. The basic assumptions in a market culture are that the external environment is not friendly but hostile, consumers are choosy and interested in value; the organization is in the business of increasing its competitive position. In market cultured organization focus on sourcing for cheaper input, spend much in developing strategies to acquire new and retain customers. 


According to Cameron and Quinn 2011()
, a major goal of an adhocracy is to foster adaptability, flexibility, and creativity where uncertainty, ambiguity and/or informationoverloadare typical. An important challenge of theseorganizations is to produce innovative products and services and to adapt quickly to new opportunities. A high emphasis on individuality, risk-taking and anticipating the future exists as almost everyone in an adhocracy becomes involved with the production, clients, research and development and so forth.


Hogan (1996) described personality traits as attributes people use to evaluate another in order to reveal the amount of status and acceptance that a person has been granted. This definition viewed it as a tittle given to an individual by people or individual that represents their final evaluation of attitude and capability.In another view by Buchanan and Huczynski (2004), they term it as the set of properties of behavior which makes an individual different from others. This view regarded it as tittle used by people to differentiate an individual from others base on his behavior.

Some researchers looked at it from a psychological point of view. Robert 2007()
 says the personality trait isa dynamic psychological organization that coordinates experience and action.It is also the organizationwithin the individual of those psychophysics systems that determine his unique adjustment to the environment (Robbin, Stephen & Timothy, 2008).


Base on the above views, personality trait is a term used by people to qualify an individual as a representation of their perception towards his/her attitude, behavior and capability while reacting to his environment.

Personality trait inference about organization includes slogans and many other descriptions which suggest that organizational decision makers and individuals who are responsible for firms' marketing or advertising attempt to portray companies as having personalitiesJerel E. Slaughter, et al., 2004()
.Robert 2007()
 looked at it as the perception of stakeholders of an organization about its policies and practices presented in human quality.

2.1 Theoretical Framework

2.1.1 Contingency Management Theory

The situational or contingency theory argued that when managers make a decision, they must take into account all aspects of the current situation and act on those aspects that are keys to the situation at hand. Basically, it is the approach that “it depends”. For example, if one is leading troops, an autocratic style is probably best. If one is leading a Hospital or University, a more participative and facilitative leadership style is probably best.

When a subsystem in an organization behaves in response to another system or subsystem, we say that response is contingent on the environment. Hence a contingency approach is an approach where the behavior of one subunit is dependent on its environmental relationship with other units or subunits that have control over the consequences desired by that subunit.


Contingency approach is not decisive whether a leader should or not involve subordinate in the setting of goals and decision process, it depends on aspects of the current situation. If the situation warrants he can involve them and if it does not he adopt an autocratic style. Thus, culture in contingency can be hierarchy, market or adhocracy but not hierarchical.

This work adopted ContingencyManagement Theory as the working theory because it suggests that if the prevailing environmental condition in an organization is highly strict work, the manager structures the organization and establishes hierarchy culture. If the market is the greatest concern, all the workers' effort will be directed towards customer satisfaction, thereby market culture. While in the innovative environment, a greater percentage of the organizational resources (man, machine material, money, and information) will be directed towards innovation, thereby adhocracy culture. Each of these cultures can lead to personality trait inference, and if all exist in one organization, the organization may attract more than one personality trait inferencedepending on the level at which people notice them.


2.2 Conceptual Framework
2.3 Conceptual Framework

	Hierarchy Culture

	Market Culture

	Adhocracy Culture


	Personality trait Inference


Source: researchers’ work
The above diagram shows that hierarchy culture can lead to personality trait inference as indicated by the arrow linking hierarchy culture and personality trait inference. This case is the same with market culture and adhocracy culture.

3. Research Methodology 
The researcher adopted cross-sectional research design where data were collected from SAJ Food Limited and analyzed to explain the extent to which people make personality trait inferences about organizations give their culture. The population of this study is all the 390 staff members of SAJ Food Limited Zaria, Kaduna State. The data was collected using an adopted questionnaire. The revisited reliability of the instrument was measured using Cronbach’s Alpha with no variable having less than 0.788 coefficient. Therefore, it significantly measured our variables.
3.1Sample Size and Sampling Technique

The sample size of this study is 210 staff members of SAJ Food Limited Zaria, Kaduna State. This number was determined using Cochran (1963) formula to be 197.5 but 210 respondents were taken to have more representation and provide for non-return and incorrect filling of the questionnaire.


3.2Tool of Data Analysis

The data from the population of this study were analyzed and the hypotheses were tested using multiple linear regression techniques. The decision to use multiple linear regressions was informed by the fact that this study has three independent variables and one dependent variable and the study intends to find out the influence of organizational culture on personality trait inference about an organization. Multiple linear regression is appropriate in measuring the influence of more than one variable on another.


4. Data Analysis
4.1 Test of Hypotheses and Result

The following hypotheses are to be tested at 5% level of significance and the decision rule is that if the t-values are less than the critical values we accept the hypotheses and if equal or greater than the critical values, we reject them.

· Hierarchy culture does not lead to personality trait inference about organization 

· Market culture does not lead to personality trait inference about organization 

· Adhocracy culture does not lead to personality trait inference about organization
The independent's variables are denoted in the table as:


· Hierarchy culture (HC)

· Market culture (MK)

· Adhocracy culture (AC)

While the dependent variable is denoted as:

· Personality trait (PT)
	Model
	R
	R Square
	Adjusted R Square
	Std. Error of the Estimate

	1
	.798a
	.637
	.631
	.28729


a. Predictors: (Constant), AC, HC, MK
b. Dependent Variable: PT
The model summery table shows an adjusted R square value of 0.631 which means that 63.1% of the variation in the dependent variable (personality trait inference) was as a result of the variation in the three dimension of the independent variable (Hierarchy, Market andAdhocracy cultures).Therefore, going by this value, organizational culture appeared a strong variable in predicting personality trait inference about organizations. 

	Coefficientsa

	Model
	Unstandardized Coefficients
	Standardized Coefficients
	T
	Sig.

	
	B
	Std. Error
	Beta
	
	

	1
	(Constant)
	1.381
	.588
	
	2.346
	.024

	
	HC
	-.157
	.170
	-.120
	-.924
	.361

	
	MK
	.313
	.135
	.308
	2.315
	.026

	
	AC
	.375
	.097
	.491
	3.876
	.000


Source: researchers’ calculation using SPSS
Base on the table above, the null hypothesis which stated that hierarchy culture does not lead to personality trait inference about an organization is hereby accepted. This is because of the t-value (-0.924) against HC, is less than the critical value (1.96) and it is insignificant at 5%, this shows that hierarchy has a negative insignificant impact on personality trait inference about an organization. The one which stated that Market culture does not lead to personality trait inference about an organization is rejected because the t-value against MK is 2.315 which is greater than the critical value (1.96) and it is significant at 5%. Also, the other which stated that Adhocracy culture does not lead to personality trait inference about an organization is also rejected because the t-value against AC is 3.876 which is greater than the critical value (1.96) and it is significant at 1%. This means that Market and Adhocracy culture have a positive significant impact on personality trait inference about an organization.

5. Findings, Conclusion, and Recommendation

5.1 Findings 

Base on the above result, it is found that hierarchy culture does not lead to personality trait inference about an organization in SAJ Food ltd.


It is also found that market culture leads to personality trait inference about an organization in SAJ Food ltd.


It is also found that adhocracy culture leads to personality trait inference about an organization in the SAJ Food ltd.

5.2 Conclusion

Base on the above findings, it is concluded that hierarchy culture does not lead to personality trait inference about the organization. This is because it does lead to such inference in the SAJ Food ltd.


It is also concluded that market culture leads to personality trait inference about an organization. It can be seen from the finding of this work that it leads personality trait inference about SAJ Food ltd.


It is also concluded that adhocracy culture leads to personality trait inference about an organization. This is based on the finding that it leads to such inference in the SAJ Food ltd.

5.3 Recommendation

Base on the findings the following recommendations were made:

· As the hierarchy culture in the SAJ Food ltd. does not lead to personality trait inference about it, this shows that its hierarchy is no so bureaucratic that calls the attention of its workers, therefore, they should maintain it.


· It also recommended that Food ltd. Should pay attention to its market and adhocracy cultures so that they do not lead to negative  personality trait inference about it


· Another recommendation is that they should find out the type of  personality trait inferred about the organization so that they can work in the same direction in case of positive traits and change direction in case of negative traits

· Organizations not only SAJ Food should mind their cultures because they attract personality trait inferences about them, positive or negative. 

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