ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND EFFECTIVENESS IN HIGHER-EDUCATION - A TESTOF THE CULTURE TYPE AND STRONG CULTURE HYPOTHESES

Two of the more promising lines of inquiry in efforts to understand th e hypothesized linkage between organizational culture and effectivenes s have focused on the differential effectiveness of organizations depe nding on their dominant culture type and their culture strength. The p rimary purpose of this study was to determine whether these two lines of inquiry operate in an independent or conditional manner in explaini ng the hypothesized linkage between organizational culture and the per formance of a sample of four-year colleges and universities. The findi ngs provide support for both lines of inquiry, albeit not entirely in a manner suggested by their respective proponents. For example, while culture type has a decidedly stronger independent effect on institutio nal performance than culture strength, the differences are clearly mor e pronounced on campuses with ''strong'' rather than ''weak'' cultures . The implications of these findings for research on and efforts to im prove the performance of colleges and universities are discussed.