After the terrorist attack on 22nd of July 2011, the Norwegian police faced heavy criticism tied to their inability to prevent the attack. The blame was mainly put on the culture, leadership, and attitudes in the organization, and not a lack of resources. Based on this, the National Police Directorate aimed to create an open and trustworthy culture where leaders and employees take responsibility for their work environment. This statement, however, is bold and implies that organizational culture is associated with specific employee outcomes. Scholars within the organizational and police culture literature generally agree that the relationship between organizational culture and outcomes is unclear. Furthermore, less is known about its mechanisms and boundary conditions.
Thus, the aim of this doctoral thesis is to use the statement by the National Police Directorate to examine the relationship between an open and trustworthy culture and leaders and employees who take responsibility in their work environment. Moreover, if the statement is true, then what are the mechanisms and boundary conditions for this relationship? To carry out an examination of the relationship, I conceptualize an open and trustworthy culture as consisting of flexible culture values (collaboration, support, autonomy, and growth) and employees who take responsibility for their work environment as employee engagement (indicated by organizational commitment, job satisfaction, readiness for change, and work engagement).
I examine the relationship, and seek to answer these aims, through three studies. In study I, I suggest that participation climate is an important mechanism between flexible culture values (clan and adhocracy values) and employee engagement (organizational commitment and readiness for change) at the individual-level. The hypotheses are developed based on the competing values framework and social exchange theory and tested on a sample of 622 study participants from three police districts. Generally, the study find support for the proposed hypotheses. The results show that flexible culture values are important for employee engagement, and that this relationship is mediated by participation climate.
In study II, the relationship between flexible culture and employee engagement is further scrutinized and I suggest and test a homologous composition model. In this model, the specific relationship between clan culture values and work engagement is posed as similar across the individual- and the unit-level. Additionally, support for informal learning is proposed as a mechanism between participation climate and work engagement. The hypotheses are developed based on the competing values framework, job demands-resources theory, and structuration theory, and tested on a sample of 938 study participants from 101 units within one police district. The study find support for most of the hypotheses in the study, partial support for the proposition that the relationships are homologous across levels, and no support for the support for informal learning as a mechanism. An important finding from this study is the partial support for the homologous model. Participation climate mediated clan culture values and work engagement at the individual-level but not at the unit-level, which suggests a potential boundary condition that needs to be accounted for in theories.
In study III, the nuanced understanding of the importance of the individual- and unit-level in the flexible culture-employee engagement relationship is extended further, and an additional mechanism and boundary condition is proposed. In this study, perceived organizational support is suggested to be an important psychological mechanism in the relationship between clan culture values and job satisfaction, based on social exchange theory and social comparison theory. The hypotheses are tested on 317 employees from 48 units within one police district. The study find support for all hypotheses and show that employees perceptions depend on their proximate colleagues within their unit.
Overall, this doctoral thesis contributes with identifying important mechanisms and boundaries in the relationship between a flexible culture and employee engagement. The thesis do this by identifying the importance of modeling the individual- and unit-level, contrarily to the common understanding in previous research. By doing this, this doctoral thesis extend theory on organizational and police culture. However, research still needs to verify this in other contexts, across organizations and industries. Furthermore, this thesis provides an important practical contribution for politicians, organizations, leaders, and other stakeholders who seek to change or “manage” organizational culture.