Relations between Organizational Culture and Authenticity: The Authentic Living in the Organizational Environment

Authors

  • Germano Glufke Reis Professor da FGV/EAESP e professor e pesquisador do programa de mestrado em administração da FMU
  • Marcia Carvalho de Azevedo Universidade Federal de São Paulo

Keywords:

Organizational culture. Cultural types. Authenticity at work. Careers. Authentic behavior.

Abstract

The possibility of living authentically at work is consistent with career prospects that have greater significance and meaning to people, aligning with their values and aspirations. Authenticity, or authentic behavior, involves a way of living and expressing themselves that is consistent with beliefs and personal experiences. Adult interactions in society imposes, however, limits to authentic behavior. Whereas the culture of an organization influences the behavior of its professionals, the objective of this study was to investigate the relationships between cultural types and authentic living of people in organizations. For this a survey was carried out with a sample of 199 professionals working in different companies and hierarchical levels. Data collection was conducted through questionnaires applied to graduate and undergraduate courses in business administration. The survey results indicated that certain profiles of organizational culture (clan culture and innovative culture) are positively related to authenticity at work, tending to favor the expression of authenticity. Other profiles of organizational culture (results culture and hierarchical culture) are negatively related, and can inhibit the expression of authenticity. It was observed also that the position of leadership is associated with higher scores of authenticity at work, regardless of the type of organizational culture. The study offers a theoretical and empirical contribution by exploring the relationship between organizational culture and authenticity, placing the first as antecedent of the second. It also brings important considerations for organizations and managers indicating how certain firm characteristics may impact the authenticity of the people. Also proposes useful insights for practitioners in general, with regard to the identification of the types of companies that best align with their aspirations to authentic living at work. Some limitations of this study should be remembered. A first aspect to mention is the composition of the sample, which could be expanded; furthermore, the fact of not being random, do not permit any generalization of the results obtained. Further studies could also test the combined and interactive action between cultural types and the mediating effect of personal characteristics.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Germano Glufke Reis, Professor da FGV/EAESP e professor e pesquisador do programa de mestrado em administração da FMU

Doutor em administração pela FEA-USP com período sanduíche na Universidade de Cambridge, Inglaterra. Mestre em administração pela FGV-EAESP, psicólogo pela UnB. Professor da FGV/EAESP e professor e pesquisador do programa de mestrado em administração da FMU. Coordena o curso de extensão "Gestão de pessoas: políticas e práticas contemporâneas" . É integrante do NEOP - Núcleo de Estudos em Organizações e Pessoas da FGV/EAESP e editor científico da revista Internext. Seus interesses de pesquisa são liderança, cultura e internacionalização de empresas.

Marcia Carvalho de Azevedo, Universidade Federal de São Paulo

Possui graduação em Psicologia pela Universidade de Brasília, é mestre e doutora em Administração de Empresas pela Fundação Getúlio Vargas. Atualmente é professora da Universidade Federal de São Paulo, atuando principalmente nos seguintes temas: relações de trabalho, novas tecnologias e estrutura organizacional. 

Downloads

Additional Files

Published

2015-12-16

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 6 (2015): Fórum Especial Temático sobre a Construção do Percurso na Vida Laboral e suas Múltiplas Dimensões

Section

Thematic Special Forum about Construction of the Course in Working Life and its Multiple Dimensions

License

Once the papers have been approved, the authors will assign their copyrights to this Journal.  The Copyright Assignment Conditions include:

1.  The Mackenzie Administration Journal holds the rights to all the papers published therein through assignment of copyright. 

2.  The author retains moral rights to the paper, including the right to identify the author whenever the article is published.

3. As of July 1, 2015 RAM adopted the CC-BY license standard (Creative Commons– BY). Authors are allowed to copy, distribute, display, transmit and adapt articles. Authors must attribute to RAM explicitly and clearly an article’s original publication (with reference to the journal’s name, edition, year and pages in which the article was originally published), yet without suggesting that RAM endorses the author or its use of the article. Contents are released by means of the CC-BY license to fully inter-operate with a variety of different systems and services, including for commercial purposes. In case of an article’s reuse or distribution, authors must make the article’s licensing terms clear to third parties. CC-BY criteria follow open access policies by major OA (Open Access) publishers and journals, such as PLoS, eLife, Biomed Central and Hindawi, among others.

4.  When formally requested by the author, this Journal may allow the paper to be published as a chapter or part of a book.  The only requirement is that prior publication in this Journal (Journal name, issue, year and pages) must be clearly and explicitly shown as a reference.