The Pervasiveness of Senior Management's View of the Cultural Gaps Within a Division

Abstract

Participants in the study were all 153 management and professional workers—the senior and management teams—of a division of an electric utility. We determined if the operations and staff departments and the senior team identified the same cultural gaps within the division. Having found differences, we then determined if these gaps could be explained by individual-difference variables derived from Kilmann's model of culture. The explanatory variables included social style, decision-making style, and basic values. Although the need for anonymity precluded the optimal method of data analysis, our data suggest that senior team members are versatile, have different decision-making styles, and have different basic values than the management team members. The article discusses how management can close the cultural gap, given the three groups' differences.