Industry, Organizational Age, and Size as Predictors of Organizational Values in the Context of a Transition Society: The Case of Estonian Organizations

Abstract

The objective of the article is to outline the regularities in the formation of organizational values in the context of a transition society. An Organizational Values Questionnaire (Reino 2009), based on the Competing Values Framework (Quinn and Cameron 1983), was used to analyze organizational values. A regression analysis was applied to test the impact of industry, organizational size, and age on organizational values. It was found that industry and organizational size had an important effect on values, but organizational age did not significantly predict organizational values in the context of a transition society.

KEYWORDS:

• Estonia
• industry
• organizational age
• organizational size
• organizational values
• transition society

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Estonian Ministry of Education (target funding No. SF0180037s08).

Notes

¹Here, “education industry” is used to regard education as one of the industries that belong to the service sector or tertial industry (Britannica Academic Edition 2011).

²The period of data collection was quite long, mainly for two reasons. First, the difficulties with sample composition and, second, the author compiled the original questionnaire, which was necessary for carrying out the study in transition society. The process of the development consisted of several stages. Still, in our opinion, the period of data collection should not affect the results because organizational values are believed to be quite stable. Moreover, large-scale shifts had already taken place in a society by that time.

³Note: approximate translation from Estonian.

Note. Cases with missing values were excluded from the analysis.

Source: Authors’ calculations on the basis of research database.

⁴Usually, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure over 0.80 is considered to be highly adequate for using a factor analysis (Hair et al. 1998).

⁵A p value of <.05 of Bartlett's test indicates that it is reasonable to continue with the factor analysis (Hinton et al. 2004).

Note. Education industry is used as reference group.

Source: Authors’ calculations on the basis of the research database.

*Coefficient estimate is significant at .01 level.

⁶Herein, labels of organizational values types represent a certain set of values defined based on the dimensions in the theoretical framework and measured by the item pool worked out on the basis of that theoretical framework.