OCI/OEI Report

OCI/OEI Report - January 2015 (pdf)
Division of Developmental Disabilities

Executive Summary

Division of Developmental Disabilities administered the Organizational Culture Inventory® (OCI®) and the Organizational Effectiveness Inventory® (OEI) to 35 of its members in January 2015. The OCI was used to assess its ideal culture in terms of espoused values (what should be expected of members) and its current operating culture in terms of behavioral norms (what is expected of members). The OEI was used to assess the factors and conditions that drive or shape Division of Developmental Disabilities' current operating culture and effectiveness. The impact of these factors and Division of Developmental Disabilities' operating culture on outcomes at the individual, group, and organizational levels was also measured using the OEI. Results along these outcomes-which have implications for long-term effectiveness-provide an indication of the necessity for organizational development and change.

The Executive Summary provides a synopsis of Division of Developmental Disabilities' OCI and OEI results, and includes a visual recap, located at the end of the summary. Detailed information regarding the results can be found in the sections of the Feedback Report indicated below.

Ideal Culture (Section 2 of Feedback Report)

The ideal culture represents Division of Developmental Disabilities' values in terms of the behaviors that members believe should be expected and encouraged to maximize the organization's effectiveness. Generally speaking, those who were asked to describe the ideal culture characterize it as (from strongest to weakest):

Constructive; which involves expectations for members to interact with people and approach tasks in ways that will help them to meet their higher-order needs for satisfaction and growth (includes norms and expectations for Achievement, Self-Actualizing, Humanistic-Encouraging, and Affiliative behaviors).
Aggressive/Defensive; which involves expectations for members to approach tasks in forceful ways to promote their status and security (includes norms and expectations for Oppositional, Power, Competitive, and Perfectionistic behaviors).
Passive/Defensive; which involves expectations for members to interact with other people in cautious and tentative ways to protect their own security (includes norms and expectations for Approval, Conventional, Dependent, and Avoidance behaviors).

The ideal culture is High in terms of the amount of agreement among members regarding the behaviors that should and should not be expected. With respect to specific styles, the ideal culture for Division of Developmental Disabilities is described as:

Achievement (Constructive), which involves expectations for setting challenging goals, establishing plans to reach those goals, and pursuing them with enthusiasm.
Self-Actualizing (Constructive), which involves expectations for gaining enjoyment from their work, developing themselves, and taking on new and interesting activities.

Causal Factors (Section 3 of Feedback Report)

Causal factors shape and reinforce the current operating culture and impact Division of Developmental Disabilities' effectiveness. These factors include the organization's mission and philosophy, as well as its structures, systems, technology, and skills/qualities.

When causal factors are in alignment with organizational values, the ideal culture is more likely to be reflected in the current operating culture than when causal factors diverge from the organization's values. One way to gauge the degree of alignment between the ideal culture and causal factors is to examine the number of causal factors along which Division of Developmental Disabilities scored better than the Historical Average. Since most organizations with Constructive operating cultures score better than the Historical Average along the causal factors measured by the OEI, better than average scores are indicative of alignment with a Constructive ideal culture.

Mission and philosophy represent the means by which organizations transport their values to their day-to-day structures, systems, technology, and skills/qualities. As measured by the OEI, Division of Developmental Disabilities' results are:

Below average in the area of Articulation of Mission (the extent to which the organization's mission is clearly defined, illustrated by members, communicated by management, and understood by employees).
Below average in the area of Customer Service Focus (the extent to which members believe that they are responsible for identifying and satisfying the needs of customers or clients).

In turn, Division of Developmental Disabilities' results are equal to or better than the Historical Averages for two of the 29 structures, systems, technology, and skills/qualities that were measured.

Specifically, Division of Developmental Disabilities' most favorable scores are in the areas of:

Organizational bases of power (sources of power that generally have neutral to negative effects), in terms of the extent to which members are influenced because of their supervisors'/ managers' control over desirable extrinsic outcomes (i.e., reward power), formal position (i.e., legitimate power), and ability to punish those who fail to comply (i.e., coercive power).
Significance, in terms of the degree to which jobs are viewed by members as having an important impact on other people (either inside or outside of the organization).

Division of Developmental Disabilities' least favorable scores are in the

areas of:

Selection and placement, in terms of the extent to which procedures for matching people with jobs are rational and objective (rather than political and subjective).
Employee involvement, in terms of the extent to which people at all levels actively participate in shaping the organization and helping it to achieve its mission.

To the extent that Division of Developmental Disabilities decides that organizational development and change are warranted, the causal factors along which it scored unfavorably (and particularly those with the least favorable scores) may be powerful levers for change.

Operating Culture (Section 4 of Feedback Report)

Division of Developmental Disabilities' current operating culture was assessed in terms of the behaviors that are required of members to "fit in and meet expectations." Based on the descriptions provided by its members, Division of Developmental Disabilities' current operating culture is characterized as (from strongest to weakest):

Passive/Defensive; which involves expectations for members to interact with other people in cautious and tentative ways to protect their own security (includes norms and expectations for Approval, Conventional, Dependent, and Avoidance behaviors).
Aggressive/Defensive; which involves expectations for members to approach tasks in forceful ways to promote their status and security (includes norms and expectations for Oppositional, Power, Competitive, and Perfectionistic behaviors).
Constructive; which involves expectations for members to interact with people and approach tasks in ways that will help them to meet their higher-order needs for satisfaction and growth (includes norms and expectations for Achievement, Self-Actualizing, Humanistic-Encouraging, and Affiliative behaviors).

The current operating culture is very low in terms of the amount of agreement among members regarding the behaviors that are and are not expected. In terms of specific styles, Division of Developmental Disabilities' operating culture is described as:

Avoidance (Passive/Defensive), which involves expectations for being non-committal, never being blamed for mistakes, and staying out of trouble.
Oppositional (Aggressive/Defensive), which involves expectations for opposing the ideas of others, pointing out flaws, and making "safe" decisions.

Overall, the largest discrepancies between Division of Developmental Disabilities' current operating culture and the ideal culture are in the Constructive cluster. In particular, the largest cultural gaps are in the areas of:

Self-Actualizing (Constructive), which involves expectations for gaining enjoyment from their work, developing themselves, and taking on new and interesting activities.
Achievement (Constructive), which involves expectations for setting challenging goals, establishing plans to reach those goals, and pursuing them with enthusiasm.

The gaps between the ideal culture and the current operating culture are likely due, at least in part, to the nature of Division of Developmental Disabilities' mission and philosophy, structures, systems, technology, and/or skills/qualities.

Outcomes (Section 5 of Feedback Report)

The OEI assessed Division of Developmental Disabilities' effectiveness at the individual, group, and organizational levels along criteria that influence long-term performance. Thus, results along these outcomes provide an indication of the necessity and urgency for change in the areas of culture and causal factors.

Division of Developmental Disabilities' scores are equal to or better than the Historical Averages for none of the 12 outcomes that were measured. Specifically, Division of Developmental Disabilities' most favorable scores are in the areas of:

Stress, in terms of the extent to which members feel they are being pushed beyond their normal range of comfort by organizational demands, pressures, or conflicts.
Intention to stay, in terms of the extent to which members plan to remain with the organization.

Division of Developmental Disabilities' least favorable scores are in the areas of:

External adaptability, in terms of the extent to which the organization effectively recognizes and responds to changes in its external environment.
Departmental-level quality, in terms of the extent to which members believe that services provided by their own sub-unit (either to internal or external clients) are of the highest quality possible.

Planning for Change (Section 6 of Feedback Report)

In most cases, the impact of causal factors and the operating culture on outcomes is readily apparent from examining the OCI/OEI results. When causal factors and the operating culture are in alignment with the ideal culture, the outcomes tend to be favorable. When causal factors and the operating culture are not in alignment with the ideal culture, the outcomes tend to be less favorable. In these cases, decisions regarding areas for improvement and levers for change tend to be fairly straight-forward.

However, in a minority of cases, the impact of causal factors and the operating culture may not yet be obvious. For instance, when organizations that lack internal alignment perform well along certain criteria, their performance is often due to extraneous factors or advantages (e.g., excessive resources, patents, copyrights, limits on competition) that allow these organizations to appear successful despite the ineffectual nature of their structures, systems, technologies, skills/qualities, and operating cultures. Nevertheless, the impact of misalignment eventually catches up with these organizations-usually when resources become depleted and unwanted attention is drawn to poor management and inefficiencies that were previously masked by the effects of extraneous factors.

If Division of Developmental Disabilities' results along outcomes (or other effectiveness criteria) do not seem to follow its results with respect to culture and causal factors, the potential impact of extraneous factors (e.g., excessive resources, patents, copyrights, limits on competition, monopoly status, regulation, etc.) on outcomes should be considered. To the extent that these extraneous factors and conditions are unlikely to be favorable indefinitely, Division of Developmental Disabilities needs to determine the kinds of changes necessary for maximizing its long-term performance and effectiveness both in the presence and in the absence of such factors and conditions.