Are less hierarchical firms organized around stronger cultures? Evidence from big data

Deskripsi

Are less hierarchical firms organized around stronger cultures instead? We analyze 1.5 million employee reviews on Glassdoor.com from 23,000 US-based firms, alongside data on managerial hierarchy estimated from 42 million professional social media profiles. Our findings confirm a negative association between managerial hierarchy and organizational culture strength. We explore two potential explanations for this association: Functional equivalence between the two, and culture fragmentation caused by managerial hierarchy. Multiple correlational tests show support for functional equivalence as a plausible explanation for the observed negative correlation. Our findings enhance our understanding of the complex relationships between organizational structure and culture utilizing Big Data methods.