Functional Ethos In Organizations: Validating The Framework
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Abstract
Organizational ethos represents the underlying spirit of an organization. It is based on the core values prevailing within the organization and is reflected in its beliefs, customs, and practices. Pareek developed the OCTAPACE profile to measure eight core values—Openness, Confrontation, Trust, Authenticity, Proaction, Autonomy, Collaboration, and Experimentation—which together constitute a functional organizational ethos and contribute to institution building.
The OCTAPACE framework was analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis on 40 items administered to 302 randomly selected executives in a public sector industry. The analysis provided new insights into the conceptual framework of the OCTAPACE profile. Instead of eight distinct factors, only two clear factors emerged: one representing functional ethos and the other representing dysfunctional ethos.
Correlation analysis between individual items and their respective subscale scores revealed several weak items that require redesign to enhance the reliability and validity of the instrument. The study highlights the need to revise the existing framework for measuring functional organizational ethos.
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