Denison [Denison, D.R. (1996), What is the difference between organizational culture and organizational climate? A native's point of view on a decade of paradigm wars, The Academy of Management Review, 21 (3), 619–654] offers a paradigm to comprehend the difference between studying organizational culture and organizational climate from a methodological perspective. The present study uses a Scopus analysis to understand the contributions of Denison's work in contemporary research of organization studies, and to recognize benefits of his discussion on organizational culture and organizational climate. The Scopus analysis shows that Denison's article is seminal across academic disciplines from its appearance.
Organizational culture continues to indicate different trends in academia, as new concepts in understanding the phenomena evolve continuously (Brinkman, 1999, Ouchi, 1978 and Pettigrew, 1979). To follow highlights in Denison's (1996) article, “What is the difference between organizational culture and organizational climate? A native's point of view on a decade of paradigm wars,” this essay review provides a general overview of some of the main issues that preoccupy organizational researchers (Fig. 1).The article explores differences and similarities between the concepts of organizational culture and organizational climate, and argues that organizational culture is studied on epistemological grounds concerned with the evolution of social systems over time, while organizational climate examines the impact organizational systems have on groups and individuals. To understand the difference between the two concepts, Denison (1996) applies a comparative method (four tables), while he discusses extensive ranges of literature, which clarifies conceptual and methodological use of organizational culture and organizational climate.
The emergence of organizational culture studies raises a need for a new methodological thinking (Alvesson & Berg, 1992, Czarniawska-Joerges, 1995, Martin, 1992 and Sackmann, 1991). As a result a number of scholars (Calori & Sarnin, 1991, Chatman, 1991, Denison & Mishra, 1995, Gordon & DiTomaso, 1992, Hofstede et al., 1990 and Jermier et al., 1991) apply quantitative research designs for the study of organizational culture making the subject indistinguishable from the concept of organizational climate. Denison (1996) turns this concern into a debate and emphasizes the difference in conceptual and methodological use of organizational culture and organizational climate.
The article what is the difference between organizational culture and organizational climate? A native's point of view on a decade of paradigm wars, was cited 219 times (Scopus database, 2009) which indicates the article remains seminal for its contribution to organization studies.
Scopus analysis is applied to disclose the importance of the article in terms of citations, and how the citations influence disciplinary and interdisciplinary academic backgrounds. The discussion is restricted to giving an overview of scholars that cite the article since its publication.
To compare the article to the other published articles in 1996 from the Journal of Academy of Management Review 21 (3) a statistical graph is used which includes the standard deviation and mean among Denison's article and all other articles. The graph draws a distinguished attention to Denison's article published in 1996.
This essay review estimated Denison's (1996) “What is the difference between organizational culture and organizational climate? A native's point of view on a decade of paradigm wars.” Organizational culture is a subject, which continues to preoccupy organizational researchers. Scholars across different research fields, apply Denison's article as a Scopus analysis indicates, see Table 3, Table 4 and Table 5 demonstrate.
The lead article is seminal to many different academic fields, as it appeals to disciplines of organization, management, culture, methodology, and frames a valid discussion around two essential concepts of organizational culture and organizational climate.
The Scopus analysis shows comprehensive citation data of the Denison article, which indicates high impact by the high number of citations since its publication.
The analysis of the article also indicates some limitations. Only eight articles were comparatively analyzed to the Denison article from the journal of Academy of Management Review, as Scopus was unable to provide citation data for five other articles published in same journal. This means the article was measured against eight articles, instead of thirteen. The implications are the standard deviation and mean could have looked different if all citation data was included in the citation comparison.
The Scopus database helps scholars to explore multiple research disciplines for future research and practice. Scholars can also acquire access to several articles for additional academic purposes. The Denson article demonstrates a sophisticated use of the Scopus database by analyzing the number of citations, which continues to carry a pivotal eminence across academic disciplines.
