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Organizational Culture in the Financial Sector: Evidence from a Cross-Industry Analysis of Employee Personal Values and Career

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  • van Hoorn, Andre

Abstract

We assess the organizational culture in the finance industry in relation to the global financial crisis (GFC) and consider the potential of cultural change to improve the financial sector. To avoid (response) biases, we build on the person-organization (P-O) fit literature and develop a novel, indirect method for assessing organizational culture that revolves around relationships between employees’ personal traits and their career success in the industry or organization under study. We analyze personal values concerning the pursuit of private gain (self-enhancement values) versus personal values concerning caring for others (self-transcendence values) and consider whether employees that value self-enhancement more and self-transcendence less enjoy more career success relative to their peers when working in finance than when working in other industries. Results do not reveal any sort of cross-industry differences that would implicate the finance industry’s culture in the financial crisis. Instead, we find the opposite, namely that strong self-enhancement values and weak self-transcendence values go together with less career success in the finance industry compared to other industries. Hence, if anything, the culture in the finance industry does not seem to resonate well with professionals that seek to pursue personal gain at the expense of clients’ welfare. Implication is that cultural change has little potential to improve the financial system. Meanwhile, the method for assessing organizational culture indirectly by analyzing relationships between employees’ traits and their career outcomes has wider applicability, particularly when relying on scores or measures obtained directly from the people concerned is likely to render biased evidence.

Suggested Citation

  • van Hoorn, Andre, 2015. "Organizational Culture in the Financial Sector: Evidence from a Cross-Industry Analysis of Employee Personal Values and Career," MPRA Paper 67222, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:67222
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alain Cohn & Michel André Maréchal & Thomas Noll, 2015. "Bad Boys: How Criminal Identity Salience Affects Rule Violation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 82(4), pages 1289-1308.
    2. Thomas Roulet, 2015. "“What Good is Wall Street?” Institutional Contradiction and the Diffusion of the Stigma over the Finance Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(2), pages 389-402, August.
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    5. Jean Tirole, 1996. "A Theory of Collective Reputations (with applications to the persistence of corruption and to firm quality)," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 63(1), pages 1-22.
    6. Andrea Werner, 2014. "‘Margin Call’: Using Film to Explore Behavioural Aspects of the Financial Crisis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(4), pages 643-654, July.
    7. André Hoorn, 2015. "The Global Financial Crisis and the Values of Professionals in Finance: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(2), pages 253-269, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. van Hoorn, Andr, 2016. "How are migrant employees manages? An integrated analysis," Research Report 16001-GEM, University of Groningen, Research Institute SOM (Systems, Organisations and Management).
    2. van Hoorn, André, 2018. "The use of identity primes to explain behavioral differences between groups: A methodological note," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 146-150.
    3. André Hoorn, 2019. "Generational Shifts in Managerial Values and the Coming of a Unified Business Culture: A Cross-National Analysis Using European Social Survey Data," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 547-566, March.
    4. Leaver, Meghan & Reader, Tom W., 2017. "Safety culture in financial trading: an analysis of trading misconduct investigations," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 69210, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Meghan P. Leaver & Tom W. Reader, 2019. "Safety Culture in Financial Trading: An Analysis of Trading Misconduct Investigations," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 154(2), pages 461-481, January.
    6. van Hoorn, Andre, 2016. "How much does job autonomy vary across countries and other extra-organizational contexts?," MPRA Paper 80010, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Gropp, Reint & Radev, Deyan, 2017. "Social centralization, bank integration and the transmission of lending shocks," SAFE Working Paper Series 174, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    8. Raymond O. S. Zaal & Ronald J. M. Jeurissen & Edward A. G. Groenland, 2019. "Organizational Architecture, Ethical Culture, and Perceived Unethical Behavior Towards Customers: Evidence from Wholesale Banking," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 825-848, September.
    9. Gropp, Reint E. & Radev, Deyan, 2017. "Social centralisation, bank integration and the transmission of lending shocks," IWH Discussion Papers 18/2017, Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Organizational culture; global financial crisis; personal values; employee outcomes; P-O fit;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M51 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Firm Employment Decisions; Promotions
    • Z10 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - General

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