Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
PhD candidate, Department of Business Management, Faculty of Economic, Management and Administrative Sciences, Semnan University, Semnan, Iran.
2
Prof.,Faculty of Economics, Management and Administrative Sciences, Semnan Unversity, Semnan, Iran.
3
Associate Professor, Department of Goverment Management, Faculty of Management and Economics, Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Purpose: The culture of an organization affects the behavior and performance of employees. The development of cultural knowledge is related to the values, beliefs, and behavior of its members. From a memetic perspective, culture consists of repeatable units that guide behaviors. By applying Dawkins's indicators (loyalty, stability, and survival) in memetics, organizations can understand the formation and modification of their culture and facilitate the effective communication of desired traits. Therefore, the present study has developed a memetic-based organizational culture model in Iranian government organizations.
Design/Methodology/Approach: The present study is based on qualitative research and a thematic analysis approach. The research participants are university professors and managers of government organizations, experts who were fully aware of the Human Resources and memetic and were familiar with the research topic, 15 of whom were purposefully selected. In the present study, a semi-structured interview was used to collect information. To determine the appropriateness of the responses of individuals regarding the memetic-based organizational culture model in Iranian government organizations, interviews were conducted with three groups of managers, including managers working in government organizations and having books, articles, or teaching experience; senior and middle managers of government organizations who are familiar with management fields, especially organizational behavior and human resources, sociology, or even psychology; and managers of middle-level organizations who play the role of liaison between ministries and county organizations. These interviews continued until the researcher felt that the data had become repetitive and had reached saturation. In this interview, the conditions for selecting individuals to conduct interviews were to have at least a master's degree in management-related fields and to have at least ten years of scientific and research or fieldwork experience on the issue of organizational management. To reach the saturation point, the field study should continue until no new evidence or proof is obtained from the data. In other words, a complete data check was carried out. In this study, various initial codes were extracted from the interview texts until the eleventh interview. However, theoretical saturation was achieved in the twelfth interview regarding the extracted codes. However, interviews were continued with three experts to ensure certainty. Using theme analysis according to Creswell's 6 steps, the main themes and sub-themes were coded. Considering that the carriers of cultural characteristics in government organizations that were repeated in all interviews were common, old, and survived, existed in the Iranian national culture in society, and were reproduced in the organization with the same meaning from generation to generation and were not manipulated, (in other words, based on the level of stability, level of loyalty, and level of reproduction in Iranian government organizations), they have been shown as sub-themes and main themes of memetic-based organizational culture. Then, by categorizing the sub-themes based on the Robbins-Judge Attitude Elements Model, the final model was calculated. To examine the validity and reliability of data in qualitative research, Cresswell lists eight strategies for theme analysis to examine the accuracy of findings in qualitative research, and his method was also used in this study.
Findings: The findings of the qualitative part of the study led to the identification of, 3 main themes, and 22 sub-themes were identified in the culture memes of government organizations. The results of the memetic-based organizational culture model in Iranian government organizations include 3 basic dimensions (final memes) that were categorized in the form of memes of the culture of government organizations under the names of behavioral memes, emotional memes, and cognitive memes. Behavioral memes: This category of memes refers to a specific type of practical action that is common in Iranian government organizations, and public sector employees typically describe this practical action with the phrases identified in this study. Emotional memes: This meme refers to the shared experience and evoked feeling resulting from the interaction between government employees with each other or between employees and external stakeholders. Cognitive memes: This category of memes refers to the perception that government employees and stakeholders have formed in their minds about the entirety of government organizations due to historical events.
Discussion and Conclusion: Memes in Iranian government organizations carry Iranian cultural characteristics in those organizations, based on which the individual unconsciously thinks, feels, and acts. It can be assumed that memes attract attention by evoking specific emotions in individuals, or by having an understanding of values and beliefs that stem from a successful story (mindset towards the government and employees), or by observing the actions and behavior of managers and employees, and are remembered by repeated repetition. The specific, common, and common meaning at the level of Iranian government institutions and organizations becomes prevalent in the culture of the aforementioned organizations from generation to generation. Organizational cultures, like the belt-fastening culture, have the potential to become norms or behaviors with the help of cultural memes.
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