Competitive Interaction and its Impact on the Organizational Culture of Entrepreneurs

Abstract

Nowadays, organizational culture defines entrepreneur’s behavioral strategy in the market, as well as the vector of their business activity. Organizational culture encompasses organizational structure, status differences, values, myths and symbols, rituals and ceremonies, traditions, business communication and ways of resolving contradictions, psychological climate. It is the companyadopted organizational culture philosophy that shapes requirements to professional knowledge, skills and competencies of entrepreneurs, as well as those of other employees. In this paper, we analyze findings from empirical research into the influence competitive interaction between entrepreneurs has on the organizational culture of their companies, in particular on their employees’ behavioral strategy in conflict interaction, as well as on the psychological climate and team values. We also suggest recommendations for improving organizational culture against the background of competitive environment. Research findings show that the majority of the respondents are characterized by competitive performance stemming from the entrepreneur’s pattern of competences and personal qualities, the main of them being clear goal setting and having system of values, both professional and personal. Besides, most of the respondents pursue in conflict accommodating behavioral strategy, i.e. the problem is resolved by mutual concessions and collaboration aimed at finding a solution to satisfy both parties. Rapport is viewed as the most conspicuous indicator of the psychological climate, even though the overall attitude to working climate is not satisfactory. At the same time, the level of discourse and task and goal performance do not interfere with closer cooperation and interaction. Correlation analysis helped to identify links between organizational culture and behavior in conflict. Since collaboration and compromise prevail in this sample, we can argue that the more entrepreneurs cooperate, are willing to cooperate and compromise, the higher the level of corporate culture they have. We also find a correlation between competition as a behavior pattern in conflict and organizational culture. The most significant factors to determine the corporate culture are effective communication between various links of the organizational structure, advanced level of business relations, career motivation and high level of ethical and business values.