An exploratory study on the relationship between cultural tightness and innovativebehavior in organizations

Although the impact of culture on organizational work outcomes is widely recognized, extant research has mostly adopted a value-centric approach, focusing mainly on employees' internal values rather than external factors such as shared norms and behavioural constraints in work settings. Recognizing this gap in the literature, this thesis focuses on the concept of organizational cultural tightness, which pertains to the strength of social norms (i.e., clarity and pervasiveness of norms) and the strength of sanctioning (i.e., the amount of tolerance for deviance from norms) in organizations. More specifically, the study presented here investigates the relationship between organizational cultural tightness and innovative behavior in organizations. Collecting data from 120 employees and their team leaders from organizations operating in the different sectors in the Duhok Governorate in Iraq, this study demonstrated that organizational cultural tightness is negatively linked to employees' innovative behavior.