The relationship between tightness-looseness as a new dimension of organizational culture and organizational innovativeness: A comparative research on Turkish and Italian marble industry

When examining the literature of culture holistically, it can be seen that the dominant paradigm in the literature is based on values. However, in the recent decades there have been growing criticisms of values in explaining the cultural differences insufficiently and it has been started to discuss a new cultural dimension. The beginning point of the research was based on the assumption that tightness-looseness dimension of culture defined as strength, importance, pervasive and binding of norms within a certain community which was previously examined on societal level might also have significant implications in organizations. In this regard, the ultimate objective of the research is to examine the validity and reliability of the construct in Turkish and Italian marble industry with a comparative approach while considering the cultural dimension of tightness-looseness on organizational level and aim to explore its relationship with organizational innovativeness empirically. The survey method based on quantitative approach was adopted in the study.Some exploratory findings were found regarding the validity of tightness-looseness construct in organization settings. Besides, it was found a meaningful relationship between tightness-looseness and organizational innovativeness sub dimensions. In Turkish sample, it can be seen a moderate and negative relationship between tightness-looseness and behavioural innovativeness, a moderate and positive relationship between tightness-looseness and process innovativeness.In Italian sample, it was found a moderate and positive relationship between cultural tightness-looseness and all dimensions of organizational innovativeness including product-market, process and behavioural.Having investigated the effect of tightness-looseness on dimensions of organizational innovativeness, it was revealed that there was a positive effect of tightness-looseness on process innovativeness whereas a negative effect on behavioural innovativeness in Turkish sample. On the other hand, the meaningful and positive effect of tightness-looseness on product-market, process and behavioural innovativeness was determined for Italian sample.One of the most critical findings of the research was the possible moderating role of the country variable while interacting the organizational innovativeness dimensions. It was determined that the effect of tightness-looseness on behavioural innovativeness differed from Turkish sample to Italian one. As the tightness of culture increases, the behavioural innovativeness is likely to decrease in Turkish sample whereas the behavioural innovativeness is likely to increase in Italian sample.