Abstract:
The purpose of this research was to explore the organizational culture perception of academic staffs
and managers at the main campus of Jimma University; southwest Ethiopia. To that end, institution
based cross-sectional study design and mixed method was employed. The Competing Values
Framework (CVF) model was implemented to frame the study. In addition, the qualitative data
were gathered from six managers of the University using Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and the
data were analyzed thematically. Likewise, the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument
(OCAI) questionnaire was distributed to 239 academic staffs from 4 colleges and 23 departments
of Jimma University; main campus. Among them, 204 (85.3%) valid responses were returned and
analyzed with descriptive statistics. Consequently, as discovered from the statistical analyses, Hierarchy Culture; (Mean= 3.46; SD=.60301), Market Culture; (Mean= 3.43; SD=.75662), Adhocracy Culture; (Mean= 2.84; SD=.66755) and Clan Culture; (Mean= 2.65; SD= .91869) were the
culture types perceived by the academic staffs of Jimma University; main campus. Seemingly, as
revealed from the thematic analyses, the Clan, Adhocracy and Market cultures were the culture
types perceived by administrators of Jimma University. Besides, the overall (comparative) analyses
showed that Market culture was the only (University-wide) culture type perceived by both the academic staffs and managers at Jimma University. However, it was discovered that academics and
managers had major differences in perceiving the four culture types of the University. Moreover,
also academic staffs differed in perceiving the Clan, Adhocracy and Market culture typologies of
the University across the demographic characteristics of sex, age, education level, academic rank,
and role. Therefore, it was possible to realize the existence of both vertical [between managers and
academics] and horizontal [among the academic staffs] conflicts (discrepancies) in perceiving
Jimma University’s organizational culture. In general, the University’s culture can be approached
as both internally focused and stable and externally focused and flexible. Subsequently, articulating
the culture (guiding values) of the University in a clear-cut dimension is tentatively difficult. Hence,
the culture of Jimma University is heterogeneous and can be understood as ambiguous.
