Organizational Culture Assessment in Public Sector

Organizational culture assessment in the public sector is a structured, survey-based method for diagnosing the dominant values, beliefs and operating assumptions of a government agency or public organization. The most widely used instrument is the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), grounded in Kim Cameron and Robert Quinn's Competing Values Framework, which maps culture onto two axes — internal versus external focus, and flexibility versus stability — yielding four culture types: clan, adhocracy, market and hierarchy. Respondents rate their organization on each type for both its current and preferred states, producing a culture profile that supports diagnosis and planned change. In public administration the method is adapted to capture the bureaucratic, mission-driven and accountability-laden character of government work.