INTRODUCTION TO THE

OVERVIEW DENISON MODEL

What is unique about the Denison Model of

Organizational Culture?
Two unique features make the Denison Model and Solutions
stand out beyond all the rest: our research and proven link
to organizational performance. The Denison Model provides
organizations with an easy-to-interpret, business-friendly
approach to performance improvement based on sound
STRATEGIC research principles. Our Culture Solutions have been deployed
ALIGNMENT successfully in thousands of organizations around the world
in a wide variety of situations, from Strategic Alignment to
Mergers & Acquisitions to Transformation & Turnaround to New
Leader Transitions.
External Focus

MERGER &
ACQUISITION
Flexible

Stable

TRANSFORMATION
& TURNAROUND

Internal Focus
Internal Focus

The Denison Model links organizational culture to

organizational performance metrics such as Sales Growth,
Return on Equity (ROE), Return on Investment (ROI), Customer
TALENT Satisfaction, Innovation, Employee Satisfaction, Quality and
MANAGEMENT more. The Model and Culture Survey are based on over 25 years
of research and practice by Daniel R. Denison, Ph.D. and William
S. Neale, M.A., M.L.I.R.

[Link]
 OVERVIEW INTRODUCTION TO THE DENISON MODEL

The Denison Model and Survey: The four traits of the Denison Model, Mission,
• Is rooted in a strong research foundation Adaptability, Involvement, and Consistency,
• Offers proven reliability and validity measure the behaviors driven by these beliefs
• Provides results compared to a normative, and assumptions that create an organization's
benchmarking database culture. These traits are organized by color and
• Ties survey results to bottom-line are designed to help you answer key questions
performance metrics through statistical about your organization’s culture.
analysis
• Applies to a broad spectrum of organizations MISSION:
in a variety of industries globally Do we know where we are going?
• Is translated, localized and deployed in over
50 languages ADAPTABILITY :
Are we responding to the marketplace/
About the Denison Model external environment?
The Denison Model of organizational culture INVOLVEMENT :
highlights four key traits that an organization Are our people aligned and engaged?
should master in order to be effective. At the
center of the Model are the organization's CONSISTENCY:
"Beliefs and Assumptions." These are the Do we have the values, systems and processes
deeply held aspects of an organization's in place to create leverage?
identity that are often hard to access.

ADAPTABILITY Innovation, Sales Growth, Market Share MISSION

Patterns, Trends, Direction, Purpose,
& Market & Blueprint
External Focus

“Are we listening to the “Do we know where

marketplace?” we are going?”
Stable

Creativity, Profitability
Flexible

Customer Satisfaction (ROI, ROS, ROE)

INVOLVEMENT CONSISTENCY
Commitment, Ownership, Systems, Structures,
& Responsibility Internal Focus & Processes

“Are our people aligned “Does our system

and engaged?” Quality, Employee Satisfaction create leverage?”

Sign up for updates at [Link]

 OVERVIEW INTRODUCTION TO THE DENISON MODEL

Each trait breaks down into three indexes. FLEXIBILITY

For example, Adaptability breaks down Adaptability + Involvement
into Creating Change, Customer Focus
and Organizational Learning. Each index is A flexible organization has the capability to
made up of four questions, for a total of 48 change in response to the environment with a
questions, on the survey. Each of the four traits strong focus on its customers and its people.
is represented by a color on the circumplex A flexible organization is typically linked to
model. This color-coding helps to group the higher levels of product and service innovation,
related constructs into the four traits and also creativity, and a fast response to the changing
helps provide visual and intuitive feedback in needs of customers and employees.
the reports.

Denison's research has demonstrated that

effective organizations have high culture
scores in all four traits. Thus, effective
organizations are likely to have cultures
that are adaptive, yet highly consistent and
predictable, and that foster high involvement,
but do so within the context of a shared
sense of mission. This robust model also splits
into hemispheres: Internal/External
and Flexible/Stable.

EXTERNAL FOCUS
Adaptability + Mission
STABILITY
An organization with a strong external focus
is committed to adapting and changing in Mission + Consistency
response to the external environment. It has a
A stable organization has the capacity to
constant eye on the marketplace and a strong
remain focused and predictable over time.
sense of where it is headed. A strong external
A stable organization is typically linked to
focus typically impacts revenue, sales growth,
high return on assets, investments and sales
and market share.
growth, as well as strong business operations.
INTERNAL FOCUS There are also two significant dynamic
Involvement + Consistency tensions that a successful organization must
negotiate. The first, tension between Top-Down
An organization with a strong internal focus and Bottom-Up Management, represented
is committed to the dynamics of the internal by the Mission and Involvement traits, is
integration of systems, structures, and important for organizations to understand.
processes. It values its people and prides itself To be successful, an organization must be
on the quality of its products or services. A able to link the mission, purpose and goals of
strong internal focus has been linked to higher the organization to create a shared sense of
levels of quality and employee satisfaction. ownership, commitment and responsibility for
its employees.

Sign up for updates at [Link]

 OVERVIEW INTRODUCTION TO THE DENISON MODEL

The second important dynamic tension is the

link between Adaptability and Consistency.
Successful organizations learn how to balance
the dual challenges of external adaptation and
internal integration
and consistency. In all cases, it is not an
either/or proposition. Our experience tells
us that the most successful organizations have
a balanced profile.

Interpreting Survey Results

When an organization takes the DOCS, the
individual results are aggregated and reported
back in a circumplex report. The circumplex
report shows a numerical percentile score for
each of the 12 indices. The percentile score
is calculated based on our global normative
database.

In this example: Internal Focus

The sample organization received a percentile

score of 58 in the Vision index of the Mission organizations in the database—making the
trait. This means that 58% of the organizations results easy to understand and interpret.
in the normative database scored lower than
this organization. Using percentiles helps give meaning to the
results and helps organizations answer the
The Vision score has three segments of color, question: “Is that good?” For example, a raw
indicating that the percentile result falls into mean score of 2.5 on an index does not convey
the third quartile, whereas the Goals and much information. However, if that mean
Objectives index has two segments of color, translates to a percentile of 34, it tells the
because the 46th percentile falls into the organization that this is a vulnerable area that
second quartile. deserves attention.

Normative Database and Percentiles Percentiles provide meaning and context to

the results. Organizations represented in the
Denison Consulting generates your normative database come from a wide variety
organization’s results by comparing them of industries and geographical locations.
to those of over 1000 other organizations Through our ongoing research, we have
in our global normative database. The found that different industries, from finance to
percentile scores indicate how well your pharmaceuticals, and even different countries,
organization ranks in comparison to the other have very similar results to the global database.
organizations in the database. For example,
if your organization has a percentile score of
94 in the Customer Focus index, that means
that you scored higher than 94 percent of the

Sign up for updates at [Link]

 OVERVIEW INTRODUCTION TO THE DENISON MODEL

Customization and Reporting We are a research-based organization and

The Denison Organizational Culture Survey pride ourselves on the strength of our model
can be customized to meet your organization's and survey. Ongoing Denison research projects
specific needs. Additional questions can be are examining the correlation between culture
added in the form of scaled questions, open- and organizational effectiveness measures,
ended questions or drop-down questions. such as customer satisfaction, sales growth,
The most common customization is adding return on investment, gross margin and more.
drop-down demographic questions which we The results show that an organization’s culture,
can use to create report segments for your as measured by the Denison Organizational
organization. Based on your demographic Culture Survey, is directly related to its
variables, Denison can create reports broken performance.
out for groups such as functional areas,
locations, management levels and more. A Related Resources
number of additional reports are available Denison Consulting. (2005, April). Overview of the
and custom reports can be created to meet Reliability and Validity of the Denison Organizational
your organization's specific needs. Our team Culture Survey. Ann Arbor, MI: Author.
of account managers, Ph.D.-level researchers, Denison Consulting. (2009). Overview of the 2009
and consultants can help you create a survey DOCS Normative Database. Ann Arbor, MI: Author.
that will give you the information you need to
help your organization perform to its fullest. Denison, D. R. (1984). Bringing corporate culture to
the bottom line. Organizational Dynamics,
Reliability and Validity 13(2), 4-22.

Our research makes all the difference. The Denison, D. R. (1990). Corporate culture and
scales of the Denison Organizational Culture organizational effectiveness. New York: John Wiley &
Survey have been examined using reliability Sons.
analysis, confirmatory factor analysis and Denison, D. R, Janovics, J. E., & Young, J. L. (2004).
predictive validity measures. These analyses Diagnosing Organizational Cultures: Validating a
indicate scientifically acceptable levels of Model and Method. Ann Arbor: Denison Consulting.
consistency within scales. They also offer Denison, D. R. and Mishra, A. K. (1995). Toward a
support for the psychometric integrity of the theory of organizational culture and effectiveness.
survey and the survey’s link to organizational Organization Science, 6(2), 204-223.
effectiveness. We do this because we want to
make sure our results are valid. Our research
consistently demonstrates that organizations
that score well on the culture survey also score
well on other performance metrics.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

United States Europe United Kingdom

121 W. Washington Street Freiestrasse 7 36 Coquet Terrace
Suite 201 CH-8570 Weinfelden Newcastle upon Tyne
Ann Arbor, MI, 48104 Switzerland Heaton, NE65LE England, UK
Phone: +1 (734) 302 4002 Phone: +41 71 552 0571 Phone: +44 7961 974 568

© Copyright Denison Consulting LLC. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction in any manner is prohibited.
The Denison Model, circumflex, and survey are trademarks of Denison Consulting LLC