Organizational culture and innovativeness of firms - an integrative view

This conceptual paper analyzes the role of the contents of an organizational culture (i.e. values, norms and knowledge), its strength, and structure (i.e. dealing with the culture-subculture problem) as well as their interdependencies within the different stages of technological innovation processes, issues such as hierarchical thinking, communication, conflicts, team diversity, strength of cultural values a.s.o. as well as their positive and negative effects on the various stages of innovation will be analyzed. Finally the paper will illustrate and integrate the presented concept by the example of the case of a Swiss hospital which is introducing a new information system.