Abstract
Purpose– This study aims to investigate whether and how organizational culture moderates the
influence of other organizational capacities on the uptake of new mental health care roles by
non-medical primary health and social care services.
Design/methodology/approach– Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected in
2004 from providers in 41 services in Victoria, Australia, recruited using purposeful sampling.
Respondents within each service worked as a group to complete a structured interview that collected
quantitative and qualitative data simultaneously. Five domains of organizational capacity were
analyzed: leadership, moral support and participation; organizational culture; shared concepts,
policies, processes and structures; access to resource support; and social model of health. A principal
components analysis explored the structure of data about roles and capacities, and multiple
regression analysis examined relationships between them. The unit of analysis was the service
(n¼41).
Findings– Organizational culture was directly associated with involvement in two types of mental
health care roles and moderated the influence of factors in the inter-organizational environment on role
involvement.
Research limitations/implications– Congruence between the values embodied in organizational
culture, communicated in messages from the environment, and underlying particular mental health
care activities may play a critical role in shaping the emergence of intersectoral working and the
uptake of new roles.
Originality/value– This study is the first to demonstrate the importance of organizational culture
to intersectoral collaboration in health care, and one of very few to examine organizational culture as a
predictor of performance, compared with other organizational-level factors, in a multivariate analysis.
Theory is developed to explain the findings.
KeywordsOrganizational culture, Organizational values, Intersectoral collaboration, Mental health care,
Moderation effects, Australia, Mental health services, Influence
Paper typeResearch paper