OCAI Analysis of Club One Jefferson's Organizational Culture
This paper applies the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), developed by Cameron and Quinn, to evaluate the organizational culture of Club One Jefferson, an LGBTQ nightclub in Savannah, Georgia. Drawing on survey responses from 20 employees across three staff categories, the paper identifies Club One's dominant current culture as a hierarchy (control) culture and contrasts it with employees' preferred clan (collaborate) culture. The analysis describes the sources of cultural incongruence, outlines strategies for narrowing the gaps between current and preferred culture, and examines the leadership role in driving meaningful cultural change. References to the Competing Values Framework and Schein's model of organizational culture ground the discussion in established theory.
- Introduction to OCAI and Club One Jefferson: OCAI framework introduced; Club One described
- Survey Methodology and Design: Survey design, sample, and scoring method explained
- Survey Results: Quadrant average scores for current and preferred culture
- Description and Analysis of Club One's Organizational Culture: Hierarchy culture identified; preferred clan culture analyzed
- Narrowing the Gaps Between Current and Preferred Culture: Strategies to bridge cultural incongruence outlined
- Leadership's Role in Building Organizational Culture: Owner's role in embedding new cultural values
- Conclusion: Summary of findings and recommended cultural change path
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds a real-world case study in a well-established theoretical framework (Cameron and Quinn's OCAI and Competing Values Framework), giving practical findings academic legitimacy.
- The inclusion of quantitative survey data — average scores per quadrant for both "Now" and "Preferred" culture — provides concrete evidence for each analytical claim rather than relying solely on observation.
- The paper moves logically from description to diagnosis to prescription, culminating in actionable leadership recommendations grounded in the identified cultural gaps.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of a validated psychometric instrument (OCAI) to structure a qualitative and quantitative organizational analysis. By reporting both current and preferred scores across all four culture quadrants and comparing them against industry benchmarks, the author produces a gap analysis — a technique that connects empirical findings directly to change-management recommendations. This mirrors professional organizational consulting methodology adapted for an academic audience.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a theoretical introduction to OCAI, followed by a brief organizational profile of Club One. It then describes the survey methodology, presents quantitative results, and provides a two-part cultural analysis (current vs. preferred). A dedicated section addresses gap-narrowing strategies, and a final section addresses leadership's foundational role in culture change. The conclusion synthesizes all major findings. This structure reflects a standard applied research format appropriate for undergraduate or early graduate business courses.
Introduction to OCAI and Club One Jefferson
The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) is a tool developed by Kim Cameron and Robert Quinn. It is an authorized research method used to evaluate organizational culture and is regarded as one of the most useful frameworks in the business environment for this purpose. OCAI is based on a Competing Values Framework that incorporates four types of organizational culture (Cameron & Quinn, 2011). Each organization has its own combination of these four culture types, and the framework was originally developed to determine the criteria for organizational effectiveness. This paper examines the organizational culture of Club One Jefferson in Savannah, GA using OCAI, with the objective of evaluating Club One's culture, describing that culture, and determining how leadership can be practiced effectively within Club One moving forward.
Club One was opened on July 9, 1988, and continues to operate today. It is the only LGBTQ nightclub in the Savannah, GA area. The club occupies approximately 20,000 square feet across three floors. The lower level is open seven days a week and features drag shows, pool tables, food, and a video bar. The second level is the main dance area — Savannah's largest dance floor with the best dance music in the South — and is open on Fridays and Saturdays. The third level is the show area, which seats 250 people and hosts drag shows and entertainers such as Lady Bunny, Leslie Jordan, Sandra Bernhardt, Taylor Dayne, Dee-Lite, and many contestants from RuPaul's Drag Race.
Club One's most celebrated claim to fame is that it was the home of The Lady Chablis, who passed away in September 2016. The book and film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil featured the club prominently, and Chablis was the scene-stealing central character (Goodheart, 2005).
Survey Methodology and Design
This project focused on evaluating Club One's culture, describing that culture, and determining how leadership can be practiced effectively within the organization going forward. The evaluation entailed conducting a survey of Club One employees to gather their perspectives on and understanding of the Club's organizational culture. The survey was administered using OCAI, which was personally emailed to participants. The sample primarily consisted of employees working in different areas or divisions of Club One. These diverse employees were targeted because they could provide significant insights into the Club's organizational culture. By incorporating staff from different areas, the assessment developed a holistic view of the organization and its culture, ensuring coverage of the entire organization rather than a single department.
A total of 30 employees were sent a link to the survey, which comprised questions based on OCAI. Of those 30 employees, 20 responded. The respondents included 10 bartenders, 5 drag queens, and 5 administrators. The emailed survey comprised twenty-four declarative segments classified across six sections: dominant characteristics, management of employees, criteria for success, organizational leadership, strategic emphasis, and organizational glue. Each category comprised four questions or statements through which respondents were asked to describe both their current and desired perceptions of organizational culture.
Employees were asked to distribute 100 points across the four alternatives within each dimension of organizational culture. This process helped determine Club One's current organizational culture. The same method was then applied to gather responses regarding employees' preferred organizational culture. Respondents' scores were recorded and averages computed to identify the alternatives representing both the current and desired culture. The averages were plotted on a spider graph consisting of four quadrants — clan, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy — as described by Cameron and Quinn's Competing Values Framework (2011). Scores in each quadrant reflect the strength of Club One's culture type for current and desired organizational situations.
Survey Results
Cameron and Quinn (2011) state that plotting an organizational culture entails focusing on some of the core attributes of an organization. In this case, the average scores of each of the four OCAI quadrants were computed for the "Now" and "Preferred" columns. Employees were asked to rate each of the six statements within each of the four quadrants of the assessment instrument. After recording scores and computing averages, the results are as shown in Figure 1 below.
Figure 1 – OCAI Results for Club One Jefferson
As shown in Figure 1, the hierarchy quadrant has the highest average score, followed by the market quadrant. For the current culture, the hierarchy quadrant has an average score of 33.10, while the market quadrant has an average score of approximately 26.42. The clan quadrant has an average score of 19.91, and the adhocracy quadrant has an average score of 20.58. For the preferred culture, the clan quadrant leads with an average score of 45.68, followed by adhocracy at approximately 31.73. The preferred market culture scores 12.18, and the preferred hierarchy culture scores approximately 10.40.
Conclusion
Club One is the only LGBTQ nightclub in the Savannah, GA area, having opened on July 9, 1988, and continuing to operate today. Organizational culture has played an important role in shaping the Club's operations and success. An employee survey administered through OCAI revealed that Club One is characterized by a hierarchy (control) culture, though a clan (collaborate) culture is employees' preferred orientation. Club One is essentially a highly formalized and structured workplace in which formal rules and procedures direct employee behavior. The preference for a friendly, innovative, and transformative workplace signals a clear need for cultural change. Such change can be initiated by promoting collective learning, engaging all employees in the change process, and making the change personal and behaviorally focused.
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