Promoting Industrial Success through Managerial Organizational Culture: An Israeli Case Study

Purpose -To describe the managerial attitude that resulted in outstanding economic success for one kibbutz industry. To analyze and understand the "secret codes" of economic success in this particular factory.Method - The research was conducted by qualitative investigation using ethnographical interviews and document analysis procedure.Finding - The findings described how the managers merged socialist traditions of the pre-privatized kibbutz and the capitalism of the global market in order to create a dynamic strategic model. The components of the model interacted with each other, creating an unusual organizational culture and a porous boundary between the factory and the kibbutz community that owned it. This case study demonstrates that innovative managerial strategies can emerge from a combination of conflicting economic systems and can produce stunning success in domestic and global markets.Original/ Value - The main contribution of this case study is the presentation of an alternative method for examining kibbutz industries in future research. This alternative method describes a managerial culture that facilitates the combination of two seemingly contradictory paradigms. The first is the kibbutz's socialist, cooperative, and communal principles. The second paradigm is the external capitalist realities of the domestic and global market. Beyond the research implications, this case study offers managers of kibbutz, and non-kibbutz, factories a practical example of a successful culture of combining opposite trends in management style.