Developing and Analyzing the Pattern of Determining Organizations Lifestyles (Case Study: Polymer Pipes and Fittings Production Companies in Isfahan Province)

Identifying organizational lifestyle is very important for all organizational stakeholders because it enables them to plan their interactions with the organization accordingly. Organizational strategists, on the other hand, are looking for models beyond marketing and competition, especially in markets where companies’ products and services do not have a significant advantage over each other and the components of integrated marketing are very similar. This is to understand the difference between the competitive advantage of brands and their competitive position in the market. Therefore, the present study seeks to design a comprehensive model and framework in the form of lifestyle for the organizations to use to strengthen their ability to determine the decisions and organizational behaviors for the stakeholders. The first question of the research is: "What are the indicators of determining the lifestyle of the organization?". After determining the indicators, in the second stage, the research seeks to evaluate the identified indicators in the pipe and polymer fittings industry in Isfahan province so that the lifestyle of the active companies in this industry can be identified. Therefore, the second question of the study is "What is the diversity of the lifestyle of companies active in the polymer pipe and fittings industry?"

The present study is developmental in terms of purpose and descriptive-survey in terms of method that has been done within three stages. In the first stage, the research population includes a sample of 15 management experts in Isfahan province who were selected based on their target method so as to identify the lifestyle variables of the organization; in the second stage, to discover the hidden dimensions of the organizational lifestyle, a sample of 300 industrial and commercial managers in Isfahan was randomly selected; and in the third stage, all the 47 units of companies were selected to determine the lifestyle of polymer pipe and polymer fittings producers in Isfahan province. The content validity index, exploratory factor analysis, and Key-Mines clustering analysis were used in the three stages, respectively, to analyze the data. The questionnaire was used to collect data in all three stages, the validity of which was confirmed using the content validity ratio index and its reliability was confirmed through Cronbach’s alpha coefficient.

Regarding the organizational lifestyle indicators, six factors or indicators determining the organizational lifestyle were identified which include the organizations’ interaction with humans, the organization’s interaction with technology, the organization’s interaction with money and capital, the organization’s interaction with the market and industry, the organization’s interaction with the environment, and the organization’s interaction with the future trends. Regarding the diversity of lifestyles in Isfahan polymer pipes and fittings companies, six different lifestyles were identified using the diamond pattern of the organizations’ lifestyle indicators including: undecided, entrepreneurial, self-evident, mediating, pioneering and competitive.

The undecided group includes companies that do not pay any attention to any of the six indicators of the organizational diamond lifestyle model. These companies do not have any specific program in the six areas of the diamond pattern and there is a kind of uncertainty in all of their interactive areas. The Entrepreneurial group includes companies that show a relatively high level of attention to four factors of the organizational interaction with human, market and industry, future and money and capital among the six indicators of the lifestyle diamond patterns; and pay little attention to other indicators. Entrepreneurial companies are very systematic and humanistic in terms of social structure, innovative and transformational in terms of competitiveness, and risk-taking and forward-looking in terms of finance. Based on the calculated average behavior, the self-reported group has the highest behavioral attention among the indicators of lifestyle diamond pattern to the three factors of market and industry, environment and future trends. From the personality perspective, the behavior of these organizations is very similar to self-reported characters or dramatic characters due to their great attention to the external interactions of the organization and their interest in creating an appropriate image of the organization in a professional and public environment. The largest number of intermediaries belongs to companies that pay special attention to the two indicators of interaction with money and capital and interaction with the market and industry among the six indicators of the diamond model. The pioneering group pays special attention to all the indicators of the organization’s diamond lifestyle. Behavioral characteristics of these companies include comprehensive attention to all internal and external stakeholders of the organization. Competitive group includes companies that pay attention to the three indicators of interaction with humans, interaction with technology and interaction with the market and show only relative attention to other three indicators. Focusing on pioneering behavior, those who challenge market seek to imitate their competitive behaviors by reinforcing human expertise and intra-organizational processes.