Assessing Organizational Culture in Real Estate Brokerages: Links to Real Estate Agent Success

Real estate agents interested in maximizing their sales commissions may consider the impact of their brokerage firm’s organizational culture on their incomes. They may also seek to understand whether the size and age of their brokerage firms correspond to four popular organizational culture types: clan, hierarchical, market, and adhocracy. A survey distributed to United States real estate agents was analyzed to examine these relationships. The results supported hypotheses indicating that clan cultures were dominant in small firms with 20 or fewer employees and in younger firms under six years, while market cultures prevailed in larger and older firms. Additionally, market and adhocracy cultures correlated positively with brokerage firm size, and adhocracy cultures were more prevalent in younger firms. Real estate commissions were highest in companies with market culture features, followed by clan, adhocracy, and hierarchical cultures. Linear regressions and bootstrapping further supported a negative relationship between hierarchical cultures and real estate commissions and a negative relationship between adhocracy cultures and the age of firms. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.