The Impact of Organisational culture on employee Performance

Abstract

This research study aimed to expand the base of knowledge and empirically test the influence of organizational culture on employee job performance at Cameroon Development Corporation Bota-Limbe. The study revolved around three specific objectives: To what extent does involvement as an element of organizational culture influence employee job performance? To what extent does consistency as an element of organizational culture influence employee job performance? To what extent does the organization‘s mission as an element of organizational culture influence employee job performance?. The analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). A descriptive analysis, one sample t-test and correlation analyses were triangulated with both qualitative and quantitative tools of analysis. The study involved the population of fifty-three (53) employees. A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather data. The result conducted using the variables show that Consistency as an organisational culture has a significant impact on employee’s performance at CDC Bota-Limbe which is in line with the third hypothesis H3. Furthermore, the other variables such as organisational mission and culture of involvement do not significantly affect employee’s performance at CDC Bota-Limbe which is not in line with the first and second hypothesis (H1and H2). With the context of this result, it is highly recommended to the manufacturing industry such as CDC to find the appropriate way of the two organisational culture to ensure acceptable performance of employees.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Organisational culture encompasses values and behaviours that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organisation. According to needle (2004), organisational culture represents the collective values, beliefs and principle of organisational members and is a product of factors such as history, product, market, technology, strategy, type of employees, management style, and national culture; culture includes the organisation’s vision, value, norms, systems, symbols, language, assumptions, environment, location, belief and habits.

The terms culture in the organisational context was first introduced by Dr Elliott Jaques in his book “The changing culture of the factory” in 1951. This is the published report of a case study of developments in the social life of one industrial community between April 1948 and November 1950. This case is a publicly held British company engages principally in the manufacture, sales, and servicing of metal bearings. The study is concerned with the description, analysis, and development of the corporate group behaviours. According to Dr ElliotteJaquesth culture of the factory is its customary and traditional way of thinking and doing of things, which is shared to a greater or lesser degree by all its members, and which new member must learn and at least partially accept. To be accepted into service in the firm. In simple terms, to the extent that people can share common wishes, desired and aspirations, they can commit themselves to work together. It is a matter of being able to care about the same things, and it applies to nations as well as to associations and organizations within the nation.

There has been significant research in the literature to explore the impact of organisational culture on employee’s performance and productivity, for instance, scholars (Hofstede, 1980; Ouchi, 1981; Hofstede and Bond, 1988; Kotter &Heskett, 1992; Magee, 2002) state that organisational culture could be used for measuring the economic performance of an organisation. Therefore a supportive culture as pointed out by Ritchie (2000) is considered as a motivational instrument which promotes the employees to perform smoothly and ensures better productivity (Ritchie, 2000). Research has been carried out on various issues of organisational culture, for example, organisational culture types (Tharp, 2009) emphasize the stages of culture across the organisation whereas organisational psychology (Schein, 1990) focusses on how culture make an impact on employees psychology and performance, these two issues of organisational culture set up an equilibrium where an organisation can achieve its maximum level of effectiveness and efficiency (Deem, Barnes, Segal &Preziosi, 2000)

Notwithstanding the organisational culture and employee performance have been studied over the past decades. The relationship between organizational culture and employee has been the subject or abundant. This study has been examined by many researchers (Kotter and Heskett 1992; Denison, 1990; Van der Post et al. 1998; Schwartz & Davis, 1981; Ojo, 2009). Despite the plethora of studies on corporate culture in the last few decades, there is no widely accepted causal relationship between corporate culture and performance. The empirical evidence emerging from various studies about the impact of organisational culture on employees performance have so far yielded mixed results that are inconclusive and contradictory. Furthermore, there is no empirical research conducted on the impact of organisational culture on employee’s performance particularly from an emerging country perspective like Cameroon. Very little attentions have been given to the manufacturing industries. This means that the impact of organisational culture on employee’s performance in the manufacturing industry such as CDC has not received adequate research attention in Cameroon. Thus, there is a major gap in the relevant literature on Cameroon which has to be covered by the research. This research attempts to fill this gap by studying the situation of Cameroon’s manufacturing industry and providing more empirical evidence on the effects of organisational culture on employee performance based on Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) level of data.

Since multinational corporations have been extending their cooperation in emerging countries, this would be critical to examine how organisational culture affects employee performance and productivity. The main aim of the paper is to examine the impacts of organisational culture on employee’s performance and productivity in the context of Cameroon development corporation (CDC)

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The responsibility of the management is to enshrine good cultural values which will eliminate negative behaviour and enhance the performance of the employees and foster a positive work environment or a positive organizational culture. For Davoren (2014) organisational culture consists of a framework which determines the behaviour of employees in the organisation. It is a pattern of shared belief, assumptions, values and beliefs that provide the awareness of what is considered appropriate and inappropriate behaviour in an organisation. Success indicator such as revenue, sales volume, market share, and stock prices leading to the realization of organisational goals are the result of employee’s performance as a result of goods organisational culture. Maintaining an organizational culture where employees are recognized as an integral part of the organisation’s growth process results in employee commitment towards the organisation. They are motivated to make a positive contribution to the attainment of the goals and objectives of the organisation’s and feel responsible for the overall well-being of the organisation. Consequently, when the management rewards the employees accordingly it leads to employees’ performance and organisational success. Organisational culture should also take cognizance of the culture of the environment so as not to operate an organisation that is antagonistic to the environment as a firm interacts with the wider society. Upholding the wrong culture could result in poor employee performance and organisational failure.

The relationship between corporate culture and performance has been the subject of a decade’s research in several fields, including strategic management, organisational behaviour, and industrial organisation. This study has been examined by many researchers  (Kotter and Heskett 1992; Denison, 1990; Van der Post et al. 1998; Schwartz and Davis, 1981; Scholz, 1987; Choe, 1993; Rashid and Anantharaman, 1997; Deshpande and Farely, 1999; Ojo, 2009). Despite the plethora of studies on corporate culture in the last few decades, there is no widely accepted causal relationship between corporate culture and performance, the empirical evidence emerging from various studies about the impact of organisational culture on employees performance have so far yielded mixed results that are inconclusive and contradictory. Because of this contradictory results, the question of whether organisational culture improves or worsens employees performance is still worthy of further research. Also, despite the existence of these studies, not much research has been given the manufacturing industry. This means that the impact of organisational culture on employee performance in the manufacturing industry such as CDC has not received adequate research attention in Cameroon. This study was intended to fill this gap by studying the situation of the Cameroon manufacturing industry and providing more empirical evidence on the impact of organisational culture on employee performance. This knowledge gap also comes in the sense that little has been done to bring out the joint effect of the four traits in Denison’s model underlying organisational culture on each of the four measures of employees job performance in the manufacturing industry. This study will therefore examine the influence of three of the four traits: involvement, consistency and mission on employee performance in CDE. Therefore, the problem confronting the research is to investigate the impact of organisational culture on employee performance. A case study of Cameroon development corporation CDE Head office Bota-Limbe

The main research questions are;

• To what extent does the organisational mission as an element of organisational culture influence employee’s performance?
• What is the extent to which employee involvement as an element of organisational culture influence employees
• To what extent does consistency as an element of organizational culture influence employee performance?

1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study is to examine the extent to which organisational culture affect employee’s performance.

The specific objectives are as follows;

• To assess the effect organisational mission as an element of organisational culture on employee performance
• To analyse the extent to which employee involvement as an element of organisational culture influence employee’s performance.
• To evaluate the impact of consistence as an element of organisational culture on employees performance.

1.4 HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY

H2 employee involvement has a significant impact on employees’ performance at CDC

H1 Organisational mission has a significant impact on employee’s performance at CDC

H3 Consistency as an organisational culture has a significant impact on employee’s performance.

MANAGEMENT PROJECT TOPICS WITH MATERIALS

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