INFLUENCE OF PERCEIVED ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE ON EMPLOYEES PERFORMANCE

Introduction

1.1 Background Of The Study

Culture is defined as a mixture of values, sets, beliefs, communications and explanation of behaviour that provides guidance to people. The main idea of culture comes from sharing in learning processes that have been based upon systematic allocation of resources (Titiev, 2009). The cognitive systems of human that helps in improving thinking and decision making were based upon organization culture (Pettigrew, 1999). The multifaceted set of beliefs, assumptions and values helps in presenting different level of culture by conducting business at an effective manner. The normative glue based upon organization culture helps in holding overall management effectiveness (Tichy 1999). The concept of effective organization culture helps in improving business decisions. The survival of culture in an organization lies upon national and foreign culture differentiation in culture management. (Schein, 1990) The culture of organization has been affected by attitudes, norms and beliefs that lead to strong communication between employees.

Organizational culture propose to employees the way things should be done. Most of the time people exercise word culture to express the pattern of individual behavior. Before 1980s inthe study of organizational behavior, culture is considered as a most important factor. Businesses show interest in cultural dimensions that was the extreme effect rather than the other fragments of organizational behavior. Peter and Waterman’s (1992) supposed that culture is the key to the success of organization. In many business journals and in business articles, published periodically claimed that culture was fundamental to the organizational success, and it was recommended for the managers, should deal with his work by following their organizational culture, which help to rise in the growth of organization (Moorhead and Griffin, 1995).

Researchers have linked a culture in the organization with many different organizational behaviors. They have also recognized the correlation between culture of organization & employee job performance (Sheridan, 1992), decision making (Gamble & Gibson, 1999) and productivity (Kopelman, Brief and Guzzo, 1990). As per statement of Luthans (1998), organizational culture has always presented within the organization, but most of the time businesses paid less attention towards it. The culture of organization comes into view to permeate every important component of the organization. To understand the association between employee’s job performance and culture of the organization is an imperative research subject because it is proven by different studies that individuals work performance is crucial for success of organization.

Strong culture will make it easy to communicate openly and participate in efficiently and effectively in the decision making to explore their ideas and skills. The different attributes of culture have been arranged on basis of norms and attitudes which help in differentiating one firm from another (Forehand and von Gilmer, 2004). The process of thinking helps in establishing one member from another on basis of cognitive thinking (Hofstede, 1990). The success guidance based upon different values and norm that makes culture effective (Schein, 1990). The set of beliefs, behaviours, norms and values helps in making culture most effective (Kotter and Heskett ,1992).

Now a day’s organization culture has generally been interrelated to management. (Kotter andHeskett, 1992).The two essential factors that lead to effective culture management include structural stability and integration of superior standard of organization culture. (Schein, 1995) Certain characteristics of organization culture have been established in which set of norms, values and beliefs helps in perfect association between them. (Hodgetts and Luthans, 2003) At different level of organization culture different background, ethics and racial differences impact upon performance. The similar organization culture with different backgrounds has common set of values and beliefs to be effected by organization systems (Robbins &Sanghi, 2007). The attraction of organization norms, values and beliefs have strong affect upon performance and sustainability.

The knowledge of culture has been gained through understanding and beliefs on basis of large groups.

According to Cascio (2006) performance is the degree of an achievement to which an employee’s fulfil the organisational mission at workplace. He continues to say that the job of an employee is build up by degree of achievement of a particular target or mission that defines boundaries of performance. According to Ojo (2008) despite the plethora of studies on organisational culture in the last few decades, the empirical evidences emerging from various studies about the effect of organisational culture on performance have so far yielded mixed results that are inconclusive and contradictory. He further states that researchers concur on the fact that there is no agreement on the precise nature of the relationship between organisational culture and performance. Because of these results the question of whether organisational culture affects employee performance is still worthy of a further research.

1.2 Statement Of The Problem

In the past twenty five years, the concept of corporate culture has gained wide acceptance a way to understand human systems.From an open system perspective, each aspect of corporate culture can be seen as an important environmental condition affecting the system and subsystem of the organization. Increased competition, globalization, alliances and major work force department have created a greater need for organizational culture. Thus, it has become an important factor for a company’s development.

Managing corporate culture is emerging as one of the key managerial challenges of the twenty first century. Most studies in corporate culture and employee performance have tended to focus on distinct elements of culture while ignoring its multi dimensions and that it is concepts that consist of sever-Š•interconnected variables (Schein, 1992).

Culture is the common bond that generates a sense of belongingness among the actors in an organization. Organizational culture offers a shared system of meaning which is the basis for communications and mutual understanding and if there functions are not fulfilled satisfactorily way culture may significantly reduce effectiveness of employees in organizations.

The main rational for this research study is therefore to contribute to the broader research community by enhancing knowledge within the field of Industrial and organizational psychology. Furthermore, this study addresses this topic from Nigerian work context and viewpoint by focusing on employees in the insurance industry.

1.2 Objectives Of The Study

The following are the objectives of this study:

1. To assess the relationship between organizational culture and employee performance.
2. To determine whether organizational culture influences employee’s performance on the basis of gender.
3. To investigate the influences of organizational culture on employee performance.
4. To recommends ways to improve the influence of organizational culture on employee performance

1.3 Research Question

1. Is there a relationship between organizational culture and employee performance?
2. Is there a significance difference in the influence of organizational culture on male and female employee’s performance?
3. Does organizational culture influences employee performance?

1.4 Research Hypotheses

H01: There is no influence of organizational culture on employee performance.

H02: There is no significance influence of organizational culture on male and female employee’s performance.

1.5 Scope Of The Study

The essence of this research work is to primarily study the influence of perceive organisational culture on employee performance. The research intends to focus on all employees at Nestle PLC Sagamu.

1.6 Significance Of The Study

This study is expected to have an effect on employee of Nestle Sagamu, homes, and the general public. The outcome of this study is to supplement the existing store of knowledge on the subject of influence of organizational culture and employee performance.

The result of this study may be of immense benefits to the public and private individuals, stakeholders, government, parents, students, lecturers, university management and researchers and as well change their believe on the influence of organizational culture and employee performance.

The findings of the study will be useful to the Community, Institutions of higher learning and the Nigerian Government as it is set to bring to fore key influence of organizational culture and how its greatly affects the performance of employee of a particular firm. The current study is useful in contributing to the general body of knowledge in this area.

1.7 Definition Of Terms

Influence:

This is the impact something or someone has on something or someone. This could be positive or negative. The power to affect, control or manipulate something or someone.

Organization Culture:

Organizational culture comprises the unwritten customs, behaviors and beliefs that determine the “rules of the game” for decision-making, structure and power.

Culture:

Culture can be defined as a collective programming of mind in which distinguishes the members of one category of people from another.

Employee:

An individual who provides labour to an organization or another person.

Performance:

The term performance refers to how and the manner in which a particular task is carried out usually judged by its effectiveness. Performance should be associated with factors such as increasing profitability and obtaining the best results in all organizational endeavours.