Dr. Jyotsana
Khandelwal
(Assistant
Professor- Jaipur National University, Jaipur)
Ms. Kamini Rajotia
(Research
Scholar-Jaipur National University, Jaipur)
Abstract
The
main aim of research article is to identify and measure strong relationship
between performance and organizational culture. Today’s organization is
predominantly dynamic that pose enormous opportunities and challenges to the
corporate practitioners and policy makers. Understanding such dynamism is very
crucial to pursue the organizational strategic objectives. The primary aim of
this paper is to examine the impact of work culture on employee performance
from the perspectives of multinational companies. Methodology: Literature review is adopted as methodology to assess
the culture of an organization impacts upon process, employees and systems. The
paper has applied qualitative methodology focusing on the argument that work
culture significantly influences employee performance and productivity in the
dynamic emerging context.
Keywords:
corporate practitioners, culture, performance, productivity.
1.
Introduction
The different attributes of culture have
been arranged on basis of norms and attitudes which help in differentiating one
firm from another. (Forehand ad von Gilmer, 1964) The process of thinking helps
in establishing one member from another on basis of cognitive thinking (Hofstede,
1980). 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). The
knowledge of culture has been gained through understanding and beliefs on basis
of large groups.
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,
1959) The cognitive systems of human that helps in improving thinking and
decision making were based upon organization culture. (Pettigrew 1979) 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 1982). 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. Now a day’s organization culture has generally been interrelated to
management. (Kotter and Heskett, 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. (Stewart, 2010) Theorems of employees impact
upon sustainable performance and management of organization culture as it leads
to attainment of profitability.
2. Literature
Review
Organizational culture is conceptualized as shared beliefs and values
within the organization that helps to shape the behavior patterns of employees
(Kotter and Heskett, 1992). Gordon and Cummins (1979) define organizational
culture as the drive that recognizes the efforts and contributions of the
organizational members and provides holistic understanding of what and how is
to be achieved, how goals are interrelated, and how each employee could attain
goals. Hosftede (1980: 25) summarizes organization culture as collective
process of the mind that differentiates the members of one group from the other
one. Thus the above concept asserts that organizational culture could be the
means of keeping employees in line and exhilarating them towards organizational
objectives. Early organization behavior researchers (Peters and Waterman, 1982;
Deal and Kennedy, 1982; and Pascale and Athos, 1981) find the unambiguous links
between culture and organizational performance. These cultural values are
consistent with organizational chosen strategies that led to successful
organizations. Although the relationships between organizational culture and
employee performance have been widely accepted, some researchers (Willmott,
1993; Legge, 1994; and Ogbonna, 1993) raise concerns about the relations. Thus
Gordon and DiTomaso (1992) and Denison (1990) argue that culture
characteristics might affect performance but restricted or conditioned to the
specific context. They further argue that culture may lead to higher
performance if it fits with changes of environmental factors within the
context. Recently, researchers argue that cultural traits cannot be copied and
therefore it could be source of organizational sustainability. Resource-based
view (Barney, 1986 and 1991) suggests that sustainability depends on the
values, rarity and sustainability of the culture concerned. Overall, the aim of
the literature review is to examine the existing research to explore the links
between culture and performance.
Due to the subjective nature of culture, it could be challenging to
precisely define the specifications of organizational culture. Despite no
single theory is uniformly accepted, there is a general consent about
organizational culture on being traditionally determined and socially structured
that involves beliefs, behaviors, values and morals allied with different
levels of the organization and incorporates to all aspects of organizational
life (Pettigrew, 1990 and Hofstede, Neuijen, Ohauv and Sanders, 1990). The
organizational culture is outlined by Schein (1990) as overall phenomenon of
the organization suchas natural settings, the rite and rituals, climate and
values of the company. According to Martins and Terblanche(2003), culture is
deeply associated with values and beliefs shared by personnel in an
organization. Organizational culture relates the employees to organization’s
values, norms, stories, beliefs and principles and incorporates these
assumptions into them as activity and behavioral set of standards. Klein et al.
(1995) positioned organizational culture as the core of organization’s
activities which has aggregate impact on its overall effectiveness and the
quality of its products and services. Schein (2004) defined organizational
culture as a dynamic force within the organization which is revolving, engaging
and interactive and it shaped up by the employees and managements gestures,
behaviors and attitudes. Eariler scholars (Rossman, Corbett and Firestone,
1988; Schwartz and Davis, 1981; Cooke and Rousseau, 1988; Gordon and Di Tomaso,
1992; Schall, 1983; Schein, 1992; Rousseau, 1990) have explained culture as
mutual experience which depends on the behavioral and societal activities.
Performance on the other hand refers to be the ability (both physical
& psychological) to execute a specific task in a specific manner that can
be measured as high, mediumor low in scale. The word ‘performance’ can be used
to describe different aspects such as societal performance, organizational
performance, employee performance, and individual performance etc. Researchers
(Roe, 1999; Campbell, McCloy, Oppler, & Sager, 1993; Campbell, 1990;
Kanfer, 1990) tend to identify two dimensions of performance: an action
dimension (i.e. behavioral aspect) and an outcome dimension (i.e. performance
aspect). Here, the behavioral aspect of performance is assumed to be matched
with work situation and job specifications. Then this selective behavioral
aspect turns into a means of achieving organizational goals and objectives that
is the outcome dimension or performance aspect. Although there is a range of
behaviors that could be used for measuring performance, Motowidlo, Borman,
& Schmit (1997) emphasize judgmental and evaluative processes that take a
great deal along with action itself while defining performance.
A strong organizational culture supports adaptation and develops
organization’s employee performance by motivating employees toward a shared
goal and objective; and finally shaping and channeling employees’ behavior to
that specific direction should be at the top of operational and functional
strategies (Daft, 2010). A firm’s mission reflects its ultimate long term
objective which is accomplished by conducting integrated operational and
behavioral activities. A firm’s performance improves if it has a clear sense of
purpose and commitment towards its mission. Successful and well performed
organization defines its organizational goals as the report card of forthcoming
(long term) future (Ohmae, 1982; Mintzberg, 1987; Hamel and Prahalad, 1994).
Along with others, shared value of employees is one of the basic components of
organizational culture (Smitand Cronje, 1992; Hellreigel et al., 1998). Schein
(1994) clarifies that value which is a set of social norms that define the
rules or framework for social interaction and communication behaviors of
society’s members, is a reflection
of causal cultural assumptions. Individuals who hold similar values may
feel and interpret situations and events similarly (Meglino, Ravlin, &
Adkins, 1989) which can reduce uncertainty (Schein, 1985), role ambiguity, and
conflict (Fisher and Gitelson, 1983), allow for the accurate prediction of
other’s behavior (Kluckhohn, 1951), and make successful interpersonal
interactions more likely (Meglino et al. 1989). Academics and practitioners argue
that the performance of an organization is dependent on the degree to which the
values of the culture are widely shared (Peters and Waterman, 1982; Deal and
Kennedy, 1982; Denison, 1990; Ouchi, 1981; Pascale and Athos, 1981 and Kotter
and Heskett, 1992). Similarly, it is widely argued that shared and strongly
held values enable management to predict employee reactions to certain
strategic options and by reducing these values, the consequences maybe
undesirable (Ogbonna, 1993)
3. Linkage
of Organizational culture with Organizational performance
Denison (1984) studied 34 Americans cultural performance on basis of
characteristics that helps in improving performance over time. The culture and
performance have been interrelated to each other based upon perfect association
between business processes (Reichers and Schneider, 1990). The culture
construct based upon operational complexity have its basis towards different
business processes. In more than 200 organizations economic and long term
performance has been investigated (Kotter and Heskett, 1992). Several
researches have been made to evaluate performance of organization based upon
efforts as culture has been given significant association.
The three contributions on culture defined were as follows:
 |
 |
.
Organizational
Culture
Power distance:
It is defined as the degree of employee and management behavior that is
based upon a perfect relationship between formal and informal set of planning
action.
Individualism:
In this dimension difference between organization interest and self
interest have perfectly been matched.
Uncertainty avoidance:
The uncertainty and ambiguity based upon tolerance helps in mitigating
willingness of people.
Masculinity:
It comes in avoidance of caring and promotion rather than level of
success based upon challenges, insolence and ambition.
Organizational
Performance
The degree of an achievement to which an
employee’s fulfill the organizational mission at workplace is called
performance (Cascio, 2006). Performance has been perceived differently by
various researchers, but most of the scholars relate performance with measurement
of transactional efficiency and effectiveness towards organizational goals
(Stannack, 1996; Barne, 1991). The job
of an employee is build up by degree of achievement of a particular target or
mission that defines boundaries of performance (Cascio, 2006). Certain
researchers have identified different thought, attitudes and beliefs of
performance as it helps in measurement of input and output efficiency measures
that lead to transactional association. (Stannack, 1996) The capability of an
organization to establish perfect relationship with resources presents
effective and efficient management of resources. (Daft, 2000) In order to
achieve goals and objectives of organization strategies have been designed
based upon organizational performance. (Richardo, 2001) The equity based upon
high returns helps in effective management of organization resources so that
performance improves. (Ricardo, 2001)
4. Discussion
Firstly culture and performance were considered interrelated to each
other by forceful management. Secondly nature and scope of culture based upon
theoretical point of view have been presented more appropriately. While strong
association between management practices, performance and culture management
have been presented so that culture establishment takes place effectively.
The competitive advantage of an
organization is attained through strong association and establishment of
culture. The organization culture helps in measuring limitation to overcome
performance measurement.( Rousseau 1990) The limitations shows that culture and
employee performance shows negative correlation as employee performance is
badly affected by it.
The methodologies and findings of researches shows that culture and
performance were considered interrelated. (Lim, 1995) The sustainable
competitive advantage of organizational competencies has been related to
superior and imitable relationship with competitors (SaaPe’re and
Garcia-Falcon, 2002). The value of culture based upon degree of performance has
been managed with practitioners and academics. (Denison, 1990)
VII. CONCLUSION
The different values and beliefs based upon employee performance helps
in organization association. The organization culture helps in internalizing
joint relationship that leads to manage effective organization processes. The
productivity and culture of organization helps in improving performance. In
more than 60 research studies 7600 small business units and companies’
performance from 1999 to 2007 have been evaluated. The positive association
between culture and performance helps in improving results of organization. The
job performance of organization has a strong impact of strong organization
culture as it leads to enhance productivity. The paper demonstrated that
numerous attributes of organizational culture have significant positive
influence over the performance of organization. The paper has mapped out
different cultural aspects of organizations as well as showed the vital
relationship between culture and performance. The qualitative research
facilitated the paper with its robust and in-depth observations. The norms and
values of organization based upon different cultures influence on work force
management. In an organization strong culture enables to effective and
efficient management of work force employees. The net profit in an organization
helps in enhancing performance of employees. The common path for making perfect
use of resources in same cultural association helps in positive development of
organization. On basis of particular conditions organizational culture is
helpful in improving and providing competitive edge. The employee commitment
and group efficiency helps in improving performance based upon organization
sustainability. The nature and power of organization culture influence upon
sustainability and effectiveness of organization.
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