I intend to make this study a success through the methodology used. This study is mainly based on the use of both literature existing from researches, journal, textbooks which contains a few models developed to describe and measure the effects of organizational culture on employee performenace/productivity, participant observation to collect data on naturally occurring behaviours in their usual context e.g employee attitude to work.
This study sill also make use of in-depth interview (structured) to obtain data on individual perspectives and experiences. Part of this study work will take the form of data gathering through field notes, audio recordings etc.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What is organizational culture, employee productivity/performance?
What are the factor that make up organizational culture?
Is there a link between employee productivity/performance and organizational culture?
How is employee performance/productivity measured
AIMS SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES
The central aim of this research is to develop clear and concise measurement of organizational culture including its meaning, what constitutes organizational culture, its links or relationship with employee productivity/performance in the service industry i.e does it affect productivity/performance in the organization? .
SCOPE
The scope of this study shall be restricted to concepts and measurement of organizational culture and employee performance improvement in the area of human resource management. I have decided to gather data from 20 workers making use of different data gathering instrument e.g interviews, questionnaires.
OBJECTIVES
To explain what organizational culture, employee productivity/performance is.
To know the factors that contributes to the formations of organizational culture.
To establish if there is actually a link between organizational culture and employee performance/productivity.
To explain how employee performance/productivity can be measured
JUSTIFICATION OF RESEARCH QUESTION
This study will try to define organizational culture, employee productivity/performance, factor that makes an organizational culture, to prove that there are existing links between organizational culture and improvement of employee productivity/performance and also if organisational culture is about the organization or employees of the organization.
RESEARCH TECHNIQUES
This study will make use of both qualitative and quantitative research methods techniques to gather data from different sources e.g through in-person interviews, focus groups, survey etc from the service industry. I shall now evaluate research techniques to assess their suitability for my study.
Research techniques are categorized under qualitative research and quantitative research techniques
Qualitative Research Techniques
Qualitative research is a type of scientific research. In general terms, scientific research consists
of an investigation that:
• seeks answers to a question
• systematically uses a predefined set of procedures to answer the question
• collects evidence
• produces findings that were not determined in advance
• produces findings that are applicable beyond the immediate boundaries of the study
Qualitative research shares these characteristics. Additionally, it seeks to understand a given
research problem or topic from the perspectives of the local population it involves. Qualitative
research is especially effective in obtaining culturally specific information about the values,
opinions, behaviors, and social contexts of particular populations.
The three most common techniques in qualitative research are
Participant observation
In-depth interviews
Focus groups
For the purpose of the study I'm about to conduct I will only be explaining research techniques to be used and why
In-depth interviews : in-depth interviews are one of the most common qualitative methods. One reason for their popularity is that they are very effective in giving a human face to research problems. In addition, conducting and participating in interviews can be a rewarding experience for participants and interviewers alike.
The in-depth interview is a technique designed to elicit a vivid picture of the participant's perspective on the research topic. During in-depth interviews, the person being interviewed is considered the expert and the interviewer is considered the student. The researcher's interviewing techniques are motivated by the desire to learn everything the participant can share about the research topic.
Researchers engage with participants by posing questions in a neutral manner, listening attentively to participants' responses, and asking follow-up questions and probes based on those responses.
They do not lead participants according to any preconceived notions, nor do they encourage participants to provide particular answers by expressing approval or disapproval of what they say.
In-depth interviews are usually conducted face-to-face and involve one interviewer and one participant.
The strength of in-depth interview is that it elicits in-depth responses, with nuances and contradictions, gets at interpretive perspective, i.e. the connections and relationships a person sees between particular events, phenomena, and beliefs. Its weakness is that the interviewee might decide to give wrong information or not up to date.
The table below summarizes some of the strengths of in-depth interviews
Appropriate for
Strength of method
Interviews
Eliciting individual experiences, opinions, feelings
Addressing sensitive topics
Elicits in-depth responses, with nuances and contradictions
Gets at interpretive perspective, i.e., the connections and relationships a person sees between particular events, phenomena, and beliefs
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
Quantitative research is the numerical representation and manipulation of observations for the purpose of describing and explaining the phenomena that those observations reflect. It is used in a wide variety of natural and social sciences, including physics, biology, psychology, sociology and geology.
The first situation where quantitative research will fail is when we want to explore a problem in depth. Quantitative research is good at providing information in breadth from a large number of units. But when we want to explore a problem or concept in depth, quantitative methods are too shallow. To get really under the skin of a phenomenon, we need to go for ethnographic methods, interviews, in-depth case studies and other qualitative techniques.
Listed below are few techniques used in quatitative research
Surveys
Custom surveys
E-mail/internet surveys
Telephone survey
Self-administered questionnaire survey
I will explain the types survey methods
In-Person Interview : An in-person interview consists of an interviewer asking the respondent questions in a face-to-face situation. The interview may take place at the respondent's home or a research office.
Pros:
1. Flexibility - personal interviews are the most flexible type of survey. They can be used to administer any type of questionnaire - structured questionnaires with specified but variable question sequences (skip patterns) and unstructured questionnaires requiring a close rapport between the interviewer and the respondent.
2. If the project involves material testing, personal interviews allow the interviewer to provide or withhold visual cues when appropriate or necessary.
Cons:
1.Takes a long time to code and analyze data.
2.Expensive.
Self-Administered Questionnaires : Respondents fill out self-administered questionnaires themselves. Self-administered questionnaires are generally distributed through mail. Upon receipt of the questionnaire, the respondent fills it out and returns it via mail to the researcher. The questionnaires can also be distributed by means of magazine and newspaper inserts or they can be left and/or picked up by company personnel. Questionnaires enable the researcher to elicit detailed information from respondents who may not be accessible otherwise.
Pros:
1. Inexpensive.
2. Does not require interviewer time.
3. Allows respondents to maintain their anonymity and reconsider their responses.
Cons:
1. If mailed, response rate is low.
2. Often requires follow up.
3. May take a long time to receive sufficient responses.
4. Respondents self-select (potential bias).
5. If used for material pretest, exposure to materials is not controlled.
6. May not be appropriate if audience has limited writing skills.
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
TITLE
THE EFFECT OF ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE ON EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE/PRODUCTIVITY
KEYWORDS
Organisational culture, employee performance, organizational climate, work/task schedule, reward/motivation, psychology of individuals, behavior of managers,
AIMS SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES
The central aim of this research is to develop clear and concise measurement of organizational culture including its meaning, what constitutes organizational culture, its links or relationship with employee productivity/performance in the service industry i.e does it affect productivity/performance in the organization?
The secondary aim of this study is to improve organisational practices that helps improve performance of employees among organizations in the service industry.
BACKGROUND
From the last few decades of the 20th century until now, organisational culture has been researched extensively. Organisational culture holds the organisation together and encourages employees not only to perform well but also to feel committed to the organization. Numerous studies illustrate the role organisational culture plays in the performance and efficiency of an organisation. Despite the importance and continued use of the term "organisational culture" some researchers criticise the light hearted way with which this concept is investigated. Measuring organisational culture is one of the many aspects of organisational culture that are left unclear and need to be further investigated. Thus, interest has been shown in changing unfavourable culture to improve organisational performance and make the organisation competitive. (Imran U Khan et al 2010).
An example of the interest is the development of the Organisational Culture Inventory . It is very important that a concept that needs change be observable or even measured, otherwise it cannot be manipulated. Apart from the need for change, there is interest to relate this concept to other organisational activities such as mentioned productivity and quality, knowledge sharing and transfer, employee attitudes and working . Knowledge sharing is a current recognised tool of knowledge management by which the knowledge assets are encouraged to flow among members to enhance effectiveness and organisational outputs . (Imran U Khan et al 2010).
In summary, ability to measure organisational culture can help organisations and their managers to assess and examine organisational culture to improve performance. Also, a validated measure would provide a good foundation for useful studies that aim to relate organisational culture with other concepts of interest, e.g. innovation and knowledge management. If measuring organisational culture becomes possible then its influence on other organisational functions, like knowledge sharing, innovation and employee performance, can be empirically examined. (Imran U Khan et al 2010).
LITERATURE REVIEW
Organisational science researchers accept that organisational culture traditionally derived from two intellectual disciplines, anthropology and organisational sociology .
The first anthropologist to introduce the term culture apparently is Edward B Tylor in 1871. He described culture as consisting of knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by a human as a member of a society.
Anthropologists who study and research organisations have interest in their members‟ characteristics. In short anthropologists added and researched features of organisational life like values, beliefs, assumptions, rituals, rites and social structures.
A significant amount of studies in sociology has been carried out and applied to organisations. Some researchers like Ouchi and Wilkins (1985) believe that organisational culture is more deeply rooted in sociology than in any other discipline. In the early twentieth century the Sociologist Max Weber introduced the idea of charismatic leadership (Brown, 1998). This led to a number of sociologists who identified other features of organisational life, for example, norms, folkways, ambiguity, and apparent irrationality. (Imran U Khan et al 2010).
According to Schein.s (1981, 1985, 1992) theory, organisational culture is defined as
.A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as a correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems. According the Schein, organisational culture is the learned result of group experiences, and it is to a large extent unconscious . Schein considers culture to be a three-layer phenomenon. (Teemu Reiman & Pia Oedewald 2002)
The first level of culture consists of visible organisational processes and various artefacts. For example, dress codes and the general tidiness of the workplace are artefacts that tell something about the organisation's culture. The first level, according to Schein, is difficult to interpret, however, because it represents the most superficial cultural phenomena, i.e. only reflections of the true corporate culture. For example, behaviour which is a cultural artefact is also influenced by countless factors other than a company's culture, while the second cultural level in the Schein model consists of the organisation's espoused values. (Teemu Reiman & Pia Oedewald 2002)
The second cultural level in the Schein model consists of the organisation's espoused values. These are apparent in, for example, the organisation's official objectives, declared norms and operating philosophy.
The third level is the culture's deepest namely its "underlying assumptions" Underlying assumptions relate to the group.s learned solutions to problems relating to external adaptation and internal integration. Underlying assumptions function as an unconscious basis for action and a range of decisions that shape the culture further. Underlying assumptions, therefore, are not static; culture is in an epistemological sense the creation and recreation of shared reality.
According to Schein, even though underlying assumptions direct the actions of a company's members, the organisation's underlying assumptions cannot be inferred from such actions (which are only cultural artefacts). (Teemu Reiman & Pia Oedewald 2002)
Most of the previous studies were context specific for example Shim (2010) and MacIntosh and Doherty (2009). The models developed were tested only in a single organisation while it should be tested in different types of organisations to check the validity of the model.
Organisational culture researchers and practitioners need a general model that can be applied to different organisations and in different contexts. This is a common limitation in most of the previous researches. However , the main focus of this study is to develop a clear and concise measurement of organizational culture, including its meaning, what constitutes organizational culture, its links or relationship with employee productivity/performance in the service industry (Imran U Khan et al 2010).
RESEARCH PROBLEM
is employee performance/productivity improvement dependent on organizational culture?
RESEARCH HYPHOTHESIS
Organizational culture is a major determinant of employee performance/productivity improvement.
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH : This study is mainly based on analysis of both literature (secondary data ) existing from researches, journal, textbooks which contains a few models developed to describe and measure the effects of organizational culture on employee performance/productivity, participant observation to collect data on naturally occurring behaviours in their usual context e.g employee attitude to work, questionnaires and interviews to collect data on individual perspective and opinion on the study (primary data ).
SAMPLING METHOD AND SIZE : I shall make use of random sampling method to sample opinions, attitudes and perspective of thirty five respondent cutting across the service industry mentioned above research work.
ORGANISATION : I intend to carry out my study based on the data gathered two universities and a big retailing store i.e. service organization and institutions in Nigeria.
LOCATION : these organization and institutions are located within two state of the federal republic of Nigeria, namely Lagos state and Ogun state respectively
ETHICS AND CONFIDENTIALITY : ethical conduct of this research study is guaranteed as no data gathered from any source will be used in such a way that will bring harm to either the source, organization or its workers. organizations/institutions who ask for anonymity of data source shall be granted. However the data gathered during the course of this study shall only be used for academic purpose i.e adding/contributing to academic knowledge.
CHAPTER OUTLINE
My chapter outline shall take the form of empirical outline
Chapter one : introduction
Chapter two : literature review
Chapter three : research design/methodology
Chapter four : research findings and analysis
Chapter five : conclusions and recommendations
TIME SCALE : the first month will be used to gather sufficient data for my study from both primary and secondary data sources, the second month will be used to sort, arrange, edit data collected, third month for revising and production of final text.
This add up to give a time line of three months for the completion of my study
