Organizational Culture and Performance

Discuss about the Multilevel Latent Polynomial Regression.

This is a study which will identify the impact of organizational culture on the performance of organizations. In this study, Coles has been chosen as the organization where the study will identify the organizational culture and its effect on business performance in Coles. Coles has been facing in gaining competitive advantage in the market and have been losing their share in the market so the influence of organization culture will be identified in this scenario.

Coles is one of the largest chains of supermarkets in Australia and faces tough competition from Woolworths and Aldi.  Recently, the organization has been falling behind in terms of their sales and revenue generation (Coles.com.au, 2018). Organization culture is a key pillar for developing effective goals, values and workforce engagement. The study will identify the drawbacks with the organization culture within Coles and recommend strategies to improve the organizational behaviour for improving organizational performance.

Organizational culture determines the norms, values and the objectives of a particular organization. There is culture difference in different countries and organizations which can be determined by their differences on their policies. The behaviour of an organization is reflected by the organizational and practices they follow. The head of big data in Coles commented that culture is holding back the organizations in Australia as they are still reluctant in adopting open source. Coles has seen its affect on it in the market of 2017 when Woolworths were able t take back their lead in terms of market share (McLean, 2016). The global business scenario has changed significantly and the companies in the market will have to constantly adapt to the changing need in the market. Therefore, developing a diverse and flexible work culture is a key to organizational success. It is essential to identify the impact of organizational culture on the organization performance in Coles. This will facilitate in identifying the important elements of organization culture and organizational performance. The impact of different elements of organization on the factors of the organization will be identified to develop suitable strategies for improving the organizational culture in Coles.

• To identify the current organisational culture at Coles
• To identify the impact of organizational culture on the performance of Coles
• To recommend suitable strategies for improving organizational culture in Coles
• What are the different elements of organizational culture in Coles?
• What is the impact of organizational culture on organizational performance in Coles?

H₀: There is no impact of organizational culture on organizational performance in Coles

H₁: There is impact of organizational culture on organizational performance in Coles

As stated by Hogan and Coote, (2014), organizational culture determines the norms, objectives and values of any organization. The cultural differences between the different companies exist as they operate in different environment and they belong to a different country they have different values and norms.  The management of different organization have to introduce the employees to the cultural beliefs and the goals of the organization so that the employees can align their goals to that of the organizational gaols. Effective development of organizational culture ensures enhancement in performance by learning from the surrounding environment and perform at their fullest capacity at all times. On the other hand, as put forward by O’Reilly III et al., (2014), organizational culture is not a tool or strategy that could be used to enhance the performance of the employees and organization. Moreover, the author also states that organization culture and performance are not interrelated and there are other effective ways of improving the organizational performance. Therefore, in this scenario, the literature review will aim to prove that organizational culture can be used as element of performance management and there is a significant relationship between organizational culture and organizational performance.

Effective Organizational Culture for Enhancing Performance

According to Lonial and Carter, (2015), shared beliefs, values and the basic assumption constitute the culture of any organization. The organizational culture is present at different levels within the organization. There are generally three levels in organizational culture which consist of factors such as creations, values, assumptions and artefacts. The organization defines the behaviour of the employees that are acceptable and at the same time defines the restrictions imposed on the employees.  However, the organizational culture is not homogeneous across various departments with the organization.  This is because of the fact that there are norms which are well accepted by the employees and there are others which are not. As stated by (), as time progresses different departments and groups develop their own set of culture which may consist of different values and norms.  Zyphur, Zammuto and Zhang, (2016), states organization culture starts from various assumptions formed by the groups, which help them to perceive and make decisions according to their beliefs. Therefore, different organizations have unique value which is different to other organizations. There are some organizations which focuses on innovation, self-improvement and technology and there are others emphasizing on passion, honesty and integrity.

As opined by Valmohammadi and Roshanzamir, (2015), in order to develop a strong organizational culture, the organization focuses on maximizing the values of the employees so that a strong culture can be developed. The organization culture can be measured by the amount of work by the degree of cooperation between the management and the employees within the organization. There are clear rules about the different behaviour of the organization. Moreover, it will be used for the organization to make changes such as coordination and integration of different units in business. The Hofstede’s cultural dimension is the effective framework of defining the culture of organizations in different countries. It also consist of defining the national culture in different countries based on the factors such as individualism versus collectivism, power distance, uncertainty avoidance., masculinity/femininity, and long term versus short term orientation. The national culture will have deep impact on the culture of the organization.

The ability of the organization to maintain their sustainability in highly competitive environment is known as organizational performance.  Organizations make use of balance scorecard to measure the performance of the employees and the different dimensions of the performance measurement are financial perspective, learning perspective, customer perspective and internal business perspective (Pollanen et al., 2017).  Comprehensive measurement of the organization can b done based on factors such as quality, consistency and performance. Performance measurement is a tool, which should be effectively used by the organization to continuously measure the performance of the organization.

Literature Review

The cultural system in every organization has been developed to guide the employees in making decisions. The behaviour of the employees is highly affected by the culture within a organization which includes the values and shared beliefs. The performance of the organization and its four functions are enhanced by the organizational culture. This includes factors such as using control mechanism to shape the patterns in behaviour, organizational commitment, creating sense of identity and intensification of the organizational values (Lonial & Carter, 2015). Therefore, effective development of the organizational culture will ensure that employees improve their team bonding and help each other to progress towards the goals of the stakeholders. Moreover, the employees can align their personal goals with that of the organization by incorporating the values and beliefs. This develops a sense of belonging among the employees which helps in motivating them.

The current literatures used in the study focuses on identifying the impact on the organization on organizational performance based on performance management. However, it does not take into account the other aspect of organization performance. The analysis of the literature is generic and is not linked to any of the sectors. Majority of the literature have not taken into the account performance management and significance of performance management will be evaluated.  There is no empirical literature that has been used to provide details about the organization culture in companies in the same industry. Moreover, the impact of organization culture discussed is general and different cultural values and beliefs have not been taken into account. The motivational factors are not taken into account as organizational culture has a deep link with the motivation.

Research methodology is the systematic approach of identifying the different methods and frameworks for developing relevant findings in accordance to the objective of the research. The different methods in research are dependent on the nature of the research, purpose of the research, research design and general classification. Therefore, based on this factors research methodology can be divided into various categories such as conclusive or exploratory, applied or fundamental, descriptive or analytical and qualitative or quantitative (Flick, 2015). However, based on the nature of the study the research methodology can be divided into applied research and fundamental research. In this current study, a specific problem related to a particular company has been addressed. The result from the study can be used by managers in the organization to implement changes. Therefore, applied research is the correct research for this current study.

Research Methodology

The different methods of collecting and analyzing data will be identified using the research philosophy. Research philosophy will clearly define the different assumptions made in the study. The research philosophy will be chosen based on the practical implication. The different types of research philosophy are realism, intepretivism, pragmatism and positivism (Humphries, 2017). In this current study, pragmatism is the chosen research philosophy which will accept or reject different concepts justified by their actions. In this philosophy, there is multiple numbers of ways of interpreting a research as multiple realities exists at the same time. In general, positivism and interpretivism are two theories that are mutually exclusive and pragmatism is used to modify the philosophical assumptions.  This is generally done by shifting the position of the dogmas to a different position on the range. Moreover, it will facilitate in conducting both qualitative and quantitative analysis of data and prove the developed hypothesis.

Adductive approach, deductive approach and inductive approach are the different approaches in research. Deductive and Inductive can be differentiated depending upon the research objective and hypothesis formulated.  Abductive approach will present shocking facts and remaining part of the study will be used for explaining the reason for these facts.  Deductive approach is used to validate the existing theories by testing the developed hypothesis (Sekaran, & Bougie, 2016). On the other hand, the inductive approach is used for developing new paradigms and framework. In this study, the deductive approach will be chosen as the research approach as it facilitate in improving the observational scope.

Research design describes the specific methods that will be used for data collection, usage and analysis. The different research designs are conclusive, exploratory and explanatory research (Meyers, Gamst & Guarino, 2016).  Exploratory research is used for exploration data without any of developing relevant conclusion. However, the explorative study will analyze secondary data to develop alternate solutions to the research problem. In conclusive study, the conclusive study will be used to prove the assumed conclusion. Explanatory method is used for explaining and interpreting the observed data. In this current study, mixed method will be used for data collection and data collection so sequential explanatory is the correct research method for the study (Lamont et al., 2015). In this study, initially quantitative data collection and analysis will be conducted to develop result and then qualitative analysis will be conducted. The purpose of conducting qualitative analysis of data is to assist in understanding, explaining and interpreting the data analysis from quantitative data.

This study will consist of quantitative and qualitative analysis of data as mixed method is the research design.  The studies will primary data collection where both quantitative and qualitative data will be collected (Dumbach, 2014). The quantitative data collection will consist of close ended questionnaire where the data will be collected from the lower level employees in the organization. The qualitative data will consist of open ended questionnaire which will consist of gathering long answer from management level officials in the organization. The data analysis will conducted through two phases where the quantitative data analysis will use statistical techniques such as frequency of the response to develop graphs and charts. This will also consist of regression analysis which will used to identify the degree and the nature of relationship between the independent and the dependent variable.  Moreover, it will facilitate in testing the developed hypothesis in the study. The qualitative analysis will identify patterns in the data collected to form a different dimension in the study.

Sampling is used to reduce the overall population into suitable sample size which can be easily calculated and analyzed. The cost of analyzing primary data is high and sampling will facilitate in identifying samples that is necessary for the study. There are two types of sampling methods, one is one is non-probabilistic sampling and other is probabilistic sampling (Palinkas et al., 2015). In this study, probabilistic sampling will be used where randomization is the basis for selecting sample population.  Cluster sampling is the method that will be used where multi staged sampling will be used. This means that systematic, stratified and simple random sampling will be to collect sample size. Initially, in this study, the sample for quantitative analysis will be 200 and for qualitative analysis will be 10. However, sampling will be used to reduce the sample size for quantitative to 100 and sample size for qualitative analysis to be 5.

Reliability is the ability of the study to reproduce the results and high reliability ensures that the developed model is highly effective. Initially, the questionnaire will be developed and distributed among 20 respondents to identify whether the desired answers are received. This will confirm the effectiveness of the questionnaire and this method is known as pilot testing (Csikszentmihalyi & Larson, 2014). When the reliability of the questionnaire has been measured, the study will use test rated reliability to check the effectiveness of the model. This will consist of using multiple samples to check whether similar results are obtained or not.

The study will aim to maintain the privacy of the respondents by keeping their anonymity. The data collected will not be used for another purpose in order to follow the privacy protection act (Partridge & Allman, 2016). The respondents will be made aware of the purpose of the research in order to maintain the objectivity. Moreover, the respondents will not be forced to take part in the research and they will participate on their own. The study will not manipulate data to develop suitable findings.

Main activities/ stages	Week1	Week2	Week3	Week4	Week5	Week 6
Topic Selection	ü
Data collection from secondary sources	ü	ü
Framing layout of the research		ü
Literature review		ü	ü	ü
Formation of the research Plan			ü	ü
Selection of the Appropriate Research Techniques				ü	ü
Primary data collection					ü	ü
Analysis & Interpretation of Data Collection					ü	ü
Conclusion of the Study						ü
Formation of Rough Draft						ü
Submission of Final Work						ü

References

Coles.com.au. (2018). About Coles. Coles.com.au. Retrieved 14 April 2018, from https://www.coles.com.au/about-coles

Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Larson, R. (2014). Validity and reliability of the experience-sampling method. In Flow and the foundations of positive psychology (pp. 35-54). Springer Netherlands.

Dumbach, M. (2014). Data collection and analysis. In Establishing Corporate Innovation Communities (pp. 70-78). Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden.

Flick, U. (2015). Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project. Sage.

Hogan, S. J., & Coote, L. V. (2014). Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A test of Schein’s model. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), 1609-1621.

Humphries, B. (2017). Re-thinking social research: anti-discriminatory approaches in research methodology. Taylor & Francis.

Lamont, S., Brunero, S., Lyons, S., Foster, K., & Perry, L. (2015). Collaboration amongst clinical nursing leadership teams: a mixed?methods sequential explanatory study. Journal of nursing management, 23(8), 1126-1136.

Lonial, S. C., & Carter, R. E. (2015). The impact of organizational orientations on medium and small firm performance: A resource?based perspective. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), 94-113.

Lonial, S. C., & Carter, R. E. (2015). The impact of organizational orientations on medium and small firm performance: A resource?based perspective. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), 94-113.

McLean, A. (2016). ?Culture and lack of skills holding back Australia’s open source adoption: Coles | ZDNet. ZDNet. Retrieved 14 April 2018, from https://www.zdnet.com/article/culture-and-lack-of-skills-holding-back-australias-open-source-adoption-coles/

Meyers, L. S., Gamst, G., & Guarino, A. J. (2016). Applied multivariate research: Design and interpretation. Sage publications.

O’Reilly III, C. A., Caldwell, D. F., Chatman, J. A., & Doerr, B. (2014). The promise and problems of organizational culture: CEO personality, culture, and firm performance. Group & Organization Management, 39(6), 595-625.

Palinkas, L. A., Horwitz, S. M., Green, C. A., Wisdom, J. P., Duan, N., & Hoagwood, K. (2015). Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42(5), 533-544.

Partridge, C., & Allman, M. (2016). Ethical considerations in network measurement papers. Communications of the ACM, 59(10), 58-64.

Pollanen, R., Abdel-Maksoud, A., Elbanna, S., & Mahama, H. (2017). Relationships between strategic performance measures, strategic decision-making, and organizational performance: empirical evidence from Canadian public organizations. Public Management Review, 19(5), 725-746.

Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Valmohammadi, C., & Roshanzamir, S. (2015). The guidelines of improvement: Relations among organizational culture, TQM and performance. International Journal of Production Economics, 164, 167-178.

Zyphur, M. J., Zammuto, R. F., & Zhang, Z. (2016). Multilevel latent polynomial regression for modeling (in) congruence across organizational groups: The case of organizational culture research. Organizational Research Methods, 19(1), 53-79.