ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

Organisational Culture and Its Impact on Employee Morale, Commitment and Business Performance

Organisational Culture and Its Impact on Employee Morale, Commitment and Business Performance

Introduction

IBT Ltd has been in the software market for over 30 years. The organization has grown significantly but they do not have any HR department in place. This has a negative impact on the organisation. In particular, the top management are under stress as they have the added responsibility to take care of HR issues such as training, framing polices and practices. This study aims to benefit IBT in assessing the current situation in the workplace. The outcome of the study is expected to influence IBS in re-thinking its attitude toward staff. Such a strategy can help IBT to survive the economic downturn, continue to be the market leader and improve staff morale and trust which at present is very low and negative and to improve the high staff turnover with younger members of staff.

Organisational culture has received much attention in the last two decades due to its effects and potential impact on organisational success (Goffee & Jones 2004, 13-19). The pioneering work of Deal and Kennedy (1982) incited the interest of researchers and consultants to the concept of corporate culture, and how these values and philosophy guide the employees' behaviour in the IBT Ltd towards greater success. Consequently, several researches have been conducted to identify the nature and type of corporate culture in organisations. The purpose was to elicit the key values, beliefs, and norms in an organisation that has given much impetus to the success and superior performance of the organisation. Kotter and Heskett (1992), for example, believe that corporate culture has a long-term impact on the performance of the organisation. Denison (1990) found that certain types of culture could enhance organisational performance, while Van der Post et al. (1998) found significant relationships between organisational culture and performance. It is also believed that corporate culture is related to organisational strategy, particularly in the implementation of a selected strategy in an organisation (Schwartz and Davis, 1981; Scholz, 1987; Choe, 1993; Rashid and Anantharaman, 1997). Deshpande and Farley (1999) found that the corporate culture of successful Indian and Japanese firms were quite different in their marketing orientation.

The above studies suggest that corporate culture is an important component in the field of organisational behaviour, particularly in trying to better understand the context of organisations and the people managing the organisation. This implies that corporate culture could affect the success of organisations in trying to achieve its goals and objectives. While this may be true, the commitment of the people in the IBT Ltd is also essential to ensure the successful implementation of the organisational policies and plans. It is argued, that while shaping the appropriate values or culture that is important to the organisation, ensuring the necessary level of commitment among employees or managers are unequivocally important so as to ensure successful implementation of the organisational strategies and plans of actions.

Organisational commitment is a psychological state that characterizes ...