How Organizational Culture Affects Business Performance

How organizational culture
affects “Business
Performance”Version 1
Tshidiso S. Moetapele
Master of Technology: Business Information Systems (In-progress @TUT)
Business Projects Management (WBS)
Copyright © 2013 Tshidiso S. Moetapele

Contents
o What is “OC”
o What is “BP”
o How to identify and capture “OC”
o Benefits of managing an “OC”
o Literature Review
o Growth paths: Defined and undefined “OC”
o Organizational Culture Quotes
ABBREVIATIONS
OC – Organizational Culture,
BP – Business Performance,
BMP – Business Performance Management
Master of Technology: Business Information Systems (In-progress @TUT)

Although there is no definite definition of what OC really is, many professionals from various fields e.g.
Anthropology, sociology, etc have studied the subject and they all associate OC with the following
(Cameron & Quinn, 2006);
o organizational behavior,
o Organizational values,
o Organizational beliefs,
o Organizational assumptions
o Organizational norms.
o And many other actions that enable business to achieve its brought organizational goals
Consider the following example;
OC is a set of shared values e.g. transparency and believes that assists an employee to understand the role they
have to play in an organization. This provides an employee with a set of guides to the behavior expected from
him/her e.g. going an extra mile to deliver a project / finding a solution to a problem.
What is “Organizational Culture”

What is “Business Performance”
Organizations are required by stakeholders e.g. BoD to run effectively and profitably in order to remain
operational. Business performance usually has three sections;
• Identification of goals, e.g. vision
• Selection and consolidation of measurement frameworks relevant to identified goals e.g. Strategy.
• Strategic drivers that will ensure that we achieve identified goals e.g. Business model
BP just like BPM and OC lacks a cohesive body of knowledge but all management areas e.g. operational
management, HR management, IS, marketing, and OC contribute to business’s positive performance and if
business fail to identify and manage OC this might lead to confusion in form of a business conflict.
Consider the following example;
Business’s ability or criteria used to measure current goals against planned goals, along the processes
identifying lacking areas , opportunities and applying remedial actions (when necessary), this process is often
referred to as Business Performance Measurement.

How to ID & Capture Organization Culture
Step 1
Identify what Organizational Culture is (definitions), specific to
the industry an organization is operation on.
Step 2
Identify and capture by interviews, observations, etc what
organizational culture mean to organizational resources
e.g. employees, systems, etc
Step 3
From the results of step 2, compile a definition of what
organizational culture is for the organization
Step 4
Create an Organization Culture inline (and supporting) with
broad organizational strategy, just like other management
areas within any organization.
Step 5
Resell and share OC strategy with stakeholders for “buy in” and
“continuous improvement”.

Benefits of managing Organizational Culture
According to Long & Fahey, OC is gradually growing as an obstacle to optimal usage of organizational resources
if not identified and managed (Long & Fahey, 2000). It is by default divided into sub-cultures which all conform
to the broad organizational culture.
Below are some of the benefits associated with a managed organizational culture;
o Increased organizational competitiveness
o Sustained organizational performance
o Operational excellence e.g. reduced operating costs, increased customer satisfaction, etc
o Organizational attractiveness (internal and external)
o Strengthen and unite an organization

Literature Review
Failure for departments not conforming to the main organizational culture, usually lead to a department being
perceived as working in silos, conflict with departments and sometimes customers. Organization culture plays
a pivotal role in any organizational setting as it can choose, advise which and where the organization’s strategic
efforts needs to be directed to achieve defined strategic goals / target and can also decide the strategic
patterns of an organizations (Qun L. , 2006).
Li Qun continues by saying that organizational culture plays an important role when an organization is
concerned about long term sustainability, remaining profitable and being competitive. As per my theoretical
framework illustrated in the next slide, if an organization is concerned with being profitable or being able to
deliver on its services, it will focus efforts and organizational activities that will enable it to be in operation and
ensure that it is on the right path of growth. Circle in red are our areas of concern, why we will be studying this
phenomenon.

Organizational growth path for…
An organization without defined and managed OC
An organization with defined and managed OC

"...We believe that organizations will ultimately get only as far as their organizational
cultures take them.“ by Dynamic Foundations LLC

Master of Technology in Business Information Systems (In-progress @ TUT)
moetapele@gmail.com
+278 3 7501 609
END

How Organizational Culture Affects Business Performance

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