To the staff of the School of Process and Mechanical Engineering for participating in this study and. Among the issues faced by the line managers at the School of Process and Mechanical Engineering are the low morale of staff; high staff turnover rates and tensions within the School of Process and Mechanical Engineering.
CHAPTER ONE
- Introduction
- Background
- Problem Statement
- Background to Problem Statement
- Problem Statement
- Research Objectives
- The Research Design and Methodology
- Research Group
- Method of Data collection
- Data Analysis
- Limitations of the Research
- Summary
A quantitative approach was followed as this study focused on assessing the current and preferred organizational culture within the School of Process and Mechanical Engineering. This study aims to evaluate the current culture of the School of Process and Mechanical Engineering using an appropriate model/framework.
CHAPTER TWO Literature Review
Introduction
Different Perspectives within Organisational Culture
To understand the power of culture, perspectives and definitions of organizational culture must be investigated. Sociologists such as Emile Durkheim and Max Weber believed that by studying rituals they were able to understand the most basic values and beliefs of a group of individuals (Ott, 1989).
Definitions of Organisational Culture
Schwartz and Davis (1981) define culture as the pattern of beliefs and expectations shared by members of an organization. Kreitner and Kinicki (1995) define culture as the social glue that binds the members of an organization together.
Models/Frameworks of Organisational Culture
- The Ouchi Framework
- The Peters and Waterman Approach
- Schein's Framework
- Rousseau's Model
- The Harrison/Handy Classification
- The Quinn and McGrath Classification
- The Scholz Classification
- The Norms Diagnostic Index
- Athos and Pascale's 7-S Model
- Kilmann's Five Step for Closing Cultural Gaps
- Goffee and Jones's Model
The task culture also known as performance culture is based on the values of competence, growth, success and excellence. Therefore, organizations exist to help the individuals as opposed to the individuals helping the organization. Harrison (1992) points out that this culture is not results-oriented and works best if it coexists with a performance culture in the organization.
Two factors, the degree of risk that the organization takes in its activities and the speed at which the company and its employees obtain feedback on the decision/strategies, are used to determine the culture. The organization emphasizes long-term benefit from human resource development and values cohesion, shared values and goals, individuality,. The organization's long-term success is based on rapid growth and the acquisition of new products (Cameron and Quinn, 1999).
There is little or no identification with the organization and employees are judged solely on their productivity and quality of work delivered. Leaders from such cultures tend to be inspirational and charismatic with a clear vision of the organization's future.
The Significance of Organisational Culture
The models/frameworks identified to analyze organizational culture are not all-inclusive and many more models exist. Based on this literature survey, the Quinn and McGrath framework is used to establish the organizational culture within the School of Process and Mechanical Engineering. Organizational culture provides employees with a focus on identification, honesty, association and a sense of importance to the organization.
Because culture promotes coordination and control, reduces uncertainty and enriches motivation, the organization can improve its effectiveness and efficiency and thus increase its chances of being a successful player in the industry. Robbins (1998) suggests that since organizational culture is shared by the majority of organizational members, culture improves workplace stability. Culture thus serves as a control mechanism that shapes employee attitudes and behaviors to meet appropriate standards, revealing a bonding function that helps hold the organization together.
Summary
Introduction
Permission was obtained from Cameron K.S (2003) to use the OCAI to determine the organizational culture of the School of Process and Mechanical Engineering. In terms of validity, in 1991 Cameron and Freeman (Cameron and Quinn, 1999) provided evidence for the validity of the OCAI in their study of organizational culture in 344 higher education institutions and provided strong evidence for concurrent validity. Twenty-three of the twenty-four comparisons were consistent with expectations, providing support for discriminant validity.
In sixteen of the twenty-four scales, this was the case, providing moderate support for discriminant validity. In the final test, the same pattern of interrelationships was expected to exist within and between each of the independent methods. For each cultural type, Cronbach's coefficient alpha was calculated, which measures the degree to which the items of the instruments are homogeneous and reflect the same underlying construct.
Research Group
In addition, Yeung, Brockbank and Ulrich conducted a study in 1991 (Cameron and Quinn, 1999) in which 10,300 executives in 1,064 companies were asked to rate their organizational culture. Different questions were classified into appropriate culture types and reliability coefficients were calculated. Their scores were 0.79 for clan culture, 0.80 for adhocracy culture, 0.76 for hierarchy culture, and 0.77 for market culture.
In terms of usability, the researcher felt that the DCAI was economically viable as minimal costs were incurred in reproducing the instrument and further conducting a follow-up questionnaire. The ease with which the DCAI was administered supports the convenience of the DCAI and third, the interpretability of the DCAI was straightforward as the designer of the DCAI provided a lot of information about the DCAI. Given the population size of 52 individuals and the fact that their perceptions may vary, a census survey was appropriate.
Data Collection
Data Analysis
These averages were used to present the current and preferred cultural profiles of the School of Process and Mechanical Engineering in the Organization Profile form found in Appendix 3.
Summary
Using the GCAI research instrument, provided by Cameron and Quinn (1999), data were collected on employees' perceptions of the existing and desired organizational culture. This chapter discusses the analysis of the data and the interpretation of the findings. The results of the GCAI were tabulated and the mean of each column A, BC and D was calculated (Table 14 and Table 15).
The average overall results obtained for current and preferred culture are shown in Table 6. Mechanical Engineering was then plotted diagonally on the Organizational Profile Form (Appendix 3) using the values from Table 6. The current and preferred organizational culture of The School for Process and Mechanical Engineering can be seen in Figure 9. The profile in Figure 9 shows that the School of Process and Mechanical Engineering is currently trending towards a hierarchy culture, which is awarded 38.77 points.
Interpretation of the Culture Profiles
- Dominant Organisational Culture
- Organisational Leadership
- Organisational Effectiveness and Management Theory Cherrington (1994) defines effectiveness as a measure of the
- Discrepancies between the present and the preferred culture From Figure 9, it is clear that current hierarchy type culture needs to be
- Strength of the Cultural Type
- Congruence of Cultural Dimensions
- Congruence of Question 3: Management of Employees Question 3 is related to the management style and the profile is plotted in
- Congruence of Question 4: Organisational Glue
- Congruence of Question 5: Strategic Emphasis
- Congruence of Question 6: Criteria of Success
- Trends in Organisational Cultural Types
- Trend 1
- Trend 2
- Trend 3
The principal of the Faculty of Process and Mechanical Engineering was informed of the results of this study. Regarding the current culture, the statement rated highest by respondents was “School is a very controlled and structured place. This is a characteristic of a hierarchical type culture and is consistent with the general type of culture, which is a hierarchical type culture.
Regarding the desired culture, the highest rated statement was: “The school is very results oriented. This is a characteristic of marketing culture and is consistent with popular general organizational culture. A comparison of the profile of the head of the organization (Figure 11) with the overall culture of the organization (Figure 9) shows that the profile of the head of the organization is consistent with the overall culture of the organization.
Comparing Figure 12 with Figure 9 shows the strength of employment security found within the School of Process and Mechanical Engineering. In the case of the current and preferred cultural profiles of the School of Process and Mechanical Engineering, this was not observed.
Summary
CHAPTERS
Conclusion and Recommendations
Conclusions
The second objective was to determine the organizational culture of the School of Process and Mechanical Engineering. This objective was achieved using the Organizational Culture Assessment Tool, which is based on the Competitive Values Framework. The Organizational Culture Assessment Tool made it possible to diagnose the current as well as the preferred organizational culture.
It was found that the current dominant organizational culture was the hierarchy culture, which focuses on internal control and stability. The last objective was achieved by making the line management aware of the results of this study. In addition, Section 5.2 highlights some of the recommendations provided to line management to facilitate the transformation from a hierarchy-dominant culture to a market-dominant culture.
Recommendations
- Organisational Changes
- Managing Competitiveness
- Energizing Employees
- Managing Customer Service
More emphasis should be placed on the relevance of the material delivered to the consumer. One of the new objectives of Technikon Witwatersrand is that every school must be self-sufficient. It was further noted that this suggestion takes place at the school level in the form of the Open Day competition.
According to Cameron and Quinn (1999), positive energy in an organization strongly depends on the personal mood and behavior of the leader. Undertake academic staff review for two years in terms of student review and management review. This information would help students to remain anonymous and could only improve the quality of the School.
1993), Organization Theory: A Strategic Approach, Richard D. 2001), Organizational Culture in the Public Sector: Evidence from Six Organizations, International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 2001), Positive Organizational Culture (On1ine), Available at http:www.adtimes.nstp.com.my/jobstory/200l/apr14b. 1999), The Corporate Culture: Survival Guide, 1st edition, Jossey-Bass Publishers: San Francisco. New Insights on Organizational Change (online), available at http:www.new-paradigm.co.uk/cu1ture-complex.html, accessed 20 January 2003 48.Struwig, F.W., Smith, E.E. Organizational Culture and Strategy Making in South African Enterprises, South African Journal of Business Management, Vol. 1990), Can Questionnaires Objectively Assess Organizational Culture, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Vo15, Issue 4, Page 4.
Subject: FW: Assessing Organizational Culture in the School of Mechanical, Process and Industrial Engineering. I am conducting a survey to assess the organizational culture that exists within our School of Process and Mechanical Engineering using a diagnostic tool called the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) as developed by K.S. Cameron and R. Quinn. Please ensure that over 4 cells added up to 100 Permission has been obtained to use the aCAI to diagnose the current and preferred culture of the School of Precess and Mechanical Engineering (Cameron K.S., 2003).
