Abstract

The aim of this research study was to expand the base of knowledge and empirically test the influence of organizational culture on employee job performance at Cameroon Development Corporation Tiko.

The study revolved around three specific objectives: To what extent does the organization‘s quest as an element of organizational culture influence employee job performance? To what extent does involvement as an element of organizational culture influence employee job performance? To what extent does consistency as an element of organizational culture influence employee job performance?

A substantial aspect of the study involved collecting data through the instrumentation of self-administered questionnaires and interview from a population of one hundred (100) employees. The data collected were classified, analyzed and the percentages of the findings presented in a table. The analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).

A descriptive analysis and chi square analyses were triangulated with both qualitative and quantitative tools of analysis in which the calculated values of chi-square equals (176.3, 105.76 and 125.646) and are greater than the critical value of 26.296.

The result conducted using these variables show that organisational quest and culture of involvement significantly affect employee’s performance at CDC Tiko which is in line with the first and second hypothesis (H1and H2).

Furthermore, consistency as an organisational culture has a significant impact on employee’s performance at CDC Tiko which is in line with the third hypothesis H3. With the context of this result, it is highly recommended to manufacturing industry such as CDC to find the appropriate way of the two organisational cultures to ensure an acceptable performance of employees.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Organisational culture encompasses values and behaviours that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organisation. According to needle (2004), organisational culture represents the collective values, beliefs and principle of organisational members and it a product of factors such as history, product, market, technology, strategy, type of employees, management style, and national culture; culture includes the organisation’s vision, value, norms, systems, symbols, language, assumptions, environment, location, belief and habits.

The terms culture in the organisational context was first introduced by Dr. Elliott Jaques in his book “The changing culture of factory” in 1951. This is the published report of a case study of developments in the social life of one industrial community between April, 1948 and November 1950. This case is a publicly held British company engages principally in manufacture, sales, and servicing of metal bearings.

The study is concerned with the description, analysis, and development of the corporate group behaviours. According to Dr. Elliotte Jaques th culture of the factory is its customary and traditional way of thinking and doing of thigs, which is shared to a greater or lesser degree by all its members, and which new member must learn and at least partially accept. In order to be accepted into service in the firm. In simple terms, to the extent that people can share common wishes, desired and aspirations, they can commit themselves to work together. It is a matter of being able to care about the same things, and it applies to nations as well as to associations and organisations within nation.

There has been significant research in the literature to explore the impact of organisational culture on employee’s performance and productivity, for instance, scholars (Hofstede, 1980; ouchi, 1981; Hofstede and Bond, 1988; Kotter & Heskett, 1992; Magee, 2002) state that organisational culture could be used for measuring economic performance of an organisation. Therefore a supportive culture as pointed out by Ritchie (2000) is considered as a motivational instrument which promotes the employees to perform smoothly and ensures better productivity (Ritchie, 2000).

Research has been carried out on various issues of organisational culture, for example, organisational culture types (Tharp, 2009) emphasize the stages of culture across the organisation whereas organisational psychology (Schein, 1990) focusses on how culture make an impact on employees psychology and performance, these two issues of organisational culture set up equilibrium where an organisation can achieve its maximum level of effectiveness and efficiency (Deem, Barnes, Segal &Preziosi, 2000)

Notwithstanding the organisational culture and employee performance have been studied over the past decades. The relationship between organizational culture and employee has been the subject or abundant. This study has been examined by many researchers (Kotter and Heskett 1992; Denison, 1990; Van der Post et al. 1998; Schwartz & Davis, 1981; Ojo, 2009). Despite the plethora of studies on corporate culture in the last few decades, there is no widely accepted causal relationship between corporate culture and performance.

The empirical evidence emerging from various studies about the impact of organisational culture on employees performance have so far yielded mixed results that are inconclusive and contradictory. Furthermore, there is no empirical research conducted on the impact of organisational culture on employee’s performance particularly from emerging country perspective like Cameroon. Very little attentions have been given to the manufacturing industries.

This means that the impact of organisational culture on employee’s performance in the manufacturing industry such as CDC has not received adequate research attentions in Cameroon. Thus, there is a major gap in the relevant literature on Cameroon which has to be covered by research. This research attempts to fill this gap by studying the situation of the Cameroon’s manufacturing industry and providing more empirical evidence on the effects of organisational culture on employee performance based on Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) level of data.

Since multinational corporations have been extending their cooperation in emerging countries, this would be critical to examine how organisational culture affects employee performance and productivity. The main aim of the paper is to examine the effects of organisational culture on employee’s performance and productivity in the context of Cameroon development corporation (CDC)

The Cameroon development corporation is an agro-industrial complex that grows process and market tropical crops. It operates in Cameroon in the central Africa sub-region. It is a parastatal company and its operation management is directed by a Board of Directors headed by a chairman currently, its plantation covers a total of approximately 41000 hectares of land, 3800 hectares of which is mature and of production stage. The corporation constitutes a workforce of over 15700 employees including temporal workers, making it the second highest employer after the state of Cameroon. Its major products include; banana, semi-finished rubber, palm oil and palm kernel.

The CDC launches new banana brand name the ‘Tiko Banana” on March 31st 2014’ the Cameroon development corporation launched a new banana brand name as ‘Tiko”. According to the General Manager of the CDC, Mr Franklin Ngoni Njie, “the Tiko is destined for the African sub- region for a start”. As time goes on the European market will be explored. Other brand names of banana produced by the CDC include; makossa, sawa, savanna Euro and so on.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The responsibility of the management is to enshrine good cultural values which will eliminate negative behavior and enhance the performance of the employees and foster a positive workplace environment or a positive organisational culture.

For Davoren (2014) organisational culture consists of a framework which determines the behavior of employees in the organisation. It is a pattern of shared belief, assumptions, values and beliefs that provide the awareness what is considered appropriate and inappropriate behavior in an organisation.

Success indicator such as revenue, sales volume, market share, and stock prices leading to realization of organisational goals are the result of employee’s performance as a result of goods organisational culture. Maintaining an organisational culture where employees are recognized as an integral part of the organisation’s growth process result in employee commitment towards the organisation. They are motivated to make positive contribution to the attainment of the goals and objectives of the organisation’s and feel responsible for the overall well-being of the organisation. Consequently when the management rewards the employees accordingly it leads to employees’ performance and organisational success.

Organisational culture should also take cognizance of the culture of the environment so as not to operate an organisation that is antagonistic to the environment as firm interacts with the wider society. Upholding the wrong culture could result in poor employee performance and organisational failure.

The relationship between corporate culture and performance has been the subject of decade’s research in several fields, including strategic management, organisational behavior, and industrial organisation. This study has been examined by many researchers (Kotter and Heskett 1992; Denison, 1990; Van der Post et al. 1998; Schwartz and Davis, 1981; Scholz, 1987; Choe, 1993; Rashid and Anantharaman, 1997; Deshpande and Farely, 1999; Ojo, 2009).

Despite the plethora of studies on corporate culture in the last few decades, there is no widely accepted causal relationship between corporate culture and performance, the empirical evidence emerging from various studies about the impact of organisational culture on employees performance have so far yielded mixed results that are inconclusive and contradictory.

Because of this contradictory results, the question of whether organisational culture improve or worsens employees performance is still worthy of further research. In addition, despite the existence of these studies, not much research has been given the manufacturing industry. This means that the impact of organisational culture on employee performance in the manufacturing industry such as CDC has not received adequate research attention in Cameroon.

This study was intended to fill this gap by studying the situation of the Cameroon manufacturing industry and providing more empirical evidence on the impact of organisational culture on employee performance. This knowledge gap also comes in the sense that little has been done to bring out the joint effect of the four traits in Denison’s model underlying organisational culture on each of the four measures of employees job performance in the manufacturing industry.

This study will therefore examine the influence of three of the four traits: involvement, consistence and mission on employee performance in CDC. Therefore, the problem confronting the research is to investigate the impact of organisational culture on employee performance. A case study of Cameroon development corporation CDC Tiko

1.3 Research Questions

1.3.1 Main Question

To what extend does the organisational culture affect the employees’ performance?

1.3.2 Specific Research Questions

1. To what extent does the organizational mission as an element of organizational culture influence employee’s performance?
2. What is the extent to which employee involvement as an element of organizational culture influences employee’s performance?
3. To what extent does consistency as an element of organizational culture influence employee performance?

Check out: Public Administration Project Topics with Materials