2.0 Introduction
Review Of Related Literature
The review of related literature will be based on two points of views Viz: the conceptual frame and theoretical framework.
2.1 Conceptual Frame Work
In ordinary usage, Culture refers to the finer things of life. It denote such things as good taste, fined manner, class achievement, appreciation of fine arts, and music or literature (Adelakun, 1990:141).
Culture is meant to meditate the level of sophistication of the individual. In this sense a person who does the right thing in the right way is referred to as a “ cultured man”. On the other hand, somebody whose behaviour is deemed to be at a level of crudity is regarded as unrefined “uncultured”. The definition of culture cannot be defined in terms of one person possessing it and another lacking it.
It is fact inconvincible to have human being who lack culture (Adelakun, 1990:143).Culture also refers to all non-biological actions and behaviors of a man as a product of his culture. For example, the functioning of the ear, nose, eye etc is “biologically” determined.
The usage of any part of the body to communicate appreciation or social disapproval is cultural and not biologically determined, and it is being learned. Human beings learn all such behaviors as greeting , shaking of hands and interaction. Such learned ways of doing things that are modified from time-to-time and passed from generation to generation is what is referred to as culture of the people (Barridam,1990:145).
Nida (1993:201) agrees that culture is learned behaviors from our social environment, which is passed or transferred from generation to generation. Also culture not what we inherited from our genes or biologically determined. Shapard and green (2001:198) say that culture define how people in a society behave in relation to others and to physical objects.
Culture consists of the knowledge, language, value, custom and physical objects that are passed from generation to generation among members of a group.
In addition, shapard and green (op cit) are of the opinion that culture helps to explain human social behavior. What people do and do not do, what they like and dislike, what they value and discount are all based on culture. Culture provides the blueprint that people in the society or organization use to guide their relationship with each other. Culture and society are tightly interwoven. One cannot exist without the other. But they are not identical. A society or organization is a group of people who come together or live in a common place while culture is that society’s total way of life (Shapared and Green 2001: 203).
Fundamentally, it can be seen that human behavior then is based on culture, and culture is the total way of life of a given people. It includes such things as the pattern of behaviour, the attitude, norm, value, object, skill, belief system and world out-look which human beings learn and adopt as members of a given group of society. Since people are not born knowing their culture. Organization cultural behaviour must be learned. It must also be modified and transfer generation to generation.
The concept of organizational culture is held to be vague and diverse (Cray, 2001: 371). This is largely on the account of the problem of exact definition of culture. Indeed, several definitions exist and each is applied to wide variety of settings. But for the purpose this work, the definition according to (Scheins, 1991:131). Is most appropriate Viz:
“Culture is pattern of shared basic assumptions, invented, discovered or developed by a given group as it learn to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, is to be taught to new members of a group, as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems”.
Organizations develop shared values and ways of doing things, which constitutes their culture and serves the purpose of uniting the members and getting them committed. Culture focuses on the development of shared values and gaining workforce commitment to those shared values.
The Components Of Culture
Norm: Every Culture contains a large number of guidelines that direct the conducts in particular situation. Such guidelines are known as norms. A norm is a specific guide to action, which defined acceptable and appropriate behaviour in a particular situation (Haralambs et al 2004: 416).
For example, in all society there are norms governing dressing. Norms are enforced by positive and negative sanctions that are rewards and punishment. Sanction can be informal, such as approving or disapproving glance or informal such as rewards or a fine given by an official body. The sanctions that enforce norms are major part of the mechanism of social control, which are concerned with maintaining order in the society or organization.
Values: Unlike norms, which provide specific direction for conduct, values provide more general guidelines. A value is a belief that something is good and desirable. It defines what is important, worthwhile and worth striving for, Haralambs et al (op cit). In some countries like the Western Industrial nations, individual and organizational achievement and materialism are major Value. Thus (Maccland, 1961: 303) refer to which his high achievement needs and upward mobile Cultures.
2.2 The Concept Of Performance
Performance leads to a high productivity, which in turn leads to growth and success of an organization (Inyang 2006: 201).
The effort of management in a well-established organization is geared towards ensuring greater performance, proper analysis of an individual’s jobs must be done for a maximum efficiency. Careful analysis may reveal those key points or critical incidents for which it is possible to set performance standards expressed in measurable behaviour (Omolu 2002:68).
A manager should ensure that work group is cohesive enough for his workers to work together, rather than against each other. According to (Baridam,1991: 73) individual performance is a multiple one that is individual’s attributes, work effort and organization support.
Individual Attribute: Three factors namely; demographic, competency and psychological characteristics, we have traits, values and interest. To ensure maximum performance individual attribute must be compactable with task requirement.
Work Efforts: These depends on motivation, there are needs, forces within an individual, which influences his behaviour. For an individual to perform creditably he has to be given interesting and challenging jobs and extrinsic rewards equal to the amount of work he does.
Organisational Support: An individual with the right attributes and work effort may perform badly, if the organizational support is weak (Imaga, 1999: 163). The following forms of organizational support are very important for effective performance.
1. Adequate resources, capital, equipment etc.
2. Reasonable time.
3. Clear objectives, instructions and polices.
4. Attainable performance standard.
5. Sufficient delegation of authority to equal responsibility and
6. Clear work programmes, methods and procedures.
1.9 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study will be significant in the following way:
(i.) The benefit of shared values and their cultural implication will be understood by the staff of Akamu Ibiam Federal Polytectnics, Afikpo and Constitute of Management and Technology. Enugu.
(ii.) The various staff union members will become aware of the importance of organizational Culture in the institution and will be guided by the outcome of this study to put in place appropriate attitude and belief system.
(iii.) The study will be theoretically relevant to Students of organizational Culture organization performance and organizational behaviour.
(iv.) It will be an invaluable material to institutions of higher learning whose staff are finding it difficult to understand their Culture.
(v.) The outcome of the study will equally serve as a guide to private and public management practioner who may wish to carry out further research on a related topic.
1.10 OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF KEY TERMS
For the purpose of this study, we adapted the operational definitions of cited authores Viz:
(1) Belief System: This set the value of the society relative to the level of cultural development (Onuoha, 1991).
(2) Culture: An active living phenomenon through which people jointly create and recreate world in which they live (Chukwu, 2001).
(3) Cultural Assumption: This reduce uncertainly and anxiety among people in knowing how to conduct everybody activities of business (Brown, 2006).
(4) Cultural Belief: This dictates ways or how to alter the condition of materials like management style, available resources both human and non-human in the organization (Imaga, 1992).
(5) Employee: An employee is a worker or somebody engaged so that the organization’s goals and objectives are realize (Ewurum, 2001).
(6) Institution: This is a custom, system of organization that has existed for a very long time and is accepted as important part of a particular society (Desler, 1981).
(7) Norms: This can be referred to the quide lines that direct the conduct of an individual in a particular situation (Cray, 1982).
(8) Organisation: this is said to be a deliberate association of individuals, with common objective, working co-operation under leadership and authority (Brown, 2006).
(9) Performance: This is a systematic, periodic and impartial rating of an empoyee’s excellence in matter patterning to his or her present Job (Fillipo, 1976).
(10) Strategy: Is an integrated plan through which organization accomplishes its objectives (Chukwu, 2001).
(11) Social Structure: This is the patterned and reqularized relationship among the people in the organization (Imaga, 1999).
2.3 The Concept Of Culture
Management is largely-bound (Miller, 1963:132). The concept of Culture is a myth, stressing that each institution is unique in its own culture and superstructures, with the capacity to generate productive and creative talents (Okpara, 1982:401).
Culture can be influenced indigenously which refers to native born, originating or produced naturally in an institution and as well as being influenced by culture. This is the type and level of nature, acquired and accepted by civilization that may have culminated in a way of life of the people as can be spotted in every human society and stage of development throughout the world. Pascal and Attos in their book titled “The Art of Japanse Management” give cultural factors a pride of place in Management. The book discusses the major factors responsible for Japanese industrial tradition. The book also reports that managerial reality is absolute but is rather socially and culturally determined. It further concludes that across all culture and in all societys human beings coming to perform collective jobs encounter common problems having to do with established direction, coordination and motivation. Undoubtedly, culture affects how these problems are perceived and how they are resolved.
According to (Krober, 1987:108), culture does not exist without society. Some culture value novelty and change positively for its own sake. The fact that something is new and different is sufficient to examine it and perhaps try it. This led him to conclude that no culture is dynamic because it tolerates changes. It does not have to be static but where it does violence arises.
2.4 Benefits Of Culture
An organization that has a well-developed culture has the following benefits Viz.
1. High reputation from outside world.
2. Culture will not manage such organization.
3. People will be attracted to do business with the organization.
4. Those organizations who lack culture will like to emulate such organization.
5. Employees will be proud to be identifying with such an organization.
On the other hand, an organization that has no clear or bad culture will face the following problems Viz.
1. Culture will manage them.
2. Will not complete favourably in the business field.
3. In academic organization, parents will not like their Children to pass through such institution.
4. Government will not assist the institution in terms of granting financial assistance of any sort.
5. The reputation of such institution will be very low.
Based on the aforementioned benefits and problems the organizational performance may be high or low (Yoder 1972: 281).
Finally, while it may be easy to developed and inculate shared values in simple organization, it is often a difficult task to do so in a public or complex organization like Akanu Ibiam Federal Polytechnic Afikpo and Institute Of Management and Technology Enugu.
2.5 The Concept Of Organizational Cultural And Organizational Performance
Academic researchers and practitioners are now turning their attention on the concept of organizational culture and the concept of organizational performance or commitment both locally and int
ernationally due to the fact that organizations continue to face complex challenges from their internal and external environment. Several major studies have been conducted on the concept of organizational culture and organizational performance because of their importance in the field of management practice.
Organisatinal culture is the guidelines, which the organizational members should learn very well in other to achieve the set goals of the organization. Also organizational culture is the personality of the organizational (Brown, 2008: 142). In a nutshell , in creating or performing a particular organizational culture, it must affect positively or negetively on the organisational performance or commitment for example, is the culture of an organization is so good, well analyzed and clearly spelt out, the organization will achieve a high performance at long run but if the opposite is the case the organization will suffer and may be forced out of business. A good knowledge of the norms, value, belief system etc in an organization by her member will ensure a high level of organizational performance or commitment.
In Nigeria today, organizational performance in public establishment are no more effective and efficient (Imaga, 1991:147). This means that performance or commitment is very poor, for this singler reason, the researcher want to carry out a study on what lead to poor performance in the public enterprise or organization.
2.5.1 The Impact Of High Commitment
Commitment refers to attachment and loyalty. Mowday et al (1982:416), commitment consists of three components Viz: Identification with the goals, values of the organization and willingness to display effort on behalf of the organization. Closely related definition of commitment, emphasizes the importance of behaviour in creating commitment, as Salanick (1977:306) puts it that commitment is a state of being in which an individual becomes bound by his action to belief that sustain his activities and his own involvement. The forgoing sees commitment as identification with the goals and values of the organization as well as being bound by action of the belief system of the organization. A belief in the positive value of commitment has been confidently expressed by Walton (1985: 106).
Underlying human resources polices is a management Philosophy, often embedded in a published statement, that acknowledge the legitimate claim of a company’s multiple stake-holders, owners, employees, customers and the general public. At the center of this philosophy is a belief that employee commitment leads to enhanced organizational performance. The evidence shows this belief to be well founded.
However, a review by Guest (1991: 207) led to the conclusion that high organizational commitment is associated with lower labour turnover and absence. Strong commitment to work is likely to result in conscientious and self-directed application to the job, regular attention, nominal supervision and high level of effort.
Commitment to the organization will certainly be related to the intention to stay and loyalty to the organization (griffin, 1984: 281). In other words, efforts should be made by management to secure workforce commitment on the part of organisational participants, else organizational goals will be difficult to achieve.
2.6 Assessing Organizational Culture
The assessment of organizational culture is not easy because culture is concerned with both subjective beliefs and unconscious assumptions which might be difficult to measure and the observed phenomena such as behavioral norms and artifacts (Ama, 2009:106). A good number of instruments abound for assessing organizational culture. Two instruments are abound for assessing organizational culture.
The two instruments are:
(a) Organizational Ideology Questionnaire: These deals with the four orientations such as power, role, task and self. The questionnaire is completed by making statement according to views on what is closed to the organization actual position.
(b) Organisational Culture Inventory: This instrument assesses organizational culture like humanistic-helpful, conventional, dependents etc (usoro, 2002: 96).
2.6.1 Role Of Ethics In Culture Formation
Ethics is said to be general idea or belief that influence people’s behaviour and attitude. Ethics and culture are closely related to an organisation’s available human energy and its quality rate of sustained improvement. When ethics improves, culture equally improves. Often ethics are the constraints factor holding back process capability improvement and sometimes poor process capability encourages poor ethical behaviour (Botoff, 2006: 358). Also managers do not cause improvement projects to succeed as much as they think they do. It is the operating culture or the collection effort that decides which project succeeds or fail in various degrees.
2:6.2 Ways Organizations Form Their Culture
Organizational culture springs from these three situation below:-
. Beliefs, values and assumptions of founders
. Learning experiences of the group members, and
. New belief, values and assumptions brought by new members.
Organizations do not form culture spontaneously or accidentally. The process of culture formulation is the process of creating a small group. The founders can have an idea they can bring in one or more people and create core groups (Ama, 2009: 109).
2:6.3 Need For Organizational Culture
Basically, organizational culture is the personality of the organization. Culture comprises the assumption, values, norms and tangible signs (artifacts) of organization members and their behaviours (Cater Manamara, 200: 143). Organization members soon come to sense the particular culture of an organization. Though culture is difficult to express distinctly, but everyone knows it when they sense it. For example, the culture of a large profit-making corporation is quite different from that of a hospital, which is also different from that of a polytechnic. You can tell culture of an organization by looking at the arrangement of furniture, what they brag about, what member wear etc. Corporate culture can be looked at as a system. Inputs include feed-back for example from the society, professions, laws, stories, heroes on the competition or services etc. The process is based on our assumptions, values and norms, example our values on money, time, facilities, space and people. Output or efforts of our culture are for example organizational behaviours, technologies, strategies, images, products, services, appearances etc (Cater Manamara, 200: 144).
Culture is partcultar importance when attempting to manage organizational wide change. Practitioners are coming to realize that despite the best-laid plan, organizational change must include not only changing structures and processes but also changing the organizational culture as well. Since organizational member, have no instinct to direct their actions, their behaviour must be based on guide-lines that are learned. In other for organization to operate effectively, these guide-lines must be shared by its members. Without a shared culture, members of the organization w
ould be unable to communicate and cooperate, which invariably will result to confusion and disorderliness among members martin Holborn et al, 2006: 416). This implies culture has two essential qualities,
Viz:
. It is learned and
. It is shared.
Without it, there would be no human society let alone organization.
2:7 Organizational performances
At present in Nigeria today, public organizations are no more effective and efficient (Imaga, 1999:124). Their performance is very poor, for this singular reason, the researcher want to carry out a study to know and study the problems that leads to the poor performance in the public tertiary institutions. When we speak of organization, we are concerned with human resources, for this is the most important of all management and business resources. The organization of physical and financial resources cannot take place until human resources are organized. The effectiveness of the organizational scheme depends on the manner in which resources are utilized. The concept of managerial performance is often called performance evaluation and it refers to a measure of how well a manager knows his or her roles, possess the appropriate objectives and goals of the organization. How well an organization performs. Unfortunately, in Nigeria managers often evaluate the performance of their subordinates without their subordinates evaluating them.
Furthermore, organizational performance is a measure of managerial performance and equally to the public and private sector of the economy. As earlier pointed out, the performance of organization is equally a measure of the performance of the society. The core of an organization is its staff. How effective an organization maintains quality team of employees is linked to its ability to manage its staff and recognize the contribution of each staff or player. Effective performance management system enables organization to objectively and systematically rate employees performance which provide the tools necessary to take the performance level and equate it to compensation actions. Performance overview (htt/www.com 2004).
2.8 Motivation Of Employees For Effective Performance
According to (Bums, 2000:105) employees have certain wants that the organization is expected to supply and on the other hand, the organization has certain types of behaviors that it wishes to elicit from the employees. He further stressed that the managerial responsibility for eliciting these behaviors is usually term “direct” or “motivation”. He sees motivation as a skill aligning employees and organization interests so that behaviour result in achievement of employees and organization interests so that behaviors result in achievement of employees’ wants simultaneously with attainment of organization objectives. Good managers study their subordinates to know what can motivate them to be motivated for increased job performance. And this is not an easy task to achieve in organization. One of the manager’s most important jobs is to influence the motivation of others in the direction of achieving organizational objectives in an effective and efficient manner (Higins, 1991:423). To be able to do this, the manager must understand the individual work motivation and utilize his or her knowledge of individual motivation to turn the subordinate effort to satisfy personal needs into enhancing organizational performance.
2.9 The Theoretical Frame Work
For the purpose of this study, the theoretical frame work will be drawn from institutional theory (Fillipo, 1980:207).Because the theory attends to the deeper and more resilient aspect of social structure. It consider the process by which structures, including schemas, rules, norms and routines, become established as authoritative guidline for social behaviors, it inquires into how these elements are created, diffused, adopted, adapted over space and time and how they fall into decline and disuse. Although, the ostensible subject is stability and order in social life, students of institutions must perforce attend not just to consensus and conformity but also to conflict and change in social structures (Scott,2004:142).The roots of institutional theory run richly through the formative of scholars ranging from Marx and webber, cooley and Mead to Veblen and Commons. Much of this work, carried out at the end of ninteenth century and beginning of the twentieth centuries was submerged under the onslaught of neoclassical theory in economics, behaviouralism in political science and positivism in sociology but has experienced a remarkable renaissance in our own time. Contemporay institutional theory has capture the attention of a wide range of scholars across the social science and employed to examine systems ranging from micro interpersonal interactions to macro global frameworks (Hardgrave, 1981:263).
Although, the presence of institutional scholars in may disciplines provides important opportunities for exchange and cross-fertilization, an astonishing variety of approached and something conflicting assumptions limits scholarly discourse.
A wide variety of institutional systems have existed over space and time providing diverse guidelines for social behaviour many of which sanction quite arbitrary behaviour, but the modern world is dominated by system embracing rationality and these, in turn support the proliferation of organizations. Norms of rationality play a casual role in the creation of formal organizations (Meyer and Rowan, 1977:410). Many of the models giving rise to organization are based on “rationalized Myths” rule-like systems that “depend on their efficacy, for their reality, on the fact that they are widely shared, or have been promulgated by individuals or groups that have been granted the right to determine such matter” (scott, 1983:147). The model provides templates for the design of organizational structures, “the positions, policies, programmes and procedures of modern organizations” (Myer and Rowan, 1977:343).
Too much early theorizing and research on institutions posited “top-down” models of social influence. Scholars examined the various ways in which rules, norms, and share beliefs impacted organizational forms. Such a focus is understandable since a necessary condition for calling attention to the importance of institutions is to demonstrate their influence on organizations. However, the language used was predominantly that of “institutional effect” as if given set of environmental focus was able to exert influence in a unilateral manner on complaint organizations. Two corrections were required, and both are now well underway. First, we need to recognize that institutional environment is not monolithic, but often varied and conflicted. Authoritative bodies may diverge indeed, in liberal state, they are often designed to do so, providing “check and balances”, schemes and models may compete .
The element of institution, regulative, normative and cultural cognitive may not be aligned and one may undermine the effects of the other. The boundaries of organizational fields are often vague or weak, allowing alternative logics to penetrate and support divergent models of behaviour. Suppressed groups and interests may mobilize and successfully promote new models of structure and repertories of acting. Some of the most interesting work of the past two decades has helped to unpack the multiplicity of institutional arrangements, both between and within a given fields, examining the intersection of structures and documenting the transportability of schemas, as actors and ideas flows across fi
eld boundaries (Friedland and Alford,1991:129).
The classic founding statements linking organizations with latter-day versions of institutional theory struck a common chord on contrasting institutional with rational or efficiency-based arguments. Thus, according to Meyer and Rowan (19997:335).”Formal structure that celebrate institutionalized myths differ from structures that act efficiently. Categorical rules conflict with the logic of efficiency”.
Dimagio and powell (1983:147) concur, asserting that institutions produce structural changes as a result of processed that make organizations more similar without necessarily making them more efficient. These and other related arguments focusing on “myth, “ceremonial behavior”, and mindless conformity, placed sociological institutionalists in danger of focusing exclusively on the irrational and the superficial aspects of organization. The problem posed by the persistence of errors associated with thee founding period of an intellectual perspective are not unique to institutional theory. It is all too common that errors present at the origins prove difficult to correct. They seem to be built-in to the fabric of the enterprise. And it takes considerable energy, even courage to confront them. But think, this is one of the important roles of empirical research in building theory. When predictions are confounded by findings, it suggest the needs to re-examine premises and assumptions, as well as propositions and logics. Empirical research does not just test arguments, it provides the bases for reformulating them, sometimes in quite basic ways. Broadening the agenda for studying institutional change processes, convergent and disruptive change.
Finally in an important sense, a concern with institutional change has been present in both the theoretical and empirical agenda of institutional theorists from beginning of the modern period. However, virtually all-early work focused on “convergent” change explanation for evidence of increasing similarity among organizational structures and process. Because of the prevailing emphasis on top-down models, it was presumed that institutional arguments were primarily of use to explain increased conformity to a given rule or model.
2.10 Summary Of Review Of Related Literature
This chapter has reviewed studies related to the relationship between organizational culture and organizational performance. To facilitate a sound grasp of the subject mater within the thought frame work of the objective of the study and the research questions, the scope of the review covers conceptual and theoretical frame work, the concept of culture, performance and motivating employees for effective performance.
The review of literature showed that culture is meant to indicate the level of sophistication of individual or organization doing thing in the right way. It is understood that every individual organization has their own culture which might be quite different from other organization. Culture can be said to be possessed by a particular organizations or individual while others lack it.
It was understood that culture is made up of norms and values. Also culture is not inborn but it is learned.
In an organization, culture serves as a guide line, direction which helps the management to reach the stipulate objectives or goals in the organization.
Performance, this lead to high productity, which in turn leads to growth and success of an organization. It understood that the ability of an organizations to accomplish activities will lead to achieving the desired goal.
Individual performance is multiple because it comprises the following viz: individual attribut, work effort and organization support.
The extent of which management of the organization is able to inculscate the culture of an organization will go a long way increasing the performance level in the organization. The statement tells us that there is a relationship between organizational culture and organizational performance.
Motivation of the employees bring about commitment on the part the employees. If an employee is well motivated he will have no option than to perform his duty creditably to the satisfaction of his employer hence achieving the set goal of the organization.
Finally, materials both financial and physical if made available cannot combine itself in production process; rather it is the responsibility of the management to allocate these resources rationally to achieve the objective of the organization.
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