Strategic Emphasis Of The Organization Management Essay

In this chapter we have reviewed the previous research articles, publications and thesis related to our thesis topic “influence of organizational culture on job satisfaction”. Most of the research work we reviewed belongs to foreign countries; we found very little work done in this context in our local business environment. Remarkable work has been done internationally because this issue has gained importance due to its sensitivity as ineffective organizational culture effects the employees of that specific organization and which in turn affect their performance as well.

By reviewing the past literature we have tried to determine how the culture of an organization can have impact on the job satisfaction of its employees. As our research is specifically related to banking sector of Pakistan, in our research we will try to find out the cultural type dominant in banking organizations and its impact on job satisfaction.

Daulatram B. Lund (2003) conducted an experimental research on the topic “Organizational Culture and Job Satisfaction”. This experimental investigation analyzes the existing relationship between the two key variables of our research, job satisfaction and organizational culture. A survey was conducted for completion of this empirical study which was comprised on marketing professional of different firms working in USA. Conceptual framework of four organizational culture types presented by Cameron and Freemen (1991) is used as foundation is this research.

The idea of organizational culture gained popularity in 1980s as managers realized the fact culture has substantial effect on their employee’s satisfaction and performance. In 1960s mangers and researchers focused on the issues like market segmentation, issues regarding consumer behavior and comparison among different cultures but very little effort made regarding the cultural issues within an organization and its impacts.

Understanding organizational culture concept necessitates exploring the core or basic dimensions of corporate culture and their underlying relations with employee’s satisfaction, commitment, retention and performance. The idea of culture is generally linked to foreign, distant living people and places with legends, customs, foreign practices and languages. Several researchers have found that employees within an organization are involved in customs, legends, rituals and jargons similar in many ways to that of a society and these practices consciously and unconsciously can help out or hinder in achieving organizational goals. When it comes to measure or identify organizational culture several models has been presented in past however Daualtrum B. Lund used Cameron and Freemen’s framework to measure or identify the culture. This framework has four core dimensions,

Dominant traits or values

Prevailing leadership style

Foundation of coupling or bonding

Strategic emphasis of the organization

This framework can be presented on vertical and horizontal axis. Broadly these culture types are categorized as Organic (Clan and Adhocracy) and Mechanistic (Market and Hierarchy). Each culture type is characterized by its own specific beliefs, leadership style, shared values and strategic emphasize. However one thing which is important to know about this conceptual framework is that these cultural typologies are not mutually exclusive. One cultural type may be dominant in an organization while the attributes of other’s may also present at the same time with less frequency.

Job Satisfaction can be described as a level of discrepancy between the one’s perceptions about his job and what he is actually receiving.

Daualtrum B. Lund developed the hypothesis to identify the cultural types having highest satisfaction level to lowest. A questionnaire was mailed to several marketing professionals on self-administration basis. Results of this study showed market culture as dominant in the organizations surveyed and it is also observed that employees are more satisfied in organic cultures like clan and adhocracy as compared to mechanistic cultures like hierarchy and market.

Himanshu and Abdullah (2011) conducted a research on “Moderating effect of organizational culture on job satisfaction-turnover intention link”; it was a case study on Saudi Arabian banking sector. This research establishes the way how organizational culture is linked to job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Although in previous researches it has been proved that a significant relationship exists among these variables but they advanced their research in, what are those specific aspects of job which are linked to turnover intention and further whether more job satisfaction leads to less turnover intentions. They used competing values framework by Quinn and Rohrbaugh (1981, 1983) in order to determine cultural type.

Employees of Saudi Arabian banking sector perceived that market culture is most dominant culture in their organizations. In past researches it has been proved that hierarchy and market culture are negatively related with job satisfaction but this research have some contradictions. Nevertheless this research also proves that clan and adhocracy have higher level of job satisfaction than hierarchical cultural types. The reasons why these cultures considered having negative effects on job satisfaction are control and stability as dominant traits in these typologies. Contradiction can be explained on the basis of the concept by Hofstede (1980, 1991). He defined the culture of a country into four basic dimensions; masculinity, power distance, uncertainty and individualism. In Saudi Arabian culture uncertainty and power distance are highly dominant. Both of these traits prevails in such societies where hierarchical orders are followed and significant flexibility is not allowed to the individuals which can be the. Uncertainty is controlled in such societies by orientation of more rules and regulations. These approaches to deal a society conforms more control and certainty. So the national culture of Saudi Arabia and perceived organizational culture in this country have similar traits. Many researches in the past has worked out this fact that culture of an organization is greatly affected by the specific national culture where it is working and attitudes and behaviors of the employees are also affected by it. That is the reason in this specific research why market culture does not create job dissatisfaction among employees.

However their results showed that turnover intention is negatively related to job satisfaction.

Yasir Hassan, Zark Mir and Kashif-ud-Din (2011), the students of university of Lahore conducted research on the topic of “Job satisfaction in private banking sector of Pakistan”; their focus was to check the behavior of employees towards job in respect of satisfaction. Basically job satisfaction measures the positive or negative response of employees towards their work. The job satisfaction which in turn leads to low turnover are important factors to run a business in today’s global business environment and banks must have special attention to it. The banking sector has applied different tactics to management to promote and increase the level of satisfaction and loyalty. This research describes some of the key components that are critical for employee’s job satisfaction. These components are rewards, incentives, working conditions, organizational operations and job security. The findings of this research disclose that most of the employees working in private banking sector are satisfied to their jobs, responsibility and work placements.

The most of the life of a person is passed in doing work that is obligatory and no one can deny it. Working for making only high profits couldn’t be the prime objective, unless there are certain things like nature of work and position which makes him satisfies to the job. Employee job satisfaction describe as positive feelings towards the assigned responsibility or task. Job satisfaction has become emerging concept now a days and it is contributed by other factors that can be divided into monetary and non-monetary. Job satisfaction is positive and negative feelings of an employee that is affected by internal and external environment of an enterprise. The pattern of a job has an impact on satisfaction, such as freedom to perform tasks and their importance, appreciation and criticism in a constructive way may also help in boosting the satisfaction level in employees.

The detailed study of different features of job satisfaction which are included in private banking sector of Pakistan tells that huge numbers of people working in private banks are satisfied with their position, functions and workload. This research discloses the some key factors that are highly presumable for job satisfaction among employees. These include rewards and incentives, operations of organization, working environment and job protection. So the organization should look carefully about performance bonus and incentives and encourage employees to make them faithful, because the employees are most important asset of an organization. This sort of activities spend large amount of money and time as well in short run but it will improve the performance of organization in near future.

Eric W. MacIntosh, Alison Doherty (2009) conducted a research on “Influence of organizational culture on job satisfaction and intention to leave”. There focus was employees of fitness industry. A special cultural index was made in order to identify the culture of fitness industry.

Scholars have involved from a long time exploring behaviors of individuals and as group. Reasons behind exploring organizational culture are its reported impacts on behaviors of individuals, groups and performance of organization as well. It is argued that culture of an organization portray its social system and can control employees’ behavior through prevailing values, customs and beliefs. According to Eric W. MacIntosh in previous researches it has been found that organization culture is linked in many ways with commitment, satisfaction of employees and organizational performance.

Fitness industry of North America is considered to be a multi-billion industry. When we talk about fitness industry retention and satisfaction of personnel are very important issues for the management. However service quality and customer satisfaction have been main focus of research as compared to job satisfaction in service industry. Whereas employee’s job satisfaction is described as combination of attitudes towards various aspects of his work or job. Positive attitude towards customer can be attributed as one of key success factor in service industry. Lower level of job satisfaction would impact attitudes of employees negatively which in turn may result poor customer service because significant relationship is traced between satisfied personnel and satisfied customer base (Namasivayam, 2005). Research in various service industries like nursing, marketing and transportation reveals that organizational culture might be useful in addressing such issues.

Focus of this study was to check satisfaction level of fitness industry personnel and how it is influenced by culture and also to check out turn over intentions. A sub purpose mentioned by the researchers of this study was also to develop an instrument that can be used to assess culture within fitness industry. When it comes to assessment of culture prevailing within organization various instruments were developed by the researches like Organizational Culture Inventory (Cooke & Rousseau, 1988), Organizational Culture Profile (O’Reilly, Chatman, & Caldwell, 1991) and Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (Cameron& Quinn, 1999). Although these instruments are popular and considered very authentic but culture dimensions can vary from industry to industry. A specialized index for fitness organization was developed for this specific research. In this index Eric W. MacIntosh, Alison Doherty (2009) mentioned 11 key attributes which can identify the culture of an organization and are as follows,

Presence of organization (Image of organization in community whether positive or negative.)

Member or customer success (Whether members of fitness club have achieved their fitness goals like loosing weight.)

Connectedness (A sense of positive bonding exist among staff, members and club.)

Formalization (Standardized procedures and rules which are to be followed.)

Creativity (Innovation in treating the clients and keeping things attractive.)

Integrity (Level of reliability, responsibility and honesty while conducting business.)

Fitness and health of staff (Whether staff has sufficient regarding fitness and possesses good fitness as well.)

Sales (Achieving sale targets are rewarded by top management or not.)

Service (Standardization of facilities and cleanliness of environment)

Work ethics (Whether staff is energetic and motivating and ready to take initiatives.)

Atmosphere (Whether staff is welcoming and approachable.)

Based on these dimensions researchers measured the culture of fitness industry through interviewing various fitness clubs personnel. Whereas level of satisfaction among staff were measured by the indicators given by Cammann, Fichman, Jenkins, and Klesh (1979).

Results of their research showed that meaningful relationship between cultural attributes and turnover intentions and also among culture and satisfaction level among staff regarding work. Cultural attributes like formalization, service programs and atmosphere mentioned in this article have scored in building up the level of satisfaction and leading to turnover intentions. The variable connectedness has direct influence on job leaving intentions.

However further research can be conducted in this regard to confirm the results.

Me Sempane, Hs Rieger, G Roodt (2002) explored the topic “Job Satisfaction in relation to Organizational Culture”. The purpose of this research was to find the relationship between the variables that were culture of an organization and employees job satisfaction. The research was conducted on the population of 200 from which 40 of them were not included because of their low level of literacy. The culture and Minnesota Job satisfaction questionnaires were managed to 160 working people from whom 121 notable responses were received.

This research shows that without any confusion there is a relationship between culture of an organization and employee’s satisfaction. Therefore employee’s job satisfaction is used to forecast their perception about organizational culture.

Since organizations have the most complicated social structures because of their static nature. The people who have to play a leading role for development of any organization are its employees. It is because of their determination and dies hard work which enables any organization to give tough time to others. So it shows that employees and organization depends each other. This study indicates that job satisfaction can’t be improved in isolation but it depends on factors such as working environment, compensation, working hours and structure which also constitute the climate of any organization.

Job satisfaction defined as a sense of positive and favorable feelings which outcomes from a person’s pleasurable perception about the job. It is also describe as how anyone feels and sees his job as a whole which depends on one’s appreciation, like and needs.

The employees of any organization may view the leadership style, size, structure and policies as the variables of the climate of the organization. However, there is a difference between the organization culture and climate. Many people use these terms interchangeably, whereas organizational climate accesses whether the work related expectations have met or not.

In this study the researchers want to find a possible relationship existed between organizational culture and job satisfaction. For this purpose they conduct a survey on employees working for a Government Welfare Organization that provides support services to the children from underprivileged communities. The results indicate that a positive correlation exists between the two variables. These findings also support s the findings of Scheider & Snyder (1975), Field & Abelson (1982), Hellriegel & Slocum (1974) and Kerego and Mthupa (1997). These results also show that a correlation is existed between biographical variables and culture and job satisfaction; however, employees’ job satisfaction can’t be determined by their biographical variables. The results show that job satisfaction can be used to forecast that what employees’ insight about the organizational culture is. But these insights aren’t true for all organizations because of small sample size. According to this research employees perceived some positive aspects of organizational culture that lead to higher level of satisfaction are size, reward orientation, customer orientation, performance orientation and organizational integration. Most of the negative feelings of employees connected to management and leadership style, authority and task structure, that’s may be alarming situation for the people working at higher levels. The findings also indicate a difference in perception between married and unmarried employees. As one can form the opinion that married employees form positive attitude towards job because of their maturity, service duration and realistic approach, while the lower age of unmarried employees and less experience may be one of the prime factors which may change their opinion about job satisfaction. There is also a difference of satisfaction among the employees working at administrative level and those who perform their duties in social services. The later may be dissatisfied because of their expectations which are not fulfilled by the job and the lack of resources available to them to perform their task. Again the audience in this category with long service is more satisfied than younger ones. The management should take corrective actions to reduce the status quo; they should also concentrates on the feedback provided by the employees which may turns positive feelings about job satisfaction.

Soheila Zamini, Samira Zamini, Leila Barzegary (2011) explored the relationship between “Organizational Culture and Job Burnout”. There focus was to investigate this relationship in the context of employees and professors of “Tabriz University”.

Nowadays organizations are known as base of modern world communities and play very important role in meeting goals of societies. However organizations are made by its members and productivity and achievement within requires that employees’ value, emotions and needs are not compromised. As an important and fundamental factor organizational culture is considered a social reality which is formed by interactions between employees of organization (Smircich, 1983). However the point to remember is that not only members form and affect the organizational culture but culture also affects the new comers in organization in many ways. It is some sort of two way interaction between these two variables.

According to Soheila Zamini et al. (2011) fundamental values and beliefs of executive management differs from that of low level management and bottom line employees. However if values and beliefs of executive management are similar to that of lower management and bottom line employees, a strong organizational culture comes out.

Gareth and Quinn categorized organizational culture in hierarchical culture, rational culture, consensual culture and ideological culture. Rational Culture is characterized by competing with organizations and integration of internal activities. An organization where rational culture is dominant is known by its effectiveness and efficiency. Ideological culture on the other hand emphasize on decentralization of authority and external competitiveness which insures higher level of employee’s commitment to the organization. Cultural type known as consensual also focuses on decentralized authoritative controls and diversified job assignments but also pay attention to system maintenance and stability. In such type of organizations members become friendly, cooperative and lead to confidential relationship and high morale in group. Many researchers have found that organizations with consensual culture are highly productive.

It has been argued by many researchers that job burnout can reduce the efficiency of workers or members of an organization. Panis and Aronoson said that state of physical and emotional fatigue can cause job burnout. Negative trends within job and declining interest in colleagues can also result job burnout. Other factors that create job burnout include organizational factors, personal interests and environmental factors. Whereas organizational factors having an impact on job burnout can be comprised of management style, job security, flexibility of rules and regulations and promotional opportunities (World Health Organization, 1998). Job burnout is negatively correlated consensual and entrepreneurship culture. Benjamin and Wales (2000) proved in their research that employees of service oriented sector are more exposed to job burnout. Soheila Zamini et al. (2011) stated that rational culture is dominant in Tabriz University and high job burnout is also proved. Their finding are confirming to previous researches like Asghar’s study (2006). Their results indicate that job burnout among employees and faculty members differ significantly. Average score of job burnout among faculty members is remarkably lower than that of employees. It can be because of the difference in time pressure, work related experiences, flexibility of environment, moral and social support, reward and payment of work.