Final Dissertation Paper for uploading

TITLE: Organizational Culture
SUB-TITLE: Factors that influence
organizational culture regarding
orientation to improvement in
quality and productivity: An
experience learned from an
ISO9001: 2000 certified
organization
AUTHOR: Christopher Cheng
This dissertation is submitted in part fulfilment
of the Degree of Master of Science in Quality
Engineering.
Institution: The Nottingham Trent
University
Date: March 2009

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Acknowledgments
I would like to acknowledge the contribution of the following people and
organizations in the development of this dissertation.
Dr. John Disney, my supervisor, was responsive and had been providing continuous
support throughout the research. His comprehensive reviews and comments were
particularly helpful in improving the comprehensibility and logic of the dissertation.
Mr. Peter Hartley, CEO of Salmat BusinessForce, was the General Manager NSW of
Salmat BusinessForce whom I reported to when the research (case study) was
conducted at Salmat. A special thank you for his interests in organizational culture
and generosity in providing tremendous management support not only approving
the research to be conducted on site, but also help in allowing employees to attend
the interviews during working hours such that the interviews could be completed
before I left the company to pursue my new career.
The many operators, executives and managers who generously provided their time
to complete survey questionnaires and allowed themselves to be interviewed.
Without their co-operation it would have not been possible to complete this
dissertation.

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Abstract Summary
In order to stay in business and remain competitive in this ever-changing global
market, organizations have to manage in a total quality manner that include both
the soft foundations, namely commitment, communication, and culture; as well as
the systems, tools, and teams – the hard management necessities. SALMAT
Document Management Solutions Ltd (“Salmat”), an ISO9001 certified Australian
printing and mail processing company, has established business processes being
managed under a documented system called the Salmat Business System.
However, not much has been done in creating or changing the organizational
culture to strengthen the soft foundations that could facilitate total quality as a way
of life.
Over the years, SALMAT has gone through positive changes and has transformed
itself into a more efficient and effective organization that has out-performing some of
its competitors. That is why some ISO9001 certified organizations performed much
better than others in terms of gaining the competitive edge in productivity and
quality improvements. However, there seems to be stagnation in any significant
continual improvement in the organization. In addition to the systems and process
approach in supporting a customer-supplier relationship (internal and external), as
well as requirements regarding communications and commitment provided by the
ISO9001 system implementation, those companies that out-performed the others
must have taken extra steps in changing and creating a culture, excelling in human
resources management that brought about modifications in employee behaviour in
enhancing productivity and committing to quality improvements.
The objective of this research study is to describe and analyze the perspectives of
people working specifically in Document Management Solutions Moorebank NSW
site of SALMAT Ltd (now known as Salmat BusinessForce) regarding past and
potential influencing factors on the culture and organizational behaviour to bring
about even greater productivity and quality / business improvements. The issues
identified will then be recommended to the management for use in the development
of human resource policies, training and better communication with the employees
in building a more involved and committed workforce that will benefit the workers,
management, customers and other stake-holders.

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Table of Contents
Page
Acknowledgments 3
Abstract Summary 5
Table of Contents 6
Chapter 1 – Introduction and rationale
1.1 Background to the Research 9
1.2 Objectives of the Research 10
1.3 Justification for the research 10
1.4 General Research Questions 12
1.5 Literature Overview 12
1.6 Limitations and Key Assumptions 14
1.7 Research Design 14
1.8 Practical and Ethical Issues 15
1.9 Outline of the Dissertation 15
Chapter 2 – Literature review
2.1 Introduction to the Literature Review 19
2.2 Topics and issues identified for review 19
2.3 Critical Literature Review 22
2.4 Summary of the Literature Review 30
Chapter 3 – Exploratory interviews
3.1 Introduction to Exploratory interviews 33
3.2 Summary on profiles of interviewees 33

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Chapter 4 – Conceptual framework and hypotheses
4.1 Conceptual Framework 35
4.2 Hypotheses 36
Chapter 5 – Research Methodology and Methods
5.1 Selection of Research Methodology 38
5.2 Research Strategy 40
5.3 Overview of the Methodology 42
5.4 Design of Questionnaire 44
5.5 Instructions to Respondents 45
5.6 The Research Questions 45
5.7 Sampling Method 46
5.8 Findings (Analysis and Interpretation) 46
Chapter 6 – Presentation and Analysis of Results
6.1 Introduction 47
6.2 Quantitative Results 47
6.3 Qualitative Results 117
6.3.1 Summary on responses for question no. 1 117
6.4 Summary of Hypotheses Test Outcomes 124
Chapter 7 – Discussion of results 126
7.1 Results Addressing Main Hypotheses 128

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7.1.1 Attitude towards the ISO9001: 2000 Quality Management System 128
7.1.2 Management Commitment and Leadership 129
7.1.3 Participative Management, Reward and Recognition System 129
7.1.4 Human Resources Policy and Management 130
7.2 Findings related to important others 130
7.3 Comparison of research results 132
7.4 Other research questions 136
7.4.1 Organizational culture in Salmat Moorebank site 136
7.4.2 Employee motivation in support of productivity and quality improvement
and improving human resources management to promote positive
behaviour 137
7.4.3 Building a strong culture to promote ownership and accountability 138
Chapter 8 – Conclusions and recommendations
8.1 Conclusions 139
8.2 Recommendations to the management 141
Appendices
Appendix A Final version of questionnaire 142
Appendix B1 Illustrations of culture changes 151
Appendix B2 Images and Metaphors 152
Appendix C Explanation on Human Synergistics’ distinctive circumplex 158
Appendix D Presentation of the results of Hewitt culture and engagement
survey 162
References 165

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Chapter One – Introduction and rationale
1.1 Background to the Research
In order to stay in business and remain competitive in this ever-changing global
market, organizations have to manage in a total quality manner that include both
the soft foundations, namely commitment, communication, and culture; as well as
the systems, tools, and teams – the hard management necessities.
SALMAT Document Management Solutions Ltd (“SALMAT”), an ISO9001 certified
Australian printing and mail processing company, has established business
processes being managed under a documented system called the SALMAT Business
System. However, not much has been done in creating or changing the
organizational culture to strengthen the soft foundations that could facilitate total
quality as a way of life.
Originally the research for this dissertation is meant to be conducted at GPC
Electronics P/L where I have been working for nine years since December 1996.
However, due to downturn in business, I have been offered a redundancy package to
leave GPC in December 2005 and therefore unable to conduct my research there.
Fortunately, I have been offered the position of Business Systems Manager in
February 2006 and later promoted to National Business Systems Manager at
SALMAT Document Management Solutions P/L where I have been granted
permission to conduct this research.
As summarized below, both GPC and SALMAT have a great deal of similarities that
justified the switching of the organization to be researched into although there
seemed to be a couple of minor differences between them.
• Both are ISO9001: 2000 certified organization by the same certification body
for a number of years and the management systems are established but
improvements are limited;
• Limited people involvement in driving continual improvement and lack of
quality ownership in ensuring work done right first time every time;

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• Both have improved their competitive edge over many of their rivals but
continual improvements seemed to be stagnated;
• In terms of HR policies, SALMAT is more established with formalized
performance review appraisal or enterprise bargaining agreement to set
performance goals and objectives that link to remuneration benefits whereas
GPC only has the process of completing standard questionnaires by
supervisors for factory level employees. Same for reward and recognition
where SALMAT has established corporate policy although it has not been
consistently implemented across the board, GPC has no policy and
significantly weaker in this area;
• As part of the SALMAT corporate strategy, the Project Optimise has a people
stream that is currently conducting organisational culture survey to review
the current culture and aiming to establish the desired SALMAT culture
whereas GPC never showed any interests in the study of organisational
culture.
1.2 Objectives of the Research
The objective of this study is to describe and analyze the perspectives of people
working specifically in Document Management Solutions Moorebank NSW site of
SALMAT Ltd regarding past and potential influencing factors on the culture and
organizational behaviour to bring about even greater productivity and quality /
business improvements.
The issues identified are intended for recommendation to the management for use in
the development of human resource policies, training and better communication
with the employees in building a more involved and committed workforce that would
benefit the workers, management, customers and other stake-holders.
1.3 Justification for the research
Employee involvement at SALMAT at the grassroots level is limited and although
many workers are committed to excellence and willing to get involved in workplace
improvements, the resources management strategies may not always lead to positive
contributions by these people. On the other hand, there are needs for motivation or
other incentives such as appropriate reward and recognition systems to encourage

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productivity and quality improvements at the Operations level where at the moment
it seemed to be not consistently happening.
There does not appear to be a strong mechanism in place for ensuring that the
training undertaken is effective. Although a Competency Based Training (CBT)
Program is in place for Laser and Mail Operators, it is not fully implemented and the
Program does not cover Customer Service Representatives. Risks are identified in
terms of processes not being carried out in compliance with established procedures.
The non-compliances could be a result of ineffective training or lack of discipline to
follow procedures due to either lack of commitment or work pressure. The degree of
employee commitment is believed to be related to the degree of employee
satisfaction. At the moment, there is no means to determine how employee
satisfaction could be measured.
Another problem area is the imbalance perceived by grassroots between quantity
and quality. For example, some production operators, while being concerned solely
with the output quantity possibly due to pressure from their team leader or
supervisor, disregard the importance of making the product quality right first time.
In the worse case scenario, non-compliances can slip through the door undetected
by the Quality Control Officers. This would not only increase the quality costs
(failure costs in re-inspection and re-work) but also loss of reputation for the
company, which eventually could lead to lost business due to customer
dissatisfaction. There is no guarantee that everyone would be committed in taking
up ownership on quality and productivity improvement.
Over the years, SALMAT has gone through positive changes and has transformed
itself into a more efficient and effective organization that has out-performing some of
its competitors. That is why some ISO9001 certified organizations performed much
better than others in terms of gaining the competitive edge in productivity and
quality improvements. However, there seems to be stagnation in any significant
continual improvement in the organization. In addition to the systems and process
approach in supporting a customer-supplier relationship (internal and external), as
well as requirements regarding communications and commitment provided by the
ISO9001 system implementation, those companies that out-performed the others
must have taken extra steps in changing and creating a culture, excelling in human

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resources management that brought about modifications in employee behaviour in
enhancing productivity and committing to quality improvements.
1.4 General Research Question
What sort of organizational culture does SALMAT has?
How strong or how weak was this culture at SALMAT?
How could employees be motivated such that their behaviour will shift
towards the positive end of the spectrum in support of productivity and
quality improvement?
How could a strong organizational culture be built to promote the ownership
and accountability from grass roots to line and middle management?
What could be done regarding human resources management to enable
modification in employee behaviour to improve support and commitment in
productivity and quality improvement?
What are the factors that have influenced and could influence organizational
behaviour and culture to bring about productivity and quality improvement?
1.5 Literature Overview
According to the American Heritage English Dictionary, the definition of culture is
“The totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions,
and all other products of human work and thought.” In the book Cultural
Anthropology: Tribes, States, and the Global System, 1994, John H. Bodley tabled the
diverse definitions of culture. This included “Behavioural: Culture is shared,
learned human behaviour, a way of life”; “Normative: Culture is ideals, values, or
rules for living” and “Functional: Culture is the way humans solve problems of
adapting to the environment or living together”.
Some definitions of organizational culture initially focused on distinguishing levels
of organizational culture and strong versus weak cultures (See Baker 2002) while
others expand the concept to include behaviours and artefacts, leading to a common
distinction between the visible and the hidden levels of organizational behaviour
(Kotter and Heskett 1992). In contrast to the distinction between the visible and
hidden levels, some theorists distinguished multiple levels.

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Edgar Schein, one of the foremost experts in the area, characterized culture as
consisting of three levels (Schein 1988). The most visible level is behaviour and
artefacts, the observable level of culture that consists of behaviour patterns and
outward manifestations. All may be visible indicators of culture, but difficult to
interpret. Artefacts and behaviour also may tell us what a group is doing, but not
why. The next level of culture is values, not directly observable, but to a large
extent determines behaviour. There may be a difference between stated and
operating values. People often attribute their behaviour to stated values. To really
understand culture, one has to get to the deepest level of assumptions and beliefs.
People may be unaware of or are unable to articulate what constitutes their deepest
level of culture.
In Edgar Schein’s book “Organizational Culture and Leadership 3rd Edition”, it is
suggested that shared definition (assumptions) in most business organizations
revolves around the issue of economic survival and growth, which, in turn, involves
the maintenance of good relationship with the major stakeholders of the
organization. Several studies have shown that the key to long-range growth and
survival is to keep the needs of these constituencies in some kind of balance.
Furthermore these researches indicated that the mission of the organization as a set
of beliefs about its core competencies and basic functions in society is usually a
reflection of this balance (Donald-son and Lorsch, 1983; Kotter and Heskett, 1992;
Porras and Collins, 1994).
Alteration in the reward and punishment system is also one of the quickest and
easiest ways to begin to change some elements of the culture. Once one has
identified what kind of behaviours are considered “heroic” and what are perceived as
“sinful”, one can begin to infer the assumptions that lie behind those evaluation.
The deeper cultural dimensions deal with human nature, activity, and relationships.
For example, some basic assumptions about human nature could include being
calculative, sociable, self-actualizing, or complex; or being positive and malleable
(Theory Y); or being negative and fixed (Theory X). The assumptions about
resolution of basic human relationship problems include: participation and
involvement; identity and role; power and influence; needs and goals; and
acceptance and intimacy.

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1.6 Limitations and Key Assumptions
During the research processes that involve contact with an organization, there is
always an intervention into the life of the organization. The most obvious difficulty
in gathering valid cultural data is a well-known phenomenon: human subjects
involved in research have a tendency either to resist and hide data that they feel
defensive about or to exaggerate to impress the researcher. Other times they might
exaggerate for cathartic relief or they might be fearful of reprisal from the
management.
1.7 Research Design
As these problems are associated with the usual qualitative research method, the
more suitable and valid approach is a clinical research model that I have adopted
where the data come voluntarily from the members of the organization since they
feel they have something to gain from cooperating with the researcher (Schein,
2004). This research is conducted as a case study adopting the Interpretative
methodology.
The research design is primarily involved with survey by questionnaire, followed by
exploratory interviews involving a primary sample composed of 35 employees. The
primary sample includes people in the management team, middle management
(supervisors and engineers), team leaders (leading hands) and people at the
grassroots level (office staff and factory workers).
In addition, the original design involves a second sample of 12 to 16 is to be
interviewed in two separate focus groups (6 to 8 people per group) as a “member
check” based on the results of the preliminary analysis (Guba, 1981). However, due
to an unforeseen and unplanned event that I have been offered and accepted a
position with the NSW Government Department of Education and Training, I have
managed to complete the survey and interviews but not the focus group interviews
before I left SALMAT. Despite my written request to the Customer Service Team
Leader at SALMAT a week after my departure to arrange for the focus group
meeting, a response has not been received.

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1.8 Practical and Ethical Issues
I have asked SALMAT for the permission to go ahead with this study. Employees
are to be approached to take part in the research on a volunteer basis. It is
necessary to inform them fully of the purpose of the research, and what will be
expected of them in terms of time and input commitments to participate in the
research. It is necessary to provide guarantees of confidentiality, and anonymity.
Regardless of the way in which basic cultural data are gathered, the organization
can be made vulnerable through having its culture revealed to outsiders (Schein,
2004). The obvious solution that I will take is to disguise the organization in
published accounts. If the information is inaccurate, potential employees,
customers, suppliers, and any other categories of outsiders who deal with the
organization may be adversely influenced.
In order to ensure the accuracy of the information, the data collected from
interviewing each individual member of the organization is double-checked with the
particular individual by going through the transcript of the interview. The data
analysis is provided to the members of the organization before it is published. This
step has the advantage of also testing, to some degree, the validity of the
information.
Even though the analysis may be correct, insiders other than those who made the
analysis may not be prepared to digest what has been learned about them. In the
worse case scenario, they may lose self-esteem because some of their myths or
ideals about themselves may be destroyed by the analysis. Therefore I have made
the management aware of these potential risks resulting from this research before
they approve the project. I am providing the final dissertation to the management
and members of DMS Moorebank involved in the research before publishing the
paper for submission to the university.
1.9 Outline of the Dissertation
A diagram of the outline of the Dissertation is shown in Figure 1.1 on the next page.

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Figure 1.1 Structure of Dissertation
CHAPTER 1
Introduction & Rationale
CHAPTER 2
Literature Review
CHAPTER 3
Exploratory Interviews
CHAPTER 4
Conceptual Framework
and Hypotheses
CHAPTER 5
Research Methodology
and Methods
CHAPTER 6
Presentation of
Results & Analysis
CHAPTER 7
Discussion of Results
CHAPTER 8
Conclusion & Recommendations
REFERENCES
APPENDICES

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Chapter 1 – Introduction and Rationale, introduced the research and the main
research questions i.e. What sort of organizational culture does SALMAT has?
How strong or how weak was this culture at SALMAT? What are the factors that have
influenced and could influence organizational behaviour and culture to bring about
productivity and quality improvement? A case is made for the importance of the
research. This case is based firstly on evidence of the extent of quality system
program but generating little improvement; secondly, on the important of
organizational culture playing in driving continual improvement and lastly the
important factors that influence organizational culture behaviour.
Chapter 2 – Literature review is divided into a number of sections. The first section
reviews various definitions of organizational culture. The second section reviews the
topics and issues of interests, follow by a section on the detailed critical literature
review. The main points that are important and relevant to this research are
summarized in Section 4.
Chapter 3 – Exploratory interviews, described a number of semi-structured
interviews that were carried out to explore some of the issues raised in Chapter 2 –
Literature review. The interviewees include the management team (E.g. General
Manager, Customer Service Manager and Human Resources Manager), middle
management (Accounts Managers, Production Managers and Supervisors / Team
Leaders) and people at the grassroots level (Customer Service and temporary office
staff and factory workers/operators).
Chapter 4 – The development of conceptual framework and hypotheses is built on
the literature review and the exploratory interviews and present an overall
framework for the research. A number of hypotheses to be tested in the research
are presented. The work of Miller and Friesen (1984) fitted categorically to a
‘configuration’ as featured in this framework as being constituted by three
interrelated components that Clark and Soulsby (1995) called the organization’s
‘sub-systems’, its ‘structure’, the tangible aspects and its ‘culture’, the intangible
aspects.
Chapter 5 – Research methodology and methods, describes the conduct of the
research. This research is conducted as a case study adopting the Interpretative

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methodology. Two main methods were used to obtain data. Firstly, a questionnaire
was prepared and employees at the site were invited to volunteer in taking part in
the research by completing the survey that is a structured format making use of
Likert scales to rate people’s opinion and attitudes. It was followed by exploratory
interviews with these volunteers to complete the last part (Part 9) of the
questionnaire containing semi-structured questions and the researcher taking notes
as per responses from the interviewees.
Chapter 6 – Presentation of results and analysis, the quantitative results are
presented first starting with responses from Part 1 of the questionnaire with results
summarised and analysed in a table followed by percentage distribution charts for
each question. This is followed by the same presentation for Part 2 of the
questionnaire and repeated until the presentation concluded on Part 7 of the
questionnaire. The qualitative results are then presented with summary of the
discussion during the exploratory interviews listed sequentially from question 1 to 5
inclusively.
Chapter 7 – Discussion of results, first the main research question and followed by
the hypotheses are addressed and the implications of the research findings are
discussed. Most of the hypotheses were supported. These included those
hypotheses predicting that the following variables would be important (generally
significantly related in a positive sense against quality culture) in forming
employee’s attitudes towards: 1) ISO9001: 2000 Quality Management System; 2)
Management Commitment and Leadership; 3) Participative Management, Reward
and Recognition System and 4) Human Resources Policy and Management.
Comparison with results from previous research is followed by discussion on other
research questions.
Chapter 8 – Conclusion and recommendations, summarises the research findings,
states some of the implications for theory and practice and provides suggestions for
further research.

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Chapter Two – Literature Review
2.1 Introduction to the Literature Review
Now that we had suggested that the creation and changes in the organizational
culture are catalysts (enablers) for productivity and quality improvement, let us have
a look at what culture is. According to the American Heritage English Dictionary, the
definition of culture was ‘The totality of socially transmitted behaviour patterns,
arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.’ John
H. Bodley (1994) tabled the diverse definitions of culture. This included
‘Behavioural: Culture is shared, learned human behaviour, a way of life’; ‘Normative:
Culture is ideals, values, or rules for living’ and ‘Functional: Culture is the way
humans solve problems of adapting to the environment or living together’. …
‘Culture involves at least three components: what people think, what they do, and
the material products they produce. Thus, mental processes, beliefs, knowledge,
and values are parts of culture. Culture also has several properties: it is shared …
[that] means that it is a social phenomenon … learned, [and] not biologically
inherited and it involves arbitrarily assigned symbolic meanings [transmitted across
generations].’ It is adaptive and integrated. We had reviewed further study on
organizational culture in Section 2.3.
2.2 Topics and issues identified for review
Literatures on organizational culture were reviewed to get a better understanding of
what it is, and then followed naturally in linking it up with what are believed to be
the most important factors that could influence the organizational culture. Since
the deeper cultural dimensions deal with humanistic activity and relationships, we
had looked at literatures on Employee Involvement and Empowerment; Douglas
McGregor Motivational Theory X and Y; William Ouchi’s Theory Z; Self-
Determination Theory; Leadership of management; Reward and Recognition System;
Employee Satisfaction, Training, Appraisal, Competency and Personal Development.
In order to understand organizational culture, we started from looking at what it
meant by the word “culture” and then some definitions of organizational culture.

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Latest research conducted by Kostman and Schiemann (2005) was congruent with
the findings by Peters and Waterman (1982), Deal and Kennedy (1982) and Kotter
and Heskett (1992) that there was a link (with modest positive correlations) between
the strength of organizational culture and long-term business performance /
excellence. ‘Sociologists Gary Fine and Sherryl Kleinman (see Organizational
Culture, 1997) discussed how distinct societies are composites of interacting
subcultures rather than a single overarching culture.’ The explicit social products
produced by subcultures within organizations could be widely diverse and even
result in countercultures that can have both productive and unproductive outcomes
as illustrated in examples discussed later. One of the findings in Sonja Sackmann’s
research (1992) was that the top management team ‘defined and framed the slice of
reality in which organizational members behaved in their role as employees.’
Similar to what was published in Schein’s book (2004), Leaders could influence or
manage an organization’s culture and how strong or how weak the culture was
could impact on organizational performance.
In simple term Culture is how employees feel so it is important to motivate and
change their behaviour to bring about productivity and quality improvements.
Refreshing as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs concept is, if the theory was completely
valid then, economic incentives should have lost all their forces but we knew this
was not correct. According to Drucker (1974) ‘there is not one shred of evidence for
the alleged turning away from material rewards … Anti-materialism is a myth, no
matter how much it is extolled.’ In fact, they were taken so much for granted that
their denial may act as a de-motivator. Peters and Waterman (1982, p.68) had
found that ‘… the most important lesson from [B.F.] Skinner (1971) is the role of
positive reinforcement, of rewards for jobs well done … negative reinforcement will
produce behavioural change, but often in strange, unpredictable, and undesirable
ways. Positive reinforcement causes behavioural change too, but usually in the
intended direction.’ They also pointed out that
Arguably, the important offshoot from Skinner’s reinforcement notion is Leon
Festinger’s now widely held “social comparison theory (1954)” … Skinner’s
work …, [seemed] underutilized in most management theory and practice.
But the larger context of high performance, we believe, is intrinsic motivation.
On the surface, self-motivation is opposed in many ways to the beliefs of

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reinforcement theory; but in our minds the two contexts fit together nicely.
(Peters and Waterman 1982, p.71 - 72)
I did believe the larger context of high performance comes from intrinsic motivation
and it fitted well with reinforcement. The way the reinforcement ought to be carried
out as noted by Skinner was discussed later.
In 1960 Douglas McGregor published his findings after examining theories on
behaviour of individuals at work formulating two models that he called Theory X
and Theory Y. Theory X assumptions mainly identified that average workers
generally dislike work and responsibilities and had to be directed or even threatened
before they would work hard. Dr. Rensis Likert (1961) had conducted much
research on human behaviour within organizations, particularly in the industrial
situation and had identified four main management styles namely, the exploitative -
authoritative system that I believed is based on Theory X; the benevolent –
authoritative system; the consultative and the participative - group system that I
presumed was based on Theory Y assumptions pointing mainly on work as natural
as play or rest and the average workers learnt not only to accept but to seek
responsibilities under the right conditions. Then in 1981, William Ouchi came up
with a variant that combined American and Japanese management practices
together to form Theory Z having the characteristics such as long-term employment;
collective decision-making; individual responsibility; slow evaluation and promotion;
implicit, informal control with explicit, formalized measures; moderately specialized
career paths and a holistic concern for the employees, including their families.
Frederick Herzberg (1968) first established that satisfaction and dissatisfaction at
work nearly always arose from different factors, and was not simply opposing
reactions to the same factors, as had always previously been believed. His
motivation theories suggested man had two sets of needs; one as an animal to avoid
pain that he showed as those factors that tended to lead to dissatisfaction ('hygiene
factors'), and two as a human being to grow psychologically he showed as other
factors that truly motivate ('motivators'). Certain parallels could clearly be seen with
Maslow. One important motivator that had been a valuable TQM concept in the
workplace was employee empowerment. However, this concept had been questioned

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by those who were sceptical about the employer’s intention to enslave rather than
empower employees.
The concept of employee empowerment had been historically practiced in a way that
restricts individuals from using their innate capacity to achieve their own unique
level of excellence at work, thereby inhibiting the level of individual and
organizational effectiveness that could otherwise be achieved. A concept called
employee determination took employee empowerment to the next level and could
increase individual and organizational effectiveness. … In a review of employee
empowerment literature, John Fox cited authors who define empowerment as
instilling power in employees. … Employee determination, on the other hand,
contended employees used their personal power and need to self-determine unique
levels of excellence when choosing which organizations to work for. … E.L. Deci and
R.M. Ryan (2000) identified the psychological processes that promote optimal
functioning in what they called the self-determination theory. (David Geisler 2005,
p. 48 - 49)
2.3 Critical Literature Review
After reviewing the various definitions of organizational culture in Section 2.1, a
lecture material prepared by the National Defence University (Organizational
Culture, 1997) suggested that two major camps exist in the study of organizational
culture.
The first camp viewed culture as implicit in social life. Culture was what naturally
emerged as individuals transformed themselves into social groups as tribes,
communities, and ultimately, nations. The second camp represented the view that
culture was an explicit social product arising from social interaction either as an
intentional or unintentional consequence of behaviour. In other words, culture was
comprised of distinct observable forms (e.g., language, use of symbols, ceremonies,
customs, methods of problem solving, use of tools or technology, and design of work
settings) that groups of people create through social interaction and use to confront
the broader social environment (Wuthnow and Witten 1988). This second view of
culture was most relevant to the analysis and evaluation of organizational culture

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and to cultural change strategies that leaders could employ to improve
organizational performance.
I inclined to take this second view of culture too. So what is organizational culture
and is it the same as culture as described above? The concept of organizational
culture was popularised in the early 1980’s but its roots could be traced back to the
early human relations view of organizations that originated in the 1940’s where it
drew its inspiration from even earlier anthropological and sociological work on
culture associated with groups and societies (See Bodley 1994; Mead 1934).
Definitions of organizational culture initially focused on distinguishing levels of
organizational culture, and study was conducted on how strong versus weak
cultures had impacted on the company performances. Discussing about the theory
of strong cultures caused strong performance, Kotter and Heskett (1992, p.18)
addressed ‘But despite its popularity, questions had been raised about this theory.
One had to do with causality. …, yet the reverse was known to occur too – strong
performance can help to create strong cultures.’
Based on the data analysis of a sample size of 207 firms from twenty-two different
U.S. industries, a study by Kotter and Heskett (1992) concluded that there was a
modest positive relationship between strength of corporate culture and long-term
economic performance. However, firms such as McGraw-Hill continued to perform
well because of their monopolistic market positions and the relative autonomy that
the weak corporate culture allowed. On the contrary firms including General Motors
and Procter & Gamble received strong cultural strength scores yet weak
performance scores due to apparently strong cultures including dysfunctional
elements as well as vigorous, functional ones.
Many definitions of culture gave primacy to the cognitive components, such as
assumptions, beliefs, and values. Others expanded the concept to include
behaviours and artefacts, leading to a common distinction between the visible and
the hidden levels of organizational culture. In contrast to the distinction between
the visible and hidden levels, some theorists distinguished multiple levels such as
Schein (1985), who further characterize culture as consisting of three levels (Schein
1988). The most visible level was behaviour and artefacts, the observable level of
culture that consisted of behaviour patterns and outward manifestations of culture.

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All may be visible indicators of culture, but difficult to interpret. Artefacts and
behaviour also may tell us what a group was doing, but not why. At the next level of
cultures were values, not directly observable but to a large extent determine
behaviour. There may be a difference between stated and operating values. People
would attribute their behaviour to stated values. To really understand culture, we
had to get to the deepest level, assumptions and beliefs. People may be unaware of
or were unable to articulate what forms their deepest level of culture. In addition, a
homogenous and tenured workforce contributed to cultural strength: ‘surviving the
good and bad times together [makes] the employees a close-knit group’ (Ingols and
Myers 1992, p. 269).
Schein (2004, p. 17) stated ‘The culture of a group [or organization] can now be
defined as a pattern of shared basic assumptions that was learned by the group as
it solved its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, that had
worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new
members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to these
problems.’ It was suggested that shared definition (assumptions) in most business
organizations revolved around the issue of economic survival and growth, which, in
turn, involved the maintenance of good relationship with the major stakeholders of
the organization. Several studies had shown that the key to long-range growth and
survival was to keep the needs of these constituencies in some kind of balance, and
that the mission of the organization as a set of beliefs about its core competencies
and basic functions in society, was usually a reflection of this balance (Kotter and
Heskett, 1992; Porras and Collins, 1994).
The latest research conducted by Kostman and Schiemann (2005) showed that
organizations having top leadership support, development of a quality culture and a
high level of people equity dramatically outperformed others with respect to
managing resources and business processes in a cost effective manner; eliminating
activities inconsistent with the organization’s strategic direction; increasing the
likelihood of customer referrals; and identifying, analysing and closing performance
gaps, etc. These results were in congruence with the findings by Kotter and Heskett
(1992) that there was a link (with modest positive correlations) between
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Pikula listed three elements that determine the strength of corporate culture.
[Firstly], the number of shared beliefs, values, and assumptions. The higher
the number of shared assumptions, the ‘thicker’ the culture. In ‘thin’ cultures,
there are few commonly held assumptions and values. [Followed by] the
numbers of employees who accept, reject, or share in the basic beliefs, values,
and assumptions. If employee acceptance is high, a strong corporate culture
will emerge. [Lastly] the higher the number of shared beliefs, values and
assumptions, the stronger the culture of the organization. (Nahavandi and
Malekzadeh, 1993) … (Pikula 1999, p. 1)
Organizational cultures were created, maintained, or transformed by people but the
fundamental assumptions and values perceived by each individual in an
organization may be different and hence subcultures were formed based on
groupings by professions, ethnic/cultural background, work areas, functional
departments, etc. If the subcultures adhered to the core ideologies, values and
norms of the organization, then it was highly likely that it would be beneficial but
organizations do not, however, always have homogeneous subcultures. Research
(Sackmann, 1992) on subcultures found each subgroup was influenced by the
nature of its particular work. All three groupings clearly distinguished between “we”
and “them”; they dressed differently, worked in distinctly different work spaces that
were furnished differently, they took separate breaks, etc. and most importantly
they have different objectives and values that were not in congruence to the core
values of the organization.
An example of countercultures with productive outcomes is the case of US Brig.
General Billy Mitchell who tried to assert the value of airpower against the
resistance of the traditional war-fighting cultures of the Army and the Navy and
resulted in the formation of the Air Force as a separate service in 1947. This was
because the counterculture group was able to demonstrate how its idiosyncrasies
were consonant with the core ideologies, values and norms of the dominant culture,
the ethos of war-fighters. An example of counterculture that had unproductive
outcomes is the resignation (likely he was asked to leave) of John Delorean as the
vice president of car and truck production for the entire General Motors line in 1973
unexpectedly at the age of 48. Delorean took steps to create a new counter culture

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that would try to force innovations with an alternative set of core values, preferring
productivity to deference, objective measures of performance to subjective measures
of conformity, and independence to blind loyalty.
Delorean also refused to participate in the ceremonies and rituals of deference
that were widely practiced in the corporation. As an ultimate rejection of GM's
core values, Delorean attacked a GM icon, the Corvair (before Ralph Nader) for
faulty construction, its unsafe performance and persistent maintenance
problems. For a while, Delorean was able to maintain a delicate balance
within the dominant culture's latitude of tolerance, but [left] eventually [when]
met with disfavour; … and the counter culture disintegrated. (Organizational
Culture, 1997)
An organization’s culture was, in part, also created and maintained by the
organization’s leadership. Leaders at the executive level were the principle source
for the generation and re-infusion of an organization’s ideology, articulation of core
values and specification of norms. In one study according to Peters and Waterman
(1982) eighteen out of twenty HP executives interviewed spontaneously claimed that
the success of their company depended on the company’s people-oriented
philosophy. It’s called “the HP way”. In 1940s the founders of HP, Hewlett and
Packard decided, “not to be hire and fire company”. Even during the 1970
recession; rather than lay people off, they decided that everyone in the organization
took a 10 percent cut in pay and working 10 percent fewer hours.
Sam Walton, or “Mr. Sam,” as he was called in Wal-Mart was the driving force
behind this success of the now number one retailer in the United States (with 3,337
stores) and the largest company in the world. Walton referred to his people as
“associates,” not employees and he listened to them. He visited every store every
year (330 in 1982) as he had done since 1962. Sam Walton passed away in 1992
and the leadership role was taken over by his son Rob Walton as the Chairman of
the Board of Directors maintaining the strong culture created by him. The impact
on organizational performance was related to how strong or how weak the culture
was prevailing. It is not always negative to have a weak culture since if it was not
supportive to the core values it could be relatively easier to be changed. On the

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other hand, a strong culture but also non-supportive to the core values could be
detrimental to the performance of the organization.
According to Schein (2004, p.127), ‘Change in the reward and punishment system is
also one of the quickest and easiest ways to begin to change some elements of the
culture.’ ; ‘Once one has identified what kind of behaviours are considered “heroic”
and what kinds of behaviours are “sinful”, one could begin to infer the assumptions
that lie behind those evaluation.’ (Schein 2004, p. 129). We reviewed the basic
assumptions about human nature as being calculative, social, self-actualizing, or
complex; as being positive and malleable (Theory Y) or negative and fixed (Theory X).
(Schein 2004, p. 188)
We could not talk about self-motivation without mentioning Abraham H. Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs in regards to physiological; safety; social; self-esteem and the
ultimate approach to self-actualization (personal growth or development). But
Maslow, like other authors avoided talking about the plausible bad aspects or the
ethical side of human growth. Based on my own experience working with people in
the workplace for 28 years, I always assume people behave towards the theory Y
model as formulated by McGregor (1960) since most workers I met were observed to
have initiatives to do things right first time provided they are trained and informed
properly. Unfortunately in this fast changing global market, we were unlikely to
have the pre-requisites for Theory Z since long-term employment was no longer
guarantee even in Japan and slow evaluation and promotion may not be tolerable by
the “Generation Y”, etc.
I also took the same view as Rensis Likert that all organizations should adopt the
participative-group system (believed to be based on the theory Y model), the one
which was the ideal for profit oriented and human-concerned organization. This
was a system where leadership was by supervisors who had complete confidence in
their subordinates, where motivation was by economic rewards based on goals set in
participation, where personnel at all levels felt real responsibility for the
organization goals, where there was much communications, and a substantial
amount of cooperative teamwork. However, mutual trust between workers and
supervisors and a fair reward system was unlikely to be in existence in most
organizations, it took a strong supportive culture and plenty of time to establish this

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trust that could be damaged overnight due to mismanagement. Herzberg's work
(1968), originally on 200 Pittsburgh engineers and accountants, proved through
replicated research that people would strive to achieve hygiene needs because they
were unhappy without them, but once satisfied the effect soon worn off - satisfaction
was temporary. Examples of hygiene needs in the workplace were policy,
relationship with supervisor, work conditions, salary, company car, statuses, and
security, relationship with subordinates, personal life. True motivators were found
to be other completely different factors: achievement, recognition, works itself,
responsibility, advancement, and personal growth.
Social Comparison Theory (Leon Festinger, 1954) talked about how we learnt about
our own abilities and attitudes by comparing ourselves with other people and their
opinions. Mostly, we sought to compare ourselves with someone against whom we
believed we should have reasonable similarity, although in the absence of such a
benchmark, we would use almost anyone. Upward social comparison occurred
where we mostly compared ourselves with people who we deemed to be socially
better than us in some way whereas downward social comparison acted in the
opposite direction. I reckoned the basis of this theory was important as attitudes
help shaped one’s behaviour. We could therefore used this to change employee’s
behaviour towards a stronger functional culture by finding out other people with
whom the target people compared themselves, then either got those reference people
to adopt the desired action or found a way of persuading the target to select a better
reference. According to the workshop material on fifty years of social comparison
theory (2004) ‘While the first three decades after the publication of this theory in
Festinger’s paper social comparison was a more or less peripheral topic in social
psychology, … social comparison theory has developed from being a theoretical
statement focused on the use of others for self-evaluation into a lively and varied
area of research encompassing many different paradigms, approaches and
applications. In addition, social comparison processes are linked to more general
principles that underlie our psychological functioning, including social judgment,
social cognition, group processes, and personality.’
People commonly argue that money was a primary motivator. It's not always true.
Surveys repeatedly showed that other factors motivated more. For example, a
survey (Chapman, 2001-4) by Development Dimensions International published in

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the UK Times newspaper in 2004 interviewed 1,000 staff from companies employing
more than 500 workers, and found many to be bored, lacking commitment and
looking for a new job. Pay actually came fifth in the reasons people gave for leaving
their jobs. The main reasons were lack of stimulus jobs and no opportunity for
advancement - classic Herzberg motivators - 43% left for better promotion chances.
As Skinner (1971) notes, the way the reinforcement was carried out was more
important than the amount. First, it ought to be specific, e.g. Activity-based MBO
systems were more common in the excellent companies than were financially based
MBOs. Second, the reinforcement should have immediacy. E.g. Thomas Watson Sr.
was said to have made a practice of writing out a cheque on the spot for
achievements he observed in his own peripatetic management role. Third, the
system of feedback mechanisms should take account of achievability. Rewarding
small wins by good news swapping was common in the excellent companies. The
fourth characteristic was that a fair amount of the feedback comes in the form of
intangible but ever-so-meaningful attention from top management. This sort of
recognition may be the most powerful of all since management’s time is scarce.
E.L. Deci and R.M. Ryan (2000) identified the psychological processes that promoted
optimal functioning in what they called the self-determination theory. (SDT; Deci &
Ryan, 1980, 1985, 1991) They asserted humans were active and growth oriented
and strived for congruency between their psychological makeup and social world
that was reached only when our needs for relatedness, competence and autonomy
were satisfied. Employee determination (Geisler, 2005) asserted that the desire for
self-assurance, self-worth and the opportunity needed to maintain and enhance
personal power must be reinforced by what was found in the organizational culture
and work processes. If elements of the culture and work processes assured
employee, gave them worth and provided them with opportunities that reinforce
positive psychological wellbeing, employees would exhibit personal power and
optimal performance. As for the effects of culture and work, employees would
choose to align their behaviours and attitudes with an organization’s strategic
direction based on organizational purpose: when the mission, vision and values
were substantiate and sustainable; individual effort: when the objectives were
challenging and requisite knowledge and skills were continuously learned and work
activity: when the process was manageable, stimulating and consistent with an
employee’s temperament.

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In case the organizational culture was not supportive or in alignment with the
organization’s purpose the leader responsible might choose to act by managing
cultural change. According to Deal and Kennedy (1982, 2000), ‘Even if people
understand and accept a change, they often don’t have the required skills and
ability to carry out the new plan. This is a major impediment to successful change.’
‘… Planning, contracting, and project management processes often provided the
opportunities for training in new values, new behaviour, and even language that
permits people to shift from one culture to another.’ Training was crucial to provide
the employees of a changing organization to acquire the necessary skills, attitudes,
etc. and to be motivated to change their behaviours in the transformation of the
organizational culture to a strong and functional one. To ensure the training was
conducted effectively and value adding, there ought to have a system in place for
competency based assessment compliment by a fair appraisal system that allowed a
two way communications between supervisor and subordinate on a regular and
appropriate time interval that covered personal development of the employees.
2.4 Summary of the Literature Review
An assumption had been made that with the improvements in productivity and
quality, the financial position of an organization will improve too. The financial
returns and performance improvement generally came from the increase in
organizational efficiency and effectiveness by employees motivated to work smarter
and harder resulting in the reduction of cycle or processing time and waste, etc.
The improvement in the product and / or service quality was also a major
contributor resulting in enhancement of customer satisfaction, boosting customer
loyalty for more repeat orders and driving the organization toward a competitive
edge. In other words, financial performance was the desired outcome (or possible
by-product) of productivity and quality improvement and since money was the
common language understood by all stakeholders especially the senior
management, literatures related to the link between culture and financial
performance were therefore selected for review.
The findings suggested that organization with culture that was weak or
dysfunctional and did not support their core value or purpose was not likely to
perform better financially comparing with the industry average. But there were

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ways that leaders of such organizations could choose to influence and change the
organizational culture to improve the organizational performance. A leader’s skills,
abilities, competencies, behaviours, activities, and styles were important, but they
did not define the essence of one’s leadership. Rather, the essence of leadership was
the impact that a person had on the thinking and behaviour of others and the
culture that he or she ended up creating as a result. For example, building a strong
culture that supported the core values of the organization; using the power of
subcultures or countercultures to bring about positive outcomes; implementation of
a fair, timely and realistic reward and recognition system; managing under an
environment of participative-group system to enhance employee satisfaction
applying both hygiene factors such as appropriate company policies, working
conditions, salary and true motivators such as award and recognition, advancement
and personal development.
I strongly believed and supported the ideas of employee contributions towards
organizational performance based on intrinsic human needs as a major driving force
as well as other external factors such as influences by peers and managers. These
were related to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs on self-actualization, the self-
determination theory and social comparison theory. Based on the self-
determination theory, it asserted humans’ strive for congruency between our
psychological makeup and social world was reached only when our needs for
relatedness, competence and autonomy were satisfied.
Kostman and Schiemann (2005) highlighted the staggering cost of employee
turnover at a replacement cost of 41% of the annual salary for just one frontline
manufacturing employee according to the U.S. Department of Labor (2004). Also,
an out-placement consultant told me that she estimated the replacement cost in
Sydney, Australia for an executive earning AUS$100,000 per annum to be
AUS$60,000 to AUS$80,000 taking into accounts the job advertisement, fees
payable to the recruitment firm, productivity lost and training cost to bring the new
person up to speed. These costs were enormous that affect the bottom line
financially and therefore cultural fit was extremely important for retaining staff to
avoid such costs.

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I would therefore explore the points covered here in my research including
competency-based training to determine the factors perceived as important to the
influence on and the management of culture change to bring about improvement in
organizational performance.

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Chapter Three – Exploratory Interviews
3.1 Introduction to Exploratory interviews
The literature review has identified a number of issues that are likely to be
important in determining how well an organization can continual improve quality
and productivity by creating a strong and supportive organizational culture. These
issues are summarized in Section 2.4 of the Literature Review. The main purpose of
the exploratory interviews was to look for evidence that the issues raised by the
literature review in relation to the strength and health of the organizational culture
and in relation to the value and practices adopted were relevant in this case study.
The interviews, which lasted approximately one hour each, were conducted based on
loosely structured open questions listed in Part 9 of Appendix A to stimulate the
interviewees to tell about his or hers personal perception and emotional valuing of
the organizational culture. The responses were summarised in Chapter 6.
After approaching and talking to a randomly selected sample of employees for their
interests in taking part in the research study, 35 of these employees have agreed to
take part voluntarily in the research study that includes this exploratory interview.
However, only 23 of these 35 volunteers had been interviewed. The reason for those
who were not interviewed included a change of mind and decided not to take part or
the employee had left Salmat or the person was on leave the day interview was
scheduled.
Participants volunteered their feedback may be biased because of lack of self-
reflection by stating value which was difference to their operating value. Also, they
may be over-critical towards the actions or behaviour of their colleagues within their
team or from other departments without understanding fully the limitations others
may have.
3.2 Summary on profiles of interviewees
Of the 23 employees interviewed, more than one-third (40 %) had been with Salmat
for between one to two years; one-third had been working for the company for nine
years or more and the remaining 26.7 % was in service with the organization for

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between three to eight years. This distribution of years of service should result in
the interviewees giving a relatively balanced perspective on the organizational
culture. Regarding the time spent in their current role, half (50 %) the employees
interviewed had been in their current position for two years or less and 12.5 % out
of this category had only been in their current role for less than one year. Slightly
more than one-third (37.5 %) had been in their current position for between three to
four years and the remaining 12.5 % had five years or more. These employees who
volunteered to take part in this research study mainly came from Team Leader or
Supervisor level (50 %) of which the majority was from the production floor and
most of their time was spent in operating production machines and completing
manufacturing processes in additional to supervision duties. There was an equal
split of 18.8 % in the profile of interviewees who came from clerical staff or operators
and the middle management. The remaining 12.5 % was from the senior
management.

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Chapter Four – Conceptual Framework and Hypotheses
4.1 Conceptual Framework
The critical literature review has identified issues that are pertinent to the present
research as illustrated with the application of the Cause and Effect (also known as
Fish-bone or Ishikawa) Diagram (See Figure 4.1 below). The features of this
theoretical framework fit categorically to a ‘configuration’ (Miller and Friesen 1984)
or an ‘organizational form’ (Laughlin 1991) as being constituted by three interrelated
components that Clark and Soulsby (1995) called the organization’s ‘sub-systems’,
its ‘structure’, the tangible aspects and its ‘culture’, the intangible aspects.
Management
Commitment &
Leadership
Participative
Management, Reward
& Recognition System
ISO 9001-2000 Quality
Management System
Human Resources
Policy & Management
Productivity and
Quality Oriented
Culture
Managers with right
Leadership traits who
lead by example
Human Resources Management -
Training, awareness and competence of
employees; motivation, appraisal and
Employee satisfaction
Change Management
Process implemented
Top management
commitment communicated
to all employee
Agenda for people
involvement explained to all
employees on benefits
Training and knowledge
management build in for
career development A reward & recognition
system separate from salary
package and is fair
Using the Human
Resources School
approach to maximize
employees' contribution
Develop team, promote
teamwork & provide training
in tools for business improvement
Promote Quality of Work Life and
apply theories of motivation
JIT training to ensure skill learned could be
practiced with coaching and 360o
appraisal
Management Responsibility
in ensuring a system to enhance
productivity and quality performance
Communications on vision / values
objectives / and understanding
of responsibility/accountability
Figure 4.1
It is the intangible end of the spectrum of these ‘organizational form’ aspects that
shape the culture of an organization. We are interested to explore into how
employees perceived the organizational culture in terms of the existing informal
reward and recognition system; the availability of career development; the provision
of coaching and mentoring, hence the supports from the management; the
effectiveness of communications, both top down and bottom up and in particular
the leadership quality in shaping the vision and values of the organization that
ISO9001: 2000 Quality
Management System

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determine how employees’ behave in supporting productivity and quality
improvements. There may be a difference between stated and operating values.
People will attribute their behaviour to stated values. We are also interested in
knowing whether employees feel motivated in achieving their set objectives and how
satisfied they are on the job.
The level of analysis in this research is fairly broad. It is not concerned with specific
behaviours of particular employees at a point in time and in a particular context.
Rather it investigates the formation and importance of employees’ attitudes to broad
issues in particular, the causes identified above namely, management commitment
and leadership, participative management, reward and recognition system, human
resources policy and management, and their support towards the ISO9001: 2000
Quality Management System that could bring about the effect being a productivity
and quality oriented culture.
4.2 Hypotheses
Attitude towards the ISO9001: 2000 Quality Management System
The literature review indicated that system approach; internal communications and
effective training play important roles in the success in changing the organizational
culture to align with the company’s objectives and visions. These are essentially the
requirements of ISO9001: 2000 management system standard. The above
discussions lead to the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis H1: Employees generally believe that implementation of ISO9001: 2000
management system is important in creating / maintaining productivity and quality
oriented culture.
Management Commitment and Leadership
One factor which emerges consistently from the literature as essential for the
success of creating or maintaining productivity and quality oriented culture is
commitment and support from top management and leadership. For organization
with culture that is weak or dysfunctional and does not support their core value or
purpose, they are unlikely to perform better financially comparing with the industry
average. But leaders of such organizations could choose to influence and change
the organizational culture to improve the organizational performance in the essence

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of leadership to impact a person has on the thinking and behaviour of others and
the culture that he or she ends up creating as a result. The above discussions lead
to the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis H2: Employees generally believe that strong management commitment
and leadership is important in creating / maintaining productivity and quality
oriented culture.
Participative Management, Reward and Recognition System
Examples listed in the literature review include, building a strong culture that
supports the core values of the organization; using the power of subcultures or
countercultures to bring about positive outcomes; implementation of a fair, timely
and realistic reward and recognition system; managing under an environment of
participative-group system to enhance employee satisfaction applying both hygiene
factors such as appropriate company policies, working conditions, salary and true
motivators such as award and recognition, advancement and personal development.
These examples lead to the following hypothesis:
Hypothesis H3: Employees generally believe that promoting participative management
and a fair reward and recognition system are important in creating / maintaining
productivity and quality oriented culture.
Human Resources Policy and Management
As indicated in the critical literature review, I strongly believe and support the ideas
of employee contributions towards organizational performance based on intrinsic
human needs as a major driving force as well as other external factors such as
influences by peers and managers, the promotion of team spirits and providing
necessary training and supports. These are related to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
on self-actualization, the Herzberg’s true motivators, the self-determination theory
and social comparison theory leading to the final hypothesis.
Hypothesis H4: Employees generally believe that implementation of Human Resources
Policy and Management based on the human resources school approach is important
in creating / maintaining productivity and quality oriented culture.

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Chapter Five – Research Methodology and Methods
5.1 Selection of Research Methodology
Methodology should be grounded in a framework that encourages good research.
Cooper and Schindler (1995) stress the importance of thorough planning and
describe a number of characteristics of good research:
i. The purpose of the research should be clearly defined.
ii. The research should be sufficiently detailed to permit other researchers to
repeat the methodology.
iii. The research should be thoroughly planned.
iv. High ethical standards should apply.
v. Limitations of the research should be frankly revealed.
vi. The amount of analysis undertaken should be adequate for the decision
maker’s needs.
vii. Findings should be presented in a clear unambiguous way.
viii. Conclusions should be justified.
When selecting a suitable research methodology, a number of important issues have
been taken into consideration. These include selecting a methodology that is
appropriate to address the research issue while taking into account any constraints
that may exist. Remenyi, Williams, Money and Swartz (1998, p. 45) identify four
major issues affecting selection of a research strategy. These are the nature of the
research question, the skills of the researcher, the costs involved and the time
required to complete the research. Research can be either theoretical or empirical.
Remenyi et al. (1998, p. 47) point out that among those undertaking higher degrees
in management an empirical approach, in which primary data is collected and
analyzed, is by far the most popular approach.
Different philosophical approaches towards the research can be taken. Remenyi et
al. (1998, p. 32-35) contrast the positivistic approach with the phenomenological
approach to research. They explain that the positivistic approach emphasizes
observations that lend themselves to statistical analysis. The danger in the
positivistic approach is that it is restrictive and shallow and is unlikely to lead to

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interesting and profound insights into complex problems, especially in the studies of
organizational culture. The phenomenological approach, which Remenyi et al.
explain is also described as the descriptive or interpretative approach, takes the
position that every event studied is a unique incident in its own way. The research
unfolds as it proceeds. Rich descriptions are sought which are the building blocks
of the argument the researcher develops.
Remenyi et al. (1998, p. 47-48) point out that a choice of doing either longitudinal or
cross-sectional research often presents itself to researchers. Longitudinal research
captures changes over time in the subject being studied. Cross-sectional studies
essentially take a snapshot of a situation at a particular time. They examine how
something is done at the time and generally try to identify and understand
differences between the various members of the study population.
Remenyi et al. (1998, p. 48-61) describe fourteen specific research approaches.
Seven of the approaches that are more relevant to the present research are shown in
Table 1 together with an assessment of their philosophical base. A brief explanation
of each of the approaches is included in the table.
Table 5. 1 Research approaches and their philosophical bases.
Based on Remenyi et al. (1998, Table 3.1 p. 59)
Research Approach Positivistic Phenomenological
Action research – The action researcher
is involved in an organization. Process
involves assessing situation,
hypothesizing affect of intervention,
evaluating results of intervention.
Strictly interpretivist
Case studies – Empirical investigation of
phenomenon in its real life context.
Valuable in answering who, why and
how questions in management research.
Have scope to be
either
Have scope to be
either
Ethnographic – Social anthropology
approach. Field observation in which
the researcher becomes fully involved in
the situation being studied.

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Field experiment – Laboratory type
experiments but carried out in the less
controlled environment of an
organization. E.g. The Hawthorne
studies.
Have scope to be
either
Have scope to be
either
Focus groups – Collecting views from a
highly specialized group of people
through interaction / debate with the
researcher.
Mostly interpretivist
In-depth surveys – Conducting in-depth
interviews to obtain evidence from a
relatively small number of informants.
Usually subjects are allowed to speak
freely on subject of interest to researcher
and questionnaire generally not used.
Mostly interpretivist
Participant-observer – Researcher joins
team who are part of phenomenon being
studied. Takes part in phenomenon but
makes observations of the way the group
operates.
5.2 Research Strategy
This research is conducted as a case study at the Moorebank NSW site of Salmat
DMS Division that has five sites within Australia and three sites overseas. The case
study strategy is appropriate for this research as “an empirical enquiry that
investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real life context when the
boundaries between phenomenon and the context are not clearly evident [and] is
particularly valuable in answering who, why and how questions in management
research” (Remenyi, Williams, Money and Swartz 1998 p.50, citing Yin 1989). The
case study method also “generally emphasizes qualitative, in-depth study of one or a
small number of cases” (Ellram 1996 p.95) and is “desirable in those
circumstances… because it provides depth and insight in a little known
phenomenon” (1996 p.97).
The results are to be used to compare against the results of the culture survey
conducted by Salmat at the corporate level that covered DMS and two other
divisions provided that the details of the corporate results are available for releasing
for such a purpose. The types of questions that will be used include descriptive,

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relational and causal. The point of reference regarding the time in this qualitative
research will be cross-sectional instead of longitudinal. As the productivity and
quality may not be obviously seen to have improved significantly within the course
of the research, we will aim to identify the factors that could influence the
organizational culture that promote productivity and quality improvement.
Interpretative methodology is to be used. During the research processes that involve
contact with an organization, there is always an intervention into the life of the
organization. The most obvious difficulty in gathering valid cultural data is a well-
known phenomenon: human subjects involved in research have a tendency either to
resist and hide data that they feel defensive about or to exaggerate to impress the
researcher. Other times they might exaggerate for cathartic relief or they might be
fearful of reprisal from the management. As these problems are associated with the
usual qualitative research method, the more suitable and valid approach is a
clinical research model that I will be adopting where the data come voluntarily from
the members of the organization since they feel they have something to gain from
cooperating with the researcher (Schein, 2004).
Employees are approached to take part in the research on a volunteer basis. It is
necessary to inform them fully of the purpose of the research, and what is expected
of them in terms of time and input commitments to participate in the research. It is
necessary to provide guarantees of confidentiality, and anonymity. If the
information is inaccurate, potential employees, customers, suppliers, and any other
categories of outsiders who deal with the organization may be adversely influenced.
In order to ensure the accuracy of the information, the data collected from
interviewing each individual member of the organization is double-checked with the
particular individual by going through the transcript of the interview. The data
analysis is to be provided to the members of the organization before it is published.
This step has the advantage of also testing, to some degree, the validity of the
information.

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5.3 Overview of the Methodology
1. A questionnaire (written, structured in a format for review face-to-face) to be
completed by individual employees is designed. The questionnaire addresses
the hypothesis outlined in the section “Theoretical Framework and
Hypotheses”.
2. The questionnaire is piloted using a sample of people known to the researcher
who are employees of organizations other than the one where the research
will be conducted. No amendments are made to the questionnaire as a result
of the pilot.
3. Approval of the research procedures are obtained from the SALMAT DMS
NSW General Manager and the People and Culture (Human Resources)
Manager is consulted.
4. Based on the current staff level of 120 people in the Moorebank site where
the research is conducted, questionnaires have been distributed to a primary
sample composed of 35 employees (who has accepted to take part in the
research) being the targeted respondents in the senior management team,
middle management, and customer service and production staff members.
Where possible random samples are taken from customer service and
production since these two areas have relatively large number of staff
members.
5. A preliminary analysis is carried out on the data contained in returned
questionnaires after completion of interviews (in the form of semi-structured
interviews that include critical incident approach) with the primary sample.
The targeted response rate is 100% with an expected minimum of 90%
completing the questionnaires and interviews. The plan is to approach and
talk to a randomly selected sample size of employees far greater than 35 to
get prior commitment of at least 35 of these employees to take part
voluntarily in the research.
6. The original design involves a second sample of 12 to 16 is to be interviewed
in two separate focus groups (6 to 8 people per group) as a “member check”
based on the results of the preliminary analysis (Guba, 1981). However, due

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to an unforeseen and unplanned event as explained in Section 1.7 Research
Design in Chapter 1, the focus group interviews are not conducted.
7. Analysis of the overall results is undertaken. The qualitative data from the
questionnaire survey and from the interviews is subjected to simple
descriptive statistical analysis.

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5.4 Design of Questionnaire
The questionnaire is designed to be completed on an individual basis by Senior
Managers (GM Operations, Customer Service Manager and Client Directors); Middle
Managers (Account Managers, Production, Planning and Warehouse Managers);
Customer Service Representatives, Invoicing staff, Laser / Mail Operators, Postage
and Warehouse staff, Quality Control Officers and Planners. A copy of the final
questionnaire is in Appendix A. The questionnaire is designed, together with
evidence gathered during interviews, to address the hypotheses outlined in page 2
and 3.
The following are important design considerations and assumptions made in the
construction of the questionnaire. In order to achieve the targeted response rate of
100% it is important to make the questionnaire easy for the respondents to
complete because it is to be completed at a very busy workplace that the employees
invited to take part would more likely to volunteer their time provided the process
taking not more than an hour. The questionnaire combined tick boxes type of
questions, and mainly Likert scales to be used in attitudes for completion
beforehand, and open questions to be answered during interview when answer
options are available and interviewer keeps to a script.
The standard instruments being used in this research to measure organizational
commitment, role conflict and role ambiguity use a seven point Likert scale and this
practice has generally been used for other attitude measures that have been
developed. Open questions are structured using techniques such as “Critical
incidents”; “three typical statements” – by giving the respondent a chance to
summarize all that they said when ending an interesting question; “Timelines” – in
capturing people’s perceptions of the change in the organization’s culture over time;
“Heroes, villains and fools” exercise, “Images and metaphors” exercise, and “the
newcomer” exercise, all of which are based on that developed by McClean and
Marshall (1991) relevant for researching into organizational culture.

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5.5 Instructions to Respondents
The front page of the questionnaire provides background information on the project
and instructions on how to complete it together with a guarantee of confidentiality.
It is made clear that responses are encouraged from individuals not to resist or hide
data that they feel defensive about but to provide feedback to the best of their
knowledge and perception as such data coming voluntarily from them is beneficial
to them as a result of positive impact on the organizational culture provided the
research findings are adopted and acted upon by the management. It is explained
that the questionnaire is to be collected by the writer after a face-to-face interview
during which the writer / interviewer reviews and checks that responses to all
questions have been completed. Respondents are provided with the opportunity to
be sent a summary of the research findings. They are advised to contact the writer
directly if they are concerned about providing their contact details together with
their completed questionnaire.
5.6 The Research Questions
What sort of organizational culture does SALMAT has?
How strong or how weak is this culture at SALMAT?
How could employees be motivated such that their behaviour will shift
towards the positive end of the spectrum in support of productivity and
quality improvement?
How could a strong organizational culture be built to promote the ownership
and accountability from grass roots to line and middle management?
What could be done regarding human resources management to enable
modification in employee behaviour to improve support and commitment in
productivity and quality improvement?
What are the factors that have influenced and could influence organizational
behaviour and culture to bring about productivity and quality improvement?

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5.7 Sampling Method
Due to resources limitation usually involved in a research being undertaken within
a dynamic and busy workplace, it is not feasible to use a large sample size based on
the standard protocol. Also, with the nature of a case study method that involves
an in-depth, longitudinal examination of a single instance or event to provide a
systematic way of looking at events, rather than using large samples and following a
rigid protocol to examine a limited number of variables, convenient sampling is used
for this study.
The research is primarily conducted by semi-structured interviews; although being
very open, it would include some pre-coded elements. A primary sample composed
of 35 employees includes the targeted respondents in the management team (E.g.
General Manager, Customer Service Manager and Human Resources Manager),
middle management (Accounts Managers, Production Managers and Supervisors /
Team Leaders) and people at the grassroots level (Customer Service and temporary
office staff and factory workers/operators).
5.8 Findings (Analysis and Interpretation)
Descriptive Statistics is used in the analysis where applicable to describe and
present the central tendency and variation for all variables including a table of
frequencies for all nominal and ordinal (5 or less categories) variables. Charts and
graphs are used for enhancing the verbal presentation by using visual information
to highlight important information or key discrepancies.
Since this is mainly a non-statistical project, the observations, and the relationships
between variables, as well as the conditions under which certain relationships do
and don't exist is described verbally, and is presented in the form of an argument
using data (observations, interviews, artifacts, etc.) as evidence in testing the
hypothesis, supporting any claims, or making assertions.

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Chapter Six – Presentation and Analysis of Results
6.1 Introduction
The results of this case study research were presented in two separate sections. The
first section covered the quantitative results (and analysis) collected from a survey
based on the questionnaires completed by individual participating employees. The
specific questions were listed in Part 1 to 7 of Appendix A that addressed the
hypothesis outlined in the section “Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses”. Then
it was followed by another section on qualitative results based on the information
gathered during a face-to-face interview where the participating employees were
asked loosely structured open questions listed in Part 9 of Appendix A and talked
about his or hers personal perception and emotional valuing of the organizational
culture. The final section covered a summary of the outcomes of the Hypotheses
Tests related to the quantitative results.
6.2 Quantitative Results
After approaching and talking to a randomly selected sample of employees for their
interests in taking part in the research study, 35 of these employees have agreed to
take part voluntarily in the research study and were given a copy of the
questionnaire. Despite the fact that 23 of these 35 volunteers had eventually
participated in this research study and were interviewed, only 17 participants had
returned the completed questionnaires. Unfortunately, the 6 remaining
questionnaires all from production operators were never completed and returned
after repeated requests to return then completed.
The statistical analysis was conducted with the help of the SPSS Statistics 17.0
software programme. For each outcome or statement contained in the
questionnaire, the responses from the participating employees as to its importance,
likelihood and extent of occurrences, and acceptance (the degree the participants
agreed or disagreed with the statement) were expressed in terms of the Likert scales
from a rating of number 1 to 7. The mean, lower and upper bound values (at a 95%
confidence interval) of the numbers picked by the participants was computed for
each statement and presented in the tables below corresponding to each part of the

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questionnaire. These computed values (based on the lower bound values) were used
to interpret the average response (also presented in the tables) of the sample
population for each statement using the same rating scales. The rating numbers
and its equivalent interpreted descriptions of responses used were listed below.
Rating number Descriptions of Responses
1 Not important at all/Very Unlikely/Strongly disagree/Not at all
2 Very little importance/Unlikely/Significantly disagree/To very
little extent
3 Little importance/May be/Disagree/ To a little extent
4 Quite important/Quite possible/Neutral/To some extent
5 Important/Likely/Agree/To a moderate extent
6 Significantly important/More than likely/ Significantly agree/
To a significant extent
7 Very important/Very likely/Strongly agree/ To a great extent
Results and analysis for questions from PART 1 of the questionnaire
Outcome
The ISO9001: 2000 quality
system certification has or will
result in:
Importance to participant
personally that this outcome is
achieved
Likelihood that this outcome
has or will result from the
ISO9001: 2000 quality system
certification
1 Improved quality of our products
and services
Mean = 6.59; Lower bound = 6.22;
Upper bound = 6.95; Significantly
important
Mean = 5.00; Lower bound =
4.27; Upper bound = 5.73; Quite
possible
2 Improved competitiveness Average = 6.12; Lower bound =
6.22; Upper bound = 6.95;
Significantly important
3.71; Upper bound = 5.34; May
be / Quite possible
3 Improved company long term
survival prospects
Average = 6.41; Lower bound =
6.09; Upper bound = 673;
possible / Likely
4 Improved relationships with our
customers
possible
5 Improved interdepartmental
cooperation
important / Important
be
6 Improved relationships with our
suppliers
possible
7 Significant reduction in “red tape”
and bureaucracy
5.05; Upper bound = 6.48 ;
Important
be / Quite possible
8 More emphasis on long term
planning
Important
be / Quite possible

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Outcome
The ISO9001: 2000 quality
system certification has or will
result in:
Importance to participant
personally that this outcome is
achieved
Likelihood that this outcome
has or will result from the
ISO9001: 2000 quality system
certification
9 Less overreacting to short term
goals
Average = 5.35 Lower bound =
4.75; Upper bound =5.95; Quite
important
be
10 Improved communication
throughout the organization
be
11 Improved processes and
procedures throughout the
organization
possible / Likely
12 A culture of continuous
improvement throughout the
organization
possible
13 Maintaining or enhancing your
position in the organization
be / Quite possible
14 Maintaining or enhancing your
status in the organization
important
be / Quite possible
15 Improved chances of promotion
for you
important
be
16 An increase in your overall job
satisfaction
Definitely important
be / Quite possible
17 Retention of duties that you
consider to be important
important
be / Quite possible
18 New important duties for you Average = 5.29; Lower bound =
important
be
19 Maintenance or improvement in
your job security
be
The following were 2 sets of percentage distribution charts generated from the
responses for Part 1 of the questionnaire displayed in the same sequence as the
listing of the outcomes. The first set of charts were about the importance to the
participants that the corresponding outcome is achieved and the second set of
charts were about the likelihood that the corresponding outcome has or will result
from the ISO9001: 2000 quality system certification.

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Statement Participant’s response (Degree of
agreement or disagreement)
1 I am very enthusiastic about applying quality principle, doing things
right first time, improving productivity in my organization
agree
2 I actively encourage others in my organization to take an interest in
quality issues
Upper bound = 6.40; Agree
3 I am very willing to provide leadership in the area of quality and
productivity improvement in my organization
The following was a set of percentage distribution charts generated from the
listing of the statements.

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Statement of outcome How important is this in
increasing your commitment to
quality and productivity
improvements?
To what extent does this
happen in the organization?
1 Top management in our
organization is committed to
improvement
Upper bound = 6.65; Quite
3.89; Upper bound = 5.57; To a
little extent / To some extent
2 Top management in our
organization provides strong
leadership in quality and
productivity improvement
4.14; Upper bound = 5.63; To
some extent
3 Top management’s actions clearly
show that they support quality and
productivity improvement
Upper bound = 6.38; Important
some extent
4 Top management keeps us
informed of their plans regarding
improvement
important
little extent
5 Top management provides useful
feedback on how the quality and
productivity improvement is going
important
little extent
6 Top management makes it easy
for me to communicate my
feelings about quality and
productivity improvement to them
7 My direct boss is committed to
improvement
Upper bound =6.74; Quite
some extent
8 My direct boss encourages and
supports my involvement in
improvement
4.38; Upper bound = 6.33; ; To
some extent
9 Most of my colleagues support
improvement
The following were 2 sets of percentage distribution charts generated from the
listing of the outcomes. The first set of charts were about the importance to the
participants that the corresponding statement of outcome could increase their
commitment to quality and productivity improvements and the second set of charts
were about the extent of the corresponding statement of outcome did happen in the
organisation.

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Statement Participant’s response (Degree
of agreement or disagreement)
1 I feel certain about how much authority I have Mean = 4.71; Lower bound = 3.86;
Upper bound = 5.55; Disagree /
Neutral
2 I have clear planned goals and objectives for my job Mean = 5.53; Lower bound = 4.67;
Upper bound = 6.38; Neutral /
Agree
3 I have to do things that should be done differently Mean = 4.71; Lower bound = 3.92;
Neutral
4 I know I have divided my time properly Mean = 4.94; Lower bound = 4.08;
Upper bound = 5.80; Neutral
5 I receive an assignment without the manpower to complete it Mean = 5.00; Lower bound = 4.21;
6 I know what my responsibilities are Mean = 5.94; Lower bound = 5.23;
7 I have to buck a rule (bend/break/ignore a rule) or policy in order to
carry out an assignment
disagree / Disagree
8 I work with two or more groups who operate quite differently Mean = 5.47; Lower bound = 4.58;
9 I know exactly what is expect of me Mean = 5.88; Lower bound = 5.18;
10 I receive incompatible requests from two or more people Mean = 4.29; Lower bound = 3.29;
Upper bound = 5.30; Disagree
11 I do things which are apt to be acceptable by one person but not
accepted by others
12 I receive an assignment without adequate resources and materials to
execute it
13 Explanation is clear of what has to be done Mean = 4.65; Lower bound = 3.94;
Neutral
14 I work on unnecessary things Mean = 3.59; Lower bound = 2.72;
disagree / Disagree
The following was a set of percentage distribution charts generated from the
listing of the statements.

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