The relationship between organisational culture and staff commitment at a University of Technology.
Thoo- Pongwana, Precious Palesa
Thoo- Pongwana, Precious Palesa
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Abstract
Organisations worldwide have created a culture emanating from shared beliefs, values, norms, and expectations regarding the workplace. Organisational culture
together with employee commitment has been well-researched. Culture comprises a body of practices that are learned and passed on to members of an organisation and which in turn are shared and transmitted to newer members of the organisation. The existence of a positive culture within an organisation is characterised by employees feeling supported as well as by their opinions being considered by management. A positive organisational culture enables employees to share new ideas and innovative initiatives that can bring improvement and new ways of carrying out organisational endeavours. On the contrary to a positive culture, a negative culture can take root in an organisation. This is characterised by employees spending and wasting time protecting and honing their activities. These employees are afraid of taking risks, always resist change, and thus want to maintain the status quo. One of the imperatives within the organisation is enabling employee work commitment as concerns their respective tasks: this is regarded as the most challenging activity for managers. Notably, Institutions of Higher Learning are on a path that is hallmarked by its high momentum, out of which arises a certain number of often unprecedented challenges. Of the major challenges facing these institutions one is defined in terms of creating and nurturing an organisational culture and commitment within the employee pool which, in turn, has consequences regarding employee retention. Therefore, it can be seen as key for management to comprehend the factors influencing organisational culture and staff commitment. The present study sought to examine the question of the existence of a significant association between organisational culture and staff commitment at the University of Technology. The present study employed a quantitative research method together with a
questionnaire, adapted from two pre-existing questionnaires, which enabled the researcher to gather data from 146 of the 320 selected employees of the university who participated, having been selected through the use of a simple technique entailing random sampling. This technique offers equal prospects for participants to be chosen to partake in the study. A structured questionnaire was distributed to the chosen participants using SurveyMonkey. The resultant data were considered by means of descriptive and inferential statistics. From the analysis, the results showed that most of the respondents would like to spend the remainder of their careers with their current employer and possess a strong attachment to the organisation. It further emerged that continuance
commitment by employees is a key marker of organisational success. It was moreover noted that the respondents believe that it would be hard to depart the
organisation, and this could be as a result of different factors. The respondents indicated that the organisation is highly structured and dominated by procedures guiding operational activities. The respondents further had a positive view on the leadership, considering that leadership is sufficiently organised and that they accomplish their task of ensuring that the organisation functions smoothly. In conclusion, a strong organisational culture can lead to staff commitment. This is fundamental in the sense that the university may not experience high labour turnover as a significant majority of the workforce has indicated a degree of employer satisfaction. It could further be concluded that respondents demonstrated a sense of affective and continuance commitment which provide employees with firm attachments that encourage them to stay in their respective careers within the organisation longer.
Description
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree: Magister Technologiae: Human Resources Management in the Department of People Management and Development, Faculty of Management Sciences at the Tshwane University of Technology.
Date
2023-10-30
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Tshwane University of Technology