The impact of organisational culture on organisational innovation in the South African State-Owned Entities

Abstract

Innovation has been proven to be one of the crucial ingredients for organisational success. Factors influencing innovation include organisational culture. Although a wealth of research has been conducted on the impact of organisational culture on organisational innovation, the relationship between passive, aggressive and constructive organisational cultural styles and innovation strategy and employee innovation needs to be clarified, particularly in South African State-Owned Enterprises. Therefore, a cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted to address the research gap. An investigation to determine this relationship was conducted. A questionnaire was used to collect data from the South African State-Owned Enterprises employees, and 170 individuals responded. While aggressive culture does not affect organisational innovation, the results revealed that passive and constructive cultural styles significantly impact organisational innovation in the SA SOEs. While organisational culture is a determinant of organisational innovation, the study did not reveal how employees of different age groups and position levels perceive it. Moreover, as the study was cross-sectional, the sample size was suitable for the study; however, small relative to the magnitude of SOEs' employment in South Africa. In addition, more cultural dimensions are forming as the business environment, the work boundaries, and Information, Communication and Technology evolve. These were the study's limitations that left room for future research.