Organisational culture as a predictor of performance : a case study in Liberty Life

Abstract

Organisational culture is widely celebrated as a legitimate source of corporate success. The study aimed to investigate the possible relationship between organisational culture and performance among four departments within Liberty Life’s Operations division. The objectives were twofold: The first was to investigate which culture was dominant in each department. Information from the administration of Wallach’s (1983) organisational culture index questionnaire to measure the existing organisational culture in the various departments was obtained from a sample of 170 employees in Liberty Life. The second was to assess how the dominant culture affected the department’s performance in terms of adhering to the agreed service level agreement. Daily service level agreement adherence results for each department were used as the performance measure. The findings from the research indicated that departments with an innovative culture had a lower percentage of cases outside the agreed service level agreement than the departments with a bureaucratic or supportive culture. Recommendations with regard to changing organisational culture to support high adherence to service level agreement are also discussed.