The influence of major external and internal events on the culture of an engineering organisation

Abstract

A Case study company that was set up as a project where the technical focus, activities and behaviour set the initial culture is considered in this research. Over a period of 11 years the Case study engineering organisation was exposed to many influences in the electrical utility industry that now give lead to questions such as: How did events influence the engineering culture and how did the culture change over time? Engineering organisations are subjected to external and internal events which are not always within their control. These include technological changes, economical changes or new competition, change in ownership, business focus or technical leadership. The ability to absorb such events is not only a function of the organisation’s technology infrastructure, availability of funding or skills, but also of the organisational culture prevailing at the time. The objective of the research is to determine how eight events impacted the culture of an engineering organisation over a period of six years. The results show that the culture is indeed influenced by events, with an indication that the different work areas within the organisation experienced the cultural changes differently. The employees that worked for the organisation six years or longer also experienced the changes differently from those that were only employed for the last five years of the organisation’s life. These results may assist the understanding of the impact that events may have on an organisation and allow early risk mitigation to counter undesirable culture forming.