ABSTRACT

The aim of this research study was to expand the base of knowledge and empirically test the influence of organizational culture on employee job performance at Cameroon Development Corporation Bota-Limbe. The study revolved around three specific objectives: To what extent does involvement as an element of organizational culture influence employee job performance? To what extent does consistency as an element of organizational culture influence employee job performance? To what extent does the organization‘s mission as an element of organizational culture influence employee job performance?

The analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). A descriptive analysis, one sample t-test and correlation analyses were triangulated with both qualitative and quantitative tools of analysis. The study involved the population of fifty three (53) employees. A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather data.

The result conducted using the variables show that Consistency as an organisational culture has a significant impact on employee’s performance at CDC Bota-Limbe which is in line with the third hypothesis H3. Furthermore the other variables such as organisational mission and culture of involvement do not significantly affect employee’s performance at CDC Bota-Limbe which is not in line with the first and second hypothesis (H1and H2) 

With the context of this result, it is highly recommended to manufacturing industry such as CDC to find the appropriate way of the two organisational culture to ensure an acceptable performance of employees.

CHAPTER ONE
INDRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Organisational culture encompasses values and behaviours that contribute to the unique social and psychological environment of an organisation. According to needle (2004), organisational culture represents the collective values, beliefs and principle of organisational members and it a product of factors such as history, product, market, technology, strategy, type of employees, management style, and national culture; culture includes the organisation’s vision, value, norms, systems, symbols, language, assumptions, environment, location, belief and habits.

The terms culture in the organisational context was first introduced by Dr. Elliott Jaques in his book “The changing culture of factory” in 1951. This is the published report of a case study of developments in the social life of one industrial community between April, 1948 and November 1950. This case is a publicly held British company engages principally in manufacture, sales, and servicing of metal bearings.

The study is concerned with the description, analysis, and development of the corporate group behaviours. According to Dr. Elliotte Jaques th culture of the factory is its customary and traditional way of thinking and doing of thigs, which is shared to a greater or lesser degree by all its members, and which new member must learn and at least partially accept.

In order to be accepted into service in the firm. In simple terms, to the extent that people can share common wishes, desired and aspirations, they can commit themselves to work together. It is a matter of being able to care about the same things, and it applies to nations as well as to associations and organizations within nation.

There has been significant research in the literature to explore the impact of organisational culture on employee’s performance and productivity, for instance, scholars (Hofstede, 1980; ouchi, 1981; Hofstede and Bond, 1988; Kotter & Heskett, 1992; Magee, 2002) state that organisational culture could be used for measuring economic performance of an organisation. Therefore a supportive culture as pointed out by Ritchie (2000) is considered as a motivational instrument which promotes the employees to perform smoothly and ensures better productivity (Ritchie, 2000).

Research has been carried out on various issues of organisational culture, for example, organisational culture types (Tharp, 2009) emphasize the stages of culture across the organisation whereas organisational psychology (Schein, 1990) focusses on how culture make an impact on employees psychology and performance, these two issues of organisational culture set up equilibrium where an organisation can achieve its maximum level of effectiveness and efficiency (Deem, Barnes, Segal &Preziosi, 2000)

Notwithstanding the organisational culture and employee performance have been studied over the past decades. The relationship between organizational culture and employee has been the subject or abundant. This study has been examined by many researchers (Kotter and Heskett 1992; Denison, 1990; Van der Post et al. 1998; Schwartz & Davis, 1981; Ojo, 2009). Despite the plethora of studies on corporate culture in the last few decades, there is no widely accepted causal relationship between corporate culture and performance.

The empirical evidence emerging from various studies about the impact of organisational culture on employees performance have so far yielded mixed results that are inconclusive and contradictory. Furthermore, there is no empirical research conducted on the impact of organisational culture on employee’s performance particularly from emerging country perspective like Cameroon. Very little attentions have been given to the manufacturing industries. This means that the impact of organisational culture on employee’s performance in the manufacturing industry such as CDC has not received adequate research attentions in Cameroon.

Thus, there is a major gap in the relevant literature on Cameroon which has to be covered by research. This research attempts to fill this gap by studying the situation of the Cameroon’s manufacturing industry and providing more empirical evidence on the effects of organisational culture on employee performance based on Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) level of data.

Since multinational corporations have been extending their cooperation in emerging countries, this would be critical to examine how organisational culture affects employee performance and productivity. The main aim of the paper is to examine the impacts of organisational culture on employee’s performance and productivity in the context of Cameroon development corporation (CDC)

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM