14-04-2014, 01:03 PM
ORGANIZATION CULTURE AT SARVA SHIKSHA ABHIYAAN STATE PROJECT SET-UP, TAMIL NADU A STUDY
ORGANIZATION CULTURE .docx (Size: 32.98 KB / Downloads: 13)
ABSTRACT
The culture of any organization, although it can be variously defined, includes the shared norms and values that guide organizational participants’ behaviour. The Management of the SSA State Project office, Tamil Nadu commissioned this study to understand the organization’s culture from the perspective of the employees – specifically, the Block Resource Teacher Educators (BRTEs).
According to the management, many improvements have been made in the functioning of the organization, that have resulted in its becoming less bureaucratic and more flexible, and which have encouraged more openness and freedom at work. Unplanned, general observation by the management led to the belief that these changes had helped to improve both individual performance as well as the overall effectiveness of the organization.
This study on “Organization Culture at SSA – State Project Set-up, Tamil Nadu” was undertaken to verify if the employees also shared this perception, namely, that the changes that had been made in the organization had truly led to improvements. In addition, the study also captured employee attitudes towards various aspects of the organization.
INTRODUCTION
An Understanding of Organizational Culture
Organizational Culture refers to a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations. This system of shared meaning is actually a set of key characteristics that the organization values (Robbins and Sanghi, 2007).
Organizational culture is a descriptive term which is concerned with how employees perceive the characteristics of an organization’s culture, not with whether or not they like them. This appraisal of the organization on its characteristics gives a composite picture of the organization’s culture. This picture in turn becomes the basis for feelings of shared understanding that members have about the organization, how things are done in it, and the way members are supposed to behave (Robbins and Sanghi, 2007).
When culture is defined as a system of shared meaning, it can be expected that individuals with different backgrounds or at different levels in the organization will tend to describe the organization’s culture in similar terms (Robbins and Sanghi, 2007).
The importance of studying Organizational Culture
People are affected by the culture in which they live. Similarly, an individual working for any organization with a firmly established culture will be taught the values, beliefs, and expected behaviours of that organization. There is at least some sound evidence that variations in cultural values may have a significant impact on employee turnover and possibly employees’ job performance. Hence the study of organizational culture is important for the understanding and practice of organizational behavior (Luthans, 1998).
Sampling
The questionnaires were distributed to 1177 BRTEs across thirty districts of Tamil Nadu. They were administered personally by some of the BRTEs from the respective districts who had earlier been briefed on the questionnaire by the researcher. The nature of sampling was purposive.
ASSESSMENT OF ORGANIZATION CULTURE AND EMPLOYEE ATTITUDES
Most of the statements in the second part of the questionnaire were analysed using a simple percentage analysis as follows: Responses falling in either the ‘strongly agree’ or ‘agree’ categories, were considered as positive responses; responses falling under ‘neutral’ were considered neutral; and responses falling under either ‘disagree’ or ‘strongly disagree’ were considered as negative responses to the statement under consideration.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
An analysis of the data collected from 1177 BRTEs from thirty districts of Tamil Nadu resulted in the findings presented below.
The various statements given in the questionnaire are listed, followed by the percentage of positive, negative, and neutral responses to each.
Please note:
• For each statement, the number of non-missing responses out of a total of 1177 is given as ‘valid responses’; the percentages given are calculated for these valid responses only.
• For some of the statements, a small percentage of the ‘valid’ responses might not fall in the prescribed scale of 1 to 5. These percentages have not been explicitly mentioned as they are negligible.