The influence of organisational culture on organisational commitment at a selected local municipality
Abstract (Summary)Since 2000, local municipalities have been through a process of transformation which amalgamated a number of smaller local municipalities into larger municipalities. The amalgamation of a number of municipalities brings together an array of people, and therefore a myriad of organisational cultures are combined. The organisational culture of an organisation has an effect on the organisational commitment of its employee’s. A fit between the organisational culture and the employees will increase the organisational commitment of those employees and contribute towards improved service delivery. A survey conducted in South Africa indicated that the local municipalities have been delivering poor standards of service to the community; therefore there is a need to increase the service delivery within local municipalities. The importance of looking at the organisational commitment of a local municipality is because if there is commitment within the organisation, then employees will identify with their organisation and its goals, and will deliver the service more effectively and efficiently. Therefore, increasing the service delivery of local municipalities can be achieved through diagnosing the organisational commitment and organisational culture of employees within the selected municipality. The primary objective of this research was therefore to diagnose the relationship between organisational culture and the organisational commitment of employees at the selected municipality. In order to achieve this objective, a survey was conducted to canvas the opinions of respondents (N = 148) from the selected local municipality regarding their perceptions of the existing organisational culture, their preferences regarding the organisational culture within the selected municipality, and finally the organisational commitment. The main findings of this research conducted at a selected municipality can be summarised as follows: · The dominant existing organisational culture is the power culture, while the dominant preferred organisational culture is the support culture; · There is an organisational culture gap between the existing and preferred organisational cultures at the selected municipality; · The dominant organisational commitment within the selected municipality is normative commitment; · The findings pertaining to the relationship between organisational culture and organisational commitment of employees within the selected municipality can be stated as follows: o The existing organisational cultures have significant effects on the organisational commitment of employees; o The preferred organisational cultures do not have significant effects on the organisational commitment of employees; and o The organisational culture gap does not have a significant effect on the organisational commitment of employees; · The findings pertaining to the relationship between the biographical variables and the existing and preferred organisational culture, organisational commitment and the organisational culture gap can be stated as follows: o There is no significant relationship between biographical variables and the existing organisational culture; o There are significant relationships between the biographical variables, namely the departments in which respondents work, and the education level of respondents, and the preferred organisational culture; o There are significant relationships between the biographical variables and organisational commitment; and o The average organisational culture gap scores of the organisational culture scales for the biographical variables are significantly different. It can be concluded that organisational culture has a significant effect on the organisational commitment of employees within the selected municipality and therefore can affect the service delivery of the selected municipality.
School Location:South Africa
Source Type:Master's Thesis
Date of Publication:01/01/2008