Eskom's Organizational Culture and Performance: Research Proposal

This research proposal investigates the impact of organizational culture on the performance of Eskom, a major electricity-producing firm in South Africa. The study aims to identify the current organizational culture at Eskom, determine its impact on performance, and recommend strategies for improvement. The proposal highlights the importance of organizational culture in gaining a competitive advantage and addresses the challenges Eskom faces in developing a conducive culture for knowledge sharing and overall performance. It reviews relevant literature, including Hofstede's cultural dimensions and various elements of organizational culture, and proposes research questions and hypotheses to guide the investigation. The significance of the research lies in its potential to highlight gaps in Eskom's culture and provide actionable recommendations for enhancing performance and facilitating knowledge sharing within the organization. The study will explore elements like artifacts, language, behavior patterns, norms, heroes, symbolic actions, and values. The research will also provide a detailed analysis of how Eskom can benefit from a strong organizational culture.

Research Proposal
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Topic: Impact of organizational culture on
the organisational performance for Eskom
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1. Introduction
Organizational culture is one of the essential components of gaining competitive
advantage in the market as organization’s performance can be made more effective by
making use of the developed culture. Therefore, it is crucial for the organization to make
employees aware of their organizational culture so that they can get hold of the
organizational system. This will benefit the employees and they will be able to perform in
a more effective way. The organization values and norms define the culture and this
study will aim to identify the influence of organizational culture on performance of the
organization.
2. Background to the Problem
Eskom is the largest electricity-producing firm in South Africa and is among the top
utilities firm all over the world. The ability to develop continuously innovative strategies
and technologies to improve the business model of the organization is a crucial for
gaining competitive advantage in present market. The core competency of any
organization is their ability to be develop a suitable organizational culture so that
business model can be improved on continuous basis. Eskom has been facing issues in
developing their organizational culture within their business model and the study will
address the issue to identify the necessary changes required. On the contrary, the
organizational culture is very much influenced from the national culture and different
companies have different organization culture based on the value and norms they have
developed through their social practices. Hofstede’s cultural dimension defines the

cultural differences in organizational and regions which can be used to depict the
organizational culture. Knowledge sharing is one the important aspect of increasing
organizational productivity which provides any organization with significant advantage
in the market. However, the culture of Eskom has been a major hindrance in developing
knowledge sharing activities within the organization. The conduciveness of the
organization towards knowledge management is essential for effectively knowledge
sharing within the organization. The cultural landscape of the organization will be
examined to understand the reason behind this barrier and the changes that could be
incorporated to make improvements to the organizational culture.
3. Aim Of the Research
The study will aim to identify the impact of organizational culture on
organizational performance in the utility firm named Eskom.
4. Research Objectives
 To identify the current organisational culture that is found at Eskom
 To identify the impact of organizational culture on the performance of the organisation
Eskom
 To recommend suitable strategies for improving organizational culture in Eskom
5. Research Questions
 What are the different elements in organizational culture of Eskom?
 What are the cultural barriers that the organization is facing in Eskom?
 What is the impact of organizational culture on organizational performance in Eskom?

6. Research Problem/Hypothesis
H01 – Organizational culture does not have impact on organizational performance in
Eskom
H11 – Organizational culture does have impact on organization performance in Eskom
H02 – Change in organizational culture is not essential for incorporating knowledge
sharing in Eskom
H12 – Change in organizational culture is not essential for incorporating knowledge
sharing in Eskom
7. Significance of the Research
The study is significant, as it will highlight the current gaps in organizational
culture of Eskom and its influence on organizational performance. The study will also
recommend suitable strategy for improving the organizational culture, which can be used
by the other companies in the industry. Knowledge sharing is a critical issue in Eskom
and the organizational culture will have to be conducive to incorporate changes. The
study will identify the issue in the organizational cultural factors to recommend suitable
strategies for improving the culture which will facilitate knowledge sharing with the
organization.
8. Literature Review
As stated by Hogan and Coote (2014.), the development of organizations has
some functions that are responsible for improving sustainability through effectiveness.

The value, norms and objectives enhance the culture of an organization. The Hofstede’s
cultural dimension is factor which evaluates the differences the values, norms and
objectives of different organizations. The cultural differences between organizations are
measured in different levels which determines the organizational practices. In the modern
business environment, organizational culture has become of the key aspect of
organizational success. This is due to the increase in diversity within the organization and
workforce from difference race, culture, background and gender work together to fulfill
the goals set by the stakeholders (Lonial and Carter 2015). Therefore, it is the
responsibility of the organization and its management to introduce their organization
culture to the employees so they can fit into the organization. The organizations having
proper organizational culture will have be able to enhance the performance of the
employees as it establishes learning of the surrounding environment. Therefore, the
managers in the modern business environment should be aware about the ideal working
environment so that they implement practices for enhancing the culture and facilitate the
employees to perform at their full potential which in turn will improve the organizational
culture. On the contrary, Valmohammadi and Roshanzamir (2015) states that
organization culture is not instrumental in bring up the organizational performance and
modern organizations should implement other strategies in order to do so. The author
stated that organization culture is not a tool for performance management. therefore, this
study will focus on establishing the relationship between organizational culture and
performance by establishing the fact that organizational culture is essential component of
performance management.

8.1 Organizational culture
Alvesson and Sveningsson (2015) defines culture as the shared beliefs, basic
assumptions and the values and according to the author culture resides within the
organization at different level and particularly there are three levels to it. These are
values, artifacts, creations and assumptions. The organization culture will define the
behaviors that are appropriate within the organization and the ones that are not. However,
this does not mean there is homogeneity in culture across all the departments as some of
the norms will be well received by the employees within the organization. As stated by
Mills (2017), different groups tend to develop their own set of culture within the
organization after a certain period of time. There has significant increase in interest
among various researchers about organizational culture as they believe that
organizational culture boosts the long-term performance of the organization.
According to Helms Mills and Mills (2017), organization culture are few
assumptions shared by a group of people which they have taken for granted and the group
thinks, perceives and reacts to any situation based on these beliefs. This definition clearly
signifies three facts; the work behavior is influenced by the organizational culture, the
culture within an organization tend to operate at different levels and socialization passes
the culture of the organization to the new members. The foundation of any organization is
their principles and their values and in order to set up a strong organization and culture,
the organizational values have to be strong. The values of the organization should relate
to effective use of resources and innovation which are key to developing a sustainable
vision. Bolman and Deal (2017) states that every set of organization have their own set of
unique organizational values for example, some organizations focus on honesty, passion

and integrity where there are other organization that emphasized on technology,
innovation and self-improvement. Therefore, irrespective of the culture within an
organization, the core values should be aligned with the goals and the policies in order to
excel. Moreover, the organizational culture has a deep impact on the employees within
the organization and poor organizational culture leads to the increase in the turnover
rates.
Longman et al. (2018) states that different types of cultural setting exist in the
modern organizations and they are counter culture, sub culture, strong culture and weak
culture. Counter culture is the shared beliefs and values of a certain groups within the
organization that have different set of beliefs than the broad organizational culture. These
set of culture is developed against forceful leaders and managers. The organizations
accept this type of cultural environment when there is positive influence on the
employees within the organization however, it is dangerous for the original culture of the
organization. Organizations have a particular hierarchical structure which leads to
formation of various departments due to the different activities they have to perform. Sub
culture develops within certain group of people either because of their geographical
background or having set of goals as they belong to the same department (Elsbach and
Stigliani 2018). This will lead better social interaction between the workforce even
outside the working shifts. A strong culture is developed when majority of the workforce
hold the same values, beliefs and norms. Therefore, the manager will have to reduce the
gap between the employees in order to develop a strong organizational culture. The
organizations that are loosely knit by their organizational values and beliefs are known as
weak culture. In this scenario, the rules are imposed onto the employees which is

responsible for creating a diverse culture between the employee objectives and the
organizational goals.
8.2 Elements of organizational culture
As stated by Schneider et al. (2017), maximizing the employee’s values are the
rational assets in supporting the individuals and the organization to develop a strong
organizational culture. The characteristics of organizational culture are as follows:
 The organization norms can be measured by the degree of cooperation between
the employees and the management and the quantity of work done
 The organization sets clear set of rules for defining the behavior of the employees
in related to intergroup cooperation, productivity and customer relationship.
 Organizational culture will take formal procedures and common language as
behavioral regularities.
 Organization culture is used for integration and coordination among the different
organizational units so that the efficiency of work, speed and quality of designing
and manufacturing of products or services can be improved.
As stated by Mezirow (2018.), there are different methods of identifying and learning
the culture of an organization and they are as follows:
 Arte facts are the first factor which refers to the total physical and social
development of an organization. This will consist of the equipment, rules,
office space, procedures and systems.

 Language is the second factor which will define the exact way in which the
organizations understand the surrounding world.
 The next factors Is the behavior pattern which defines the sets of the repeated
beliefs and action of the organizations consisting of celebrations and
ceremonies.
 Behavioral norms are the next factor which will consist of rules consist of
instructions that defines appropriate and inappropriate behaviors.
 Heroes are the organizational role models who represent the organization to
the outside world and inspire other employees within the organization.
 Symbolic actions define the objects, words, conditions, features or acts of the
firm important to the workforce.
 Believes, attitudes and values are the factors attached to the ethical and moral
standards of the organization. Therefore, this factor is used to judge the
appropriate behavior and action of the employees.
Hofstede’s Cultural dimension
The Hofstede’s cultural dimension determines the dimension of
organization in different countries. The four dimensions of Hofstede’s cultural dimension
are power distance, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity/femininity, long term
versus short term orientation and uncertainty avoidance. Power distance is the acceptance
of the society regarding the unbalanced power distribution within the organization.
Individualism is the societal framework where the people focuses on protecting
themselves (Jeon and Cho 2017). Collectivism is the societal framework which focuses
on protecting their own people with the help of others as a group. Masculinity refers to

the preference to heroism, achievements, materialistic rewards for success whereas
femininity represents emotions, quality of life, coordination and caring for others.
Uncertainty avoidance describes the tendency of the society to be affected by
uncertainties and their fear to avoid any form of uncertainty. Long term orientation
focuses on patience, parsimony and future whereas short term focuses on social
responsibility, past and present and respect for customs. These factors are essential
dimensions of any organization and vary from country to country.
8.3 Organizational performance
As stated by Shin and Konrad (2017), organizational performance refers to the
success of an organization and its ability to sustain in highly competitive environment. It
is essential for any kind of organization to compute their organizational performance and
balance score card is a method of measuring the performance of the organization. The
different dimensions of balance scorecard used to measure the performance of the
organization are financial perspective, internal business perspective, learning perspective
and customer perspective. There are many factors involved in comprehensive
measurement of performance of an organization such as consistency, quality and
productivity. On the contrary, criteria-based results are included in the performance
indicators; it may also consist of relative measures and behaviors, concepts if training and
education and management training for leadership development including development in
essential skills (Pollanen et al. 2017). Balance scorecard is an effective way of
developing frameworks based on the organizational strategy to ensure development of
effective performance measurement tool. The performance measurement system is the
way of achieving the goals and objectives of the organization and the stakeholders.

Therefore, strategic planning to develop organizational objective is used to develop
intangible assets. The services, performances and quality associated with the customers
have features related to finance. Performance management system enables development
of non-financial and financial reward management system. According to (), learning and
feedback is the one of the most essential part of balance scorecard. This enables the
organization to measure the areas of strategic capability along with the current
performances and the expected dynamic situations. This data will assist the organization
and leaders to develop effective policies and whether is on the correct path and they are
progressing towards their desired goals. Moreover, the balance scorecard can be used to
bring about a change within the organization. The different perspectives of balance
scored card are financial perspective, customer perspective, internal business process and
learning and growth perspective.
8.4 Impact of organizational culture on organizational performance
The organization culture can be shared and learned by staying within the
organization. The employees in the organization are able to take decisions based on the
cultural system developed to guide them. The different cultural levels are based on
multifaceted sets of values, assumptions and beliefs which facilitate in taking business
decisions. The employees’ behavior is heavily affected by the organizational culture
consisting of the shared beliefs and values. The improvement in the performance in the
employees means that there will improvement in the overall performance of the
organization (Burke 2017). the four functions of the organizational culture are enhancing
the commitment of the employees towards the organization, developing a sense of
identity within the employees, shaping the different behavioral patterns of the employees