Impact of Organisational Culture and Working Practices on Business Performance: Comparative study of Vodafone Company in UK and Albania

DISSERTATION
Impact of Organisational Culture and Working Practices on Business Performance:
Comparative study of Vodafone Company in UK and Albania
Name of the Student: ERGENA NELA
Student ID: B00744241
Name of the University: ULSTER UNIVERSITY
Author note: KHAN HAMID
August 2018

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Acknowledgement
I am thankful to all the individuals who have been my constant support to complete the research
work based on ‘Impact of Organisation Culture and Working Practices on Business
Performance: Comparative study of Vodafone Company in UK and Albania’. I would like to
share my heartfelt gratitude to my professor HAMID KHAN who has been my constant support.
I want to share my thanks to my friends and families who have been shown care all the times. I
discussed with my classmates about the topic and my classmates were my pipeline to complete
this research. I am very grateful to the employees of Vodafone who provided their valuable
responses to complete the research. Completion of the research gives me much pleasure.
Thank You.

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Abstract
This research focuses on impact of organisation culture and working practices on performance of
the business. The main focus of the research is to conduct a comparative study between
Vodafone UK and Albania. The principles of healthy organisational culture say that all
employees must be cordial among themselves, there should not be any partiality in the
organisational structure and hierarchy, and the employers must appreciate the top performers
through rewards and recognition. The aim of the research is to examine the impact of
organisation culture and working practices on business performance. In addition, in the literature
review section, secondary data sources have been reviewed. International human resource
management has been reviewed along with organisational culture of the organisations. In the
literature review section, Hofstede National Cultural Dimensions have been explained in regard
of the UK and Albania.
In the methodology section, the researcher has followed the pragmatism philosophy,
deductive research approach, mixed research design as the researcher has followed both
quantitative and qualitative research design. The researcher has collected primary data from both
survey and interviews. The researcher has prepared survey questionnaire with 12 close-ended
questions. In addition, the researcher has used SPSS version to analyse the data with descriptive
statistics. The employees get a flexible and less rigid work environment, which helps in faster
decision making and better customer service. This is beneficial for improving the business
performance. In order to improve the organisational culture and business performance, Vodafone
needs to improve the team work; Vodafone can maintain flexible working culture. Vodafone UK
and Albania can both improve the risk-taking ability along with providing employee motivation.

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT............................................................................7
1.1 Background of research.........................................................................................................7
1.2Vodafone background.............................................................................................................9
1.3 Research aim and objectives................................................................................................11
1.4 Research questions...............................................................................................................12
1.5Significance/ importance of research....................................................................................12
Chapter 2: LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................................14
2.1 International Human Resource Management (IHRM)........................................................14
2.2Organisational culture...........................................................................................................17
2.3 Working Practices and Business Performance....................................................................19
2.4Hofstede National Cultural Dimensions...............................................................................21
2.5Organisational cultural dimension by Hofstede...................................................................22
2.6 High and low context culture...............................................................................................25
2.7 Theoretical framework.........................................................................................................26
2.8Literature gap........................................................................................................................27
Chapter 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.................................................................................28
3.1 Research outline...................................................................................................................28
3.2 Research paradigm...............................................................................................................29
3.3 Research approach...............................................................................................................30

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3.4 Research strategy.................................................................................................................32
3.5 Research design...................................................................................................................32
3.6 Data collection process........................................................................................................34
3.7 Sampling technique.............................................................................................................35
3.8 Data analysis process...........................................................................................................36
3.9 Ethical issues.......................................................................................................................37
Chapter 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS........................................................................38
4.1 Demographic analysis..........................................................................................................38
4.2 Non-demographic factors....................................................................................................45
4.3 Paired Sample T-Test..........................................................................................................60
4.4 Discussions: Parity with the Hofstede model......................................................................64
4.5 Interview findings................................................................................................................67
Chapter 5: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS......................................................69
5.1 Conclusions..........................................................................................................................69
5.2 Linking with the objectives.................................................................................................69
5.2.1 Linking with the first objective.....................................................................................69
5.2.2 Linking with the second objective................................................................................70
5.2.3 Linking with the third objective...................................................................................72
5.2.4 Linking with the fourth objective.................................................................................73
5.3 Recommendations................................................................................................................74

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Reference List................................................................................................................................77
Appendices....................................................................................................................................87

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List of Figures
Figure 1: Gender profile of the participants..................................................................................39
Figure 2: Age groups of the participants.......................................................................................40
Figure 3: Work experience in Vodafone UK.................................................................................40
Figure 4: Educational qualification of the participants..................................................................41
Figure 5: Gender profile of the participants..................................................................................42
Figure 6: Age groups of the participants.......................................................................................43
Figure 7: Work experience with Vodafone Albania......................................................................43
Figure 8: Educational qualifications of the respondents................................................................44
Figure 10: Vodafone UK/Albania provides supportive environment in the work place...............46
Figure 11: Communication process in the organisation is transparent..........................................47
Figure 12: Communication process in the organisation is flexible...............................................48
Figure 13: Organisational culture in Vodafone UK/Albania provides enough opportunity for job
satisfaction.....................................................................................................................................50
Figure 14: Team work is more valued in Vodafone UK/Albania than individual performance...52
Figure 15: Business practices in Vodafone UK/Albania promote risk avoidance nature.............53
Figure 16: Organisational culture in Vodafone UK/Albania enhances employee motivation......55
Figure 17: Organisational culture in Vodafone UK/Albania enhances employee productivity....56
Figure 17: Rigidity in hierarchy in the organisational culture in Vodafone UK/Albania.............57
Figure 18: Organisational culture and work practices influence the business performance in
Vodafone UK/Albania...................................................................................................................59
Figure 19: Country comparison: Albania and UK.........................................................................65

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Chapter 1: INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT
1.1 Background of research
Workplace culture is a very important factor in any organisation that has a significant
impact on the employees. It can have both the positive and negative impact on the employees
and on their productivity. As stated by Parker (2000), the work culture of a company can not
only affect the employee happiness and productivity, but also every other factor contributing in
the effective functioning of the company. Hence, it is quite useful to understand the culture of an
organisation for the employees to perform efficiently. Organisational culture significantly
depends on the national cultural dimensions, which influences the working of the business
(Kotter, 2008). Hence, the work cultures are quite different in different countries and that gets
reflected in the business performances. The purpose of this research study is to evaluate the
impact of organisational culture and working practices on business performance in the context of
Vodafone Company, in two different locations, UK and Albania. Through this research, the
researcher is going to highlight how the organisation working practices and work culture affects
the employee productivity and organisational performance by using the case study of Vodafone
Company. The work culture of Vodafone in two different locations, UK and Albania, are
assumed to be different due to the cultural differences in two nations. Hence, these two locations
are chosen to throw a light on the organisational culture and its impact on the business
performance.
According to Shahzad et al (2012), organisational culture refers to the system of common
assumptions, beliefs and values that governs the guidelines regarding people’s behaviour in an
organisation. The shared values help the people to contribute positively in achieving the