Organizational Culture and Employee Performance: Nike Case Study

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Nike's organizational culture and its influence on employee performance. The study examines the company's structure, identifies issues such as gender biases and racial discrimination, and evaluates the impact of these factors on employee outcomes. The research utilizes a case study approach, exploring Nike's history, business practices, and human resource management policies. The report employs both qualitative and quantitative data, drawing from secondary sources like journals, articles, and annual reports to assess the relationship between organizational culture and employee performance. The findings highlight the need for improved diversity and inclusion initiatives within Nike, and it recommends strategies to foster a more equitable and supportive work environment. The report concludes with an overview of the key findings, emphasizing the importance of aligning organizational culture with employee well-being and business objectives.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Organizational Behavior
Name of the student
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Author note

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Executive summary
This report has evaluated the organizational culture of Nike and has identified its impact on the
performance of the employees. The findings of the study suggest that due to the lack of structure
in the organization, gender biases and racial discrimination is a common phenomenon. The
organization should improve their human resource management policies to incorporate diversity
within the organization.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Research Question...........................................................................................................................4
Company profile..............................................................................................................................4
Objective of the research.................................................................................................................6
Research methodology.....................................................................................................................6
Research philosophy....................................................................................................................7
Research Approach......................................................................................................................7
Research design...........................................................................................................................8
Data collection and analysis........................................................................................................8
Sampling......................................................................................................................................9
Reliability and Validity................................................................................................................9
Ethical consideration.................................................................................................................10
Findings.........................................................................................................................................11
Analysis and interpretation............................................................................................................15
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................16
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................18

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Topic: Impact of organization culture on employee performance- “A case study of Nike “
Introduction
This is a research which will examine the information of a company to develop a report
to examine the impact of effective organizational culture on performance of the employees. In
this context, Nike has been chosen as the organization which has been evaluated to examine the
impact. In this current study, the report has gathered the information of Nike and as per the
objective of the research, the data has been analyzed to develop relevant findings. The findings
have been analyzed and interpreted to fulfill the primary objective of the research.
Organizational culture consists of the set of values, traditions, behavioral expectations
and habits among the different elements in an organizations. Every organizations defines a
particular organization based on their core values and beliefs. Similarly, the major companies
like Nike are known for the organizational culture they have developed. This culture is
responsible for motivating the employees to perform effectively and increase the performance of
the business. This is because of the fact that effective organizational culture fosters growth of the
employees and results in the increase in commitment of the employees towards their respective
organizations1. The use of effective organizational culture aligns the goals of the organization
with that of the employees and the employees consider the wellbeing of the organization due to
the immense level of jobs satisfaction they have received. The study will examine the scenario
in case of Nike to examine the strategies and policies implemented for the growth of the
organization. Moreover, it is essential to develop a organizational culture that promotes and
supports diversity which is one of the major criteria for modern global organizational culture.
1 Hogan, Suellen J., and Leonard V. Coote. "Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A test of Schein's
model." Journal of Business Research 67.8 (2014): 1609-1621.

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Research Question
 What is the impact of organizational culture of employee performance in Nike?
 What are the different elements of organizational culture and employee performance
Company profile
Nike, Inc. is one of the major multinational companies in United States of America that is
involved in manufacturing, development, design, sales and marketing of footwear, accessories,
equipment, services and apparels. Beaverton, Oregon, is the headquarters of the organization and
is one of the largest suppliers of athletic apparels, shoes and manufacturers of equipment. The
brand value of the organization is $29.6 billion and is one of the top companies in the fortune
5002. The organization has expanded their business to all parts of the world and is one of the
most popular brand is this segment of the industry. The company initially commenced with the
name Blue Ribbon Sports and later on was renamed to Nike in the year of 19713. The portfolio
brand of the company includes Converse, Hurley, Jordon Brand and Nike Brand. The company
sells their products through physical retail outlets, independent distributors, licensees and online
stores. Independent contractors develop the products offered by the organization. Since the year
of 2016, the company has only focused on nine categories of product offerings such as action
Sports, men’s training, NIKE Basketball, Football (Soccer), Women's Training, Sportswear,
Running, golf and the Jordan Brand.
The company not only offer products for the athletes, it also caters to kids and products
for recreational purposes. The range of performance equipment and accessories that the
2 LaVito, Angelica, Nike CEO Apologizes To Employees For Workplace Culture After Months Of Turmoil (2018)
CNBC <https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/04/nike-ceo-apologizes-to-employees-for-workplace-culture-after-months-
of-turmoil.html>
3 www.nike.com (2018) www.nike.com https://www.nike.com/language_tunnel

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organization sells consist of products such as sports balls, socks, bags, timepieces, digital
services, gloves, bats, golf clubs, eyewear and other products. The major competitors for the
organization are Adidas and Puma where they cater to the similar target segment in the market.
Nike started buying back of their shares and bought $8 billion class B stocks of Nike. Nike
initiated strategies to buy back shares from time to time and in the year of 2018, the company
announced that they initiate the buyback of shares worth $ 12 billion after the previous programs
are completed4. Nike over the years has become one of the brand symbols of the urban youth
and has been associated with the hip hop culture mostly among the consumers in the United
States of America. The shell suits, track suits, Air Jordan, baseball caps, Air max and Air force
1’s are one of the mainstream products of the organization. Moreover, there are other premium
products such as Quick Strikes have become of the one of the desirable products for the
consumers. In the year of 2018, Nike has been able to increase their revenue by 6% where the
annual revenue of the company was $36.397 billion.
Nike has always been promoting organizational culture with full of competence and
resilience. The company has been known for their unique organization that encourages the
workforce to address the objectives of the business. Nikes also uses training and development
programs to develop and uphold a corporate culture that is in alignment with the brand image of
the organization. There has been steady increase in the number of workforce in the organization
in the past few years. However, gender discrimination is an allegation that the organization has
been facing where questions have raised on the departure of dozens of senior executives due to
biasness of the gender. Currently, the organization are introducing different measures to
improve the workplace diversity of the organization. Inclusiveness, empowerment and respect
4 Money.cnn.com, NKE - Nike Inc Company Profile - Cnnmoney.Com (2018) Money.cnn.com
<https://money.cnn.com/quote/profile/profile.html?symb=NKE>

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has been key features of organizational culture in Nike but current incidents show a deviation
from the ore values. This is the reason that organization has been making considerable efforts to
improve the opportunities for women and establish gender equality.
Objective of the research
The main aim of the study is examination of the effectiveness of organizational culture in
Nike. In order to assess it, the different elements of elements of organizational culture and
employee performance will be compared and contrasted to analyse the impact. The objective of
the research are as follows:
 To examine the impact of organizational culture of employee performance in Nike
 To identify the different elements of organizational culture and employee performance
 To recommend suitable strategies to improve the organizational culture
Research methodology
Research methodology is the system way of collecting raw data and converting it into
meaningful data for analysing the research problem. Methodology forms the foundation of the
research and the overall process is based on it. The different methods, designs and approaches
are described in the research methodology based on the Saunder’s research onion and each layer
of the Saunder’s model will unfold the methods used in conducting the research. Research
methods are chosen based on the goals and the objectives of the research5. There are mainly three
major objectives in a research, one is description of behaviours, second is prediction and third is
5 Taylor, Steven J., Robert Bogdan, and Marjorie DeVault. Introduction to qualitative research methods: A
guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons, 2015.

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the explanation of the phenomenon. In this study, the main objective is examine the cause and
effect relationship between the variables so quasi-experimental method has been used.
Research philosophy
Research philosophy defines the beliefs and assumptions made by the researcher. It
facilitates in examining the nature and source of knowledge in the research. It also defines the
methods to be used to collect and analyse the data effectively. The different types of research
philosophies are positivism, interpretivism, pragmatism and realism6. However, in this research,
interpretivism has been as chosen as the philosophy for the research. Interpretivism facilitates in
conducting subjective data analysis and facilitates in conducting in depth analysis of the
collected data. Interpretivism is generally used for qualitative analysis but quantitative data can
also be used based on the type of data and analysis to be conducted.
Research Approach
Research approach defines the way in which the data will be analysed and the relevance
of the hypothesis is one of the major factor is choosing the most suitable approach for the
research. There are three types of research approaches and they are abductive approach,
inductive approach and deductive approach. However, in this study, deductive approach has
been used in the research to validate the existing theories in the research7. The inductive
approach is used for developing new theories and paradigms. It is not suitable to use the
inductive in the current research. Abductive approach is used to address the shortcomings of both
inductive and deductive approach. The deductive approach will be used to deduce the
relationship between organizational culture and performance of the employees. The deductive
6 Saunders, Mark NK, et al. "Understanding research philosophy and approaches to theory development." (2015):
122-161.
7 Flick, Uwe. Introducing research methodology: A beginner's guide to doing a research project. Sage, 2015.

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approach has also facilitated in examining the key elements of organizational culture and
employee performance.
Research design
Research design has been defined by different authors and some considers it the method
of data collection and analysis. On the contrary, few authors suggested that research design
defines the overall plan of conducting the research, which will provide answers to the research
question. The different types of research designs are exploratory, conclusive and explanatory8.
The conclusive research design can be further divided into causal and descriptive research
design. The exploratory research design only explores the data but does not provide any definite
conclusion to the research. In this research, causal research design has been used to examine the
relationship between employee performance and organizational culture. Conclusive research will
facilitate in both description of behaviour and degree and nature of association between the
variables.
Data collection and analysis
In this study, secondary data collection method has been used to collect the different
journals, articles and web articles. The data has also been collected from the annual report of the
organization to assess the performance of the organization. The secondary data collected has
been analysed using thematic analysis9. The study has developed themes based on the objective
of the research to analyse the impact of the organizational culture on the performance of the
employees. The study has also used coding where initially open coding has been used to analyse
8 Meyers, Lawrence S., Glenn Gamst, and Anthony J. Guarino. Applied multivariate research: Design and
interpretation. Sage publications, 2016.
9 Palinkas, Lawrence A., et al. "Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method
implementation research." Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research 42.5
(2015): 533-544.

9ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
the raw data and axial coding has been used to provide meaning insights in the study. The study
has also collected financial data from secondary sources to examine the impact.
Sampling
Sampling is the method of choosing sample population from the overall population
sample. Sampling is generally used in cases when the sample size is huge and analysing the
overall population is costly, time consuming and difficult. In those scenarios, the research selects
elements from the overall sample which represents the overall population10. Probabilistic
sampling and non-probabilistic sampling are the two types of sampling methods used in research.
In the process of sampling, initially, the target population is identified and then the sampling
frame is decided. The sample size is then selected after selecting the target population and
sampling frame. In this study, non-probabilistic has been used to select peer reviewed journal
articles, web articles and annual reports. Convenience sampling has been used to select the
relevant data from online secondary sources.
Reliability and Validity
Reliability and validity is difficult to interpret due to the involvement of the human
element in the research. Reliability is the ability of the study to reproduce similar results with
different data sets. However, as the data is mainly qualitative in nature, evaluating the reliability
is tough as different elements have different opinion on the topic11. In this study, the internal
consistency of the research instruments has been checked to make sure that there is consistency
among the data collected. On the other validity measures the accuracy of the instruments used in
the research and in qualitative research, examining accuracy of the data is even more difficult
10 Etikan, Ilker, Sulaiman Abubakar Musa, and Rukayya Sunusi Alkassim. "Comparison of convenience sampling
and purposive sampling." American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics 5.1 (2016): 1-4.
11 LoBiondo-Wood, Geri, and Judith Haber. "Reliability and validity." Nursing research-ebook: Methods and
critical appraisal for evidencebased practice. Missouri: Elsevier Mosby (2014): 289-309.

10ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
due to the subjective nature of the data. However, in this study, construct validity has been used
to measure the validity of the instruments and collected.
Ethical consideration
The ethic aspect of the study has been completely and three aspects of the research ethics
which fabrication, falsification and plagiarism has been strictly avoided12. In this study, none of
the data has been fabricated which means that none of the data has been developed, added and
manipulated to develop suitable result in the research. On the other hand, none of the data has
been falsified which means that no false data been provided in order to prove the claims made in
the research. None of the work submitted is plagiarised and the authors have been credited for
their contribution to the research.
12 Quinlan, Christina, et al. Business research methods. South Western Cengage, 2019.

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Findings
The organizational culture of Nike has been centred on innovation and creativity for
meeting the exact needs of the consumers. The main characteristics of the organizational culture
are to develop market competence and sustainable business by incorporating a workforce that is
inclusive, diverse and talented. Innovation and talented workforce are two complementary
aspect for successful product innovation and the company has emphasized on developing an
organization that contributes to the innovation of the product line13. The company has developed
several programs for training the workforce and improve their level of skills so that they can
contribute to the global growth of the organization. The culture has been developed in order to
sustain infrastructure and talents to producing the best quality products for the target consumers.
Diversity has been continually developed in the organization over the years which has
been done to develop a workforce that is dynamic in nature. Diversity has assisted Nike in
establishing innovation, creativity and brand image. These three factors have been instrumental
in developing competitive advantage for the organization in the global market. The company has
developed human resource management programs to maintain the diversity of the workforce
which facilities in sharing of ideas within the organization. This helps the organization in
maximizing their product development lifecycle and creating new designs for all the products in
the product line.
The next key feature of the organization’s culture is their inclusiveness which enables to
reduce the barriers to optimal performance for the employees. The company uses a team-based
approach is this case and other program to remove the different biases to innovative and creative
13 Mann, Alice, How Nike Could Transform Its Bro Culture (2018) Forbes
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicemann/2018/04/08/how-nike-could-transform-its-bro-culture/#5c6d93d5687f>