Organisational Culture Impact on Avon Malaysia's Performance

This research proposal investigates the impact of organisational culture on organisational performance, specifically focusing on Avon Malaysia. The study aims to identify the components of organisational culture, recognize factors affecting performance, explore the relationship between culture and performance, and suggest strategies for improvement. The research will employ a qualitative methodology, exploring the company's culture and its effects on employee behaviour and overall organisational outcomes. The literature review covers key concepts like organisational culture, organisational performance, and their interconnectedness. The proposal outlines ethical considerations and the structure of the final research work. The research is expected to provide insights into how organisational culture can be leveraged to improve performance at Avon Malaysia, contributing to the existing body of knowledge and offering practical recommendations for management.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Proposal
The impact of organisational culture on organisational performance: A study based on Avon
Malaysia
Student’s name:
Name of the university:
Author’s name:

1RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Table of Contents
Title:.................................................................................................................................................2
1. Introduction and importance of the research...............................................................................2
1.2 Research aim..........................................................................................................................4
1.3 Research objectives...............................................................................................................4
1.4 Research questions.................................................................................................................4
1.5 Contribution of the study.......................................................................................................4
2. Literature review..........................................................................................................................5
3. Context of dissertation.................................................................................................................8
4. Methodology................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Research philosophy..............................................................................................................9
4.2 Data collection.....................................................................................................................10
4.3 Data analysis........................................................................................................................11
5. Ethical considerations................................................................................................................11
6. Structure of final work...............................................................................................................12
Reference List................................................................................................................................13

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Title:
The impact of organisational culture on organisational performance: A study based on Avon
Malaysia
1. Introduction and importance of the research
Organisational development has particular characteristics that can surely increase
sustainability based on effectiveness. The performance of the employees contributes to the
commitment of the employees, whereas values, norms and objectives can contribute to
enhancing the organisational culture (Prabhakar et al. 2018). Comparing the cultural differences
within the workplace can specifically identify based on work practices of the employees. As
stated by Carlos Pinho et al. (2014), organisational culture can be described as the collective
programming of the mental states that differentiates the employees from one another. According
to Williams et al. (2015), during the 1990s, the organisations witness an emergence of a
corporate culture that was missing in the previous era. Critics correlate culture of individuals to
ethnic and regional groups and it can additionally be defined through profession, community and
family. Organisational behaviour is associated with the employees' beliefs and values on
elements of culture that can impact on personality as well as performance. Cultural elements
within the organisation can influence on behaviour, the personality of the employees and
sustainability of the organisations (Zhu 2015). In addition, organisational performance is
associated with the actual output of the organisations as measured against the intended output of
the organisation. The managers of the organisation need to set a clear target to choose between
operational measure and financial measure (Killett et al. 2015).

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Organisational culture decides the process through which the employees interact within
the workplace as healthy workplace culture is the positive sign for organisational performance.
The organisational culture promotes a healthy competition in the workplace and it benefits the
employees’ to be motivated. Motivated employees’ work hard to reach the target set by the
managers and the culture of the organisation talks about predefined policies that set the direction
for the managers (Laforet 2016). Organisational culture can also set the brand image and culture
brings employees to a common platform. Therefore, the organisational culture makes the
organisational ability to fulfil the mission through settled management, the persistent dedication
of the employees and strong governance. As opined by Boxall et al. (2016), organisational
performance can be achieved when the all departments and sections work together harmonically
to reach the desired results. Therefore, in developing countries, the organisations are trying to
implement and paying attention towards organisational culture. The organisations are going
through a transformative change in the internal system and structures. Multinational
organisations follow the globalised structure and the employees have congruent with the new
sustainable performance (Lee 2017). Nevertheless, the correct organisational culture within an
organisation can bring out three types of organisational performances. Financial performance as
it is based on investments, value-added and assets; market performance is associated with new
products upgrades boost up the sales and shareholder value is associated with senior
management's top priority. Organisational culture and change are intertwined and they can both
provide organisational performance (Alfalla-Luque et al. 2015). Culture is the main source of
distinguishing factor in organisational performance practice. This research will focus on Avon
Malaysia to find out the impact of organisational culture on organisational performance.

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1.2 Research aim
The aim of the research is to explore the impact of organisational culture on
organisational performance in an organisation.
1.3 Research objectives
 To find out the components of organisational culture in an organisation
 To recognise the factors that can impact on organisational performance
 To explore the relationship between organisational culture and organisational
performance
 To recommend some possible strategies that can improve the organisational performance
1.4 Research questions
What is the impact of organisational culture on organisational performance within an
organisation?
1.5 Contribution of the study
This research focuses to find out the organisational culture of Avon Malaysia taking the
responses from employees of Avon. This research will highlight about serving throughout the
world and the management of Avon provides full recognition to the representatives and
employees. This research study will contribute to get to know about organisational performance
regarding customer perspective, internal business perspective, learning perspective and the
financial perspective. This research will collect the data from the primary data sources to collect
authentic data about organisational culture and organisational performance. The research study
will be significant as it would allow the readers to understand the organisational culture that
could impact on the organisational productivity. The issue is one of the most significant subject

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areas but also as testified in numbers of papers. The future researchers will get knowledge about
organisational culture of Avon and how it impacts on organisational productivity. Components
of the organisational culture will be explored along with the factors of organisational
performance. This research study will also highlight the relationship between organisational
culture and organisational performance. After completion of the research, the theoretical
frameworks of the organisational culture and organisational productivity can be found. The
establishment of relationship between organisational culture and organisational performance will
contribute to understand all the variables items related two these. This research work will
establish new aspects and perspectives of the organisational culture.
2. Literature review
Each of the company has its own culture and personality. The unique culture of the
organisation helps the people to work together as it is an invisible power that holds the
employees within a string (Schermerhorn et al. 2014). Organisational culture influences the
behaviour of the employees and it dictates about employees’ act, dress and performance.
(Mohelska and Sokolova 2015) supported this by stating organisational culture is the practice of
shared assumptions, beliefs and values that govern the behaviour of the employees within the
organisation. Organisations develop and maintain culture to provide boundaries and guidelines
for the members of the organisations. On the other side, organisational performance surrounds
three areas of organisational outcomes, product market performance, financial performance and
shareholders’ return. In addition, as pointed out by Muls et al. (2015), of late, the organisations
attempt to manage the performance of the organisation utilising the balance-scorecard where the
managers track the performance of the employees. Organisational performance is associated with

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the organisational objectives and goals and it denotes the overall performance of the firms,
efficiency, market value, proficiency and competitive advantage.
Organisations can tap the advantage when the management focuses on changing the
important behaviours. Charles Handy‘s model has four different segments. Power culture in an
organisation is held by specific individuals who can influence throughout the organisation in
each of the departments. Power culture is associated with the rules and regulations (Glisson
2015). Role culture is based on roles of the employees and these people are highly controlled by
everyone in the organisation. The role is determined by the position in which the person is
structured as people can clearly delegate the authorities within a highly defined structure. In
addition, role culture is about hierarchical bureaucracy and power derives from a person's
position. Task culture is about addressing specific issues and power within the team can shift
(Handy 2016). Task culture creates teams and the teams are formed to solve the issues and there
is no single power source. Lastly, person culture is about individual who thinks himself/herself
as superior and unique to the organisation. Person culture about believes to superior to the
organisation and business is full of people with similar background and training (Korasakova et
al. 2016).
Max Weber came up with the concept of bureaucracy and it helps to design an
administrative system to accomplish large-scale tasks by coordinating with the employees. As
observed by La Palombara (2015), organisations have three types of power; rational-legal,
traditional and charismatic. Bureaucracy within the organisation has some basic features of
administrative class where people receive salary and organisations ensure the tenure of the
employees. Hierarchy system ranks in various positions and subordinates get authority from the

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supervisor (Hogan and Coote 2014). Divisions at work are involved with the provision of
continuing the functions and obligation to perform systematic division of labour.
Organisational culture is the symbol of offering the common object or a formula that can
serve the process of delivering an idea and the cultural symbol can be spread to the employees
that reflect the organisational message, values and attitudes. The cultural symbol can provide the
benefits of the competitive advantage and it is a way to deliver the furniture, decoration, pictures
and colours. Behaviour norms are two categories within the organisation, first one is about
official regulation that has to be followed by the organisation and the second one is about the
organisational behaviour (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). Role of the employees within an
organisation is also a component of the organisational culture that sets the hierarchical structure.
The status of the employees shows that the person has to be influent and competitive. The
organisation can deploy the authentic leaders as leadership can be described as the exercise,
attribute and displayed informally without the title of the leaders (Alfalla-Luque et al. 2015).
Organisational events and ritual set the culture within the organisation as promoting and
organising these values can provide a framework towards organisational culture.
Muls et al. (2015) stated that organisational mechanism is related to the effort,
persistence, direction and tasks strategies of plans of the employees. The employees’ must have
the specific goals and they do difficult tasks. In addition, the employees must have the high, Self-
Efficiency and expectancy. The organisation needs to have effective sharing goals as a healthy
organisation always shares the business goals with staffs at each level. Great teamwork is
necessary and high employee morale are features of organisational performance (Arifin 2014).
The root of organisational performance is strong leadership and organisational culture. In
addition, the leaders need to handle the poor performance and understand the risks that adapt the

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changes and opportunities. Organisational performance provides the benefits as it can increase
the managerial style and employees try the best to improve the performance. Performance
management helps to track the behaviour of the employees (Johnson 2014).
The artefact is about the social and physically developed environment of a firm and the
culture of the organisation sets the tone and language that the employees can understand.
Behavioural pattern and norms of behaviour all can determine the suitable responses from the
management and employees (Haliom et al. 2014). Therefore, organisational culture is the
determinant factors that set the behaviour of the employees. Employees' performance, beliefs,
attitudes and values influence on the organisational performance. Organisational performance, as
well as organisational culture, is affiliated with the perfect confirmation as it shows the
relationship between the cultural qualities and high performance. Four important ideas are there
between the elements of organisational performance and behaviour. Employees must have
knowledge about organisational culture to make out the functioning system of the organisation;
in addition, organisational culture increases the devotion towards the philosophy of the
organisation (Su et al. 2015). Organisational culture creates the norms to deal with the control
mechanism to impact on the expected behaviour of the employees.
3. Context of dissertation
Multinational companies always keep shared assumption, beliefs and values to ask the
employees act, perform and coordinate in a manner what they like. Of late, the organisational
culture is important for the easy way to manage the employees, to have a competitive edge, goal
achievement and image of the organisation. However, multinational companies are facing the
issues when they try to manage the large numbers of people, managers have to handle

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demotivated employees and employees have low output. Multinational companies have many
structural layers and it slows down the communication effectiveness (Carlos-Pinho et al. 2014).
In this study, Avon Malaysia is chosen as Avon is committed to maintaining a global culture that
shows respect and gives values to differences and strengths to the associates. Avon sets the work
environment where everyone must feel engaged and understood. The employees in Avon have
the opportunity to share the viewpoints, feel recognised and offer ideas for their contributions.
Avon Malaysia provides a commitment to the mission to empower the women. The culture of
Avon has the five main principles, trust, respect, integrity, humility and belief
(Avoncompany.com 2018). These five principles provide strength to the organisation and it
enjoys the legacy by giving proud to the women. Avon provides persons with an opportunity to
earn and serve the families with products that have the highest quality. Avon gives the best
service to the customers and it shares growth and success. The organisational culture of Avon
has not been able to meet the organisational performance in Malaysia as it does not provide
financial support and marketing advantage to the organisation. In Malaysia, Avon experienced a
tumble of 11% in premarket trade and revenue of the organisation decreased from $ 1.34 billion
to $1.43 billion. The representatives of the organisation declined almost 3% and operating
margin also reduced by 2.3% (Pakdi and Leonard 2017). This study seeks to recognise the most
efficient and appropriate relationship between organisational culture and organisational
performance.

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4. Methodology
4.1 Research philosophy
Research philosophy can be defined as the belief to collect the data about a subject.
Research philosophy helps to collect, analyse and use the data (Alvesson and Sköldberg 2017).
Epistemology is about what is taken to be true and is opposed to the concept of doxology what is
believed to be true. these two encompass various philosophies and there are mainly three types of
research philosophies, Positivism, Realism and Interpretivism.
In this research, Positivism philosophy will be selected in order to collect the data.
Positivists take the reality as stable and they can observe the things from the objective viewpoint
(Weber and Gass 2015). Positivism philosophy takes the phenomena must be isolated from the
observations. The researcher will take positivism philosophy as it helps to collect the data from
the scientific viewpoint. In addition, positivism helps to collect factual data from the
respondents. Multinational companies can solve the issue of cross-cultural manifestation of the
employees where employees are given importance. Positivism depends on the quantifiable data
and it deals with statistical analysis. Positivism most of the time takes a deductive approach
where the theories are taken beforehand and the researcher tests the theories, create a hypothesis
and lastly, confirm or reject the theories (Taylor et al. 2015). Positivism relates to the objective
viewpoint that the researchers need to concentrate on the fact of the subject.
4.2 Data collection
In this research, the researcher will collect both primary and secondary data. Primary data
are relevant to the topic and are original; therefore the degree of accuracy of the result becomes
higher (Lewis 2015). Primary data will be collected through a survey. The researcher will

11RESEARCH PROPOSAL
prepare 15 close-ended MCQ type questions. The questionnaire will contain two types of
questions, demographic questions and subjective questions. The researcher will prepare the
questions through Google survey forms and the researcher will share the Google form link to the
respondents of the survey. The researcher is selecting the employees of Avon Malaysia as the
chosen sample population. The researcher will choose the respondents from the three
departments within the Avon Malaysia, Marketing, Customer Support and Operations. The
sample size of the research will be 140. The researcher will take the e-mail ids from the
respondents and the researcher will send the Google forms through emails. The researcher will
ask the respondents to revert the email within 15 days. The researcher will use Simple Random
Sampling technique. In simple random sampling, each member of the population has an equal
chance of being selected (Flick 2015).
Secondary data of the research will be collected through the online articles, journals,
books, magazines, organisational websites and organisational reports.
4.3 Data analysis
Collected data from the survey will be analysed with the help of quantitative data analysis
technique. Quantitative data analysis deals with numerical data and it is related to the statistical
data analysis (Silverman 2015). The researcher will analyse the survey-based data in tables and
use SPSS software. There are two variables in this research study, organisational culture and
organisational performance. SPSS (Statistical Package of Social Science) software helps to do
statistical analysis used for logical batched. The statistical analysis helps the researcher to show
the relationship between independent and dependable variables. SPSS analysis will help to do
complex data manipulation with simple instruction (Belllini 2017). The correlation and
regression of two variables will be done through SPSS analysis.