The relative importance of Glaser, Zamanou and Hacker's six cultural dimensions in engendering employee identification: a survey of Chinese employees

Abstract

Thesis (MTech (Business Administration))--Peninsula Technikon, 2004

Organizational identification has been regarded as a new control strategy for
 modem organizations. High levels of organizational members' identification
 result in various benefits to organizational performance.
 Among organizational theorists there exists a strong school of thought, which
 sees organizational culture as the antecedent to organizational identification.
 Culture, and therefore also organizational culture, is a complex and integrative
 phenomenon which encompasses the values, assumptions, interactions and
 behaviours within a particular group. As point of departure, this research
 adopted Martin's (2000:26) argument that culture is best studied through the
 cultural artefacts, being the most visible manifestations also of deep-seated
 values and assumptions.
 Previous studies on organizational culture-related organizational behaviours
 have been conducted mostly in a Western-cultural context. It was hoped, by
 this research, to fill the theoretical gap by establishing a link between
 organizational culture and organizational identification in Chinese
 organizations.
 The relationship between organizational culture and organizational
 identification was investigated through a survey conducted in three Chinese
 organizations representing a cross section of industry.
 The six organizational cultural dimensions, as identified by Glaser, Zamanou,
 and Hacker (1987: 192-193), formed the basis for the survey instrument, the
 purpose of which was to establish if, and to what extent, organizational culture,
 IV
 as reflected in these dimensions in their positive manifestation, were seen as
 contributors to organizational identification on the part of employees.
 The data analysis and interpretation showed that Chinese employees viewed
 all six cultural dimensions as having a positive influential power on
 organizational identification. This could be accepted as proof that the theories
 that organizational culture enhances organizational identification (Kunda, 1992;
 Ray, 1994; Tompkins and Cheney, 1985; Trice and Beryer, 1993) can be
 applied both in the Westem-cultural context and Chinese-cultural context. By
 applying the Friedman and Wilcoxon signed-ranks tests it was established that,
 among the six cultural dimensions, 'Morale' and 'Supervision' were the most
 influential dimensions of culture according to the responses of Chinese
 employees; 'Information Flow', 'Teamwork' and 'Meetings' were the least
 influential dimensions.
 As indicated, the study was limited to a survey of employees as regards the six
 dimensions of organizational culture. Further research would be required in
 order to provide more concrete and extensive proof of the role played by
 organizational culture in nurturing employee identification and concomitant
 commitment.