The thesis deals with the issue of organizational culture in two completely different environments of non-profit and business organizations. The main subject of applied research is analysis of the individual elements of organizational culture, among which special attention is paid to issues of leadership style and leadership in general. This to be always in the context of appropriate organizational culture with all its features. The first part deals with the theoretical definition of basic concepts and prepares the basis for an analysis of the main aspects of both environments from the perspective of individual components cultures with an emphasis on leadership, as such. The objective is to describe the main differences from both studied environmenta and derive recommendations for executives from non-profit as well as business organizations.

This diploma thesis deals with the Diagnosis of organizational culture in selected organization which is particularly a food company Kraft Foods CR. The aim of the diploma thesis is to describe the organizational culture in this organization through a Denison method of questionnaire survey and using my own observation. Then, based on the information gathered from the survey, I suggest to the management of the organization recommendations and actions that could lead to greater employee satisfaction and thus also to higher performance of the entire organization. The purpose of this thesis is not to change the organizational culture in the organization afterwards, only to support it and enhance its better perception among employees.

The previous research has illustrated that knowledge management (KM) is an important source of a competitive advantage, and there is a relationship between organizational culture and knowledge management. This dissertation extends the concept from knowledge management to knowledge business (k-business), and explores the relationship between organizational culture and KM strategies. This research intends to determine: Can k-business transform an organization? What are the antecedents that affect the choice of codification and personalization strategies? A survey containing four instruments was used: Cameron & Quinn's (1999) OCAI, Lawson's (2002) KMAI, Choi & Lee (2003)'s Knowledge Management Strategy Instrument, and Skyrme's (2001) K-Business Readiness Instrument. The survey link was forwarded to the companies who have been acknowledged for their knowledge management achievement by KMWorld; a total of 193 complete responses were analyzed. The results revealed that k-business can create a competitive advantage for organizations; different culture types can be the antecedent of different types of KM strategy. Clan culture is positively related to personalization strategy; significant association exists between hierarchy culture and codification strategy; and there is a significant correlation between adhocracy culture and personalization strategy. Market culture does not significantly affect knowledge management strategies.

There is a common thread of leadership research that theorizes the dynamic between a leader's behavior and their followers is essential in encouraging employees to exceed expectations, thereby increasing organizational performance (Bass, 1985; Bennis & Thomas, 2002; Kouzes & Posner, 1987). Research indicates transformational leadership correlates well with organizational culture, but the number of empirical studies is few. Kouzes and Posner (2002) maintain that organizations create culture; therefore a leader's behavior can and does affect organizational performance. Schein (2004) maintains it is leadership's duty to step outside the organizational culture to initiate changes (by their behavior) when warranted. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between employee perceived leadership practices and organizational culture within the aerospace industry. The U.S. space shuttle operations prime contractor, United Space Alliance, was selected as the population for this research. This research addresses the current dilemma in NASA's manned spaceflight program and their contractors with regard to their future: Organizational and cultural change must occur or routine access to space for the United States will become obsolete (Bergin, 2007; Guthrie & Shayo, 2005; Mason, 2004). United Space Alliance provides a unique population within which to sample, as it is a joint venture LLC with employees of varying heritage companies and job occupations. Use of Kouzes and Posner's Leadership Practices Inventory-Other (LPI-O) and the Denison Organizational Culture Survey (DOCS) have not been performed in such an environment. Web-based surveys collected data from the Manufacturing and Operations directorate (N = 1793). A total of 367 surveys were completed for an initial response rate of 20.47%. Both the LPI-O and DOCS raw mean scores were compared against published databases; only the Enabling Others to Act practice scored as a moderate impact. Customer focus scored the highest amongst cultural indices, with all three Mission indices ranking in the lowest percentiles. Regression analyses indicated neither leadership practices nor cultural traits explained any differences within respondents. Hierarchical regression revealed the five leadership practices accounted for 24% of the Total Culture variance. Pearson's Product-Moment correlation examined the strength of linear association between the variables. This study provided statistically significant (ñ < .05), weak to moderate positive correlation coefficients for all hypothesized relationships.

This dissertation sheds new light on the well-recognized globalization phenomenon by examining its socio-cultural component. The literature assumes that the “global village” will simply emerge once the legal and technical obstacles have been overcome. However, the merging of cultural and social practices is not an effortless process. I set out to uncover how complex such socio-cultural exchanges are with a 12-month ethnography project. I examine Multinational Enterprise (MNE) in the hospitality industry, which serve as a hub for border-crossing cultural exchanges. Specifically, I focus on Ghanaian-MNEs where international consumers expecting to receive international (Western culture) standards of customer service from the Ghanaian staff. My data show that the Ghanaian-MNE workplace is filled with cultural clashes that stem from MNEs tendency to use an integration model (maintain international standards) in regard to customer service experiences but use a differentiation model (adapt local cultural practices) in regard to human resource management (HRM). The clashes leave the staff dissatisfied with the workplace which negatively impacts their workplace performance. Given the labor, cultural, and emotional demands of the work, my study concludes that Ghanaian-MNEs should adapt strategic HRM tactics, as discussed in the international management literature, to gain a competitive advantage in their field. The findings from this study strongly establish the complexity of border-crossing cultural exchanges. Continuing to examine the dynamics of how individuals and organization come to adapt new cultural practices improves our understanding of the spread of globalization as well as a multitude of within organization processes.

Thesis advisor: Rebecca Schendel / Organizational culture was originally addressed in the management literature in the late 1970s (e.g. Pettigrew, 1979; Deal & Kennedy, 1982). Scholars have later on extended the discussion to include higher education institutions (e.g. Tierney, 2008). However, the majority of the literature on organizational culture in higher education is based on institutions that follow and are placed within the Western model. Despite the lack of direct evidence, it is fair to suspect that there is a relationship between the culture of an organization and its national/regional context. This study investigates the nature of that relationship and provide real world examples through an in-depth case study on the American University of Madaba (AUM). In evaluating AUM’s organizational culture, this study explores the institution’s organizational identity and its organizational design (the sum of the two, in this study, constitutes the culture of the organization). The data suggests that AUM’s organizational identity holographically (Albert & Whetten, 2004) brings together four different identity pieces: American, Catholic, Jordanian, and not-for-profit. The study concludes that the institution’s focus on its American identity and partial neglect in incorporating its other identity pieces into its organizational design with equal weight lead to a misalignment between its espoused, attributed, shared and aspirational organizational values (Broune & Jenkins, 2013), which ultimately leads to a misalignment between its organizational identity and its organizational design, resulting in what would be generally considered an unhealthy organizational culture (Gulua, 2018). In AUM’s case, this misalignment causes an amended combination of what the literature presents as an expectation gap and a dislocation gap in organizational values (Broune & Jenkins, 2013). However, context-relativity (a crucial concept in this study), with its historical, economic, political, socio-cultural and colonial components, is highly impactful in studying the relationship between AUM’s organizational culture and its national/regional context and impacts our understanding of the initial findings. This study reveals that there is a strong conception in the Middle East that American higher education = good quality (but good quality does not necessarily equal American). Therefore, in the light of context-relativity, AUM’s organizational gaps and the misalignment between its identity and design is not a matter of unauthenticity, but rather lack of options. Being an American institution in the Middle East comes with a market advantage; therefore, such an approach is a way for AUM to survive in a world where global power dynamics carry strong preconceptions about the quality of American higher education. By being American “enough” to maintain its market advantage and being Jordanian “enough” to keep the peace with their students and staff and the surrounding community, AUM, as a young higher education institution, is finding a way to survive and advance its quality in the process. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

The aim of this thesis is implemented based on existing content analysis of organizational culture in the analysis of such a company to design changes that will support the objectives pursued and will lead to a desirable performance. The theoretical part is to define terms relating to organizational culture and relationships between them.The analytical part is formulated the current state of organizational culture. The design is then part of the proposed solutions that will lead to a change in organizational culture andemployee motivation.

This paper proposes an optimization model aimed at increasing production capabilities at a small-sized textile business dedicated to manufacturing polo shirts, while reducing order fulfillment issues, including incomplete orders and late deliveries. Hence, an assessment identified downtimes from unnecessary transportation travel, time spent looking for materials, and excessive losses due to cutting fabric errors. In this light, the study focused on selecting adaptable tools, such as 5S, Plant Layout, and Method Study, which may help improve production capabilities and address these situations. However, to guarantee that the objectives set forth are being met, the organizational culture must also be identified and improved so that it may serve as the foundation for the optimization model. Then, the proposed model will be validated to determine whether the selected operating tools supported by the strengthening of organization culture contribute to increasing production.

ABSTRACT Interest in the purpose and function of district offices has grown extensively in research on educational change over the past decade. The emphasis on educational performance and under-performance has shifted from schools and school principals to district offices and district officials. The study outlines the nature of the organizational culture (OC) as found in two differently-performing (low and high performing) district offices. The case studies explored the reasons for such culture differences from a leadership and management viewpoint to understand why some district offices perform better than others. This mixed methods methodology used face-to-face interviews, two different questionnaires, and observations recorded in a researcher’s journal. Arguing from the perspective of the theory of Alternation to better understanding OC as it appears in district offices, leaders and managers are perceived to be able to determine the status of OC and alter management and leadership styles and strategies thus creating a culture of educational performance. The interpretive approach of the study views the OC in the district office as observed through policies, laws, education acts and observable phenomena in district offices, provincial education offices and the Department of Basic Education. The analysis of the core education policies, acts, documents and provincial circulars together with observations made during site visits was used to understand the current purpose and usefulness of OC using a mixed methods approach. The response to the main question of the study: ‘What is the organizational culture in education district offices like?’ states that district offices as mandated organizations have a peculiar OC that is either geared towards education performance or merely maintaining the status quo. It was also determined that the OC in district offices is not clearly defined, leading to multiple misconceptions of the purpose of the district office and the mismanagement of resources to uphold the current presentations thereof. During the analysis of data it was found that district one highlighted the OC concepts mission, values, goals, desired outcomes, and complexities amidst chaos. This places the district in the behavioural stage amongst the five developmental stages of OC theories. District two was stronger on different people’s views about the organization, what motivates values, what motivates beliefs and shared behaviour, placing the district in the initiation stage of OC theory. The OC in a district office is the composite presentation of all the employees, their commitment and aspirations to provide the service of education. The working assumptions in the study were affirmed that:  OC is a determinant of whether a district office becomes a low or high performing district  There is a correlation between the nature and quality of leadership and management in a district office, OC and the performance of the district. It was argued in the study that the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examination plays a decisive role in the benchmarking of performance and achievement of education in South Africa. When this was rationalized within the context of the study, four problematic practices were identified: 1. There is a disparity in results of learners in a particular socio-economic context within the South African system. 2. That the key policy objects for the new democratic South Africa are providing free, basic, equal and common education to every child especially in schools from previously disadvantaged areas. 3. The education format envisages a uniform system for the organization, governance and funding of schools to counter a legacy of past inequalities and segregation and a thread to achieving democracy. 4. The performance of education district office as service centres is suspected of not having consistent aims and prioritised needs resulting in a lack of support to schools, and disempowered officials. The blurred directions given to officials have an impact on the overall performance of the district. The research on the purpose and role of OC, and the link between OC and district performance, identified that the challenge to provide a common uniform education system is ever growing. This study about the OC in two differently performing districts recommends the following improvement of practices namely that: • The relationship between Provincial Education Department (PED) mandates and forms of power in district offices be reconsidered making heads of districts accountable for the kind of OC and performance in the entire district. • Policy implementation and accountability of mediation or compliance in district offices should remain with the district management team. • District officials should acquire the ability to negotiate the differences between policy compliance and policy mediation. • All employees in the district office should be aware of the ability of OC to influence educational performance. . The study found that poor education leadership and management creates a gap where poor performance is classified and supported with more polices that target underperformance. This research on OC in district offices established possible intervention strategies to support district officials in ensuring the development of a positive OC in the district office. The recommendations intend to influence the perceptions of district officials about the usefulness of OC on performance in district offices. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / gm2014 / Education Management and Policy Studies / Unrestricted

Family businesses are a significant part of the global economy, contributing to employment and GDP growth. However, they face challenges in a dynamic and competitive landscape, requiring a shift in traditional approaches and a focus on innovation. The success of a company ́s strategy relies on its people and organizational culture, which impact employee engagement, productivity and innovation promotion. In family businesses, culture rooted in the founder’s values can shape their approach to innovation. Some family businesses embrace change and innovation, while others hesitate due to risks and conflicting objectives, risking their long-term survival. Research on family business culture and innovation is underdeveloped, lacking empirical studies integrating the two concepts. This thesis examines the intricate relationship between organizational culture and innovation in family businesses within Sweden and Italy. By conducting interviews with managers across diverse industries, we have uncovered significant findings regarding the influence of organizational culture on innovation outcomes. Key elements such as flexibility, long-term perspective, strategic vision and ethical commitment were identified as crucial in both countries. Family businesses prioritize enduring value, sustainability and adaptability while navigating the challenges of tradition and innovation. Some businesses adopt an exploitational approach, refining existing products, processes and business models, leveraging their heritage and internal capabilities. Conversely, others adopt an explorational approach, embracing uncertainty, remaining open to new possibilities and actively seeking innovative solutions through experimentation. Our research expands the understanding of family businesses’ culture and innovation through a theoretical model that considers different national contexts and the relationship between cultural characteristics and innovation. Furthermore, we offer practical implications for family business owners, managers, policymakers and advisors. These insights can help creating an environment conducive to innovation and long-term success in family businesses worldwide.