Diversity should be included in an organisational culture and be aligned with the corporate strategy. South African institutions face diversity and multiculturalism challenges which affect their operation and strategies. Managers in South Africa regard organisational culture as a very useful tool to manage their diverse workforce. Against this background, the primary objective of this study was to investigate and analyse how workforce diversity and organisational culture impact on strategy implementation at a higher education institution, namely Walter Sisulu University (WSU). The study identified dimensions of diversity and organisational culture and strategy implementation from theoretical models supporting the study. A hypothetical model portraying these factors was constructed, displaying each factor and their relationship with strategy implementation. Furthermore, the relationship between strategy implementation and strategic outcomes was indicated. Given the nature of the problem statement and the research objectives presented in this study, the positivistic research paradigm was adopted. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed to executive and senior management, senior academic and senior support staff at WSU. In total, 266 usable questionnaires were returned. The data obtained from these questionnaires were subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used as the key statistical analysis tool. As the hypothetical model did not load onto SEM in total, it was re-specified into four sub-models. Each sub-model was subjected to SEM to test the hypothetical model and to indicate the significance of the relationships hypothesised between the various independent, mediating and dependent variables. Eight statistically significant relationships were identified in the study. The factors identified as having a statistically significant relationship with organisational culture included the following: degree of flexibility, degree of teamwork, task directiveness, degree of formalisation, leadership styles and decision making. In addition, a statistically significant relationship was found between organisational culture and strategy implementation. Furthermore the findings indicated a statistically significant relationship between strategy implementation and strategic outcomes in a higher education institution. There was no statistically significant relationship found between diversity and strategy implementation. This finding is contrary to empirical evidence by various other researchers. The study makes a contribution to multicultural higher education institutions by highlighting the crucial role of organisational culture in effective strategy implementation. It was clear from the results of the study that the nurturing of human capital is critical if higher education institutions wish to successfully aligning culture with strategy implementation. This study provided constructive and very practical guidelines to higher education institutions to ensure effective alignment of culture with strategy implementation and so enhance local and global competitiveness and long term sustainability. University councils throughout South Africa can apply the findings of this study in their respective institutions to support effective strategy execution.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nmmu/vital:29734 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Strydom, Kariena |
| Publisher | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Faculty of Business and Economics Sciences |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Doctoral, DBA |
| Format | xix, 326 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University |
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