The Views of Bahir Dar University academic leaders on the role of organizational culture in implementing management innovations
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to understand the views of academic leaders on the role of organizational culture while implementing management innovation at Bahir Dar University. Using a qualitative case study, data were collected using an in-depth interview (from sixteen purposefully selected academic leaders) and relevant documents (such as the BPR document and university strategic plan), and were thematically analyzed based on the selected dimensions of organizational culture in the conceptual framework. The findings show that participants consider organizational culture as decisive factor for organizational success even though the university’s culture has been considered as a barrier to the implementation of the management innovation (Business Process Reengineering). Presence of poor understanding of the innovation, low commitment and sense of ownership, disconnection between middle and top level leaders, and reporting for conformity were some of the major challenges reported. Moreover, the participants seem to have poor recall of the university’s core values. Participants’ responses also indicate clash between old and new elements of culture, and less effort has been made to reconcile new values with old ones which later posed difficulty to live up to the underlying principles of the innovation. From the results, it can be said that the organizational culture at the time of this study was less conducive to implement management innovation (BPR in this case). Further suggestions for better considerations of organizational culture are forwarded.References
Abbasi, E., & Zamani-Miandashti, N. (2013). The role of transformational leadership, organizational culture and organizational learning in improving the performance of Iranian agricultural faculties. Higher Education, 66, 505–519. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-013-9618-8
Ahmed, P. K. (1998). Culture and climate for innovation. European Journal of Innovation Management, 1(1), 30–43. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601069810199131
Alvesson, M., & Sveningsson, S. (2008). Changing Organizational Culture Cultural change work in progress. Routledge: London.
Besha, T., Negash, S., & Amoroso, D. L. (2009). The impact of organizational culture on IS implementation success in Ethiopia: The case of selected public and private organizations. 15th Americas Conference on Information Systems 2009, AMCIS 2009, 10, 6685–6692. Retrieved from http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?eid=2-s2.084870309970&partnerID=40&md5=f12ef2a48c88cb22f4d0f0f8251aa183
Birkinshaw, J. M., Hamel, G., & Mol, M. J. (2008). Management innovation. Academy of Management Review, 33(4), 825–845. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.2008.34421969
Birnbaum, R. (1988). How Colleges Work: The Cybernetics of Academic Organization and Leadership. Jossey-Bass Publishers., San Francisco.
Birnbaum, R. (2000). The life cycle of academic management fads. The Journal of Higher Education, 71(1), 1. https://doi.org/10.2307/2649279
Bond, L. S. (n.d.). Academic Leadership (pp. 95–156). Retrieved from https://www.acu.ac.uk/focus-areas/gender-programme/academic-leadership
Cai, Y. (2017).From an analytical framework for understanding the innovation process in higher education to an emerging research field of innovations in higher education. Review of Higher Education, 40(4), 585–616.
Christensen, T., & Lægreid, P. (2002). New public management: Puzzles of democracy and the influence of citizens. Symposium on Accountability, Publicity & Transparency´, The Journal of Political Philosophy, 10, 267- 295
Creswell, J. W. (2007). Qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Creswell, J. W. (2012). Planning, conducting, and evaluating quantitative and qualitative research (4th ed.). Boston, Pearson Education Inc.
Deal, T. E., & Kennedy, A. A. (1983). Culture and School Performance. Educational Leadership. Retrieved from http://libproxy.lib.csusb.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr ue&db=ulh&AN=8517722&site=ehost-live
Dennison, D. R. (1996). What is the Difference between Organizational Culture and Organizational Climate ? A Native ’ s Point of View on a Decade of Paradigm Wars. The Academy of Management Review, 21(3), 619–654.
Endawoke, Y. (2009). The effects of organizational culture, emotional intelligence, organizational trust and leadership effectiveness on the satisfaction of employees and customers. Ethiopian Journal of Development Research, 31(2), 29–60.
FDRE. (2009). Higher education proclamation No. 650/2009. Federal Negarit Gazeta, 15(64), 4976–5044.
Folch, M. T., & Ion, G. (2009). Analysing the organizational culture of universities: Two models. Higher Education in Europe, 34(1), 143–154. https://doi.org/10.1080/03797720902747132
GineviÄius, R., & VaitkÅ«naite, V. (2006). Analysis of organizational culture dimensions impacting performance. Journal of Business Economics and Management, 7, 201–211.
Haneberg, L. (2009). How leaders can optimize organizational culture. Retrieved from http://faculty.mu.edu.sa/public/uploads/1360858027.6806organizational cult167.pdf
Hargrave, T. J., & Van De Ven, A. H. (2006). A collective action model of institutional innovation. , 31(4). Academy of Management Review, 31(4), 864–888.
Hood, C. (1991). A Public Management for All Seasons ?, 69, 3–20. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1991.tb00779.x
Hughes, O. E. (2003). Public management and administration. New York.: Palgrave Macmillan.
Jung, T., Scott, T., Davies, H. T. O., Bower, P., Whalley, D., McNally, R., & Mannion, R. (2009). Instruments for exploring organizational culture: A review of the literature. Public Administration Review, 69(6), 1087–1096. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15406210.2009.02066.x
Kassahun, T. (2010). Rethinking institutional excellence in Ethiopia: Adapting and adopting the balanced scorecard (BSC) model. JBAS, 2(1), 22–53.
Kezar, A. J., & Eckel, P. D. (2002). The effect of institutional culture on change strategies in higher education: Universal principles or culturally responsive concepts? The Journal of Higher Education, 73(4), 435–460. https://doi.org/10.1353/jhe.2002.0038
Madu, B. C. (2011). Organization culture as driver of competitive advantage. Organization, 1–9.
Martins, E. C., & Terblanche, F. (2003). Building organisational culture that stimulates creativity and innovation. European Journal of Innovation Management, 6, 64–74. https://doi.org/10.1108/14601060310456337
Menberu, W. A. (2013). The ups and downs of business process re-engineering (BPR): A tale of two offices in Bahir Dar town. Paper presented at the 1st Annual International Interdisciplinary Conference, AIIC 2013, 24-26 April, Azores, Portugal. (pp. 90–99).
Mohammed, F. A., & Bardai, P. B. (2012). The role of organizational culture in organizational innovation in higher education institutions – a study of Libyan public universities. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 6(5), 175–184.
O’Connor, H., & Gibson, N. (2003). A step-by-step guide to qualitative data analysis. A Journal of Aboriginal and Indigenous Community Health, 1(1), 64–90.
Ott, J. S. (1989). The Organizational Culture Perspective. Brooks/Cole Publishing Company, California
Rubin, H. and Rubin, I. (1995). Qualitative interviewing : The art of hearing data. Sage Publications, San Diego.
Schein, E. H. (1990). Organizational culture. American Psychologist, 45(2), 109 - 119 https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.45.2.109
Schein, E. H. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership.(3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Seen, N. Y., Singh, S., & Jayasingam, S. (2012). Organizational culture and innovation among Malaysian employees. The Journal of Human Resource and Adult Learning, 8, 147–158.
Sibhato, H., & Singh, A. P. (2012). Evaluation on BPR implementation in Ethiopian higher education institutions. Global Journal of Management and Business Research, 12(11).
Silvia, D., & Simona, B. (n.d.). Research methods used in analysing organisational culture, 413–419.
Stake, R. (1995). The Art of Case Study Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Tierney, G., & William, J. E. (2011). Culture Organizational in Higher Education. The Journal of Higher Education, 59(1), 2–21. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1981868 .
Tierney, W. G. (1988). Culture organizational in higher education. The Journal of Higher Education, 59(1), 2–21.
Van der Post, W.Z., De Coning T.J., & Smit, E. vd M. (1997). (1997). An instrument to measure organisational culture. African Journal of Business Management, 28(4), 147– 168.
Yeşil, S., & Kaya, a. (2012). The role of organisational culture on innovation capability: An empirical Study. International Journal of Information Technology and Business Management, 6(1), 11–25.
Yin, R. K. (2009). Case Study Research Design and Methods (4 th ed). Tousand Oaks, CA: Sage
Zhu, C., & Engels, N. (2014). Organizational culture and instructional innovations in higher education: Perceptions and reactions of teachers and students. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 42, 136–158. https://doi.org/10.1177/1741143213499253
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
