How and to What Extent Does Organisational Culture Influence Organisational Performance: Case Study of a Healthcare Organisation

This article reports the results of the exploratory research into the influence of organisational culture on organisational performance. Much of the interest in the concept of organisational culture and organisational performance in the literature are based on explicit and implicit claims that organisational culture influences organisational performance. Although intuitively reasonable, however, the studies that have examined the relationship, often resulted in inconclusive findings, provided little or no explanations on how organisational culture influences organisational performance, and evidently there has been little attempt to explore the dynamics of these two concepts in the healthcare organisation. The use of a mixed methodology in this study meant that the main objectives of this study are being achieved. The effect of the ‘strength’ and ‘congruence’ of organisational culture and organisational values on organisational performance were recognised in this study. Simple influences such as ‘strong’ and ‘congruence’ culture and values leads to high performance are cautiously supported by this study. Another finding from this study suggests that the ‘primary task’ may provide insight to understanding the influence of organisational culture on organisational performance. This study therefore encourages healthcare leaders to consider the strength and congruence of the organisational culture, the strength and congruence of the organisational values, and the nature of the primary tasks in order to put together the right strategy and effort for performance improvement in their organisation. This present study cautiously concludes and presents supportive evidence which suggests that organisational performance is attributable to organisation culture. Whilst these findings in this present study remain valid, they cannot be used for universal generalisations