Organisational Culture and Operational Excellence of Agrochemical Firms in Nairobi

Abstract

Organisational culture can significantly affect operational excellence in firms. Culture continues to define who we are, what we do and how we do it, irrespective of the type of culture, influenced by information. Culture is therefore prescriptive in nature. These influences from culture, have been manifested in the work place to evolve into an organisational culture. Operational excellence within firms on the other hand, is part of the response to a dynamic environment in pursuit of customer satisfaction, quality system deployment among other strategic goals. The study of organisational culture and operational excellence of agrochemical firms in Nairobi is an attempt to establish the types of culture in these organisations. The study also sought to establish the effect of organisational culture on operational excellence within these same firms. The agrochemical association of Kenya membership list of 2017 provided a sample population for this study. To understand the relationship, statistical analytical technique and questionnaire was used. Regression analysis was used to test the operational excellence score against the six cultural dimensions. The competing value framework is the overarching theoretical basis for this research and the prescribed cultural typologies prescribed feature prominently. The organisational culture assessment instrument was used to measure culture within these firms and the results plotted on a Radar Chart. To check for operational excellence, the operational excellence audit sheet was adopted. The five operational excellence measure were customer satisfaction, health, safety and environment, teamwork, skill level and motivation, manufacturing, planning and control system and quality system deployment. The results bear evidence to a positive correlation between organisational culture and operational excellence at very significant values though dominant characteristics and criteria of success are the two most significant cultural dimensions that predict operational excellence. The agrochemical firms in Nairobi were found to be dominant in the market and clan culture types not only now but also in the immediate future as well. However, a limitation to the study was the fact that the respondents relied on their subjective perceptions of the different cultural types and the levels of operational excellence. There is evidence to show that a focus on the cultural dimensions can have an effect on operational excellence, it is a part of the organisational set up and as such should not be ignored. An analytical model based on statistics for illustrating the correlation between organisational culture and operational excellence within agrochemical firms in Nairobi was developed in this study. At this point, there is need for more research on other factors that have an effect on operational excellence within the agrochemical firms in Nairobi. Keywords Organisational Culture, Operational Excellence, Cultural Dimensions