Cultural Management Practices and Performance in Humanitarian Non-governmental Organizations in Nairobi County

Abstract

Cultural diversity is “experienced at work as a result of coexistence of staff from divergent backgrounds”. Information technology has enabled businesses to trade globally. The overall objective of this study was to establish the influence of cultural management practices on performance of Humanitarian Non-Governmental organisations in Nairobi County, Kenya. The study was anchored on the Social Dualism theory and Hofstede cultural dimensions theory and a descriptive study design was adopted. The population of the study consisted of 77 humanitarian Non-Governmental Organizations operating in Nairobi County, Kenya. Online questionnaires were administered to the respondents and the data collected was analysed qualitatively as well as by the use of inferential statistics. Quantitative data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and presented through, means and standard deviations. Inferential statistics analysis included the use of correlation and regression analysis. The study found that, employees of different backgrounds interact well within the firms, employees who are different from the majority and are treated equally and have access to knowledge within the organization leads to employees improved capability, aids in the generation of new knowledge and increases employee and customer satisfaction. This means that organization performance increased when there was creativity, innovation, cross cultural diversity and the organizations had knowledge strategy. Correlation analysis indicated that all the cultural management practices (creativity, innovation, cross cultural diversity and knowledge strategy) had significant positive correlations with organization performance. Regression analysis results indicated that cultural management practices was a strong predictor of organisation performance. The study recommended that organizations to come up with conducive environment whereby all employees have a chance to excel and implement policies that encourages recruitment of workers from different ethnic background so as to retain workers and be effective in their respective markets. The organizations should make efforts to make staffs skills more diverse, focusing on diversity in education and experience which creates various sets of knowledge and professionalism.