Cultural Dynamics and Organisational Performance of South African Airways, Nairobi Station in Kenya
Abstract
In a competitive1market place understanding and responding to cultural dynamics has
become1an imperative factor to an organization’s performance. An organization with
solid culture with all around coordinated and viable arrangement of qualities, convictions
and practices is probably going to show elite performance. South African Airways has
cultural dynamics and has shown dwindling performances in recent years. The study
sought to determine the effect of cultural dynamics on organizational performance of
South African Airways, Nairobi Station. The study adopted a case study research design
based on primary data gathered through an interview guide. The data was gathered from
four senior management staffs at South African Airways, Nairobi Station. The senior
management staffs were three heads of department (marketing, operations and finance
department) as well as the Regional Manager for East Africa. Data analysis was done
through content analysis. From the interviews, the organization had employees from
different cultures working within it, hence, there is cultural dynamism within South
African Airways, Nairobi Station. The interviewees stated that gender diversity enhanced
the performance of their organization. From the interviews, the interviewees indicated
that company values played a key role in their organization performance. The interviews
showed that the company values were not in line with their personal cultural values. The
outcomes showed that teamwork boosted output and productivity within the organization.
Based on the interviewees, cultural dynamics influenced performance of their
organization. From the outcomes, the study concludes that cultural dynamics influence
performance of South African Airways Nairobi Station negatively while gender diversity
enhanced the performance of South African Airways station in Nairobi. On the company
language, the interviews depicted that language barrier affected organizational
performance. The interviews showed that language barrier reduces employee productivity
hence reduction in the organizational performance. On the organization performance, the
interviewees indicated that their organization was not performing well. The study
concludes that company values of South African Airways are not aligned to the employee
personal values. The study also concluded that company values influence the
performance of South African Airways station in Nairobi. Further, team work increased
organizational performance of South African Airways station in Nairobi. On the other
hand, it concludes that language barrier affects performance of South African Airways
station in Nairobi negatively. Finally, the study concludes that South African Airways
station in Nairobi is not performing. The study recommends that South African Airways
station in Nairobi have in place cultural events, team building events as well as cultural
dressing among the employees for improved performance. Similar research is needed in
other airlines like Kenya Airways; other influencers of performance; other measures of
cultural dynamics and organization performance; and based on employees other than
managers to collect data
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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