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ABSTRACT
The present study examines socio-cultural factors and organizational performance. It is hoped that it will enable us device a means to effectively manage organizational socio-cultural differences and to make appropriate recommendations for an effective resolution aimed at ensuring organizational development, productivity, and business growth. We adopted a descriptive pattern and used questionnaires in collecting the data. A total of 80 copies of questionnaires were distributed to department of First Bank Plc in Port Harcourt; these departments are Operation, Marketing and Administration. Simple percentage and chi-square method were used to complete and analyze the stated hypothesis. The findings reveal among others, the managerial behaviours toward the employee, information gap are the major factor that influences the effect of socio-culture on organizational performance in Nigeria. It is recommended that organizational develop policies that will integrate various human capitals with diverse socio-culture civilization in order to accelerate organizational performance.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
One pervasive feature that distinguishes contemporary life from life in the ancient time is the domination by large, formal and complex organizations modern man is everywhere in organizations. Man is born into organization, lives in organization, works for organization and even dies in organization. These organizations have become an inevitable feature of life.
An organization is defined as basically a structure for carrying out a particular social activity on a regular basis. This according to Fulcher and Scott (1999) generally has the following features:
- A specific goal
- A defined membership
- Rules of behavior or conduct and authority relationship
Organization does not exist in a vacuum but in a specific culture or socio-cultural environment. Socio-culture is a concept rooted on anthropology and sociology where it is a key term in explaining the existence and nature of social order.
According to Cotgrove (1978) culture is the shared norms and values of social system which are most important aspect of a society.
In any organization, human resources are the most valuable assets; if they are not properly managed the attainment of organizational goals may be difficult. Managerial science deals with the management of human and resources (material) inputs in any organization. A manager is termed to be an effective or efficient manager depending on his ability to coordinate, organize, direct, and plan these inputs. Also, a manager can only manage human and material inputs of its business organization or the system. The business organization is a system in which the manager, the human and the raw materials are part of the system, working together for the smooth functioning of the system.
Today, business organization has changed from simple to complex business structure requiring practicing managers to be complex too. Most business are not only operating in national boundaries but have cut – cross the off-shore of national boundaries extending to other countries or nations of the world as a result of increasing demand in the international trade. The recent trend has added more responsibilities on the part of managers in managing this type of global business complex structures. The growth rate of multi-national companies is also increasing the responsibility of business managers. Since a manager manages the human, materials and other inputs factors in an organization, managing various employees from different socio-cultural background of the world is a huge task to handle for managers. On the other hand they are not only managing the human behaviours in an organization but the different socio-cultural heritage of these employees which pose a great trait to the managers in achieving the organizational goal.
Socio-culture is a wide and multidimensional concept that one cannot hope to deal with in it’s entirely in a single study. This is because socio-culture is divided into two major aspects which are (i) material and (i) non-material cultures.
Material culture is overt and explicit, such as product of industry, technology, at that is every visible or concrete acquisition of man in society, artifacts such as bridges, houses handicraft etc. these are directly observable as the socio-cultural products of any society.
The non-material aspect of socio-culture consists of the knowledge philosophy, moral languages, motivation, attitudes, values and norms shared and transmitted in a society. The non-material includes works values ethnics ideology and other behavioural traits exhibited at work. These are sometimes referred to as the covert or implicit aspects of socio-culture and are acquired by members of the society. The focus in this is on the non-material aspect of socio-culture. Here, a socio-cultural factor is treated as the independent variables while performance is taken and treated as the dependent variable.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Blunt and Jones (1992), George and Jones (1996) and Zakaria (1997) argued that all organizations everywhere function within a specific culture and it is becoming more widely recognized in contemporary discussions of organizational performance that managers and other organizational practitioner continue to be bedeviled by a lot of management problems that have their roots in the culture of a society and those that impede progress toward achieving high performance. In relation to Nigeria organizations of their specific socio-cultural settings, provides the main motivation for this study. The main focus will be how to relate organizations more closely with their socio-cultural settings in order to enhance optimal performance.
Ahiauzu (1986), comments that it is becoming increasingly widely accepted among social scientists especially managers and organizational theorists that the patterns of management and employee behaviours in the work place are largely culture- bound. Ahiauze argued further that there is indeed a growing body of literature concerning questions of cultural influences on organizational behaviours and performance but that much of it is of poor quality consisting of anecdotes prescriptions based on western experience and fantasies. Thus there exists the problem of dearth of research focusing exclusively on the impact of socio-cultural on organizational performance.
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The premise of this study is based on the following objectives
- To examine the effects of socio-cultural factors on organizational performance in the banking sector.
- To examine if socio-cultural factors create opportunity to improve employee performance in banking sector.
- To find out the effect of the external cultures in organizational performance.
- To examine if the needs of employee from different socio-cultural background fit into the overall objective of the Banking Sector.
- To examine if socio-cultural conflicts between employee can be reduce in the Banking Sector
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
In the course of this research the following question will be imperative
- Has a socio-cultural factor any influence on organization performance in the banking sector.
- Does socio-cultural factors create opportunity to improve the performance of employees in the banking sector
- Does the needs of employees from different socio-cultural background fit into the overall objectives of the banking sector
- Do you think socio-cultural conflict between employees in the banking sectors can be reduced?
1.5 STATEMENT OF HYPOTHESIS
Ho1: Socio-cultural factors have no influence on organizational performance in the Banking Sector.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
One of the significant contributions which anthropology, sociology can add to the body of existing knowledge in organization theory and management is to come up with findings that can be used to tackle problems arising from work situations. One way of doing this is to examine critically how this in turn determines organization performance.
The logical question that may be asked is “to what extent is socio-cultural determinant of organizational performance?” And again, what other variables intervene between socio-cultural and organizational performance? The significance of this study is anchored in the answers to their and some other related questions.
To begin with Aldrich and Marsden (1988) Hostede (1991) and Zakana (1997) among other have argued that organizations do not exist in a vacuum but in specific cultures.
These scholars and researchers have however, argued that much of the research into organizations neglects and fails to investigate the important relationship between culture and organizations. Presently, there is a considerable body of literature on the relationship between socio-culture and organizational performance. However, it is sad to observe that most of these studies are carried out in different socio-cultural contexts. Therefore these findings cannot be looked with full confidence in understanding the Nigeria situation. In the light of this observation, it is envisaged that the results of this study will find some gaps and at the same time make modest contributions to knowledge.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This study will be tackled from the organizational angle on the effect of social-cultural on organizational performance. Hence it was a case study, organizations with peculiar problems on socio-culture and organizational performance will find the study very pertinent. Although it was carried out using First bank Port Harcourt, Rivers State, it can still help society to know how to interact with organization.
1.8 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
In course of carrying out this research the researcher went through some vicissitudes which rose as a result of pecuniary which was scarce. The cost involved in leaving Ken Saro Wiwa Polytechnic Bori to Port Harcourt was a challenging one. The issue of primary data which involves questionnaires through response from the staff was also a challenging one because the workers attitude was a reluctant one. However despite the challenges sufficient data were collected and analyzed.
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Employee: An individual who works as part time or full time under a contract of employment whether oral or written, express or implied and has recognized rights and duties.
Organization: It is an interaction of people that is structured and managed to meet a need or to pursue collective goals.
Performance: The accomplishment of a given task measured against present known standards or accuracy completeness cost and speed.
Socio-cultural: It is the full range of learned human behavior pattern that are shared by humanity collectively.