Scholarly record

IMPROVEMENT AND ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND INTERNAL COMPANY COMMUNICATION DURING TIMES OF CHANGE

Solveiga Blumberga, I.Baumerte

Abstract

The management of commercial companies pays attention to the financial side of the company, but an increase can be observed in the number of organisations which highlight the key values of the organisation, employee satisfaction, values, as there is a link between the organisational culture and the competitiveness of the company. One of the phenomena of the culture of an organisation is that such culture cannot be directly borrowed from other organisations or replicated because it is built up by certain groups of people while working in the same company or organisation. The researched company is currently undergoing changes. The culture of the organisation is changing, and it is a challenging and complex process which particularly affects the administrative personnel. An average of twenty employees terminate their employment each month. The reason for leaving mentioned by the personnel during the exit interviews is the unacceptability of the new organisation culture and the internal communication. The purpose of the research study is to investigate the current and preferred organisational culture and internal communication within the company during times of change. The authors used the following methods of research: a survey developed by the authors regarding the organisational culture and changes, a survey regarding the internal communication and an organisational culture assessment instrument. The summary of the results for the prevailing cultural profile within the group of companies reveals that the market culture is the dominating culture, but the preferred one is the culture of clans. The merger of several companies has brought along merging of various organisational cultures, and this has resulted in a distortion of the previously existing cultures without reaching a common understanding on the organisational culture. The study data reveal shortage of information regarding the change processes planned by the company, as the employees do not feel sufficiently informed about the ongoing changes. The data obtained during the study reveal a sense of disunity created by the changes within the administrative team of the group of companies. The study data show that there are no common values or targets or sense of unity among the employees, which might one of the reasons for the barriers in communication. In the internal communication, the personnel has the highest ratings for the direct contact with the colleagues within their own sections, as this creates mutual trust and support. The electronic mail is used as the most efficient means of communication in the collaboration with the employees of the other sections. The management of the organisation should systematically review the organisational culture and its values, involving the employees into this process as well. To achieve that the personnel feel positive about changes, the management team of the group of companies should pay attention to such issues as the potential personnel barriers in the process of changes, the potential ways of removing the barriers, and provision of information about the ongoing changes to the employees.

Publication details

Back to publication list