Analyzing Interdepartmental Relationships

Introduction

An organization culture is an inherent part of a company, community or organization and significantly contributes towards its eventual growth and success. SHRM (2020) highlights that it includes the shared values, beliefs and objectives of an organization for which all the personnel subscribe to. Organization culture impacts effective communication among employees as well as with customers. It also enables the building of an effective and efficient workplace where employees can grow and further pursue their careers and desire all whilst impacting the growth and development of the organization simultaneously. However above all, organization culture impacts a good working relationship among individual employees which in turn impacts the organization performance and success. This study sets out to evaluate the organization culture within my work place and effectively recommend ways with which it can be enhanced for better performance and success.

Research Problem

Following a recent disconnect experienced within the organization leading to miscommunication and conflicts among employees and trickling all the way to the quality of services offered to the clients, the company has been occasionally sued for misinformation and extortion almost leading to a loss of a major client. There seems to be a disconnect between employees of different departments with the financial department ,partly due to the lack of effective organization culture within the finance department and partly due to poor communication techniques employed by the department. This research sets out to investigate the different reasons for the departmental disconnect and lack of effective communication among the employees with the aim of understanding the existent business culture and suggesting ways of improving it for better quality services and performance in the future.

Research Aim and Objectives

The research aims to evaluate the organization culture within the companies finance department in order to develop recommendations for bettering performance of the current employees. McNamara (2018) highlights that communication is crucial in the functioning of an organization and development of an effective organization culture, as such, the research will also engage in the evaluation of the communication channels. Among the major objectives of focus include:

To evaluate the organization culture within the finance department

To evaluate the communication channels used within the finance department and the whole company

To highlight some of the challenges facing the finance department and the company

Literature Review

A wide range of studies by different scholars has been conducted on the discipline of organization culture and how it impacts performance of a staff within an organization. According to Cancialosi (2017);McNamara (2018) and Watkins (2013), The key to a successful organization is to have a culture that is developed and based on strongly held and widely shared set of beliefs that are supported by strategy and structure towards the achievement of specific objectives. Employees that believe in the same set of ideas and objectives are well motivated to work towards their eventual achievement. SHRM (2020) further emphasize that when an organization has developed a strong organization culture their human resource is impacted in three ways

Employees know how top management wants them to respond to any situation

Employees believe that the expected response is the proper one

Employees know that they will be rewarded for demonstrating the organization's values.

This significantly improves not just the level and extent of communication between employees of a company or department, but also impacts the quality of information communicated which has the eventual impact of success. Eventually however to be able to enact and impact an effective organization culture the leader has to establish an effective communicatio0n strategy between the management and the human resource to facilitate flow of information and understanding (Feigenbaum, 2019; Juneja, 2015).

Methodology

The study will entail a qualitative research design with the use of questionnaires and informal interviews to collect the primary information among different employees in the different sectors of the financial department including: Cashier, Revenue management and billing, E-Billing and Revenue Helpdesk. Two employees will be chosen at random from each section to take part in the study aimed at evaluating the organization culture within the finance department. Further, two other employees will be chosen at random from four other departments within the company including the Lawyers, Marketing and Branding department, Administration and Management as well as the customer service department. These employees will be interviewed with regards to the communication channels and techniques employed within the organization as well as the culture and engagement with the financial department in order to highlight any possible challenges that hinder effective performance of the department. The first hand data collected will be analyzed using thematic analysis to identify the various themes and patterns with regards to the topic of study after which the results will be presented in comparison to the available literature.

Ethics and Limitations

Given the research is conducted within the workplace permission from the Human Resource department and possible the management of the company will be procured before the study to set the respondents at ease. In addition the identities of the participants will remain anonymous so as to protect their interests within and outside of the company.

Among some of the limitations that may be experienced include: incompatible timetable with the workers in the firm who are also the respondents as well as lack of cooperation which may lead to collection of limited results. However the researcher being part of the organization, observation and records were also used to support the data and ensure its validity and credibility.

Conclusion

Organization culture eventually plays a big role in enhancing the cohesion among employees for a better working environment which is eventually productive and profitable. Evaluating the organization culture of the company and highlighting some of the challenges and drawbacks faced enables the development of solutions to enhance performance and success. As such with the results of this research not only can the department apply the recommendations for success, but they can also be utilized widely by other companies and departments for enhanced success.

Progress

Introduction

The research involved the evaluation of the company’s organization culture and communication techniques with the aim of identifying and challenges that impact its performance. Through a primary study employing the use of questionnaires and informal interviews the study evaluated the organization culture adopted by the employees within the finance department as well as the communication techniques and mechanisms employed in passing information among themselves and with the other departments at the Law firm. Kumar (2016) Highlight that an organization culture sets the frame work for all operations within a company or organization either visibly through the general code of conduct, rules and policies adhered to within a workplace, or invisibly through the belief and interaction of the employees amongst themselves in the process of carrying out their interrelated and interconnected tasks. Regardless of which ever is adopted Ahmed and Shafiq (2014) emphasize that the general progress and success of a team is entirely dependent on the members working relationship and coordination towards success. And this focuses down on the aim of the study.

Research Aims and Objectives

In being able to establish the companies organization culture we can better understand the relationship between the different members within the organization and in the finance department and as such point out the areas of disconnect which may include: use of informal conversation and communication techniques in the business workplace, lack of effective paper work to follow through oral agreements, poor coordination among different sections, Bureaucracy and other challenges which impact performance.

The reasons leading to these challenges and drawbacks will also include the focus of the questions in the interview in order to establish proper information towards development of recommendations for rehabilitation. Eventually developing an understanding of the finance departments organization culture lays bare some of the problems faced by the department and the company enabling the understanding of the bigger picture and impacting ways of solving any available challenges and enhancing success and profitability. Eventually the study also provides information for enacting organization culture change for effective performance.

Literature Review

Shahzad et al. (2012) highlights that defining and measuring of organizational culture and its impact on the organizational performance, through an analysis of existing empirical studies and models link with the organizational culture and performance enables effective evaluation mechanisms for the efficiency and effectiveness of the available human resource. The main research areas tackled within the study as such include development and maintenance of an effective organization culture, communication techniques and mechanisms as well as the significance of both communication and culture for eventual group success.

Organization leadership, culture, objectives and employees are basic fundamental blocks of success that are effectively interconnected and interdependent for success. Enhancing organization success and reputation requires high degree of performance by all available personnel which can only happen when there is effective communication and coordination among the employees and the different departments. Idowu (217) andTsai, 2011 are both in agreement that understanding organization culture and organization performance are two sides of the same coin and therefore the studies evaluation of the companies organization culture should significantly contribute to the recommendations for future success.

Methodology

The qualitative research technique adopted in this study is the most effective given that it enables an in-depth analysis of the culture as well as the fundamentals supporting the topic of study. According to Hammersley (2013) Qualitative research is a unique research strategy owning to the fact that it mostly uses words and description of situations rather than their quantification in the compilation and investigation of data..Based on the report by (Cresswell and Plano, 2011; Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009) the research design enables the evaluation of different individuals’ perspective regarding the subject matter and afterwards deriving patterns and trends that shed light to the study question.

The questionnaires and interviews enabled the researcher to collect effective information with regards to employee engagement, conduct and ethics, communication as well as relationship with each other and the management as a means of gathering information to build the organization culture. Through the evaluation of employee engagement, conduct and relationship with one another, the cohesion and interaction among employees and how it impacts eventual company performance will be highlighted. Further through the evaluation of employee communications techniques the potential sources of the misinformation and communication can be identified and addressed in the recommendations towards enhancing organization performance.

Initial Findings

The findings based on the collected data can be concluded to highlight a dysfunctional organization culture and poorly coordinated communication techniques. In addition to employees being somewhat ignorant of their duties and tasks, as well as how these tasks impact the other employees within and outside of the finance department, the work ethic within the office is significantly insufficient. Employees do not restrict their working hours to the official hours prescribed, they engage in significant procrastination which leads to delayed response and decision making. The communication channels within the department are not clear or even defined, mostly people contact each other on a need basis and there seem to be no understanding of any clear direction to which the company is headed to. The low level employees are completely detached and disconnected from the high level personnel who legislate over the direction of the company as such there is a disconnect between the companies vision, mission and policy and the actual work being done in the ground. This eventually has had an impact in a majority of the organizations work processes and activities and thus impacted their growth and success.

Conclusion

Apart from few setbacks in terms of locating and securing effective respondents and credible and reliable data and information, the study is on track and quite insightful with regards to some of the challenges facing the finance department. Thematic analysis of the collected data will inform the next step after which a full report of the study can be developed and published for the company to consider before making any changes to impact success in the company.

References

Ahmed M. and Shafiq S. (2014). The Impact of Organizational Culture on Organizational Performance: A Case Study of Telecom Sector. Global Journal of Management and Business Research: A Administration and Management. 14(3)

Kumar A. (2016). Redefined and Importance of Organizational Culture. Global Journal of Management and Business Research: A Administration and Management, 16(4), 71-75

Tsai, Y., 2011. Relationship between Organizational Culture, Leadership Behavior and Job Satisfaction. BMC Health Services Research, 11(1).