“An exploratory study, investigating how an organisational culture can influence employee engagement.”

Abstract

The primary aim of this research is to critically explore how an organisational culture can influence employee engagement. The study will examine how a company and its employees can benefit when the organization’s culture is an integral part of the company’s strategy. The research will also look at how change management and leadership can affect employee performance.

Existing literature presents the concept of an empowering organisational culture, which promotes inclusiveness, employee voice, and employee engagement in an organisation. The literature also underlines that leaders play the most important role in developing and maintaining an organization’s culture, because they model the desired behaviours and build the personal relationships that make the culture credible on a daily basis. Finally, literature states that companies that do not have an empowered culture can be successful economically, but if they do embed an empowering culture in their organizations, they can be even more successful.

The study was conducted using primary research, and qualitative, semi-structured interviews on the topic of organisational culture. The interviews were conducted with three entry-level employees of a retail store to understand their views of the store’s culture and their individual engagement.

The most significant findings of the research showed that leadership is paramount to the success of an organisational culture and it has a large influence on employees’ engagement. Secondly, the findings confirmed that personal connections create an environment of inclusion and trust between leaders and employees, which encourages engagement. Finally, the findings show that when leadership is lacking at the management level, entry-level employees can display leadership behaviours that can change the culture from the bottom up.