Challenges in the Era of Globalization - iaabd

Proceedings of the 12th Annual Conference © 2011 IAABD
Coordination
Integration
and 3.55 3.90 4.02 3.79
Totals
ADAPTABILITY
3.40 4.01 3.92 3.84
Creating Change 2.83 4.14 4.17 3.74
Customer Focus 3.17 3.05 3.27 3.88
Organisational Learning 3.38 4.24 3.94 3.74
Totals
MISSION
3.13 3.81 3.79 3.79
Strategic Intent 4.02 4.19 4.53 4.04
Goals and Objectives 3.71 4.14 4.30 3.79
Vision 3.52 4.19 4.14 3.84
Totals 3.75 4.17 4.32 3.89
The scores 1-5, when converted to quartiles will be 0-1.25 for the first quartile, 1.26 to 2.5 for the second,
2.6-3.5 for the third, and finally 3.6 -5 for the last quartile. The third and fourth quartiles scores are those
generally found in higher performing organisations, and first and second quartile scores are generally
found in lower performing organisations (Denison, 2000b). From the mean scores of the various banks in
Table 2 above, the banks will generally fall within the third and the fourth quartiles, indicating that their
cultural profiles are generally found in high performing organisations.
The dominant culture attribute for the Involvement culture trait among all the banks was Capability
Development. This attribute featured most prominently in the Pan African Bank (with mean score of
4.20) followed by the Private domestic bank (mean score of 4.05). In addition, Table 2 shows that
capability development was higher than empowerment in all the banks, an indication to suggest that the
organisation does not entrust capable employees with important decision making that impact their work.
The Consistency culture trait was also dominated by Core values culture attribute and this again featured
most strongly in the Pan-African bank (mean score 4.40 ) followed by the private domestic bank (mean
score 4.38) and the multinational bank (mean score 4.14 ). However, agreement culture attribute was
found to be lower than core values and coordination, an indication that the organisation may have good
intentions, but may become unglued when conflict or differing opinions arise. However, the Adaptability
culture trait for all the selected banks was dominated by two culture attributes: organisational learning
attribute from the private domestic bank (mean score 4.24) and also change creation attribute from the
Pan-African bank (mean score 4.17) and the private domestic bank (mean score 4.14). Except for the
multinational bank, customer focus for all the other banks was generally lower than creating change and
organisational learning. This signifies that the remaining banks may be good at meeting customer
demands currently, but is unlikely to be planning for future customer requirements or leading customers
to what they may want in the future. The Mission culture trait was dominated by strategic intent culture
attribute across all the selected banks. Foremost among them was the Pan African bank (mean score
4.53) followed by the private domestic bank (mean score 4.19), the multinational bank (mean score 4.04)
and the public domestic bank (mean score 4.02). But strategic direction and intent culture attributes were
higher than goals and objectives for all the banks. This suggests that the organisation may have a difficult
time executing or operationalising its mission. Thus, in general, the dominating individual culture
attributes among Ghanaian banks which create their unique culture traits are Capability development for
Involvement culture, Core values for Consistency culture, organisational learning and Creating Change
for Adaptability culture and Strategic Intent for the Mission culture trait.
When comparing the four main culture traits in each of the leading Banks in Ghana, Table 3 shows that
Mission culture trait is the leading culture among all the Banks because it has the highest mean score
values for each of the banks. This corroborates Davidson (2003) assertion that the Mission culture
446