Thesis
The role and importance of corporate culture in the delivery of a service
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 1996
- Thesis identifier
- T8632
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- This thesis examines the role and importance of corporate culture in the delivery of a service. In particular it attempts to identify the characteristics of corporate culture within a service delivery environment and the influence corporate culture has on service delivery performance. The thesis also examines the activities undertaken to control and influence culture and their perceived success. The research involved a review of the literature on service delivery, service quality and corporate culture. The fieldwork was undertaken on the UK retail banking sector and involved a programme of depth interviews with senior managers in 10 retail banks. This was followed by a programme of qualitative research and quantitative research within one retail bank. The quantitative research involved the completion of a questionnaire by 268 branch staff in 48 bank branches. The research found that senior managers perceive corporate culture to be important in the effective delivery of a service. As a result managers try to influence the cultural characteristics of their service personnel, however these attempts are often thwarted by operational decisions emanating from the senior management. There was no evidence to suggest that corporate values and attitudes are shared by all of the service personnel in an organisation. Instead there is a mix of company-wide consensus on some issues and subcultural consensus on others. Therefore consensus can occur at a corporate level, at a service team level or at a hierarchical level within an organisation. Finally the research found no direct relationship between corporate culture and service delivery performance. The conclusions of the thesis therefore suggest that the impact of corporate culture may only be of equal or secondary importance to the impact of other factors such as the operations or leadership skills of the team manager or the knowledge and skill base of the team. As such, activities specifically aimed at changing or influencing the culture of service delivery personnel are, on their own, unlikely to have a major impact on service delivery performance. The thesis therefore recommends that companies should take an integrated approach to service delivery with the functions of marketing, human resource management and operations working together to encourage, develop and support effective service delivery teams.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Shaw, Susan
- Resource Type
- DOI
- EThOS ID
- uk.bl.ethos.881705
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