دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی ابتکار استراتژیک و عملکرد HEIs: نقش تعدیل فرهنگ سازمانی - امرالد 2017

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to explore the relationships between strategic improvisation, organizational culture and higher education institutions (HEIs) performance. The dynamic nature of today’s environment, increased population and demand and budget cuts have created a lot of pressure on HEIs around the world. Hence, the need for effective human resource capable of providing advanced policies for efficiency and sustainability of these institutions. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 229 questionnaires were filled and returned by academic leaders from HEIs in Kano state, Nigeria. The study used partial least squares path modelling to test the hypotheses postulated. Findings – The major findings indicate that both strategic improvisation and organizational culture dimensions have direct relationship with HEIs performance. However, only innovative culture moderates the relationship between strategic improvisation and HEIs, while bureaucratic culture and supportive culture fail to support the proposed hypothesis. Research limitations/implications – More studies are needed to further validate the impact of strategic improvisation (SI) on other public sector performance. Also, future studies should use longitudinal approach to establish at which stage SI has more impact on performance. Also, future studies should identify the difference that exists between units, department and faculty leaders, as some are more likely to engage in SI due to the nature of their specialization. Practical implications – It is obvious that HEIs performance is not only limited to organizational factors but also individual characteristics such as ability to improvise. Hence, HEIs should consider SI ability during employment to ensure efficiency, performance and sustainability. Moreover, organizational culture of HEIs needs to be updated and to be more flexible in accommodating new initiatives or failure to encourage display of such ability. Originality/value – Previous studies especially in the for profit sector have demonstrated the role of SI and organizational culture on performance. Thus, the present study is one of the early studies in the non-profit sector, specifically the HEIs. Moreover, the inconsistent result of the previous findings necessitates the study to test the moderating effect of organizational culture.

Discussion

The study was based on two key arguments. One, complexity and uncertainty are major attributes of today’s environment in which most businesses (HIEs inclusive) operate. Therefore, these organizations are expected to adapt and engaged in SI especially during intense and unforeseen situations (Hmieleski and Corbett, 2008). Two, HEIs are exposed to competition; hence, the only way they can respond to this is to ensure that the culture of the organization undergoes change, which will surely take time to be achieved. Therefore, we argued that SI and OC dimensions are positively related to performance. Also, OC dimensions moderates the relationship between SI and performance (Figure 2). From the proposed hypotheses, the finding establishes that SI is positively related to HEIs performance (H1). Consistent with H1, a positive and significant relationship was found between SI and HEIs performance. The finding is in line with previous studies (Arshad et al., 2015b; Bakar et al., 2015a; Gao et al., 2015) mostly conducted in the for profit sector. Putting resource base theory (Barney, 1986; Barney et al., 2001) into consideration indicates that leaders with improvisational ability are unique and source of competitive advantage in today’s environment. It also provides support for the need for management in non-profit organizations such as HEIs to recognize and appreciate improvisational behaviour especially during recruitment to ensure that only candidates with this ability are recognized during employment and leadership roles (Mohan et al., 2016; Ogbonna and Harris, 2000). In addition, the finding highlights the need for HEIs and other governmental organizations to seek for alternative to strategic planning in improvisation; thus, the ability to face and manage the current environmental pressure and unprecedented fast changes (Wind and Mahajan, 1997). Moreover, not-for-profit organizations should acknowledge the effect of SI behaviour across the institutions for performance and sustainability (Arshad et al., 2015a).