Visions for organizational culture and work environment
This paper examines the organizational culture and work environment at Lindab A/S. This is in connection with them being elected one of the best workplaces in Denmark by ‘Great Place to Work’ four years in a row. As a result of increasing stress in Danish working life, we have found it relevant to study the impact of organizational culture and work environment in everyday working life and how organizations can create better workplaces for employees to hopefully help decrease the work life stress.This project aims to investigate the following thesis statement:How is the organizational culture and working environment in Lindab experienced across the hourly-paid workers and salaried employees, and whether there is a consensus on this in the organization? And finally, how do the employees’ narratives correspond with the research literature’s theoretical and methodological positions in relation to working life and work environment research?We have chosen to investigate this through qualitative methods and the use of the narrative approach to both data collection, processing, and analysis. Our data involves 3 focus group interviews and observations in the organization.We have applied theory and research on working life in late modern society by several authors and studies. We have, for example, used Byung-Chul Han (2010) and Hartmut Rosa (2017) to illuminate today’s achievement societies. Furthermore, we have used theory on cognitive capitalism by Malene Friis Andersen (2013) and theory on work-life-balance by P. Delecta (2011) to examine and recontextualize the narratives of the participants.In addition, we have examined the organizational culture in Lindab with the theory of the functionalist perspective of Edgar Schein (1990; 1992), the symbolist perspective of Majken Schultz (1990; 2014) in addition to various other theories about organizational culture. Furthermore, we have used Joanne Martins (1992) theory about the three cultural perspectives; integrated, differentiated or fragmented to examine whether there was a cultural consensus in the organization.Furthermore, we have applied comprehensive theory about work environments and included various models by Mogens Agervold (1984; 1998; 1999), Robert Karasek & Töres Theorell (1990), Arnold B. Bakker & Evangelia Demerouti (2007), Thomas Nielsen (1984) and Peter Warr (1994) to examine organizational work environment. In addition, we have used theory about coping by Richard Lazarus & Susan Folkman (1984) to help understand how employees try to achieve balance in their work environments.Based on our analysis, we have found a fragmented and differentiated organizational culture between the hourly-paid workers and the salaried employees in the form of opposing narratives and a distinction between departments. Among the hourly-paid workers, we found a certain alienation towards the salaried employees, which shows a discrepancy in the organizational culture. Furthermore, the hourly-paid workers showed a certain alienation to the management due to a mismatch between job demands and job resources. In contrast, the salaried employees spoke of good management and a flexible work life indicating a balance between job demands and job resources. In general, several factors pointed to a less good organizational culture and work environment among the hourly-paid workers compared to the salaried employees. Additionally, there were indications that the hourly-paid workers because of high job demands, and low job resources experienced more stressors and thus a greater risk of burnout and stress with time. Furthermore, the hourly-paid workers showed a lower commitment and significantly less job satisfaction, which supports the research on how job satisfaction is essential for good organizational performance and commitment. In contrast, we found no indications of stressors at work among the salaried employees, which led to the result that salaried employees have a lower risk of burnout and stress compared to the hourly-paid workers. Furthermore, the salaried employees showed a high level of commitment and a significantly higher job satisfaction, which once again supports research on the link between a good organizational culture and healthy work environment and a high commitment and good organizational performance.In conclusion, we found the key to avoiding stress in working life includes a balance between job demands and job resources as well as an organizational culture with good communication across both departments and levels in the organizations.
https://vbn.aau.dk/ws/files/473155405/Speciale_Andrea___Karoline.pdf