Organizational culture, HRM and firm performance : examining relationships using the competing values framework in call centres

Abstract

The role of organizational culture in strategic human resource management (SHRM) research was examined in call centres in Canada. Two concurrent studies were conducted using the business unit level of analysis with multiple-level respondents. Study 1 involved a sample of manager respondents from National call centres across Canada and Study 2 included two field studies involving both customer service representatives (CSR) and managerial employees as respondents. Both studies supported past arguments that organizational culture is an important consideration in SHRM research. The conventional aspects of the SHRM relationship model, such as HR horizontal alignment and the relationship between HRM and firm performance, were tested in both studies and the findings were consistent with past research, demonstrating the validity of the measures. Cameron and Quinn's (2006) Competing Values Framework (CVF) was used to assess organizational culture. This framework defines four culture types which are referred to as clan (i.e., social), adhocracy (i.e., entrepreneurial), market (i.e., competitive) and hierarchy (i.e., bureaucratic). The results from the studies showed that two culture types, clan and adhocracy, were positively associated with firm performance, and two, market and hierarchy, were negatively associated with firm performance. In addition, both the clan and market culture types were found to partially mediate the relationship between HRM and employee performance in both studies, and HRM and operational performance in Study 1. Further analysis of intermediate linkages showed that HRM, employee performance and operational performance were all significantly and positively associated with financial performance. In addition, organizational culture types were found to have both direct and indirect associations with financial performance. Whereas adhocracy and hierarchy cultures were significantly associated with financial performance in Study 1, clan and market were not significant with financial performance for either study. These findings suggest that culture is directly associated with financial performance with two culture types and indirectly associated with financial performance by the association of clan and market cultures with employee performance and operational performance. Finally, to address past issues raised by researchers about SHRM research almost exclusively being conducted with managers, an examination of multiple-level respondents was undertaken in Study 2. The analysis showed no significant differences in CSR and manager perceptions about HRM and business strategy, with some differences in culture and firm performance perceptions.