Organisational Culture & Commitment

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Organisational culture and commitment: a study of an Indian software

organisation

Jossy Mathewa and Emmanuel Ogbonnab*

aMiddlesex Business School, Middlesex University, London, UK; bCardiff Business School,Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK

Although it has been suggested that both organisational culture and organisationalcommitment are important topics of contemporary organisational significance, there hasbeen little attempt to explore the dynamics of these two concepts by scholars. The study

reported in thispaperadoptsa three perspective framework (Martin1992, 2002) to explorethe impact of organisational culture on organisational commitment in a context (softwaresector in India) that is renowned to be dynamic and people-centred. The study adoptsethnographic methods including in-depth interviews, observation and document analysis.The findings lead to the development of a range of insights into the integrated,differentiated and fragmented nature of organisational culture and the impact of these onthe perception of linkages with organisational commitment. The paper argues thatadopting all three perspectives of culture in the study of culture-commitmentlinkages in asingle organisation reveals significant insights intothe perceived associations,while at thesame time highlighting the problematic nature of such relationships. The paper concludeswith a series of implications for theory and practice.

Keywords: Indian software sector; information technology professionals; organis-ational commitment; organisational culture; organisational subcultures; threeperspective framework

Introduction

In recent years, researchers have argued that the changing nature of employmentrelationships has heightened the importance of understanding the dynamics of

commitment in organisations (see Hislop 2003; Dick, Becker and Mayer 2006). For

example, scholars have increasingly suggested that commitment is a necessary variable

that drives individual action (see Cooper-Hakim and Viswesvaran 2005; Herrbach 2006).

It is also commonly theorised that the level of commitment is a major determinant of

organisational level outcomes such as organisational citizenship behaviour (Coyle-

Shapiro and Kessler 2000); performance (Meyer, Paunonen, Gellatly, Goffin and Jackson

1989; DeCotiis and Summers 1987); controllable absenteeism (Meyer and Allen 1997);

and psychological contract (Guest and Conway 1997).

Interestingly, although it has been argued that the nature of organisational culture isimportant for understanding the level of commitment in an organisation (for example,

Siehl and Martin 1990; Bergman 2006), very few studies have explored the impact that

culture might have on commitment or vice versa. Similarly, the few studies that have been

conducted in this area tend to have a number of limitations. Principally, some studies have

explored psychological or organisational climate or used climate as a proxy for culture.

ISSN 0958-5192 print/ISSN 1466-4399 online

q 2009 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/09585190802707433

http://www.informaworld.com

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

The International Journal of Human Resource Management,

Vol. 20, No. 3, March 2009, 654675


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However,suchresearch ignoresthe conceptualdifficulties in presenting climate andculture asinterchangeable concepts (for example Wimbush and Shepard 1994; Jones 1995; Ruppel and

Harrington 2000). Indeed, although it has been argued that culture is a deeper concept than

climate (see Denison 1996; Schwartz and Davis 1981), it is surprising that researchers have

generally neglected the evaluation of the impact of organisational culture on commitment.

Similarly, the few studies which incorporate culture in their analyses of commit-

ment frequently adopt quantitative methods (for example Lok and Crawford 1999, 2001 and

2004). The relevance of this approach to understanding culture is strongly contested in the

literature (for example Pettigrew 1979; Smircich 1983; Schein 1985; Alvesson 2002; Martin,

Frost andONeill2006).Of particularconcern is thatsuch studies tendto analyseculturefrom

a largely integrationist perspective (and occasionally from a differentiation perspective) with

no study adopting a fragmentation approach, which is recognised as an important analytic

perspective of culture (see Alvesson 2002; Martin 2002). Finally, no study in the area of

culture and commitment has explored contexts wherein sophisticated cultural and

commitment practices are likely to be prevalent, for instance the software sector (see Paul

and Anantharaman 2004). Indeed, it is likely that the peculiar nature of work in the software

sector (forexample, sophisticatedintellectual work organised around teams which areformed

and disbanded according to project requirements) would give rise to different patterns of

socialisation, thereby impacting on culture and commitment in a variety of ways.

The aim of this paper is to document, explore and analyse the impact of organisational

culture on organisational commitment in the context of a sector (software) that is

renowned to be dynamic and people-centred. It is useful to point out at this stage that it is

not the objective of this study to explore the impact of the associations between culture and

commitment on organisational performance. Rather, the study is restricted to exploring

how various conceptions of organisational culture give rise to different understanding of

the impact of culture on commitment.The choice of the Indian software sector as the empirical setting for this study is

motivated by a variety of reasons. First, there is a dearth of research on human resource

management issues in India (see Budhwar and Sparrow 2002; Budhwar, Luther and

Bhatnagar 2006a). Second, the software sector in India is important and is increasingly

growing in its national and international significance. Indeed, the importance of this sector

to world business operations in recent years has been such that several leading

multinational corporations now see India as a major base for outsourcing, to the extent that

India has been referred to as the electronic housekeeper of the world (see Budhwar,

Varma, Singh and Dhar 2006b). However, although this sector is increasing in economicsignificance, it continues to be neglected in research settings. It is for these reasons that

this study provides one of the few empirically-driven evaluations of human resource

management in the Indian software sector.

This paper is organised in three parts. First, a brief review of the literature is presentedwhich locates existing studies incorporating organisational culture and commitment.

Second, the context of the study and the methods adopted are detailed, leading to the

presentation of the findings of the study. The study concludes with a discussion of

the findings and an evaluation of the contributions and implications that these findings may

have for theory and practice.

Literature review

It is beyond the remit of this paper to provide a detailed review of the individual

concepts of organisational culture and commitment. Instead, the aim is to focus on the

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intersection of the two concepts in research and theorising. This said, it is useful to providea brief overview of the concept of commitment.

Mowday, Steers and Porter (1979, p. 226), defined commitment as the relative

strength of an individuals identification with, and involvement in a particular

organisation. Although many definitions of commitment have been presented since the

seminal work of Mowday et al. (1979), it is the conception of Meyer and Allen (1991),

which identifies three distinctive dimensions affective, normative, and continuance

that has been the cornerstone of extant theorising in the area of commitment (see Herrbach

2006). The three dimensions highlight commitment from the perspectives of attachment,

obligation, and necessity respectively.

Research on commitment has generally focused on either the antecedents or

the consequences of commitment. Early studies of commitment explored the antece-

dents of commitment and found four general antecedents, namely: personal

characteristics, job characteristics, work experiences, and role-related characteristics

(see Mathieu and Hamel 1989; Mowday, Porter and Steers 1982). Some of the earlier

studies also explored the role played by demographic variables on commitment. The

demographic variables found to have influence on commitment are: age (Mathieu and

Zajac 1990), organisational tenure (Mathieu and Hamel 1989), position tenure (Gregersen

and Black 1992), and education (DeCotiis and Summers 1987). Furthermore, Glisson and

Durick (1988) identified skill variety and role ambiguity as predictors of satisfaction and

leadership, and the age of the organisation as predictor of commitment.

The impact of commitment on organisational level outcomes has also been explored in

a number of studies. However, it is the consequence of affective commitment which is

more often studied in the literature. This is because high levels of affective commitment

are shown to be related to a number of positive behavioural level outcomes and job

attitudes (see Hislop 2003; Cooper-Hakim and Viswesvaran 2005).Although the study of commitment has been advanced from a range of theoretical

perspectives, it is interesting to note that very few attempts have been made by researchers

to incorporate culture, which is one of the most dominant contemporary analytic organi-

sational frameworks, in evaluations of organisational commitment. The belief that an

understanding of the relationship between culture and commitment is necessary is

highlighted in the contributions of a number of prominent culture scholars. Of particular

pertinence is the finding of Siehl and Martin (1990) that organisational culture has the

potential to enhance job satisfaction and commitment of employees significantly. They

argue that any linkage found between organisational culture and performance is likely tobe a result of increased commitment, satisfaction, productivity, and quality, all of which

are conceptually related to organisational culture.

However, despite such strong arguments in the academic literature, it is mostly

organisational climate, rather than organisational culture, that is studied and linked tocommitment. Consequently, it is useful briefly to review the studies linking climate

and commitment since it is clear that culture and climate are sometimes used

interchangeably (see Denison 1996). In this regard, it has been argued that a favourable

organisational climate could help in developing trust, which would, in turn, lead to

commitment. Jones (1995) and Wimbush and Shepard (1994) argue that various

organisational practices help in building an ethical climate which, in turn, generates trust.

Hosmer (1994) takes this forward by arguing that organisational climate creates trust and

that trust leads to innovation. Hosmer, therefore, stresses the need on the part of managers

to uphold high standards of morality to be able to create trust. This argument is supported

by Ruppel and Harringtons (2000) finding that an ethical work climate creates the

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perceptions of trust and that such perceptions are significantly related to commitment.Thus, the overall conclusion of these studies is that the appropriate climate generates trust

and that trust is related to commitment.

Glisson and James (2002) explore how climate and culture affect the commitment and

satisfaction of employees and find that aspects of organisational culture (like behavioural

norms and expectations) resulted in greater satisfaction and commitment. Glisson and

James (2002) and Glisson and Durick (1988) argue that workers are likely to be satisfied

and committed to the goals of an organisation where the organisational climate is

perceived to be positive. It has also been argued that the influence of culture goes much

deeper than merely studying the commitment and satisfaction of employees in human

service organisations. For example, Martin, Peters and Glisson (1998) argue that rather

than the actual needs of the clients, it is the organisational norms (read culture), that

explain the custodial decisions of child welfare workers. Hemmelgarn, Glisson and James

(2006) take this forward and argue that the social context of organisations has a bearing

even on the adoption, implementation, sustenance, and effectiveness of new core

technologies.

However, the studies which examine organisational climate as a proxy for the deeper

levels of organisational life (culture) are subject to serious limitations. Indeed, the

differences between the concepts of organisational climate and culture are evident in

the academic literature and culture is argued to represent the deeper and more fundamental

aspects of organisational life (Schein 1996). However, with the exception of a few studies,

these differences have not been recognised, and culture has not been subjected to serious

analysis in the extant literature on commitment. Indeed, Lok and Crawford (2001) argue

that culture is more or less absent in studies of commitment, although some aspects of

culture, such as values and beliefs, are examined in some studies (for example McCaul,

Hinz and McCaul 1995; Mueller, Wallace and Price 1992). In this regard, it is useful toreview the few studies of commitment that have incorporated organisational culture.

In a recent review article, Bergman (2006) argues that organisational cultures which

emphasise strong norms for obligation are likely to create high normative commitment.

Similarly, Bergman argues that organisational cultures which have strong norms for

internalisation and identification are likely to generate high levels of affective

commitment. Although Bergmans (2006) contribution is conceptual rather than

empirical, considerable insights have been offered in studies which have tested some of

these propositions. For example, in a quantitative study of hospital settings, Lok and

Crawford (1999) explore the relationship between organisational culture, subculture andcommitment; with culture theorised as having three dimensions: innovative, supportive,

and bureaucratic. They find that organisational culture and subculture are correlated with

commitment; however, they present subculture as showing a stronger relationship

with commitment. The supportive and innovative ward culture (subculture in this case)shows the highest correlation with commitment. The bureaucratic aspect of subculture is

shown to lead to lower levels of commitment.

In another quantitative study in hospital settings, Lok and Crawford (2001) confirm

their earlier finding that it is subculture (rather than the wider organisational culture)

which has a more significant influence on commitment. Among the different aspects of

subculture, it is the innovative ward culture which is shown to have more influence on

commitment. The study shows that supportive ward culture and the broader innovative and

supportive hospital culture do not influence commitment. A bureaucratic ward culture had

a negative influence on commitment, as was found in their previous study. Although the

study demonstrates the relationship between organisational culture and commitment,



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Lok and Crawford (2001) hold the view that the findings of their study might not beapplicable outside the context of Australia due to the differences in national culture. This

context-specificity argument is supported by Chen and Francescos (2000) finding that

age, gender, education, and tenure show no relationship with organisational commitment

in the context of China, in contrast to the studies in the United States. Another limitation

pointed out by Lok and Crawford (2001) is that their research was conducted in hospital

settings where the nurses studied were confined to their wards for their work. Hence, the

findings of the study might not be applicable in contexts where employee mobility is high

or where the environment is fluid and dynamic.

Another study among the Australian and Hong Kong managers by Lok and Crawford

(2004) found that innovative and supportive organisational culture had a positive impact

on commitment (contrary to the findings of their 2001 study). The impact is more profound

with the Australian managers than with Hong Kong managers. Lok and Crawford admit

that many of the findings of this study are unexplained. However, an interesting finding of

the study is that national culture would moderate the impact culture has on commitment

and they suggest that future studies should explore this aspect. The present study takes this

suggestion forward and explores the impact of organisational culture on commitment in

the context of the software sector in India.

Overall, although a few studies have been conducted on organisational culture and

commitment, many are limited in their conceptualisation and in the methods of enquiry. In

particular, extant conceptualisations are frequently integrative and commonly equate

climate to culture or treat culture and climate as similar, interchangeable constructs (see

Denison 1996 for a critique). Finally, the approach adopted in many of these studies tends

to be quantitative, which is inconsistent with the preferred method of analysis suggested

by leading scholars in the field of organisational culture (for example, Schein 1996;

Alvesson 2002; Martin et al. 2006). It is for these reasons that this study provides aqualitative evaluation of the impact of organisational culture on organisational

commitment in the dynamic context of the software sector in India. In this regard, it is

useful to provide a brief overview of the organisational culture framework that is adopted

in the study.

To achieve the objective of documenting and analysing organisational culture which

reflects the richness of work organisations and amplifies the ambiguities of organisational

life, the three perspective framework of culture (Martin 1992, 2002; Martin et al. 2006) is

adopted in this study. The three perspective framework simultaneously captures the

unifying aspects of culture, the subcultural themes, as well as the contradictions inorganisational life. The integration perspective covers the consistent and mutually

reinforcing elements of culture whereas the differentiation perspective seeks to address the

inconsistent interpretations of cultural manifestations existing within subcultural

boundaries, capturing the clashes between formal and informal norms, and betweenstated attitudes and actual behaviour. The fragmentation perspective focuses on ambiguity

and conceives ambiguity as embracing the complexities which the opposites of two-

dimensional thinking fail to capture. In the fragmentation perspective, alienation, apathy,

confusion, and satisfaction are all portrayed without necessarily suggesting a solution

(Martin et al. 2006). For example, Meyersons (1991) description of the work of social

workers, where objectives were not clear, the means for achieving the objectives were

unspecified, and success was not defined, highlights the nature of ambiguity that may

characterise organisational life.

The three perspectives framework emphasises the different aspects of the same

phenomenon (Martin 2002) and the simultaneous study of the different aspects offers a



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wider range of insights. On the critical side, it might be viewed as an attempt to dominatethe other approaches and hence it can also be viewed as a totalitarian attempt aimed at

giving all-encompassing worldviews, silencing diversity (Gagliardi 1991). However, it is

more appropriate to focus on the analytic merits of using multiple lenses to view the same

phenomenon. This approach provides an excellent framework for analysing organisational

culture in this study. This is because of the key criticism that extant studies of culture and

commitment tend to adopt narrow approaches in attempting to understand these complex

organisational phenomena. Prior to a presentation of the methods employed for the study,

it is useful to provide a discussion of the applicability of the western concepts in the Indian

context.

There is now widespread evidence to suggest that the uncritical application of western

management concepts in the context of the developing countries such as India is fraught

with difficulties (for example, Sinha and Kao 1988; Kanungo and Jaeger 1990; Budhwar

and Debrah 2001). Such difficulties are generally attributed to socio-political factors as

well as to the differences on various dimensions of national culture (see Hofstede 1984;

Budhwar and Sparrow 2002). In this regard, it has been argued that India ranks relatively

low on individualism and masculinity and high on uncertainty avoidance and power

distance (Hofstede 1984). Such national cultural attributes are theorised to generate

beliefs and behavioural manifestations which make the application of concepts developed

in the western context difficult (see Hofstede 1984; Kanungo and Jaeger 1990).

This suggests that any analysis of management concepts in a country like India should

adopt a particularly idiosyncratic approach and one which considers the multiple

particularities of the context (see Parikh and Garg 1990). The exploratory nature of this

study and the choice of qualitative research methods help to ensure that the study is

localised and that the findings accurately reflect the perspectives of natives on the

issues under investigation. What follows is a discussion of the methods adopted forthis study.

Research design and methods

This study was designed to document, explore and analyse the impact that organisational

culture might have on organisational commitment in the context of an industry (software

sector) that is renowned to be dynamic and people-centred. The focus is to develop a

culturally informed analysis of organisational life through applying the three perspective

framework in understanding organisational commitment in a software organisation

operating in an emerging economy.

Data for this study were collected through an ethnographic, qualitative approach. This

method was adopted for a variety of reasons. For example, organisational culture literature

makes a strong case for ethnography as an approach for developing rich insights into theunderstanding of lived organisational life. More importantly, qualitative methods (for

example, case studies) are powerful ways of going beyond the artefacts and capturing the

values, beliefs, and assumptions underlying organisational life (Smircich 1983; Schein

1985, 1996; Martin 1992). The absence of studies of organisational culture and

commitment in the software sector in general and in the context of India in particular was

another reason for adopting this approach to data gathering.

The need for depth and understanding motivated the choice of a single case study as away of organising and reporting the findings of this study. In this regard, the study follows

the suggestion of Dyer and Wilkins (1991) that single deep case studies are more effective

than multiple cases in providing insights into organisational issues.



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Data sources

Data for the study were gathered from Firstware (all names and places used are

pseudonyms), an Indian software organisation based in the northern part of India,

employing over 2000 people and having a turnover of US$ 70 million. The researchers

initially gathered information on the organisation that was in the public domain, including

coverage in magazines, newspapers, and journals related to the software sector.

Furthermore, the researchers studied the information available at the intranet of the

organisation wherever this was permitted. The researchers secured permission for the study

from the Head of Human Resources of the organisation and spent five months in

the organisation from March 2005 to July 2005. Initially, the researchers spent time with

senior executives in the organisation to develop an understanding of the organisations

strategic direction and to elicit the views of decision-makers on the espoused

organisational culture and policies that were developed to achieve commitment.Consequently, interviews were held with people in the different bands of the

organisation. A total of 68 informants were interviewed, including 9 Software Engineers,

9 Senior Software Engineers, 1 Design Engineer, 1 Senior Hardware Engineer, 13 ProjectLeaders, 2 Module Leaders, 4 Technical Leaders, 4 Programme Managers, 1 Technical

Manager, 4 Executives, 9 Functional (departmental) Managers, 2 Departmental Heads,

2 Vice-Presidents, 1 Senior Vice-President, 2 Functional (departmental) Directors, and

4 IT Support Officers. The interviews were open-ended and the themes explored revolved

around the perception of participants on a range of issues linked to organisational culture

and commitment. Emphasis was placed on delineating the similarities, differences, and

contradictions in the perception of employees, both among individuals, within single

groups, and across the different groups in the organisation. Each interview lasted

approximately one hour and in some cases extended to two hours. All interviews were

transcribed verbatim. Many of the key informants were interviewed for a second time toclarify issues which were unclear or those which emerged as other informants were

interviewed.

The researchers were present in the organisations for five months and generated

significant ethnographic data during this period. In addition to the structured interviews,

the researchers had informal meetings with about 50 people in the food court, in company

premises including the gymnasium, the creche and in the main reception area. The

researchers adopted an approach which involved arriving early in the organisation and

frequently staying late to talk to the employees and to observe them in their work. In some

cases, the researchers were invited to external social gathering with the informants. In this

regard, observation represented an important source of data gathering for this study. Data

gathered from this source were recorded in research note books as soon as possible and this

helped in developing an understanding of the various aspects of the culture of Firstware.

Data analysis

All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim and this resulted in over

1050 pages of transcribed data. Over 500 pages of archival information including annual

reports, policy and training manuals, and newspaper cuttings were also collected. The data

were coded into theoretically derived categories in terms of the different types

of commitment and the links to critical aspects of culture, subculture and areas offragmentation, especially the ironies, contradictions, perceived dichotomies in behaviour,

and incongruence between espoused and actual behaviours. Special attention was paid to

the assumptions, beliefs, value undertones in the data, and the ways in which people



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perceived associations between their definitions of core aspects of culture andcommitment. Drawing from the grounded theory approach (Strauss and Corbin 1990),

the codes identified were categorised into major themes, linkages and associations and the

categories were further subdivided into theoretically coherent groups. This helped to

illuminate insights into commitment which related to each of the three perspectives of

culture: integration, differentiation, and fragmentation. This was done by the researchers

in the first place and then shared with two experienced academics in the area of

organisational behaviour familiar with the Indian context. This was further discussed with

a select set of three key informants in the organisation, with an average tenure of three

years in the organisation and who were interested in the study to ensure internal and

external credibility particularly in relation to factual accuracies (Price, Arnould and Curasi

2000). The feedback received was reflectively considered and suitable amendments,

notably to factual information, were made where necessary.

Finally, the authors recognise that a key limitation of this study is that it is based on a

single case study. However, the objective was not to seek generalisability. Instead, the aim

was to embrace all the richness and complexity of organisational life. It is anticipated that

the wealth of contextual details and insights provided will form the foundation for

additional research into these important issues of organisational functioning.

Firstware Technology: Company background

Firstware Technology was established in the late 1980s in one of the biggest cities in

northern India. It was started by five visionary professionals who had the objective of

making it the number one software company in India. This vision is particularly reflected

in the human resource management policies, systems, and practices of Firstware and has

been the driving force behind its business strategies, organisational structure, andorganisational culture.

Although Firstware was started as a private limited company, it is now a public limited

company. The company has had an unwavering focus on software products in the

telecommunications sector since its inception. The product range of Firstware includes

wireless and wire line communication products in the form of integrated solutions such as

complete phone software solutions. The organisation has successfully patented six products

in the telecom domain. It has a global presence, with offices in USA, UK, Germany, France,

Mexico, Japan and China. The revenues of the organisation have been steadily increasing

and in the financial year 200506, the revenues totalled $US 70 million.

The year 2000 marked a new beginning in the history of Firstware as the organisation

expanded its area of operation to include software service in the telecom sector in addition

to the software products it had previously specialised in. The new service business covers

software support service for wireless networks and terminals, installation andcommissioning of wireless networks, and chip and software design services. Firstware

serves a range of world-class customers, including Nortel, Texas Instruments, Motorola,

Lucent, Panasonic, and NEC.

Firstware has what the company describes as a flat organisational structure of five

bands (from one to five). Band one has only the CEO at the top and band five B has the

software engineers. Band two has 14 senior executives and band three has 25 managers.

The rest of the employees are spread between bands four and five.Firstware pursues a number of interesting HR practices. For example, skip level

meeting is prominent where HR takes feedback on a reporting officer from his or her

subordinates in his or her absence and shares the feedback with the concerned person.



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There are touch meetings, where every employee is met at least once a year by therespective HR person and the persons feedback is taken on a wide range of issues

regarding work. There is hot chair, where a reporting officer sits with his or her

subordinates and gives them direct feedback. An employee satisfaction survey is

conducted once every two years. The CEO meets every employee in small groups of four

or five at least once a year.

Although Firstware was previously a private limited company and was not required to

publish its financial information, the company has traditionally shared financial

information with the employees on a quarterly, half-yearly, and yearly basis. The CEO

typically announces the financial results in a meeting of all the employees in the head

office and this is broadcast live to employees in other parts of India and across the world.

Firstware prides itself as a single status organisation wherein all employees are

treated equally. For example, all staff travel economy class (except in a business

exigency). Similarly, limited facilities and benefits are given on a first come first served

basis and all the employees have similar sized offices. The head of HR claims:

One thing that we were very clear on when we started this organisation was that we wantedour people to be free from fear of position. Our values are derived from this. Fear is absent,and we are not rigid about anything. We feel that procedural justice is equally important andwithout procedural justice, you cannot have distributive justice. That is why we follow singlestatus. Performance is the only differentiator here. (Senior Vice President, HR, aged 48 years,with Firstware for 11 years)

What follows is the presentation of the findings. First, we present an analysis of culture and

commitment from an integration perspective. This is followed by an illustration of the

findings from a differentiation perspective. Finally, data analysis from a fragmentation

perspective is presented prior to the discussion of implication of the findings for theory and

practice.

Organisational culture and commitment: An integrationist viewpoint

The evolution and maintenance of organisational values which many employees described

as widely shared in Firstware owe a great deal to the business strategy of the organisation

and the way Firstware grew over time. The small size of the organisation in the early years,

the focus on products, and the policy of people first played a significant role in shaping

and developing organisational life in Firstware. The policies pursued by the organisation

are consistent with those that are commonly attributed to companies wishing to manage

their organisational culture (see Ogbonna 1993). For example in the initial days, it

recruited graduates from only the top technical institutes in India and the selection process

was very rigorous. This resulted in a great deal of homogeneity in the outlook of

employees towards work and organisational life. Many of these people have stayed withthe organisation for a considerable length of time and have experienced the authenticity

of the people first policy especially when the organisation faced external challenges. The

researchers captured many stories which appeared widely shared in the organisation and

which seemed to play a major role in perpetuating the culture of Firstware. One example is

the story of how the company managed the difficulties presented by the downturn in the

telecom sector in 2001 without compulsory redundancies. Instead, employees apparently

volunteered to take a 20 per cent cut in their salaries and this helped to see the companythrough this period. Another story which suggested concern for employees is that when the

SARS epidemic struck South East Asia in 2002/2003, Firstware withdrew its people from

the affected areas, risking dissatisfaction from some customers. The importance of such



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stories for the maintenance of values and the role they play in the acculturation of newemployees is commonly emphasised in the literature (see Wilkins 1983). These stories

tend to suggest a belief that there is a harmonious relationship between employees and

their managers. A senior executive described the nature of the relationship with the

employees:

I think we have always been an employee first company. That itself changed a lot of thingshere; you have a lot of trust in the employee and in return he has ownership. There is anautomatic attachment to the company and to the product that he makes. Tomorrow, if we losehim due to some unfortunate circumstances, we still have the freedom to call him anytime,and he would be attached to the product . . . he is emotionally attached. To a great extent, weidentify ourselves with Firstware. Definitely, I think all of us do. Commitment levels of thepeople here are very high. (Vice President aged 50, with Firstware for five years)

The researchers observed a number of instances where the top managers appeared to

exhibit genuine concern for employees. For example, the researchers witnessed a faintingepisode at the head office reception one evening. The employee concerned was a trainee

who had just joined the company. She was promptly rushed to hospital. Upon her return to

work the next week, she told one of the researchers that she was deeply touched that one of

the senior managers visited her at the hospital and that the organisation showed a genuine

concern for her during the time of her illness, with the HR department telling her that she

should take as much time as she needed to recover.

Many of the interviewees suggest that Firstware employees have a great deal of faith in

the senior managers and there appears to be a general belief that the interests of the top

managers and those of other employees are fully aligned. Such value alignment is

commonly perceived to be a source of commitment in Firstware. In the words of a

manager:

I can take a decision on behalf of the company, knowing fully well that if I am able to justifymy decisions people are there to stand by me. There are people in this organisation in the topmanagement who supported me strongly. I was doing a review of all travel related issues andfound that there were many areas in which we end up using attorneys, lawyers etc. I personallyfelt that we could do without them in some areas and we were spending significant amount ofmoney each year on these people. I was not sure whether I could actually succeed with what Iwas thinking, but I saw a possibility for eliminating this. It was just a stamp that we got fromthe lawyer stating that our documentation is ok. So I took a call and said let me try one issuewithout going to a lawyer. I just had to tell my immediate boss and he gave the go ahead. Inone year, we ended up saving something like US$ 100,000 on lawyer fees. The fact remainsthat, maybe, in another organisation, I would not stick my neck out to try this. (Head TravelServices & Outsourcing, aged 36, with Firstware for three years)

The research team also identified many rituals and celebrations of organisational life that

appeared to be widely shared and appreciated in the organisation. In this regard, there were

examples of both symbolic and action consistency (Martin 1992) in this organisation and

the rituals and celebrations of organisational life appeared to play a subtle but significant

role in influencing employee commitment. Indeed, at the initial stages of the study, the

researchers witnessed an interesting and relaxed approach to work wherein employees at

all levels went to the in-house gymnasium at any time of their choosing during office hours

rather than at designated hours. Other aspects of relaxed informality of work included an

in-house movie show on Friday evenings (extended from the practice of all employees

going for a movie monthly when Firstware was small). The company also encouraged

communal celebrations of Indian festivals. Such expressions of symbolic consistency alsoled to action consistency in that employees from a wide section of the company appeared

to participate in these events. One employee narrated a story where an overseas customer



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visited the company on the day of Holi (the Indian festival of colours where people applyand sprinkle colours on one another) and was amazed to see people from the CEO to the

security staff play-acting in the spirit of Holi. This visitor was said to have

found the spontaneity and enthusiasm of staff so contagious that he joined in the rituals.

One of the software engineers explained how these festivities increased the satisfaction

and commitment of the employees:

I am excited about these festivities and thoroughly enjoy them. It is not all work and no play.I enjoy dancing and singing and, in Firstware, I get opportunities for these . . . . This makes methink that I am still in my old college . . . . Definitely it makes my mind fresh and I feel a senseof bonding to this place and I am happy to put in my best. Many friends who studied with meat the college draw much higher salaries, but I see them coming home downcast at night.Definitely I enjoy working in this place. (Software Engineer aged 24, with Firstware for oneyear)

A significant aspect of organisational culture of Firstware claimed to be prevalent acrossthe organisation is the extent of empowerment and professional freedom employees enjoy.

This emerged in different ways during the interviews but was commonly captured by the

example of the absence of micro management and freedom to take decisions. In this

regard, the person responsible for recruitment (called Resourcing in Firstware) showed the

researchers documents said to be cases of many candidates who were recommended for

employment by senior managers and (in some cases Directors) but who were subsequently

unsuccessful because the interviewing managers believed that other candidates were

better. Such examples are rare in a country like India where the national culture promotes

nepotism (see Lawler, Jain, Venkata Ratnam and Atmiyanandana 1995; Sparrow and

Budhwar 1997; Budhwar 2001a). However, many employees viewed this as leading to a

high level of ownership and commitment. For example:

Here, basically what I feel is that the amount of freedom you get to do what we want to do,without any orders or without much of bureaucracy or things like that, is remarkable.Therefore, you have a lot of freedom to work the way you want to work. One good thing aboutFirstware is that we identify ourselves with its products. We concentrate on the output and wehave the freedom and innovativeness to bring out the best. Nobody tells you that this is thework or this is to be done. Its basically left to you. So you can innovate, you can stretchthe boundary and people do that. (Project Leader, aged 30, with Firstware for two years)

Interestingly, even those who disagreed with the companys approach on the management

of human resources did not feel inhibited to express their views. For example, as

the researchers assured one interviewee (who had very been very critical of some of the

aspects of company policy) of total anonymity, the interviewee responded: you can play

this tape to the CEO, I have told him most of these things. This suggests that the

communication channels incorporating different mechanisms such as skip levels and

escalation to HR, encourage employees to voice issues openly for managers to deal with.

One manager, who joined Firstware after a long employment in the public sector,explained his initial surprise at this style of working:

Those were my early days in Firstware. I was quite used to the unquestioned respect for the topmanagement views characteristic of Indian organisations. This was a quality audit. I was shellshocked to hear someone criticising the CEO where an external auditor was also present.Nothing happened to him. He also got his dues like any other person. (Head of Engineeringaged 50, with Firstware for five years)

Viewed from an integration perspective, the data revealed a number of organisation-wide

consistencies on various aspects of organisational life. Such aspects are characterised by

action, symbolic and content consistencies described by Martin (1992). The data also



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revealed implicit and explicit assertions that the organisational culture promotes enhancedlevels of commitment, which some believed accounted for the superior performance of the

organisation.

Organisational culture and commitment: A differentiation view point

The differentiation perspective is characterised by inconsistency, subcultural consensus,

and exclusion of ambiguity (Martin 1992, 2002). In the case of Firstware, in spite of the

semblance of cohesion, organisation-wide consensus, high claims of integrity, and people

first, there were many aspects of culture that were differentiated and frequently

incompatible with such claims. These emerged from the people in supervisory and

managerial positions in the service business and the functional departments such as HR, as

well as from contract employees. This can be better understood in the light of the

developments in the company before and after year 2000. Prior to 2000, the company

focused exclusively on the manufacturing and marketing of telecommunications software

products. In 2000, a new service business was introduced and this had a number of

implications. In this regard, it should be noted that the service business is almost opposite

to the product business in that in products the emphasis is on rigorous research with a long-

term focus, whereas the service business emphasises fulfilling client requirements, often

with a short-term focus. Unlike the small numbers of people required in the product

business, the service business requires people in very large numbers. Archival data shows

that Firstware employed 481 people on 1st January 2000 and this number grew to 903 by

31st December 2000 and was over 2000 in 2005. Against the background of similar growth

in the IT sector in India at that time, it became relatively difficult to get the required

number of people possessing the right skills from the technical campuses Firstware

traditionally recruited from. Many managers (especially those who staffed the new servicebusiness) were recruited from other organisations where the cultural orientations were

understandably different and where, for example, business orientations typically had

precedence over people. Indeed, throughout the organisation, the researchers observed that

the managers recruited in this way were often referred to as laterals or outsiders. It was

also noticeable that the views of the laterals differed from the views of the managers who

had grown with the company. However, of more significance is that the views of the staff

in the new service business (predominantly laterals) differed markedly from the views of

the people in the traditional product business.

The position of the staff from the service business on a range of issues was akin to what

Meyerson and Martin (1987) described as counterculture in that many of their views

were inconsistent with the views of the top management and the views of managers who

grew with Firstware over time. Interestingly, despite the increasing significance of the

service business, decisions on many important issues in Firstware continued to be made bymanagers in the product business, many of whom had been with the company since its

inception. The conflict between the established old guard and the new service business

was manifested in the exercise of power in a number of respects (Martin 1992, p. 89).

For example, the managers in the service business frequently argued that the introduction

of a service business in the organisation required a reorientation of the people first

culture at Firstware. They argued that many of the aspects of organisational culture at

Firstware were in contrast to the requirements of business in the service model, especiallyin the context of customer commitments and deadlines. One senior manager in the service

business suggested that executives should at least recognise the different requirements of

the two business sectors and develop the appropriate strategies to deal with them:



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In a university, at the research level, there might be a few students. You do not make 2000people do research; you make 2000 people take an undergraduate and or a graduate courseand the culture of the researchers has to be different from those doing an undergraduatecourse. . . . There has to be more control at the graduate level because most of them are not asmature as the research students. HR still continues to harp on what is relevant for researchscholars; whereas the culture is to change to be as relevant for undergraduate courses.(Programme Manager aged 36, with Firstware for five years)

These conflicts were apparently subtle, but the probing of the research team shed some

light on many aspects of disagreements. Managers in the service business commonly

complained that HR and the top management were not receptive to their business

concerns. Our observations revealed that conflict between the service and product

businesses were frequently manifested in political manoeuvring, which had implications

for individual and collective perception of justice in the organisation. For example, a

senior manager in the service business pointed out that even when they had a strong casefor a business proposal, people on the 7th floor (the top management team, which is

principally made up of people from the products business, is located on the 7th floor)

commonly turned down such proposals particularly if they clashed with their own views of

what the company should be doing. The examples cited included issues of employee perks

or benefits and conditions of overseas work. However, interestingly, another manager in

the service business unit indicated that they had found ways of equalising power and that

they frequently used their relationship with customers to influence the decisions of the

organisation:

We have found our own way of resolving problems and forcing HR to take action. If we findthat HR does not address our concerns satisfactorily, we ask our customers to write directlyto the company indicating that they are the ones who want such policies changed. We havefound that an email from a big customer to the CEO quickly changes things. (Programme

Manager aged 38, with Firstware for six years)The researchers also observed many aspects of action inconsistency where there was

incongruence between the espoused content themes and managerial actions. One of the

expressions of the content themes of people first in Firstware was claimed to be the policy

of no lay offs, even in difficult business conditions. However, as the interviews progressed,

the researchers uncovered a number of instances where people were asked to leave in 2001when there was a downturn in business profitability. Such differing interpretations present

an interesting insight into the culture of the organisation. Informants pointed out that the

people who were considered to be low performers were given time to find another job and

leave Firstware. In the words of a project leader:

I think there were about 30 of them. They were said to be low performers and were asked toleave, but the process was well managed and very few people came to know about it. I haveheard that they were given sufficient time and notice. However, this proves that people first

has limitations. . .

. This shows that managements commitment to its employees is ratherconvenient, in spite of the tall claims it makes and that is why employee commitment willalways be limited. (Project Leader, aged 28, with Firstware for five years)

Other aspects of differentiation uncovered during data analysis related to symbolic

inconsistency, where stories had conflicting interpretations. For example, one of the values

claimed to be part of Firstware culture was the unwavering emphasis on people over profits

and there were many stories which appear to have helped the preservation of this value.

However, there were conflicting interpretations of stories around this theme. For instance,

one widely shared story is that in the wake of a major fall in its profitability in 2001,

employees throughout the organisation took a 20% cut in their salaries to avoid lay offs



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and that these were reversed when profitability improved in later years. Many employeesin the service business unit interpreted this story differently and generally believed that the

salary cut was forced on people. In this regard, instead of viewing the story as indicative of

togetherness and high commitment to the organisation, it was perceived by some

employees as an example of a top management imposed strategy that lacked fairness.

In the words of one of the employees who was a software engineer at that time:

We had to take what I can only describe as a compulsory 20% cut in our salaries. I was oneyear into the organisation at that time. My salary was not high. The senior management shouldhave taken a greater cut. I was the only earning member in my family and I had to support myextended family. I was heart-broken. I lost interest in what I was doing. Honestly, I looked foroptions to move out. I got offers, but they were in places far away and I had my owncompulsions to be in this location. (Senior Software Engineer aged 27, with Firstware forfive years)

Others in the service business unit highlighted action inconsistencies in adherence tovalues. They questioned meritocracy and fair treatment which were widely claimed to be

the natural results of the value congruence between employees and management. They

pointed out that there is a huge gap between what is espoused and what is practised and

cited a number of instances to support their claims.

It was also interesting to note that the contract employees (about 50 of them) in the IT

support functions tended to feel that they were excluded from the organisation. Such

employees were easily distinguished within the organisation. For example, the researchers

observed that they tended to sit together in the food court during lunch and did not

integrate with other members of the organisation. When asked to comment on the culture

of Firstware, one of them asked a poignant question, Are you asking about their culture

[pointing to the main building] or our culture? They were particularly unhappy

about what they considered to be the differential practice of the people first policy at

Firstware:

I was selected for Firstware but given appointment in a contract firm. . . everyone in Firstwaregot their increments two months back and I am still waiting for mine. . . . I have been here formany years, I cannot purchase a house because no bank will give me a loan since I have atemporary contract. You tell me how I will be committed. However, I still work very hard.If there is any problem in my performance rating, they will not renew the contract. (IT SupportOfficer aged 25, with Firstware for four years)

Thus, data analysis shows that many aspects of the culture of Firstware are inconsistent,

with examples of differences in orientation and perception among diverse groups in the

organisation. These differences impact not only on management of human resources but

also on individual and collective perception of their roles and their levels of commitment

to the organisation.

Organisational culture and commitment: A fragmentation viewpoint

Data generated from Firstware suggests that certain elements of the company culture,

particularly those that relate to commitment, can be analysed from a fragmentation

perspective. The fragmentation perspective captures ambiguity, multiple interpretations of

culture, contradictions, and ironies (Martin 1992, 2002).

The analysis of the interviews and other data reveal a number of ambiguities, many of

which emerged in the form of conflict between content and themes. The managers andemployees in supervisory positions in the service business unit typically highlighted such

issues. Furthermore, although there was evidence of consensus within subcultures, this did

not always extend across subcultures. For example, the general dissatisfaction of the



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employees in the service business unit suggested an incomplete realisation of Firstwarespeople first policy as well as the desire of the service employees to re-orientate the

culture of the company to a business first approach. The following vignette highlights the

belief that the consequences of the people first policy were frequently unintended and

commonly counterproductive for business success:

A delivery date is there and let us say you have tight estimation that you will deliver a productin five days . . . suddenly, on the third day, an employee applies for leave, now what will youdo? Under the people first policy, you will have to give him leave.

Interviewer: Like somebody falls ill?

Not only ill . . . some personal reason, not even ill. You cant do anything about it. He needstime off. He says [name] I have to go, at that point of time; you know that if he goes, you cantdeliver on time, so we slip . . .

Interviewer: Would you still grant them leave in such situations?We still give [it], that is one of the problems we have faced in Firstware, so we always slip. Weaim to be high customer centric, but if you ask the Quality people, I think they will have adifferent story, they will say that there is always some amount of slippage in Firstware.(Project Leader, aged 31, with Firstware for five years).

The researchers observed several other examples linked to the above issue. One day one

researcher was having lunch at the food court, where a senior HR manager was speaking to

a senior manager of a service business unit who said: [a major client of the firm] had a

serious problem and none of the software engineers were available to resolve it. Theproject leader was granted leave in the middle of the project and the client was yelling at

me. Interviews with service business unit managers also highlighted many instances

where employees refused to go to less attractive client locations which did not have the

facilities offered at Firstware (for example, employees were eager to go to Europe or US

but were very reluctant to go to China). The managers argued that they were unable toexercise managerial authority in such instances because Firstwares culture did not permit

managers to compel employees to act against their self interest.

Data analysis suggests that employees across the business highlighted many

ambiguities arising from Firstware culture. One key ambiguity noticed was that the

attempt by senior executives to foster a close and happy work environment was mistakenly

interpreted as an indication of senior managers being soft on bad performance. A number

of interviewees argued that this was having a negative impact, especially on the

commitment of high performing employees. An example of this was claimed to be linked

to appraisals, which were often perceived as meaningless as the culture of non-

confrontation (an unintended consequence of people first policy) was interpreted in such a

way that staff were always given high ratings. The researchers were able to inspect some

appraisal ratings and found that all 60 appraisal forms selected at random were awarded

top rating. The head of HR openly acknowledged this and observed:

We need to strengthen our managers to become competent to handle that which is difficult.They need to do what a doctor does. Doctor cares, but he is not soft, he is not nice. Ifhe believes that your leg has to be cut, he cuts it. He cares for you, that is why he cuts your leg.He says, there is cancer which will kill you, so I have to cut this leg. If he was asoft guy and anice guy and says, no, no, I dont want to cut your leg, I dont want to give you pain, he killsyou. And most of our managers are killing the whole business. Today one of our majorproblems in this organisation is that most managers are soft on bad performance. This has animpact on good performance and this brings down commitment of people who do well.Procedurally you are being unjust. (Senior Vice President, HR, aged 48, with Firstware for11 years)



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Other informants pointed out the action ambiguity observed in the policy of flexible worktimes and the absence of attendance monitoring. Indeed, a number of informants raised

interesting moral difficulties in relation to this. A commonly cited concern was that staff

abuse of generous company policies resulted in the customer paying higher prices and

there were some who felt uncomfortable with exploiting the customer in this way:

Assume that only 5 per cent misuse this. Who pays the price? It is the customer who willultimately pay the price. Would that not go against our claims of integrity? (Head ofEngineering aged 50, with Firstware for five years)

Ambiguity in symbols and actions is thus fundamental to the fragmentation of culture at

Firstware. Indeed, one software engineer who had recently joined the company recounted

the difficulty he had in reconciling many aspects of the company culture. He described the

culture as pieces of a jigsaw which do not always fit together and which do not always

support each other. Another experienced employee narrated the potential cost of suchfragmented culture to the organisation:

At the top, we always like to believe that we have everything carefully planned but lets behonest: things can get rather chaotic down here. There are times when I feel that right and lefthands are not working together. . . . Im sure that we can make 2 3 per cent more profit if weare able to get everyone to sing from the same hymn book. (Technical Leader, aged 31 years,with Firstware for seven years)

The jigsaw analogy is perhaps best illustrated by the anxiety expressed by informants in

relation to the turbulence of the external business environment. The interviews revealedthat although Firstware is a highly profitable organisation, many employees see the

external business environment as very uncertain and many revealed their anxieties over

their future. Such anxiety and fear prompted employees to believe that the present boom in

information and communication technology in India is transient and that they should

amass as much wealth as possible for fear that the boom will be over soon. This probablyexplains the very high rate of attrition in the company and the industry (archival records

suggests that attrition is close to 20 per cent in Firstware), in that employees readily accept

jobs that are perceived to offer more financial benefits. Thus, the fear of the industry

collapsing has had a major impact on the nature of commitment in the organisation. In the

words of one manager:

Software is nothing but a tool for a core industry like telecom, aviation or anything like that.So your cycles depend entirely on their cycles. In 2001, we suffered because it was a telecomcrash. More than 200,000 people in US alone lost their jobs. Lucent had 135,000 employees(contract people are separate) before that crash; today it is 35,000. Nortel had 105,000; todayit is 30,000. 2001 is not very far back; people are deeply worried of what they did last time.When you fire people in the UK and USA you have to pay a huge amount of money to them,depending on how long they worked, but instead, they now come and offload work to Indiancompanies who take the risk of hiring these people and firing them tomorrow. People have this

in mind at all times and these fundamental aspects of the industry affect commitment andattrition. People are very scared. This is why there is high attrition. We lose close to a quarterof our strength yearly. ( Programme Manager aged 36 years, with Firstware for five years)

It was also interesting to find a number of informants who argued that commitment in the

case of Firstware was not a function of the organisational culture. They argued that

Firstware employs predominantly software engineers and that a vast majority of the

employees are young people in their late twenties (the archival data suggests that

the average age is 28). They note that such employees equate career success with

undertaking challenging projects with leading multinational corporations (MNCs) and

such employees argue that the opportunity to work on complex projects and learn from



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these was more important than seeking an ideal work environment. This shows that theintrinsic motivation of these employees is very high. Viewed from this perspective,

commitment is not a function of the work environment but rather an expression of the

individuals drive to excel. The researchers stayed overnight in the building on three

occasions and noticed that a number of people had voluntarily extended their working

hours to the next day in their effort to complete various projects. One of the senior software

engineers pointed out:

[XYZ], where I was working previously, had micro monitoring. Mind you, it employs over50,000 people. It is not an employee first company, of course, but the attrition is not higherthan Firstware. There were systems and processes for almost everything. Here, everything isflexible and often I do not know what to do with all that flexibility. I am working day and nighthere but then I worked day in and day out on projects at XYZ. Certainly people work withdedication there as they do here despite the differences in culture. Commitment in XYZ is not

low by any standard. (Senior Software Engineer aged 27, with Firstware for two years)Thus, viewed from a fragmentation perspective, the culture of Firstware is characterised

by ambiguities, contradictions, ironies, and multiple interpretations of critical issues and

events.

Overall, the adoption of the three perspective framework in exploring organisational

culture and commitment highlights some interesting findings in relation to the impact of

organisational culture on commitment. Data analysis from the integration perspective appear

to suggest an unproblematic link, withhigh commitmentviewed as the logical outcomeof the

pursuit of top management espoused policies of cultural hegemony. In contrast, data analysis

froma differentiation perspective suggests the existence of subcultural tensions and conflicts,

which often resultedin the pursuit of departmental and business unit political positioning and

manoeuvring that frequently undermined organisational commitment. Finally, the analysis

of the data from a fragmentation perspective suggests that many aspects of the organisations

culture were in a state of flux, with policies and practices that were frequently ambiguousandincompatible. These findings suggest a range of contributions and implications for theory

and practice which are discussed below.

Contributions and implications

The objective of this study was to explore and analyse the impact of organisational culture

on organisational commitment in the context of a sector (software) that is renowned to be

dynamic and people-centred. The findings of an investigation of these organisational

processes in an Indian software organisation suggest a range of contributions and

implications for theory and practice. The first contribution of the study is linked to the

adoption of the three perspective framework in the study of organisational culture and

commitment in a single organisation. Although researchers have called for scholars toadopt a wider range of perspectives in analysing the culture of organisations, and

specifically to incorporate the three perspective framework in exploring the culture of

single organisations (see Martin 1992, 2002; Harris and Ogbonna 1998), few scholars have

taken this suggestion forward. The logic of this approach to organisational analysis is

derived from the consideration that organisational members are embedded in practices

which are constituted in social norms and which are characterised by numerous,

sometimes incompatible meanings (Casey 1999; Alvesson 2002). Such multiplicity ofmeanings suggests that different orders can exist simultaneously both within and across

subcultures: a situation which can only adequately be captured through multiple

interpretive analytical lenses. The findings of this study suggest that by adopting the three



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perspective approach it is possible to identify the multiplicity of meanings thatcharacterise values in a single organisation and to document the existence of shared

values, while at the same time uncovering differences and incomplete realisation of values,

as well as the contradictions and ambiguities that may characterise cultural values in the

same organisation and the potential impact of these on organisational commitment. Thus,

this study supports the growing call for research into the organisational culture to adopt

multiple perspectives and frameworks (Martin 1992; 2002, Harris and Ogbonna 1998;

Alvesson 2002) in analysing the culture of a single organisation. The findings of this study

suggest that this call should be extended to include studies of organisational culture and

commitment.

A second contribution of the study is the delineation of alternative conceptualisations

of the impact of organisational culture on commitment. Previous research into the links

between organisational culture and commitment has been sparse, with culture frequently

confused with climate in such evaluations (see Denison 1996). Such research commonly

points to a positive association between organisational climate and commitment (Jones

1995; Ruppel and Harrington 2000). The few studies that have examined culture more

specifically reached similar conclusions: that supportive organisational culture can have a

positive influence on organisational commitment (see Lok and Crawford 2001; Bergman

2006).

However, while acknowledging that culture can have a pervasive impact on

commitment, the current study suggests that this relationship is not as simple or as

straightforward as previous researchers have assumed. Viewed from an integration

perspective, the findings of this study lend credence to extant conceptualisations of direct

links between culture and commitment, in that culture is presented as having the potential

to provide a sense of cohesion and unity, thereby having a strong influence on

commitment, especially affective commitment. In the current case, it can be argued thatthe company attempted to achieve such commitment by pursuing cultural policies of

organisational hegemony including selective recruitment, empowerment, and generous

employee benefits package. However, an alternative analytical perspective (differentiation

or fragmentation perspective) of culture points to varying interpretations and

conceptualisations of the impact of culture on commitment. For example, the conflict

and political manoeuvring between the different business groups and the ways in which

some of the policies (for example the people first policy) were interpreted by various

groups in the organisation were seen as impacting negatively on employee commitment.

Furthermore, the analysis of the data from a fragmentation perspective revealsambiguities, dichotomies, ironies, and contradictions that characterise internal

and external organisational relations and that make it difficult to develop clear and

uncomplicated linkages between organisational culture and commitment. To this extent,

rather than present simple and unproblematic associations between culture andcommitment, this study suggests that the links between commitment and culture are

contested, typically unpredictable, transient, and context-specific. In this regard, given the

relative dearth of research linking organisational culture and commitment, these findings

contribute an important step towards theory building in this area.

The findings of this study also suggest some implications for human resource

management in India in general and for the Indian software sector in particular. First, the

study contributes to calls for more studies of human resource management in India (see

Budhwar 2001b; Budhwar and Debrah 2001) by providing an empirical evaluation of key

issues within human resource management (organisational culture and commitment).

Second, the study supplies one of the few research-driven examinations of the software



19/22

industry in India. In this regard, the study provides insights into the complexities in theperception of organisational culture, thereby presenting particular opportunities and

difficulties for human resource managers. Third, the study demonstrates the problematic

nature of culturecommitment linkages and in so doing highlights the significance of

unpredictability and context-specificity in such linkages. This is particularly relevant

in the light of the high levels of employee turnover and in the context of workers in

developing economies who increasingly place emphasis on extrinsic rewards (see for

example, Athreye 2005). All these factors pose significant challenges to human resource

managers in India and elsewhere wishing to improve organisational effectiveness through

aligning organisational culture and organisational commitment.

The above discussion leads to another contribution of this study which is related to the

research methods adopted. Previous studies into organisational commitment and culture

have tended to be quantitative, with little understanding of the ways in which these

processes are fully played out in organisational settings. The findings of this study lead to

the suggestion that the adoption of qualitative approaches in the study of organisational

culture and commitment is more likely to yield significant insights, in that it would help

the researcher to develop an understanding of the organisational context and processes

through which individuals and groups ascribe meaning to their working lives. Such an

approach is also likely to lead to a better appreciation of how the resulting employee

behaviours and norms impact on organisational commitment. Although no causal links

can be claimed by studying commitment and culture in this way, this approach is more

likely to lead to an understanding of the social context in which expressions of

commitment may occur, enabling the researchers to understand how the cultural

manipulation of such contexts may influence the nature and expression of commitment.

The above raises the question of whether analyses of culture and commitment should

not only be context-specific but should also be sector/industry contingent. Thepeculiarities of the Indian business environment make this an interesting context for

the study of organisational culture and commitment. For example, the impact of the

business-friendly legal environment which makes it easy to hire and fire employees in

the software sector and to maintain permanent labour market flexibility cannot be

underestimated. As many informants disclosed, employee commitment is sometimes

based on instrumentality, and shaped by the availability of alternative employment that

matches the peculiarities of individual circumstances (for example, the behaviour of a

breadwinner in an extended family system is more likely to be shaped by a desire to remain

in employment that offers the greatest financial reward rather than the one that offers thebest opportunity for individual psychological fulfilment (see Hofstede 1984)). Similarly,

evaluations of culture and commitment are likely to be influenced by the dynamic nature

of the software sector. For example, the recent rapid growth and development of this sector

has bestowed specialist software professionals with a power capacity which many haveexploited to negotiate enhanced packages irrespective of the nature of cultural and

commitment practices promoted by their respective organisations (see Ogbonna and Harris

2006). Thus, rather than perceive context-specificity as a limitation in studies of

commitment (see Lok and Crawford 2001; Chen and Francesco 2000), this study suggests

that a focus on the multiple particularities of individual contexts should help to inform

theory building in this interesting area of organisational research.

A practical implication of this study is in relation to subcultural conflict which may

arise when an organisation introduces a new business operation. Managers should note

that it may not be desirable or even possible to suppress such conflict. Instead, they should

seek to recognise the differences in orientation of each subculture, to understand that



20/22

commitment may be derived from and directed to multiple sources (which may or may notinclude the organisation) and to develop the appropriate support systems to ensure

a business focused solution. Such an approach requires an acknowledgement of the

co-existence of multiple cultures and multiple commitments in organisations. Thus, rather

than seek to encourage commitment and cultural hegemony, managers should aim to

identify ways of harnessing specific subcultural characteristics that may be conducive

to particular types of commitment required for the success of individual business units.

References

Alvesson, M. (2002), Understanding Organisational Culture, London: Sage.

Athreye, S. (2005), The Indian Software Industry and its Evolving Service Capability, Industrialand Corporate Change, 14, 3, 393418.Bergman, M.E. (2006), The Relationship between Affective and Normative Commitment: Review

and Research Agenda, Journal of Organisational Behaviour, 27, 5, 645663.Budhwar, P. (2001a), Doing Business In . . . India, Thunderbird International Business Review, 43,

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