ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE OF COMMERCIAL BANK OF ETHIOPIA IN ADDIS ABABA

Abstract

An organizational culture is a system of shared beliefs and attitudes of its members. However, organizational culture has been an area in which conceptual work and scholars in organizational management have provided guidance for mangers as the culture improves its effectiveness. Every organization is assumed to have its own culture - organizational culture, which is hidden and difficult to identify. The purpose of this study was to to assess and to analyze organizational culture which has been in practice at the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia in its current situation. In this study, crosssectional descriptive survey design was used. Moreover, semi-structured interviews of qualitative research method were employed by the researcher. The total sample size was 60 employees drawn from the Head Office of the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. Structured questionnaires, interview guides, as well as focus group discussion schedule were employed to collect primary data from the sampled respondents, key informants and the group discussants respectively. In addition, the secondary data were collected from relevant, potential documents located in different resources centers, including the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia using documentary analyses. The quantitative data collected was analyzed manually using descriptive statistical technique and presented as frequency distributions in terms of frequencies and percentages In addition, the qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis. Fifty-four percent of the respondents believed that the Bank’s workers strongly shared its vision, and sixty-three percent of them did not strongly share the Bank’s procedures, rules and regulations. The majority of the study participants rated the workers’ commitment and their involvement in the decision making process as weak, and stated lack of role clarity in the Bank. In addition, there were lack of openness of information flow in all directions and internal communications, transparency, openness and fairness in making decision, accountability, consistency, as well as the Officials did not treat everyone similarly in the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. However, there was strong feeling of belongingness to the group inthe Bank. Organizational celebrations were also found to be the dominant organizational culture in the Bank. Generally, negativistic cultural values (such as strong subjectivity, highly centralized values, weak working relationships and mistrust) among colleagues were found in the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia. The dominant organizational culture in the current situation of the CBE is composed of organizational directions, like shared vision, strategies and policies, clarity of objectives, shared procedures, rules and regulation were found to be slightly stronger than the rest of cultural values considered in the study. Therefore, the General Manager of the Bank should create awareness regarding proper organizational cultures through various training workshops, meetings and celebrations. In addition to these, the Bank should work with different national and international management consultants on how to change the current organizational culture so that the Bank may improve and develop better cultural values that may contribute to its overall performance. By and large, the concerned Officials and stakeholders should develop a system which brings about cultural changes in the Bank and then these endeavor may create better working conditions and enabling environment.