The influence of organizational culture on performance of hospitals in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

Despite the reforms in the healthcare sector, most hospitals are not performing to their required standards; the poor performance has been attributed to many factors, one of them being organizational culture. This study investigated the influence of organizational culture on performance of hospitals in Nairobi. The specific objectives of the study include finding out how organizational values, employee attitudes towards work and cultural traits influence the performance of hospitals in Nairobi. The study adapted a descriptive survey research design and the target population was the management staff, doctors and nursing staff of the selected hospitals in Nairobi which are 13. Purposive and stratified random sampling were used in selecting the respondents with the. There were 46 respondents for the research. Primary and secondary data methods were used to collect the data. Questionnaires containing structured and semi structured questions were used to collect data. The questions on the questionnaire were developed on the basis of the objectives of the study. The data collected was analyzed by the use of statistical package of social scientists (SPSS) and Microsoft excel. Descriptive techniques of simple percentages and arithmetic mean were used to analyze the data. The analyzed data was then presented using tables and figures such as the pie chart and bar chart. Analysis of the findings was done and presented. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents agreed that organizational values, employees' attitudes towards work and the cultural traits influence various aspects of their performance such as employee satisfaction, the quality of their services, their revenue growth and overall performance in a positive way. The recommendations made were that organizational culture development programs should be implemented at all levels of the organizations in order to help employees develop a better understanding of the importance of organizational culture and to foster a cohesive organizational culture.