Abstract
This study explored the relationships between university organizational culture and contextual performance in a Chinese university, with commitment as a mediating variable. The findings revealed that organizational culture had a significant impact on commitment of employees. At the same time, commitment impacted contextual performance positively. We contribute to the current literature by contradicting many past studies on the impact of organizational culture on performance. We found that organization culture had no significant impact on performance. This could be due to the unique nature of Chinese universities as top leadership is appointed by the central government. Based on the Competing Values Framework, most Chinese universities lie on a continuum between clan and hierarchy organization culture where the structure is highly formalized with precise and reinforced rule yet emphasizing the values of teamwork and family orientation. The study also suggested adopting different governance structures to meet the rising demands for greater autonomy from academics and administrators and shifting the organizational cultures towards the right half of the Competing Values Framework towards an adhocracy and market culture. The data collected in this study was analyzed using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) method with AMOS. The descriptive analysis of the research data was performed using SPSS.
Highlights
In 2017, China had 2,914 colleges and universities, comprising of 2,631 universities
6.CONCLUSION This research is an empirical study of the impact of organizational culture on middle-level managers’ contextual performance under the specific situation of a Chinese public university
Our findings in Hypothesis 1 shows that organizational culture has a positive impact on employee commitment
Summary
In 2017, China had 2,914 colleges and universities, comprising of 2,631 universities (including 265 private higher education institutions). There were 793 postgraduate training institutions, consisting of 576 universities and 217 scientific research institutes (MOE China, 2018). The popularization of higher education is a key to China’s economic growth. University's organizational culture is a key determinant of the success of a university. China's universities are a typical model of executive power. The university organizational culture model is dominated by bureaucratic mode and influenced by China’s political system. Zhang (2009) noted that the reform policies in Chinese universities have focused on the surface level of organizational culture while the deeper levels are left intact. Much research has been done on university organizational culture in Western developed countries, but insufficient studies have been conducted on the same topic in China
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