Organisational culture and organisational strategy in Irish credit unions

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dc.check.date2027-12-31
dc.contributor.advisorMcCarthy, Olive
dc.contributor.advisorByrne, Noreen
dc.contributor.advisorPower, Carol
dc.contributor.authorO'Sullivan, Patricken
dc.date.accessioned2024-09-25T10:53:04Z
dc.date.available2024-09-25T10:53:04Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.date.submitted2024
dc.description.abstractThis study explores organisational culture and organisational strategy in Irish credit unions and the relationship between them. It seeks to fill a gap in an area that has not previously been studied in the sector in terms of credit unions developing an understanding of the type of culture and the type of strategy that prevails, which in turn can help to support management in how they manage and compete. The literature review highlighted the complexity of both concepts and a methodological framework was established for the measurement of culture and strategy. This framework allowed for the identification of culture types and strategy types and for comparing both across the credit union sector. A statistical analysis was used to explore the relationship between these variables. The methodological framework developed also enabled a deeper exploration of organisational culture through the measurement of cultural strength and cultural congruence. The study involved a survey of 73 credit unions and interviews with 16 credit unions. The findings illustrate that the predominant culture is internally focused, but flexible in its approach, where priority is given to the harnessing of human resources with leaders being facilitators and mentors. To a lesser extent, the culture was found to be rules-based, internally focused and stable. The predominant culture of Irish credit unions can be described as ‘clan-type’ with strong cultural strength. The predominant strategy type was found to be stable but can change from a narrow to a broader value proposition depending on the opportunities afforded. Strategy was further explored through in-depth qualitative interviews with CEOs in the 16 selected credit unions. These credit unions selected for interview were identified in the quantitative phase based on their strategy type. The qualitative analysis identified the components of the strategy types. The relationship between strategy types and culture types was found not to be statistically significant but culture strength was found to be statistically associated with strategy type. One of the main theoretical and methodological contributions of the research includes the development of a methodology for the measurement of both culture and strategy. The predominance of an internally focused culture suggests staff commitment and efficiency as well as values that typically align with the credit union ethos. The internal focus may also suggest a weakness in that it is typically less focused on the external environment and is less adaptable to change, which may have an impact on strategy development. However, the predominance of this type of culture can also help to shape the strategy to the extent that its inward focus and emphasis on people, together with the cultural strength, influences to some degree the predominance of the hybrid approach of both a stable and changing value proposition which is one of the practical contributions of the study.en
dc.description.statusNot peer revieweden
dc.description.versionAccepted Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationO'Sullivan, P. F. 2024. Organisational culture and organisational strategy in Irish credit unions. PhD Thesis, University College Cork.
dc.identifier.endpage257
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/16445
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherUniversity College Corken
dc.rights© 2024, Patrick O'Sullivan.
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectOrganisational culture
dc.subjectOrganisational strategy
dc.subjectCredit unions
dc.subjectOrganisational values
dc.subjectCulture type
dc.subjectStrategy type
dc.titleOrganisational culture and organisational strategy in Irish credit unions
dc.typeDoctoral thesisen
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoralen
dc.type.qualificationnamePhD - Doctor of Philosophyen
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