BUSN20020 Business Internship Assignment Sample

• Subject Code : BUSN20020
• University : Central Queensland University My Assignment Services is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university.
• Subject Name : Management

Why Is the Culture More Important than Strategy? 

Executive Summary of Business Internship

The work-life issue has become a significant issue in every organization as well as home. The premise behind our study was to scrutinize the connection between organizational culture and organizational strategy and also to describe the importance of organizational culture as compared to the strategy concerning the work-life balance of the employees working in Young Logix.

The research was conducted in accordance with the experience in the company which emphasizes more on the strategies implemented rather that the culture of the organization. The findings of the report were supported by the literature review and the analysis done as per the studies that were conducted previously.

The employees in the organization were found struggling with the work-life balance while the company kept on emphasizing the strategies. The findings of the report brought in the important point that the company should not just provide work-life balance but should also have certain arrangements so that the overall well-being of the employees, as well as the organization, could be improved.

Contents

Executive Summary.

Introduction.

Company Background.

Research Problem..

Justification.

Research Question.

Research Methodology.

Research design.

Data collection.

Data analysis.

Literature Review..

Organizational culture.

Organizational strategy.

Relationship between organizational culture and strategy.

Analysis.

Findings.

Recommendations.

Health benefits.

Childcare.

Company benefits.

Short-breaks.

Encouraging and supporting time-off.

Conclusion.

References.

Introduction to Business Internship 

The new business environment has forced organizations around the world to concentrate on the efforts onto acquiring more and more customers and enhancing the overall level of performance and efficiency. Therefore, the quest for determining sustainable competitive advantages is becoming extremely significant than ever before. Hogan and Coote (2014), mentioned that competition can be considered as one of the most vital components influencing the failure and success of the companies through dictating the activities that are required to be taken into consideration in regards to the innovation, performance and organizational culture along with the efficient execution of competitive strategies which are usually designed in a manner that can position the firm in the most favourable location within the market.

In the contemporary era, no firm can ever be able to accomplish its mission and last in the competition world without preserving a well-built advantageous culture (Zhang & Iles, 2014). Moreover, assurance of the success of the evolution of any organization mainly depends on the prepared background as well as organizational culture. Therefore, organizational culture can be regarded as a double-edged sword. This implies that the culture of any organization is a kind of platform facilitating the achievement of organizational aims on the one hand and the other hand can also hinder the application of changes taking place within the organization.

This report identifies the supportive role and importance of a culture of an organization which it plays in the implementation of the strategy. It also looks into the relationship between organizational culture and organizational strategy and how the strategy is influenced by the culture or the organization. The report ends with few recommendations based on findings acquired with the help of a literature review and its analysis.

Company Background of Business Internship 

Research Problem

Every organization in the world is compelled to face internal or external changes and the rate of which rises regularly. The problem statement of the research is about understanding that culture is more important than an organizational strategy concerning work-life balance in Young Logix. This research report will dig into some of the crucial aspects of both the components of an organization, culture, and strategy and their relationship along with the detailed research on the impact on the work-life balance of the employees due to poor organizational culture.

Justification

It is often believed that organizations with the reputation of supporting work-life balance have attracted many employees in recent times. Moreover, the work-life balance has risen into an extremely significant concept for most of the contemporary organizations. However, during my recent internship program in Young Logix, I observed that people do not have a balanced lifestyle due to working overtime and taking unnatural pressure that has resulted in dissatisfaction in the majority of the employees working there. This relates to the poor organizational culture of the company and implies how the employees can effectively utilize the initiatives work-life balance that can be referred to as the 'work-life culture' or 'work-family culture'. Moreover, the company gives more importance to the organizational strategy rather than emphasizing organizational culture to sustain the healthy work-life balance of its employees. Organizational culture can be used as a bridge for the alignment of internal realities of the firm along with the demands of the external domain. This existing problem in the company compelled me to research to understand the basic concept of work-life balance concerning the importance of organizational culture and organizational strategy.

Research Question

• What is the relationship between culture and strategy?
• What is the importance of organizational culture in maintaining a work-life balance of the employees?
• What are the components of the work-life balance culture?

Research Methodology

A research methodology can be defined as a guide for a researcher to follow to complete the research process. It is mainly a path indicating the objective and problem of the research question along with the outcomes acquired with the help of data collection tools as well as studies over time (Sileyew, 2019). The methodology chosen for the report draws the outline indicating how the research has been conducted along with the several facets due to which the research gets impacted. The research methodology is considered to be one of the vital potions of any research report as it establishes a tone for conducting the research and also prepares the person conducting research within all kinds of relevant areas.

This research was carried out with the help of various pieces of literature written by profound scholars. To get in-depth information, a qualitative research method was applied and the data was gathered by various relevant journals and books published and written by scholarly writers. 

Research design

The research design strategy aims to execute based on the established research problem and research question. A research design hen appropriate helps the researcher in the examination and evaluation of various variables that are associated with the research question. This research has employed a descriptive research design as it attempted to explore information along with providing supplementary information related to the research problem. In the research, we have tried to illustrate what is occurring in more detail. 

Data collection

Data collection is an activity which is used in conducting research and can be explained as a process of accumulating the relevant and desirable data with respect to the study being carried out (Parveen & Showkat, 2017). To successfully collect data, there are two different types of data that the research resorts to, primary and secondary.

This research was conducted using secondary data through various literature that has been published before. Secondary data can be referred to as the kind of data that has been gathered by someone else other than the user. Literature reviews report for numerous kinds of classification for secondary data that may include all those seeking for distinguishing between compiled data and raw data. Some of the common sources that are involve existing secondary data gathered by internet searches, libraries, government public services departments, and censuses.

This research report comprises of secondary research methodology in the form of a literature review. Research reports, textbooks, and publications that are relevant to the culture and strategy of the organization were studied and compared along with the selection and discussion of viewpoints concerning the subject.

Data analysis

Secondary qualitative data can generally be gathered in the form of social artifacts such as blogs, newspapers, letters, journals, books, and so on. These data can be considered as a rich source of knowledge and information based on individuals and society. For conducting a meaningful analysis of secondary research, significant time in reading, as well as learning, must be spent by the researcher related to the origin of the data sets. With careful vetting and reading, the researcher can identify:

• The purpose of collecting data
• Specific methods implemented for collecting it
• Credibility and credentials of the collector

The research report followed the analysis of secondary data with the below-mentioned steps:

• Determination of the research question
• Locating data
• Evaluation of data relevance
• Assessing the data credibility
• Analysis

Literature Review of Business Internship 

Nawaser et al. (2014) mentioned that an organization having a weak to nonexistent culture is usually bound to either ramble along or to be muffled by its rivals having a dominant culture. On the contrary, a company having a well-established culture usually can be seen choosing its employees based on the fact that they share mutual values that make them a cohesive individual. The association between organizational culture and organizational strategy can be found often into management companies constituting a well-built corporate culture of hiring an energetic, young, brilliant, and committed workforce who assists in driving the organization to succeed. Further, Nawaser et al. (2014) noted that every organization comprises six lateral dimensions that mainly involve culture, strategy, technology, size, structure, and environment which can be regarded as the physical and personality traits of the company. There are few studies that demonstrate the relationship between the corporate culture and business strategy within strategic management and organizational behaviour literature.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture has been recognized as one of the most essential tools for every company that is trying to acclimatize to the external environment and also ensuring the integrity of their internal process and is thus regarded as a crucial component for sustainable competitive advantage (Tasgit et al., 2017). The researchers construe similar phenomena of culture in distinct ways with the use of varieties of theoretical approaches as well as assumptions for describing the organizational culture within the literature. In this respect, it can be seen that there have been numerous arguments on theoretical perspectives in the literature of organizational culture. Moreover, it can be mentioned that a major contribution is given by organizational culture to the understanding of how the various activities of the businesses are carried out (Alas & Mousa, 2016). Within this context, beliefs, ideologies, and values are accepted specifically significant to understand the culture of the company and also are studied with respect to the trusted representative of the corporate culture.

According to Olafsdottir (2008) supportive and encouraging, work-life organizational culture has been described as a set of beliefs, values, and behaviour patterns differentiating one organization with the other. It is mainly a system of values driving people for making every choice as well as a decision within the company. Some scholars describe culture as glue combining non-human resources to human resources to establish excellent performance and teamwork.

One of the components of the work-life culture is concerned with the organizational time which demands or expects that the employees in the organization should prioritize their work above family. This implies the norms with respect to hours that are invested at work and the use of the time of the employees. The time-based conflict has been determined as one of the key factors for work-life conflict. The other component of work-life culture is concerned with the perception of negative career outcomes linked to the utilization of work-life advantages or devotion of time to the family responsibilities (Olafsdottir, 2008). In various cultures of the organization, visibility is regarded as a norm and “face-time” as an indicator of the commitment as well as contribution being made by the employees to work. The last component is concerned with the managerial sensitivity and support to the family responsibilities of the employees. Managerial support is considered to be one of the most crucial cultural variables in the decisions of the employees to utilize the benefits as well as programs related to family-friendly.

Work-life balance, as well as the demands from various directions, can impact the stress level of an individual. Dhanabhakyam & Malarvizhi (2014) mentioned that women are considered to have a greater level of stress as compared to men and recovery in women is slower than the men once they finish with the workday. This gender difference was described by the conflict between demands with respect to responsibility areas as well as demands with respect to the workplace. Furthermore, encouraging work-life culture is responsible for making an organization a better and most wanted place to work. Soomro et al. (2018) stated that the intentions, as well as the commitment of the employees to stay in the company, must also be positively persuaded.

Organizational Strategy

The organizational strategy represents competitive techniques and targets that imply it from various other organizations. Strategy can be described as a program or activity which is implemented to win something. Different kinds of strategies are implemented by the organization, business strategies, corporate strategies, and functional strategies (Tasgit et al., 2017). It usually emphasizes the enhancement of the competitive condition of a firm or a special market. It can be said, the business strategy can be cooperative or competitive or the combination of both.

Selecting the appropriate strategy shows one of the chief components within the strategic management, organizations can focus completely on their future along with the sources for coping up with the several external pressures and influences (Fadeyi et al., 2015). Moreover, it is significant for novel strategies to result in sustainable competitive advantages. For achieving they are required to be realistic in the evaluation of external influences. Park (2015), it is crucial for the new strategy to be selected and formulated most efficiently particularly by understanding the pros and cons of each strategic alternative. This is considered to be extremely significant because of the fact that new strategies bring vital changes within the organization which is required to be embraced by every member working within the organization for achieving the strategic goals. With this, it is crucial that the organizational culture must support the new strategy which can be accomplished by the transformation of strategic processes within extremely transparent one, making sure the participation of all personnel and providing detailed explications.

Relationship Between Organizational Culture and Strategy

Ahmadi et al. (2012), mentioned in their study that organizational culture can be considered as a base for establishing a sustainable competitive advantage. For making it successful, the culture of the organization must be rare, valuable, difficult to copy and the company must be properly organized for being capable of absorbing the created value. Moreover, it is essential to have a connection between the values and various other components of the culture of the organization and the value established by the company for its clients. The relationship between strategy and culture has been analyzed in some studies.

O’Reilly (2014) stated that organizational culture can be regarded as the essence for an operating environment of every organization such as an implicit pattern of attitudes, activities, and behaviour that are shaped by a mutual set of values as well as beliefs, characterizing the manner in which people work in the workplace. To implement the strategic change successfully, the culture of the company is required to e aligned with it. Moreover, the culture and strategy of an organization are the key factors describing how far the company will go. On the other hand, strategic management assists the company in the process of change through determining opportunities and threats, defining strategic aims, and inferring the change facilities.

Analysis of Business Internship 

The analysis as per the literature that have been reviewed in this report implies that work-life balance is one of the vital components for organizational culture and can affect the organization negatively due to the factors such as enhanced work-load, ethical issues, reversal of gender role, economic or social issues and costs of health on society. The enhancement in the work-load is mainly due to the advancement of technology that allows employees to be on the job constantly and be associated with the work. Moreover, globalization is another factor that has increased competition that has placed a greater demand on work-force productivity. Apart from this, it has been analyzed that social, as well as the economic problem of the ageing population, has also been responsible for emphasizing on the productivity of the work-force.

The increase in the stress level among the employees also has noteworthy costs of health on society. Overwork, as well as anxiety for dealing with the issues related to family and work, has led to a mental and physical strain in the employees. Additionally, this makes it an ethical problem as to whether or not to blame the organization for the loss of health of its employees.

According to Tasgit et al. (2017), one of the two fundamental functions of the organizational culture is ensuring that the organization adapts to the external environment. This adaptation needs to be sensitive as well as responding in the most efficacious manner to the changes and conditions in the macro and microenvironment. In the context of the organization, the examinations have taken place so far to respond to the external environment, preferred approach, decisions and behaviour are all associated with the organizational strategy. Even, as per Awino (2015), for the success of an organization, adaptation of culture as well as strategy is significant and a must.

According to Gilley et al. (2015), it is the responsibility of the managers to choose the most suitable strategy and also determine and explore every consequence of the novel strategy proposed for ensuring the success of the company. Moreover, certain elements are required by the company to consider that they can actively identify the characteristics of the strategy, components such as structural conditions wherein the business is conducted by the company, its core competencies, and capabilities, and past experience. Considering these all the mentioned aspects, the strategy of the company comprises of the organization's decision in relation to its offerings, vital resources, strategic positioning, and approaches for accessing financing sources and resources.

Findings of Business Internship 

The study revealed that supportive work-life culture was associated with the lower intention of leaving the company, commitment levels, and fewer work-life conflicts (Riaz & Hunjra, 2015). The major component that should be placed in the company in order to cultivate a wellness culture is welcoming, conducive, and supportive environments enabling employees to build social networks. Moreover, it is not necessary that the workplace culture can suit every employee. It was found in Logix Young, that the employees who could not fit into the culture of the company did resign and all those who stayed adapted to that culture.

Another analysis from the piece of the literature shows that non-work time can have negative as well as a positive effect on the employees who work during working hours. Moreover, the right timing is considered to be a critical element for balancing and providing the base for various factors (Goh et al., 2015). It is important to look at those employees who usually work overtime. It was found that the majority worked overtime were men as compared to women. Apart from, employees did not have trust in the supervisor in the company which was one of the keys to reaching a work-life balance.

It has been observed that female employees find it difficult to spend sufficient time with their offspring and often can be found looking for daycare which presents a serious challenge for the working parents. This shows that children can upset the work-life balance of their parents. On the other hand, it has been observed that parents squander too little time with their kids because of their work involving too much time as well as attention. Moreover, there are other kinds of employees who due to their responsibilities and commitment as parents tend to perform worse and result in more absenteeism (Dizaho et al., 2016).

With regard to the work-life balance provision, the management of the company feels that this is in tune with the organizational culture of being employee-centric as well as flexible. However, there seemed to be an inequality in the provision of initiatives related to the work-life balance between employees as one of the managers of a team told that the employees are supposed to work from 9 in the morning to 6 in the evening but the working hours for managers were more flexible.

Apart from this, organizational culture is linked to various issues that occur within an organization. For example, how to associate people with each other, designing of organization, what is significant that is counted, criteria required to make decisions, treating customers, and so on. culture can be regarded as a structure that affects and gets affected by the organization's external environment.

Recommendations on Business Internship 

The interrelationship of some of the vital elements of an organization such as leadership, organizational structure, systems, and culture are needed to be managed in a manner that could support not just the implementation of organizational strategy but also employee's adaptability. Furthermore, the organizational strategy can only be executed successfully if the employees of the organization are ready to change and support all those strategies created by the company. In this respect, organizational change can be considered to be one of the most crucial challenges which are faced by the management of the company while implementing a new strategy.

Apart from these, some of the recommendations can be provided in relation to the necessary measures required to be considered for maintaining the work-life balance of employees that can result in an effective organizational culture along with the implementation of organizational strategy.

Health Benefits

Healthy diets are the essential factor for encouraging healthy nutrition as well as a balanced work-life of the employees. The company must ensure that there is a canteen in the workplace that should ideally provide a broad variety of meals.

Childcare

As per the findings, it is recommended to have a company kindergarten or a crèche which can be an effective solution for the working parents struggling between work life and family life. If the company has the provision for appropriate personnel along with the childcare facility, the outcome could be a familiar and pleasant environment in the workplace.

Company Benefits

Company benefits provide a positive impact on the work-life balance of the employees. One such example would be to implement a pension scheme defining how old age life should be financed (Truxillo et al., 2015). Another example would be public transport ticket that allows employees to utilize the transport system without investing their own money.

Short-breaks

The employers must encourage the execution of small breaks all through the day. The human body is not designed to look intently at a bright screen continuously. This is also not good for physical as well as mental health for employees. For the purpose of combating this problem, the company can install a fun room wherein the employees can socialize with one another and can also take their busy minds off from the hectic work.

Encouraging and Supporting Time-Off

In the contemporary era, vacations have become a necessity and not a luxury. Taking a break from work can provide the employees with an opportunity to enjoy and switch off from work. This is the most essential strategy that can help the employees in improving productivity and also increases concentration power towards work.

Conclusion on Business Internship 

There is no doubt that organizational culture is considered to be the most vital aspect for the success of every organization and is widely accepted as a significant element for organizational behaviour as well as one of the key determinants for the change taking place in an organization. Organizational culture is extremely valuable in almost all the issues related to how to utilize human resources effectively and how to be responsive to the developments taking place within the organizational environment. Moreover, for all the managers, it is one of the crucial variables which can be utilized in the establishment of the direction of the company. Additionally, it is an essential factor affecting the adaptation of a firm to the environmental pressures or sectors within the market.

References for Business Internship 

Alas, R., & Mousa, M. (2016). Organizational culture and workplace spirituality. International Journal of Emerging Research in Management and Technology, 5(3), 285-314.

Awino, Z. B. (2015). Business Strategy, Internal Resources, National Culture and Competitive Advantage: A Critical Review. DBA Africa Management Review, 5(2).

Dhanabhakyam, M., & Malarvizhi, J. (2014). Work-family conflict and work stress among married working women in public and private sector organizations. Global Wisdom Research Publications, 7(10), 46-52.

Dizaho, E. K., Salleh, R., & Abdullah, A. (2016). The impact of work-family conflict on working mothers’ career development: A review of literature. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 10(11), 328-334.

Fadeyi, O., Adegbuyi, O. A., Oke, A. O., & Ajagbe, A. M. (2015). Review of organizational strategy and structure (1962-2015).

Gilley, A., Waddell, K., Hall, A., Jackson, S. A., & Gilley, J. W. (2015). Manager behavior, generation, and influence on work-life balance: An empirical investigation. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 20(1), 3.

Goh, Z., Ilies, R., & Wilson, K. S. (2015). Supportive supervisors improve employees' daily lives: The role supervisors play in the impact of daily workload on life satisfaction via work–family conflict. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 89, 65-73.

Hogan, S. J., & Coote, L. V. (2014). Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A test of Schein's model. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), 1609-1621.

Nawaser, K., Shahmehr, F. S., Kamel, A., & Vesal, S. M. (2014). Assessing the Relationship between Strategy and Organizational Culture in an Iranian Manufacturing Industry. Asian Social Science, 10(21), 175.

O’Reilly III, C. A., Caldwell, D. F., Chatman, J. A., & Doerr, B. (2014). The promise and problems of organizational culture: CEO personality, culture, and firm performance. Group & Organization Management, 39(6), 595-625.

Ólafsdóttir, S. (2008). The role of organizational culture in employees work-life balance as an aspect of health.

Park, R. (2015). Employee participation and outcomes: Organizational strategy does matter. Employee Relations.

Parveen, H. & Showkat, N. (2017). Data collection. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319128325_Data_Collection

Riaz, T., & Hunjra, N. A. (2015). Evidence of organisational commitment and work-life conflict. E3 Journal of Business Management and Economics, 6(143), 12-15.

Sileyew, K. (2019). Research design and methodology. Retrieved from https://www.intechopen.com/online-first/research-design-and-methodology

Soomro, A. A., Breitenecker, R. J., & Shah, S. A. M. (2018). Relation of work-life balance, work-family conflict, and family-work conflict with the employee performance-moderating role of job satisfaction. South Asian Journal of Business Studies.

Tasgit, Y. E., Şentürk, F. K., & Ergün, E. (2017). Corporate Culture and Business Strategy: Which strategies can be applied more easily in which culture?. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 8(6), 80-91.

Tasgit, Y. E., Şentürk, F. K., & Ergün, E. (2017). Corporate Culture and Business Strategy: Which strategies can be applied more easily in which culture?. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 8(6), 80-91.

Truxillo, D. M., Cadiz, D. M., & Hammer, L. B. (2015). Supporting the aging workforce: A review and recommendations for workplace intervention research.

Zhang, C., & Iles, P. (2014). Organizational Culture. Strategic Human Resource Management: An International Perspective, 383.

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