PLAN DE MEJORA

In order to address the research question, I conducted a comparative case study of six organisations.

4.3.1 Rationale for the Case Study Approach

The case study approach was chosen in accordance with the three criteria outlined by Yin (1994); the objective of the research was explanatory, there was no need to control the behaviour of participants, and the phenomenon of interest was contemporary rather than historical. However, it is important to acknowledge that the wording of the research question does not appear to conform to Yin’s (1994) requirements for case study research.

Yin (1994) initially states that case studies are likely to be most appropriate when addressing research questions that begin with ‘how’ or ‘why’, while questions that begin with ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘how many’, or ‘how much’ should be addressed through surveys or archival research. Therefore, using case study research to address a question that begins with ‘what’ may appear to be inconsistent with Yin’s arguments. However, his initial statement appears to reflect a narrow interpretation of the way in which these words might be used; he argues that questions beginning with ‘how’ or ‘why’ are generally explanatory while those beginning with ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘how many’, or ‘how much’ are generally descriptive. Since the objective of my research was explanatory, the case study approach was still consistent with Yin’s

4.3.2 Rationale for Case Selection

Following Yin (1994), cases were selected to produce literal replication (where the results are expected to be similar) and theoretical replication (where theory suggests that the results will differ in predictable ways). The primary selection criterion was identity type – normative versus utilitarian – because this dichotomy was expected to produce predictable differences in the types of benefits that were most valued by employees.

Albert and Whetten (1985) argue that one of the fundamental differences between normative and utilitarian organisations is the relationship between the organisation and its employees. In general, employees of a utilitarian organisation are driven by individual self-interest and controlled through financial rewards, while employees of a normative organisation tend to be highly committed to the organisation’s core ideology and controlled through the ‘internalization of organisational directives that are accepted as legitimate.’ Therefore, the attributes that employees valued most highly were expected to differ according to the type of organisation in which they were employed. Employees of utilitarian organisations were expected to assign greater importance to functional and economic benefits because these benefits serve the self- interest of the individual. Employees of normative organisations were expected to assign less importance to functional and economic benefits and to place greater emphasis on the psychological benefits associated with commitment to the organisational ideology.

Following this logic, the study included three hybrid (normative-utilitarian) organisations, one organisation that was predominantly normative and two organisations that were predominantly utilitarian. The rational for including three hybrid organisations was that employees of a hybrid organisation were expected to value both types of benefit - functional and economic, as well as psychological.

attributes that would overlap significantly with the attributes elicited in each of the other cases. The importance assigned to these attributes was expected to differ in the manner described above. However, the hybrid cases were expected to represent a point of intersection between the two extreme positions.

4.3.3 Brief Description of the Six Cases

The three hybrid organisations were schools within my university (referred to in this thesis as The University). These cases were chosen because Albert and Whetten (1985) describe universities as the quintessential hybrid (normative-utilitarian) organisations. Initially, the University was to be treated as a single case, but my discussions with employees across the campus revealed that each school had its own distinct identity, and that employees tended to identify more strongly with their own school than with the University as a whole. Therefore, the School of Management, the School of Engineering, and the School of Science and Technology were treated as three separate cases.

The organisation that was expected to have a predominantly normative identity was a non-profit sports organisation (referred to in this thesis as Sports Inc). This organisation was chosen because it met three important criteria suggested by (Albert and Whetten, 1985). First, the main function of a normative organisation tends to be cultural, educational, or expressive. Sports Inc met this criterion because it was established to host a sporting event that had great cultural significance. Second, normative organisations tend to develop hybrid (normative-utilitarian) identities over time and with increasing size. Therefore, an organisation is more likely to have a pure normative identity when it is newly formed and still small. Since Sports had been existence for less than two years and had only about 200 employees, it met both these criteria.

The two organisations that were expected to have predominantly utilitarian identities were both in the media industry. One was a TV production company (referred to in this thesis as TV Inc). This company arguably served an expressive purpose because it was involved in the production of TV programmes. However, it was ‘oriented toward economic production,’ which Albert and Whetten (1985) identify as the defining characteristic of a utilitarian organisation. The other organisation was a film distribution company (referred to in this thesis as Film Inc). This company had no role in the production process and had no influence over what films were made. Therefore, it served no expressive function; its main function was sales and it existed only for the purpose of generating a profit.