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CllAPTEI{ I I
RESEARCH DESIGN AND VALl'FS
CLARlFICATIO T PROCESS
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CHAPTER II
RESEARCH DESIGN AND VALUES ClARIFICATION PROCESS
2.1 Inb'oduction
The survey of literature brings out the influence of the values and beliefs
of the individual members of an organisation on its culture. The need for a
methodical approach in facilitating values clarification at individual and
collective levels in order to evolve an organisational culture that will result in
higher levels of performance is very evident.
The researcher while working with organisations using a process of
values clarification to facilitate individual and organisational development
found indications of some shifts in organisational culture. TIlls led to questions
on:
Is it possible to influence the culture of an organisation through a
planned intervention?
What is the role of values in influencing the organisation?
Does values clarification process alter the organisational culture?
2.2 Aim of the Study
Lack of any clear answers to the above questions led to the researcher
wanting to further study in a systematic way. Considering this need, the
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• •
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present study aims at studying the influence of Values Clarification processes in
the development of Organisational Culture.
2.3 Objectives of the Study
The need to study organisational culture has always interested social
scientists. While most of these effort have been focusing on understanding
organisational culture and evaluating the same, there has not been much effort
on designing organisational interventions which would enable organisations to
manage their own culture. •
To study the influence of Values Clarification process on the
individual in organisational and personal contexts.
To study the shifts that occur at different levels of management
and the resultant influence on the organisational effectiveness
based on the Values Profile Questionnaire.
To study the influence of Values Clarification process on the
development of Organisational Culture.
To study the influence of Values Clarification process on the
organisational effectiyeness.
To outline a framework and an approach to Values Clarification
processes in buildin~ organisational culture based on this study.
2.4 Scppe of the Study
A study of this nature to an extent could be generalised in the context of
organisation involved in business with profit as a motive. It also could be
extended to non-profit organisation. Theoretically, the findings of the study
would help to develop a better understanding of the influence of Values
•
•
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-
Clarification process on the individual and the organisational culture. The
findings could help in strengthening the Values Clarification methodology as an
intervention process for developing an organisational culture. The findings of
the study would also provide guidelines for future study.
2.5 Universe of the Study
The universe considered for the study was all the executives of Textron
Ltd., a Public Ltd. Co.
2.6 Selection of the Organisation for the Study
The choice of the specific type of case to be included in this study was
linked to the objectives of this study. All the five objectives are directed towards
understanding the influence of Values Clarification as a process to influence the
organisational culture and the individuals in the organisation. It was not
possible to select many organisations as it called for an in-depth study over a
period of time of an organisation to study the influence on the culture of an
organisation.
Given the limitation of organisation's willingness to pennit a researcher
to study by committing the organisation to the process of Values Clarification
over a period of time was not easy, as it involved investment of resources, time
and willingness to look at oneself from the point of view of the organisation.
The researcher had to be sure of the long-term commitment of the organisation
to the process. The organisation, which could meet all the requirements and
was serious about the whole process, was approached by the researcher for the
purpose of the study. Once the permission was granted the researcher designed
the intervention strategy using the Values Clarification process, data generation
and documentation.
' -
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• 50
Organisation Background
In the year 1981, realising the growing opportunity for climate control
equipment, more so in the field of air conditioning, Textron Ud was born out
of a large industrial conglomerate based in the northern part of India with
diversified interests in cbemicals, heavy light engineering goods, e1l:cl:IOnics,
etc. The organisation started operations in early 1982. The product was initially introduced in the local state and the nearby states before moving on to
cover the entire country.
Today Textron is one of the leading brands in the industry with the
collaboration of international partners. The Company has acquired leading
technology in the field of air conditioning from its collaborators. The Company
has been expanding its product range not only in room air conditioners but also
in other related products like air-cooled liquid cbillers. Textron today has a
number of products in its range and is continuously working towards becoming
the market leader.
Management
Textron is a public limited company and is managed by a team of young
professionals with a high sense of commitment. They have been drawn from
reputed organisations from all over the country with varied experience profiles.
The company has a total strength of over 250 employees spread all over the
country. The organisation, being in the consumer durable products, is strongly
driven by market conditions and has a strong marketing department.
Organisation Structure
Textron as an organisation has been attempting to move towards a flat
structure in the future to align itself with various other initiatives to bring about
systemic cbange in the organisation. The existing structure of the organisation
is given at Appendix A.
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From the organisational structure, one can see the extra emphasis that
has been given to the marketing function and also the special focus on customer
seIVice. This further indicates the Textron's focus on being a customer-driven
organisation.
The Chief Executive Officer is the person who is moving the organisation
towards its desired growth and has complete freedom in managing and
planning the future of the organisation. He is responsible to the Managing
Director and the Board of Directors for the performance of the Company. The
Managing Director does not involve himself in the day to day operations of the
Company.
Manpower Data
The table below gives the details on the manpower of the organisation.
TABLE 4
Manpower Data
LEVEL 1994-95 1995-96 1996-97 1997-98
ML -3 27 23 28 31
ML-2 53 54 51 48
ML-l 171 162 134 136
ML-S 152 170 166 III
TOTAL 403 409 379 326
The above table gives the manpower data of Textron during the period of
tile study. ML -3 includes the senior executives which includes the top
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• • •
•
• management, ML-2 represents the middle management and ML-1 repre!WlIB
the junior management. ML-S refers to the staff.
The researcher designed the intervention· strategy using the Values
Clarification process. The first workshop was organised in August 1993 for the
Top Management of which the CEO was a part. There after the influencers in
the organisation were put through the Values Clarification process. The
influencers were those who held positions of leadership at various levels and
were leading a group of people to accomplish the given task. The group of
influencers consisted of executives from ali the three levels i.e. 'lop
Management, Middle Management and Junior Management.
2.7 Population
All the executives who were on the roles of the Company between 1994-
95 to 1996-97. The executives belonged to three levels of management which is
junior, middle and senior management. The workers and staff were not a part
of the study.
2.8 Selection of Sample
All the executives who met the criteria given below were included for (a)
individual case studies, (b) level-wise group profiling based on the values
profile questionnaire.
~ Should have attended the Values Clarification process in the first
phase in 1994 and attended the subsequent review process I after a
period of six months and also the review process II after a period of
18 months.
~ Those who could not attend ali or any of the processes were excluded
from the study.
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53
) Those executives who were included were further categorised into
three leveJs of management for the purpose of this study. The basis .
and the sample size is given below:
No. Selection Criteria
1 Those who belonged to the senior Top Management 8
managers group and were a part of the
management committee """"'t-o"'" --- - -:-;
managers category but were not Management
members of the management
committee and belonged to the
middle managers category
----'3=-+ to 31
managers category Management
For studying the organisational change all those executives who met the
following criterias:
) Should not have attended the Values Clarification process till March
1996 in the executive cadre.
) Should have joined the organisation atleast six months before the
study commenced Le. before February 1994.
) Should have had no break in service.
The executives who met the above criteria in various categories of the
management are given below.
•
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•
No. Management No. of No. ... ·AIIl8for .... z' ... n Cadre ex«utlves Inter viewed
1 Jtmior 34 31 2 on long leave Management •
on long official travel 1
2 Middle 6 4 2 on long official travel. Management
Total 40 35 5
The other executives had participated in the first part of Values
Clarification process which is the workshop but were yet to attend the review
workshops and hence were excluded.
2.9 Research Design
The research design that drives this study is exploratory. The present
study aims at exploring the influence of Values Clarification on the individuals,
organisational culture and its effectiveness. Exploratory design facilitates
discovering relations among variables and lay the ground work for more
systematic and rigorous testing of hypothesis.
The study in order to gain deeper understanding on the Values
Clarification process and its influence focussed on a single organisation which
was willing to provide cooperation and support to a study of this nature.
In order to ensure objectivity, both qualitative and quantitative
techniques were used during the process of data collection. Also those who
were subject to the Values Clarification process and those who had not been
through the process were included to get an outsiders perspective within the
organisation on the influence of the process.
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To maintain uniformity in the interview, the respondents were
interviewed individually using an interview guide.
Though the study was primarily explorative in nature, during the course
of the exploration, the researcher had to use various methods in order to
ascertain the actual influence of Values Clarification process on development of
Organisational Culture.
2.10 Values Clarification Process
Values Clarification process was a four day workshop in the first phase of the
intervention. The objectives and the methodology of the process is given
below.
Objectives
~ To understand why one behaves the way one does.
~ To understand one's orientation towards:
• Freedom (Achievement Orientation)
• Relationship
• Power and Influence
• Learning
• Honesty and Integrity
To gain deeper clarity on one's own style of functioning and its
implication in the organisational and life context.
To understand the paradigms one is living by and gain clarity on
the need to make shift in the same.
To understand what prevents one from changing.
To understand the ability to risk and accept challenges .
•
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•
To understand the source of conflict and learning how to deal
with it.
The contents of Values Clarification process and their objectives
In the table given below, the Values Clarification process is presented
with all the sub process and their objectives.
TABLE 5
Contents of Values Clarification Process
. No. Session Title Objective
1 Micro lab. To ease the participants and give them an insight into
what they are likely to experience during the course of
the process and also enable them to open up
comfortably. ~2 Defining the To set the boundaries of the process and establish
boundaries. ground rules for working.
3 Setting the Understanding learning and enable people to begin
context for the real process oflearning.
learning.
4 Understanding To create awareness on the need for Values
the need for Clarification and its relevance in the context of
Values everyday living.
Clarification.
S Understanding To provide meaning of values from the context of
the meaning of everyday life rather than a concept.
values. To enable people to understand why they behave the
way they behave and the cause and effect relationship
of behaviour.
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To enable people to change at the cause level than at
the effect level.
6 Understanding To let people experience the 'consequences of their
the influence of own beliefs and paradigms in the context of the
beliefs and various roles they play in life . •
paradigilis.
Day 2
7 Understanding To facilitate the realisation of the gap that exists
the gap between what one wants to be and what one is.
between what To enable people to understand the blocks that
one wants to be prevent one from bridging this gap.
and what one To understand the need to take ownership for • reducing the gap. IS.
8 Values profile To enable people to understand their values profile.
Understanding To enable people to see the interdependence of values
how one's and the implications of any imbalance in the context
values are of real life.
perceived by To understand the importance of freedom
people around. (achievement orientation), relationship, power and
influence, learning, honesty and integrity.
To facilitate individuals to connect their own life
events with the consequences that shows up with
every imbalance . .L
3"" day
... Continuation of values profile
9 Understanding Understanding the values which are at the source of
value conflicts. almost all human conflicts one experiences.
Enabling people to experience their own source of
conflicts.
lO Understanding To enable people to see how their own behaviour has
the way one's evolved over the years. . .
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behaviour is To facilitate how one's own knowing blocks one's
formed. further knowing.
To facilitate how at each level of behaviour formation
• one seems to be unmindful of the realities which in
turn affects the quality of the final behaviour.
4th day .
11 Understanding To introduce basic human values and to initiate a
the multiple process of self enquiIy which takes care of the need
facets of the to learn to learn.
values and To understand the multiple facets of each value in the
develop the real life context.
ability to learn
to learn.
12 Understanding To enable people to understand the valuing process.
the valuing To experience one's own skill level in the various
process. steps involved in the valtling process.
To facilitate the realisation that each one of us are
hardly working to our capability.
13 Individual and To enable participants to see the implications of
Organisational alignment/non-alignment between individual and values. organisational values.
14 Understanding To enable people to see the distinction between
the meaning of "form" and "essence".
"form" and To enable people to see how conflicts are usually at
"essence", the "form" level.
To enable people to understand the need to be "form
flexible".
15 Understanding To enable people to break one's own chains which
the limitations prevent them from changing.
set by oneself.
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16 Leamingto To facilitate the realisation that there is always a way
look at options. out in any situation without breaking the boundaries.
17 Closure To nurture faith and hope in being able to be what
one is capable of . •
Values Clarification uses an inductive group process or, an experiential
learning approach. The participants learn the theory of Values Clarification as
they are actually working out their values in the group through exercises and
instl1lments. The participants are encouraged to share with their group as
much of their values as they feel comfortable. No one is forced to share any
more than he wants to.
2.11 Review Workshop - I
After the participants of the Values C1arification process spent over six months
in the real life context they were taken through a review workshop with the
primary objective of understanding what kind of changes they could experience
and the influence of Values C1arification process in the real life context. The
Review Workshop-I was for one day. 1bis workshop also facilitated in
clarifying doubts and in supporting change efforts.
2.12 Review workshop - II
After the participants of the review workshop had spent around twelve months
in the real life context, they went through Review Workshop II. The primary
objective of this workshop was to gain insights into how much of the learnings
from the Values C1arification process has been integrated in to the actual life
context and how to further the same. The duration of the workshop was one
day.
•
•
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60 •
2.13 Methods of Data Collection and Techniques U8ed to Analyse the Data.
Based on the objectives of the study, appropriate tools ·,.ae used for data
collection. A brief description of the same is provided under the following
headings:
1. Values Profile Questionnaire.
2. Guided interview schedule was used to interview the individuals for
developing the individual case studies.
3. Interview guide was used to collect data from individual for developing the
organisational case study.
4. Secondary data was gathered from published documents such as the annual
reports of the company write ups in leading business magazines.
5. The Researcher throughout the period of study recorded significant
happenings and process in the organisation.
A brief on the above tools 1 to 3 used in this study is given below:
2.14 Values Profile Questionnaire
Values Profile Questionnaire was developed by J.M. Sampath in 1992. •
The basic objective of the tool is to enable the individual to take a close
look at one's own values profile as perceived by others. The basic principle on
which the whole questionnaire was developed by the researcher is:
"No single value by itself is valuable, values are interdependent and one
needs to understand the interdependence in order to understand one's own •
behaviour"
•
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Variables in the Questionnaire
The basic values that have been studied through the questionnaire are:
FIeedmn
Responsibility
Involvement
Discipline
Relationship
Involvement
Discipline
Power & Influence
Learning
Openness
Discipline
Honesty & Integrity
Concern
Initiative
Discipline
For each of these values the interdependent qualities are linked which
makes the value complete.
Questionnaire
The questionnaire consists of twenty-six items and is categorised under
five basic elements as given above. A copy of the questionnaire is given at
AppendixB.
Validity and Reliability of the Questionnaire
Face validity of the questionnaire was established by sending it to
experts in the field. Out of 16 experts, 11 experts had responded positively on
the conceptual framework and the questionnaire while the others did not
respond. The reliability of the questionnaire has been established by using the
test re-test method with r= .68.
The above questionnaire has been used in the corporations in USA,
Middle &st, Malaysia and other countries extensively over the years.
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•
•
2.15 Interview Guide for Individual Study
.
The interview guide focuses on three important areas which are personal
information, changes perceived in the organisational context and change
perceived in the personal context. The interview guide used to collect data to
construct the individual case studies is given at Appendix C . •
2.16 Interview guide for Organisational Case Study
An interview guide was developed to collect data from individuals on the
kind of changes if any, they perceived in the organisational context. The
interview schedule has two segments: the personal information s<:glllent and
the organisational data segment. A copy of the interview guide is given at
AppendixD.
2.17 Administration of the Questionnaire
When it comes to evaluating values, it is important to study how a
person is being experienced by people around than what he or she thinks of
himself or herself. Keeping this viewpoint in mind each of the participant was
asked to choose five people from within the organisation with whom he has
working relationship. The responses of these five individuals were collected and
using the key given at Appendix E, the responses were converted into
numerical scores. Further the level-wise scores were arrived at by averaging
the sum of all individual average score of that level.
The respondents chosen by each individual, were kept the same for all
the three evaluations except in cases where the employees had resigned or did
not have working relationship with the individual due to internal transfers or
organisational restructuring.
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2.18 Analysis of the Data
The data was primarily analysed at three levels which are:
The individual case studies
The level-wise group scores
The organisational change case study
Given below is the way the data was analysed at various levels:
2.19 Individual o.se Studies
Based on the data collected through the guided interviews, each
individual case was analysed to arrive at the kind of changes perceived at the
individual level. The data analysis was carried out to identify and record the
kind of changes experienced at organisational and personal context.
2.20 Level-wise Group Profile
The responses given to each individual by five others were averaged
item-wise to arrive at the individual scores using the key. (This process was
repeated at Review I & II workshops). The scores of the individuals were
further added up to arrive at the level-wise scores i.e. all the scores of the
individuals belonging to the junior management was summed up to arrive at
the junior management score. Simi1arly the middle and senior management
scores were added up and averaged to arrive at the respective group scores.
The same process was repeated during Review Workshop I and Review
Workshop II.
The level-wise scores (Junior, Middle & Senior Management) were
further compiled and compared with the earlier data to gain insights on the
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64 •
nature of shifts in the scores, which could further give insights into the cultural
changes if any.
, The responses to the items in the Values PlOfile Questionnaire was
summarised into mean scores at three different time ~ods of study - n, T2 &
T3 (T1 - Pre intervention, T2 - 6 months later, T3 - 18 months later). To •
establish the degree of difference in the mean scores between various time
intervals, statistical techniques to ascertain the significance between mean
(t-Ratio) were used. For this purpose the variances, standard deviation,
standard error of the means, standard error of the difference between means
were calculated. The confidence level for interpreting the data was set at P<.01
level, though in a few cases the significance of the difference between means at
the P<O.05Ievel are reported. To calculate the t-Ratio the standard error of the
difference between means was first computed using the formula.
2.21 Organisational Change Case Study
The data coliected through the guided interviews from individuals was
analysed to arrive at the kind of changes at the organisational level as the
individuals who had not gone through the Values Clarification process. The
data was further processed to identify the direction of changes and its
implication on the organisational culture.
2.22 Conclusion
Studying organisational culture is a complex task. The current study
explores the influence of Values Clarification process in the development of
organisational culture makes the task even more complicated. Efforts have
been made by the researcher to adapt appropriate methods so as to not lose the
objectivity during the process of the study.