Organizational Culture in Student-Consulting Firms: Maintaining Culture Despite High Employee Turnover

(1)

Organizational Culture in Student- Consulting Firms

MAINTAINING CULTURE DESPITE HIGH EMPLOYEE TURNOVER

PETER GRUNDSTRÖM JOHANNA LUNDIN

Master of Science Thesis Stockholm, Sweden 2012

(2)

Organizational Culture in Student- Consulting Firms

Maintaining culture despite high employee turnover

Peter Grundström Johanna Lundin

Master of Science Thesis INDEK 2012:48 KTH Industrial Engineering and Management

Industrial Management SE-100 44 STOCKHOLM

(3)

Master of Science Thesis INDEK 2012:48

Organizational Culture in Student- Consulting Firms

Peter Grundström Johanna Lundin

Approved

2012-06-13

Examiner

Ingela Sölvell

Supervisor

Ingela Sölvell

Commissioner

N/a

Contact person

N/a

Abstract

This study explores student-consulting firms and how a strong organizational culture can be a key to mitigate their particular challenge of high employee turnover and how their management can work with different dimensions of organizational culture as tools to embed a strong organizational culture. A student-consulting firm is a consulting firm operated by students still engaged in regular educational programs that can be

considered a form of knowledge-intensive firm (KIF).

This study investigates how management in these firms work with organizational culture through four dimensions, symbols, heroes, rituals and ceremonies, and values.

These dimensions are based on Schein [1990] and extended by input from Hofstede et al. [1990] and Bolman and Deal [2003]. The findings of this study are based on three detailed case studies conducted at the three largest student-consulting firms in Sweden where semi-structured interviews were performed to investigate how management work with different managerial tools in these four dimensions.

This study concludes that there are at least eleven discreet management tools that are used in these firms to mitigate the challenges that their high employee turnover implies.

The findings provide in-depth insight into these tools and their usage and effect, thereby enhancing the understanding of the role of organizational culture and providing a

framework for management.

Key-words

Organizational Culture, Knowledge-Intensive Firms, Employee Turnover, Socialization, Student-Consulting Firms, and Management Tools

(4)

Examensarbete INDEK 2012:48

Organizational Culture in Student- Consulting Firms

Peter Grundström Johanna Lundin

Godkänt

2012-06-13

Examinator

Ingela Sölvell

Handledare

Ingela Sölvell

Uppdragsgivare

N/a

Kontaktperson

N/a

Sammanfattning

Denna studie utforskar studentkonsultbolag och hur en stark organisationskultur kan vara en lösning på deras specifika utmaning av hög personalomsättning och hur ledningen i dessa bolag kan arbeta med olika dimensioner av organisationskultur som verktyg för att etablera en stark organisationskultur. Ett studentkonsultbolag är ett konsultbolag som drivs av studenter som arbetar vid sidan av sina ordinarie studier.

Dessa bolag kan anses vara en form av kunskapsintensiva företag.

Denna studie undersöker hur ledningen i studentkonsultbolag arbetar med organisationskultur genom fyra olika dimensioner, symboler, hjältar, ritualer och ceremonier, samt värderingar. Dessa dimensioner har baserats på Schein [1990] och utvecklats med tillägg från Hofstede et al. [1990] och Bolman and Deal [2003]. Resultatet av studien bygger på tre detaljerade fallstudier som genomförts vid de tre största studen- tkonsultbolagen i Sverige. I dessa studier har ett antal semi-strukturerade intervjuer genomförts för att undersöka hur ledningen i dessa bolag arbetar med olika verktyg i de fyra olika kulturella dimensionerna.

Resultatet av studien visar på att det finns åtminstone elva stycken olika verktyg som ledningen i dessa bolag använder sig av för att mildra de utmaningar som deras höga personalomsättning ger upphov till. Resultaten ger en djupgående insikt i dessa verktyg, dess användning och verkan och därigenom också en ökad förståelse för

organisationskultur och dess roll samt tillhandahålls en verktygslåda för ledningen.

Nyckelord

Organisationskultur, Kunskapsintensiva företag, Personalomsättning, So- cialisering, Studentkonsultbolag, Managementverktyg

(5)

List of Figures

Division of cultural dimensions . . . 16

Levels of organizational culture . . . 16

Overview of research process . . . 23

Interdependence between values and the other dimensions . . . 58

List of Tables

Overview of the analytical process . . . 27

Overview of the companies and their operations . . . 31

Role and affiliation of interview respondents . . . 32

Resulting list of management tools within the dimension symbols . . . 55

Resulting list of management tools within the dimension heroes . . . 56

Resulting list of management tools within the dimension rituals and ceremonies . . . 57

(9)

Introduction

Student-consulting firms are consulting firms operated by students still engaged in regular educational programs. This is a well-established concept in Sweden and there are successful examples at most of the country’s prestigious technological and business universities. The main rational behind these firms is to allow students to practice their theoretical knowledge and to increase their attractiveness as employees.

Student-consulting firms can be considered a form of knowledge-intensive firm (KIF), since they follow Alvesson’s [2000] defining characteristics of such. This definition includes strong elements of problem solving and non-standardized work, a high degree of creativity in the work of both the employee and the organization itself, and a strong dependence on individual employees that have a high degree of independence in their work. Robertsson and Swan [2003] support Alvesson’s [2000] view of KIFs and summarizes by saying that the “capacity to solve complex problems through the development of creative and innovative solutions” (p. 833) are their key characteristics.

Alvesson [2000] talks about knowledge-intensive firms as opposed to labor-intensive or capital-intensive firms and describes, how human resources are in strong dominance in knowledge-based companies. Alvesson [2000] argues that the individual are the key knowledge carrier in a KIF, even if knowledge can be partly institutionalized at the organizational level, in the form of organizational culture, systematized ways of working, manuals, etc. Robertsson and Swan [2003] agree that the collective expertise of the workforce is the primary asset of KIFs and add that these firms are completely reliant on the loyalty and expertise of their workforce.

Since the workforce of a KIF is its primary resource, problems can occur when employees quit. Dalton and Todor [1979] have found possible negative organizational consequences of employee turnover to be, for example, the costs of recruiting, hiring, assimilation and training of personnel. Further possible negative organizational aspects of turnover are, according to Mobley [1982], the disruption of social and communication structures and the loss of high performers.

This study will focus on student-consulting firms, which experience especially high employee turnover rates since employees are only eligible to work in these kind of companies for a limited time during their education. Generally, management in these firms is replaced every year, along with most of the company’s workforce. This study will assume that a strong organizational culture is essential to mitigate the challenges that high employee turnover leads to and that management can work with different dimensions of organizational culture as tools to embed a strong organizational culture.

According to Alvesson [2001], organizational culture is important for a company because it gives employees motivation and meaning, controls the decision-making and resource allocation processes, facilitates communication, creates a social adhesive and acts as a guideline for thinking, feeling and acting. These factors are important for KIFs due to the high level of uncertainty and the lack of pre- and well-defined processes and procedures. However, for KIFs the most significant reason for developing a strong organizational culture is the creation of normative control. Kunda [1992] argues that

(10)

the basic idea behind the creation of a strong culture is the development of normative control, to tie employees’ heart and soul to the organization’s interest. This is a way to ensure that employees think and work in the same way as the organization. In doing so, several peoples’ skills and time can be directed towards the same goal with less established and well-defined processes and procedures. Robertsson and Swan [2003]

shows that a strong organizational culture of acceptance for the uncertainty, in the processes and procedures, leads to the creation of a loyal and efficient workforce that is able to maintain flexibility over time. Schein [1990] suggests culture is vital to organizations since it help it cope with the surrounding environment.

Schein [1990] defines organizational culture as “a pattern of basic assumptions, in- vented, discovered, or developed by a given group, as it learns to cope with its problem of external adaptation and internal integration, that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore is taught to new members as the correct way” [Schein, 1990, p.111], which implies that organizational culture cannot exist in situations where there is no common history. Since employees in student-consulting firms are frequently transitioned, the amount of common history is limited in these firms. This might become an obstacle when trying to develop a strong organizational culture.

Earlier research [Schein, 1990, Bolman and Deal, 2003, Hofstede et al., 1990, Pettigrew, 1979, Bang, 1999] concludes that organizational culture can be analyzed from several levels consisting of various elements. Therefore there is of interest to find out what aspects that are culture bearing in the context of this study. This study assume that there are a number of cultural dimensions that captures the different levels of culture, that is both the core and the more explicit expressions of culture, which in this study will be further linked to managerial and cultural tools.

The assumption of this study is that a strong organizational culture is essential to mitigate the challenges that firms with high employee turnover faces. The same high employee turnover makes it hard to maintain an organizational culture over shifts in management generations. Therefore, as an extension of the assumption, socialization will be considered an important tool to help maintain an organizational culture.

Alvesson [2000] argues that socialization is closely linked to culture, in the sense that socialization is a process aspect of the culture. It is through socialization that people embrace the culture and become cultural beings. Culture specifies the content and outcome of socialization and socialization teaches new individuals a certain culture.

Alvesson [2001] argues that socialization is impossible without culture and without socialization there will be no cultural bearers. Also, Schein [1985] claims that culture and socialization are externally related rather than logically connected. Therefore, it is more proper to say that organizational culture is a prerequisite for socialization.

Without a distinct culture, socialization is neither necessary nor possible [Alvesson, 2001].

In sum, student-consulting firms are knowledge-intensive firms that are heavily dependent on their workforce. These firms are subjected to certain challenges because of the especially high employee turnover they face and it is interesting to investigate how these challenges can be mitigated.

(11)

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to investigate how a strong organizational culture can be a key to mitigate the challenges that high employee turnover leads to and how management can work with different dimensions of organizational culture as tools to embed a strong organizational culture in the context of student-consulting firms. This study will also investigate how socialization can be considered an important tool to help maintain an organizational culture over shifts in management generations. In order to accomplish its purpose, this study addresses the following research questions:

• In student-consulting firms, how can management work with different dimensions of organizational culture as tools to embed a strong organizational culture?

• How can socialization, and the selection, of new employees be used as a managerial tool to maintain organizational culture and help mitigate the challenges of high employee turnover?

Delimitations

Before conducting this study it was clear that there might be several solutions to the challenges of high employee turnover such as, organizational culture, structure, bu- reaucracy, and knowledge management. This study will not assume that there is one perfect solution to this problem, but will instead assume that management in these firms will have to work with all of these aspects to be successful. However, this study focus solely on organizational culture as a mean to mitigate the challenges that high employee turnover implies. Only studying organizational culture gives this study the opportunity to describe cultural aspects, which affects all management areas such as, decision-making, relations to employees, and communication. All activities in an organization are in some way affected by the organizational culture, which gives this study a broad array of tools to mitigate the challenges of high employee turnover. Worth clarifying is that the purpose of this study has not been to extensively identify and map the case study object’s different cultures, but rather to identify how management in the student-consulting firms work with different tools to mitigate the challenges of high employee turnover.

This study will investigate the three biggest student-consulting firms in Sweden, since these are well established and have experienced several generations of management.

The concept student-consulting exist in other countries as well, but this study focus solely on Sweden. The main reason for this is that the time restriction of this study would not be possible to be met if additional investigations for each country had been required, in order to understand if the situation for the firms in these countries are the same as for those in Sweden. Moreover, there might also be a regional aspect of culture that does not need to be investigated when solely studying the Swedish market.

There are other type of businesses that experiences the same high levels of employee turnover, such as fast food restaurants and cleaning firms. For example McDonald s

(12)

have a turnover rate between 100 and 200% per year in many countries [Leidner, 1993]. However, Leidner [1993] argues that organizations use strategies that rely on various degrees of socialization and social control to obtain cooperation of its employees. How these strategies are developed depend on the organizational environment and the nature of the work. Fast food restaurants and cleaning firms are, as opposed to student-consulting firms, labor-intensive firms where employees are easily replaced.

At these firms work have been reduced to simple steps and routines have been established to make the employee’s work very easy. Consequently, there is a big difference in the context and nature of work of these businesses. Therefore employee turnover in companies where the work is not considered to be knowledge-intensive are regarded to be out of the scope of this study. This study uses a management perspective when answering the research questions. It does not investigate how employees perceive the challenges of high employee turnover or how they perceive management’s use of different tools to mitigate these problems. The challenges of high employee turnover is, in this study, considered a responsibility for the management.

Disposition

Section 2 Theoretical background Section 3 Method

Section 4 Case study results Section 5 Analysis

Section 6 Conclusion

(13)

Theoretical background

This chapter presents the theoretical background that constitutes the foundation of the empirical part and analysis of this study. The theoretical background starts of by presenting how management can influence an organization and embed their paradigm of organizational culture through a number of mechanisms. After that, high employee turnover and its implications are presented. This study then goes on to describe different dimensions of organizational culture and what tools that are available related to these dimensions. Finally, socialization and the theoretical perspective on its importance are discussed.

Management’s influence on organizational culture

Schein [1983] describes how founders and entrepreneurs develop organizational culture and how such cultures can be analyzed. He describes how founders often have a cultural paradigm and a theory on how to succeed. Consequently, he argues, how first generation companies develop distinctive cultures, mainly due to the complex interaction between the assumptions and theories that the founders bring to the group initially.

Schein [1983] argues that developing shared assumptions about the nature of the world, in which the organization exists, can make life livable and comfortable for its members. Further he describes that the organizational culture will emerge through the socialization of new members into the assumption of how the problems that the group faces should be solved. Assumptions, which he argues, have been created through the embedding of solutions that previously have worked well enough to be taken for granted, and therefore dropped out of awareness.

A key element in Schein’s [1983] article is what he calls cultural embedding, or just embedding. He describes embedding as the way “a founder or leader gets the group to do things in a certain way in the first place” [Schein, 1983, p. 21]. This study will assume Schein’s [1983] view that the process of embedding a cultural phenomena, such as a given belief or assumption, must be a teaching process, but that it does not have to be an explicit one. The embedding will be successful only if the group shares the perception that the solution, belief or assumption is sound and works. If that is the case, and if the solution continues to work, then it will be taken for granted and taught to newcomers [Schein, 1983].

Schein [1983, 1985] lists a number of mechanisms that he argues represents all the possible ways in which management can embed their cultural paradigm. This study will cover most of these factors, in one way or another. However, some of the channels are more in line with what this study will focus on. One of the most interesting channels is “What leaders pay attention to, measure, and control.” [Schein, 1983, p.22], which is really the basis for management influence. It is interesting not only because it gives overview over what management focus on and think is important, but also because it gives an overview over what management do not think is important. “Deliberate role

(14)

modeling, teaching, and coaching by leaders” [Schein, 1983, p.22] works as management tools and is thus of great interest for this study. “Criteria for recruitment and selection, promotion, retirement, and dismissal” is a part of socialization, which is one of the focus areas of this study. Schein [1983] also states that management can communicate their cultural paradigm through design of physical spaces, facades, and buildings and through formal statements of organizational philosophy, charters, creeds and materials used for recruitment, selection, and socialization. These will also be used as analytical aspects in this study. Schein [1983] raises the issue of transitioning the founder’s organizational culture to coming generations of management. For the companies in this study, a similar disruptive transition will occur every year when management is replaced and not only when the founder quit.

High employee turnover

Existing literature on employee turnover deals to a large extent with the possible causes of employee turnover and tries to recommend how to retain staff [Morrell et al., 2004, Baron et al., 2001, Bassett-Jones and Lloyd, 2005]. Aspects relating to the nature of work itself, such as organizational commitment, compensation, overall job satisfaction, and job involvement, can affect employee turnover. (Bassett-Jones and Lloyd, 2005).

However, this is not an issue in this study, since in the context of student-consulting firms the employee turnover rates are high by natural reasons. The question is not why employees quit, but instead what the impact and consequences of employee turnover are for these firms. For this study the question of how the organizations are affected by the high employee turnover is more relevant to consider.

There are both positive and negative documented consequences of turnover, even if the negative perhaps are the more frequent studied and the assumed set of consequences.

Dalton and Todor [1979] as well as Dess and D.Shaw [2001] presents possible negative organizational consequences of voluntary employee turnover to be; costs of recruiting, hiring, assimilation, and training of personnel. More interesting for this study are other effects described by Dess and D.Shaw [2001] who describes the indirect cost of employee turnover such as effects on morale, pressure on remaining staff, and the loss of organizational culture. Further possible negative organizational aspects of turnover are, according to Mobley [1982], the disruption of social and communication structures, loss of high performers and knowledge, decreased satisfaction among stayers, and negative publicity from leavers. The two latter are not notably relevant in this study since employees do not frequently quit because of dissatisfaction. What is of greater interest are the social structures and continuity that is jeopardized by the turnover.

However if managed well, employee turnover might also generate some positive implications. Dalton and Todor [1979] present evidence that turnover increases organizational effectiveness. This since turnover gives rise to a mobility that brings new blood and ideas to the organization. Innovation has shown distinct implications on organizational effectiveness. Mobley [1982] lists further possible positive consequences of employee turnover, and for the organization these can be the displacement of poor performers,

(15)

infusion of new knowledge, and increased structural flexibility. However these are not of interest for this study. For the sake of this study, it is interesting to investigate what implications of employee turnover that are important for in the specific context of student-consulting firms and how management can use cultural tools to mitigate the effects of the turnover.

Division of Cultural Concepts

Cultural characteristics of organizations, as well as symbolic aspects of organizational phenomena, have been extensively studied since the end of the 1970s. A rather hetero- geneous accumulation of literature has been produced, ranging from consultancy-based reports to more theoretical studies. In the organizational and management literature culture is a “grand concept”, which have been defined in numerous ways. Typically, definitions of the concept emphases shared values, meanings, and beliefs of a group.

[Alvesson, 1989]

Over the years, different cultural researchers have used a wide variety of concepts to study organizational culture. In the earliest attempts, researchers tended to focus on the single, discrete elements of culture that seemed especially important for the particular setting studied. [Trice and Beyer, 1984] Pettigrew [1979] argues that “it should be recognized that these concepts are to varying degrees interdependent and that there is some convergence in the way they relate to functional problems of integration, control, and commitment” [Pettigrew, 1979, p. 576]. Consequently, this narrow focus jeop- ardizes the traditional conceptions of culture that stresses the interdependence and interconnection of cultural elements [Trice and Beyer, 1984]. In order to widen the approach some authors instead started to use culture as a broad and universal construct that included almost any concept and phenomena. This instead lead to the problem that whatever distinctive contribution organizational culture could have was robbed out. Furthermore, the authors have often treated the different concepts separately, which have led to a disability to show how different concepts link together. [Trice and Beyer, 1984] This study agrees with Schein [1990] when he argues that to study organizational culture each level of it must be understood and that it is only possible to make statements about discrete elements of culture, not its entirety. However this study also stresses Pettigrew’s [1979] argument that the different dimensions are interdependent to a varying degree, which makes it necessary to take a comprehensive yet divided approach of culture and study the dimensions not only individually but also as a whole.

Earlier research [Schein, 1990, Bolman and Deal, 2003, Hofstede et al., 1990, Petti- grew, 1979, Bang, 1999] concludes that organizational culture can be analyzed from several levels consisting of various elements. Commonly mentioned elements are artifacts/symbols, values, norms and basic underlying assumptions [Schein, 1990, Bolman and Deal, 2003, Hofstede et al., 1990, Pettigrew, 1979, Bang, 1999]. However, each author has its own set of concepts to describe the different elements of organizational culture.

(16)

Past research has demonstrated a clear lack of uniformity in the labeling of cultural dimensions [Trice and Beyer, 1984]. Different concepts make the literature diverse and confusing. However, even if different authors have different divisions and definitions of the dimensions of organizational culture they incorporate almost the same meaning [Trice and Beyer, 1984] and the naming of the concepts are not notably important as long as they include what is intended to be studied. For the purpose of this study, a division of dimensions has been chosen that is both mutually exclusive and reasonably comprehensive. The dimensions that are used in this study aims to capture both the core and expressions of culture, which in this study will be further linked to managerial and cultural tools. This study does not investigate only a limited number of dimensions. Rather, since the dimensions are interdependent a more comprehensive approach, which comprises parts as well as the whole, is preferred.

Schein [1990] has offered an important contribution to the definition of what organizational culture is. He divides organizational culture into three distinct and fundamental levels, observable artifacts, values, and basic underlying assumptions. Hofstede et al.

[1990] classifies the manifestations of organizational culture into four categories, symbols, heroes, rituals, and values. Like Schein [1990], the authors divide the aspects in different levels, from the shallow, superficial symbols to the deeper heroes and rituals and eventually the core of culture, the values. Thus, culture can be said to consist of two components; (1) the deeper level, its core, that incorporates values; and (2) its forms, the practices in which the meanings are expressed. This motivates that authors, when studying organizational culture, have been able to interpret the deeper level of culture by studying its more expressive forms. [Trice and Beyer, 1984]

The division of cultural dimensions in this study is based on that of Schein [1990]

but with some alterations and additions from Hofstede et al.’s [1990] and Bolman and Deal’s [2003]. Schein’s [1990] concept artifacts are for this study renamed symbols in order to emphasize that it include more than just physical artifacts. For this study, what is included in Schein’s [1990] concept artifacts is further divided into three distinct dimensions: symbols, heroes, and rituals and ceremonies. Thus, this study incorporates Hofstede et al.’s [1990] and Bolman and Deal’s [2003] dimensions rituals (and ceremonies), as well as their concepts of heroes (See Figure 1). It could be argued that the two concepts, rituals and ceremonies, and heroes, solely are different kinds of symbols, but their importance as management tools motivates the effort to study them separately. For this study values is used as the deepest dimension of culture.

Symbols, heroes, and rituals and ceremonies are regarded as more expressive forms of organizational culture. Hence, the division of concepts and core elements for analyzing organizational culture in this study is symbols, heroes, rituals, and values (See figure 2).

(17)

Figure 1: Division of cultural dimensions

Bolman and Deal’s [2003] concepts myths, visions and values can be linked to what Schein [1990] describes as values and basic underlying assumptions and what [Hofstede et al., 1990] indicate as values. Heroes and heroines, stories and narratives, rituals and ceremonies

as well as metaphors, humor, and play can all be regarded as what Schein [1990] calls artifacts.

Figure 2: Levels of organizational culture

Culture can be said to consist of two levels (1) the core, values and (2) the practices, symbols, heroes, and rituals and ceremonies, in which the meanings of organizational

culture are expressed.

(18)

Symbols

Organizational culture can be expressed through the use of symbols, which can incorporate both forms of material and verbal expressions [Bang, 1999]. Schein [1990]

argues that observable artifacts are the most visible level of culture and he defines artifacts as what is observed and felt when entering an organization. According to Schein [1990] artifacts comprise any tangible or verbally identifiable element in an organization. Bolman and Deal [2003] states that symbols are the building blocks in cultures. They argue that an organization’s culture can be expressed and communi- cated through the use of symbols. [Hofstede et al., 1990] have a similar approach when they talk about symbols that carry a particular meaning in the culture.

In this study, symbols in the form of material expressions, such as office (location, furniture, architecture, etc.) is considered relevant to study as potential managerial tools. This study assumes Kunda’s [1992] view that artifactual displays, such as the office and its architecture work as management tools and influences the behavior and work of employees in an organization. In this study it is also assumed that the use of the office, for work and pleasure; and the communication between employees during for instance lunch affects employee’s behavior [Kunda, 1992].

Logos, explicit values and guidelines (such as code of conduct and policies) are considered as forms of symbols. Kunda [1992] states that ideological principles, such as explicit core values, can be embodied in specific managerial policies in order to reduce the significance of traditional bureaucratic control structures. A tool that management can use to articulate their voice and mediate the organization’s ideology is, according to Kunda [1992], by the use of documents such as handbooks and policy descriptions.

In accordance with Pettigrew [1979] this study emphasizes the role of symbols and their role in creating purpose, identity and meaning in organizations and argues that symbols have significant functional consequences for the organization. In the context of this study symbols are vital first and foremost since they are fixed cultural expressions that remains in the organization even when employees are replaced.

Heroes

Organizational culture can also be expressed through the use of heroes, which Hofstede et al.’s [1990] defines as persons, current or historical, real or imaginary that inhabits characteristics vital for the culture and thus serve as role models within the organization. Bolman and Deal [2003] have a similar definition, but focus more on current individuals in the organization when they describe heroes and heroines as living logo- types for an organization. They argue that executives are the company’s living brands and human icons whose words and deeds illustrate and enhance important core values. This study assumes that heroes and heroines need not only be executives, but can exist anywhere in an organization in the form of ordinary people doing extraordinary things. Heroes and heroines are considered role models that guide the organization and indicate direction in times of stress and uncertainty. [Bolman and Deal, 2003]

(19)

Kunda [1992] argues that recorded thoughts, observations and ideas of senior management are some of the most common forms of ideological expressions. He describes that management can function as role models and that the way management behaves and lead by example could work as a tool for guiding the organization’s employees.

This study will furthermore, as is also stressed by Kunda [1992], regard awards as a way to emphasize special efforts and good work.

This study regards heroes as ideals and role models, real or fictive, in an organization.

As stated earlier in this study, there can be as well verbal-, behavioral- and material expressions of heroes and this study comprise all of them. Verbal expressions of heroes can be for example stories, myths and legends about people, work or events in the organization. History telling is described by Bolman and Deal [2003]; as an easy, timeless and memorable way to spread organizational traditions, train and educate employees, spread information and messages, marketing and sell, behold performance, and recruit the right people. In this context verbal expressions of heroes can exist in the organization longer than the heroes themselves. Behavioral expressions of heroes can, as Kunda [1992] states, are how management, and other people in the organization, acts as role models. However, historical narratives in the organization can also guide and direct behavior. Bolman and Deal [2003] argues that lessons learned from role models guide behavior in the organization. Objects such as photographs, products, and awards that remain the organization of the hero can also communicate cultural implications of heroes materially.

The relation to the research questions of this study can justify regarding heroes as a separate dimension of organizational culture. Heroes, and the sub dimensions it gives rise to, constitute many of the important managerial tools for working with organizational culture.

Rituals and ceremonies

This study treat rituals and ceremonies as structural expressions of organizational culture, and argue that culture can be embedded through repeated activities [Trice and Beyer, 1984]. This study assumes that rituals are collective activities that are socially essential [Hofstede et al., 1990] and that rituals and ceremonies give direction and guidance in a seemingly difficult terrain [Bolman and Deal, 2003]. Bolman and Deal [2003] define rituals as simple, daily routines that incorporate a great deal of meaning. They argue that overall, rituals give structure and meaning for life itself;

and historically, many organizations have relied on rituals to establish order and clarity.

In this study, it is assumed that rituals play an important role in integration but also for connecting a group and anchor its members in the organizations traditions and values [Bolman and Deal, 2003]. Bolman and Deal [2003] defines ceremonies as more sporadic events that have a special purpose. Their main purpose, in this study, is to socialize, reduce ambiguity, and to embed organizational culture [Bolman and Deal, 2003, Maanen, 1978]. Ceremonies are, according to Bolman and Deal [2003], expressive happenings that establish order and meaning and bind the organization together.

Rituals and ceremonies can be seen as a continuous spectrum compromising of collec-

(20)

tive routines and habits in the organization, with both activities that are performed on a common (daily, weekly, or monthly) basis as well as more seldom and magnificent events. For the sake of this study, both rituals and ceremonies have been incorporated in this dimension and no explicit differentiation between these forms is made.

The most common way to distinguish between these forms is by the frequency of the events [Trice and Beyer, 1984], which is not considered particularly important for this study. Rather the separation that is interesting for this study is according to the tools that rituals and ceremonies constitute, such as meetings, recruitment, training, and social activities. In the context of this study rituals and ceremonies are important since the concept covers all the gatherings in an organization, situations where management is able to communicate with each other and the employees. This offers an important setting and opportunity for group dynamics, socialization, interaction, and influence of organizational members.

According to Kunda [1992], structural gatherings that have the quality of rituals are central features of work life. He argues that these frequently occurring interactions, both the larger and smaller events, are not only a way to generate and express role- prescribed collective beliefs and emotions, but also a mode for face-to-face control.

According to Kunda [1992] management sets the stage, provides the rhetoric, and re- serves the right to the final word, but most work is done by the members themselves as a result of group pressure and the desire to execute their role. According to Kunda [1992] rituals are face-to-face gatherings such as speeches, presentations, meetings, lec- tures, parties and training workshops. From his perspective rituals can be seen as a mechanism for normative control and a mechanisms that shape organizational members’ thoughts and feelings. Particular management tools that Kunda [1992] mention are top management presentations (when management meet with members in the organization and talks down to them), training workshops (a learning environment of educational nature, with less rigid rules and where participants are advocated to actively participate). These can be both introduction for new hires and further education for experienced hires as well as work group meetings. Further he argues that meetings can have several different configurations and both more and less work-related purposes. Within this tool Kunda [1992] comprise team meetings, monthly meetings, awards, sports competitions and parties.

Rituals and ceremonies is treated as a separate dimension mainly because of its function and importance as managerial tools. Furthermore, this dimension strengthens the comprehensive approach of this study since rituals and ceremonies closely relate to other forms of cultural expressions, which strengthens the assumption of interdependence between cultural dimensions. In performing the activities of rituals and ceremonies other cultural expressions are used, such as a certain language, ritualized behavior, other symbols and settings. [Trice and Beyer, 1984]

Values

This study treats values as the deepest dimension of culture. This dimension will rep- resent the core of organizational culture and not an expression in the same way as the

(21)

other dimensions. However, values can be expressed through the other dimensions.

Furthermore, this dimension also stresses the comprehensiveness of organizational culture, since values both influence and are affected by all the other dimensions.

This study assumes what Bolman and Deal [2003] states, that values, as a concept, give the organization meaning and create decisiveness. Values define what the organization stands for and what characteristics that are advocated, both in the form of the organization’s espoused and actual “norms, ideologies, charters, and philosophies” [Schein, 1990, p. 112]. Values are regarded as abstract and define the basic characteristics that distinguish organizations from each other [Bolman and Deal, 2003].

Schein [1990] makes a distinction between values and basic underlying assumptions, where he describes the concept of basic underlying assumptions as the deepest level of culture, which can be analyzed only through intensive observations and further focused questions. Schein [1990] argues that these underlying assumptions are perceptions of the world as well as thoughts and feelings that are unconsciously taken for granted.

Basic underlying assumptions can be hard to recognize, but when understood they facilitate understanding of why things happen and the way they do [Schein, 1990].

However, what Schein [1990] describes as basic underlying assumptions is out of the scope of this study. The concept covers perceptions that are so deeply rooted in people’s minds that they are hard to change with managerial tools, which is the focus of this study.

In this study values includes both formal and informal aspects, both espoused and explicitly stated values as well as observed actions and behavior will be incorporated.

Explicit values can be used as verbal expressions of culture and communicate the organization’s philosophy. According to Kunda [1992] top management can use a variety of written documents and booklets that are posted in public places and distributed by employees to articulate inscriptions and codifications of the company’s point of view.

These documents distill management’s collective preferences into abstract principles, catch phrases, and keywords that are used to influence employees. The managerial tools related to values that are more informal and attempts to be of importance in this study relates to corporate identity, leadership and motivation. However, these are also affected by the other cultural dimensions and their managerial tools.

Socialization

An implication of the especially high employee turnover student-consulting firms face is the demand to recruit new employees. Therefore, selection, training, and socialization become vital activities in these companies. Schein [1990] argues that culture maintains and reproduces itself when new members entering the group, through the process of socialization. This process begins with recruitment and selection of new members.

Maanen [1978] uses the term socialization or people processing to explain the “manner in which the experiences of people learning the ropes of a new organizational position, status, or role are structured for them by others within the organization” [Maanen, 1978, p. 19]. Schein [1990] describes how candidates that already have the “right”

(22)

set of assumptions, beliefs and values are favored, since these pre-socialized members would require less formal socialization. This study assumes Maanen’s [1978] three primary assumptions under which socialization can be discussed. (1) He argues that people in a state of transition feel more or less anxious towards their new situation.

Because of this they will do what they can to reduce this anxiety, often by learning what their new organization or role demand of them both professionally and socially.

(2) The learning process that a new employee goes through does not exist in a social vacuum. The new employee will have to interact and learn from his or her colleagues, superiors, subordinates and clients because the role includes more than the official and available version of the job requirements. The people that the new employee turns to for guidance might support, guide, hinder, or confuse the employee, all according to their own agenda. (3) The way an organization transitions or introduces a new role will severely impact the organization’s stability and performance. [Maanen, 1978]

As stated in the introduction, Alvesson [2000] argues that socialization is closely linked to culture, in the sense that socialization is a process aspect of the culture. He means that it is through socialization that people embrace the culture and become cultural beings.

Maanen [1978] describes how the learning process that an individual new to a role experience differ, not only because individuals are different, but also because different strategies are used by the management of an organization. He argues that socialization strategies will have behavioral and attitudinal consequences on the subject, regardless of what strategy that is used, whether it is intentional, or in what situation it is used [Maanen, 1978]. In his paper, Maanen [1978] describes eight different areas in which a socialization strategy can be analyzed. In the case of this study, only a few of these are applicable.

First, Maanen [1978] describes the formality of a socialization process as the degree to which “the setting in which it takes place is segregated from the ongoing work context and to the degree to which an individual’s newcomer role is emphasized and made explicit.” [Maanen, 1978, p. 22]. Formal socialization, which according to Maanen [1978] prepares an individual to occupy a certain status in an organization, is often only the first step and is then followed by the informal socialization process where the individual learn a certain role in an organization.

Relevant for this study is also whether a socialization process is conducted individually or collectively, which according to Maanen [1978] is one of the most critical variables of socialization. When individuals are processed together in a group, they tend to develop a collective in-the-same-boat consciousness based on the understanding of problems facing the whole group. However when socialized collectively, individuals tend to deviate more from the standard set by the primary socializing agent, which is usually management, then when socialized individually. This is mainly because that the group becomes a secondary socialization agent that with its own agenda puts pressure on the individual to behave in a different way than what the primary agent does.

Maanen [1978] labels a socialization process as serial if the newcomer is socialized

(23)

by a person who has had, or is still having, the same role in the organization. If the newcomer’s role is new to the organization, or if someone that has not had the same position socializes the individual, then the socialization process can be labeled as disjunctive [Maanen, 1978].

The last major variable in a socialization process that is interesting for this study is, as described by Maanen [1978], whether a socialization process is investiture or divestiture. In an investiture socialization process the newcomer’s identity is confirmed and his or her characteristics highlighted and utilized. High-level managerial positions are, often, given to a person whose characteristics are deemed useful for the organization. In a divestiture socialization process on the other hand, a newcomer is broken down and all non-desired characteristics stripped from that individual. The newcomer is then built up in the exact form that the organization requires. In the case of knowledge-intensive firms, which include student-consulting firms, the investiture socialization process is the most common. [Maanen, 1978]

(24)

Method

The interest in student-consulting firms, and their particular issue of high employee turnover, emanated from the authors’ exposure to existing ones and their desire to establish one. The unique context of especially high employee turnover appeared as a particularly interesting research area. After an initial literature review on organizational culture, high employee turnover, and knowledge-intensive firms, a determination to delimit this study to the managerial perspective of organizational culture and how management work with different tools to mitigate the challenges of high employee turnover was made. This approach was believed to be particularly beneficial for the authors’ goal to start their own student-consulting firm. The research activities of this study started with the development of the research design and a literature review. In an early stage, contacts with the student-consulting firms were also initiated. In the end of February the interview sessions begun, which lasted till the end of March. All interviews were transcribed and in the end of March coding and categorizing of the data started, which were followed by interpretation and analysis. Figure 3 provides an overview of the research process.

Figure 3: Overview of research process

Gantt chart describing the research activities of this study.

Selection of study object

This study consists of three case studies that have been conducted to investigate how management in student-consulting firms works with different tools to mitigate the challenges of high employee turnover. Focus has been on the cultural dimensions that are important for the culture in an organization with high employee turnover. The three firms in this study have been chosen as case study objects because they were, at the time, the largest and most established among the student-consulting firms in Sweden. At the time of this study there were more than three student-consulting firms in Sweden, however, these were considered too small and recently established to be investigated in this study. Another consideration that was made was that the student- consulting firms investigated should be companies and not nonprofit organizations, since there is an essential difference between the objectives of companies and nonprofit

(25)

organizations.

The firms in this study were active in closely related fields, however there were some differences due to the educational foci of their universities.

Research on the management perspective on organizational culture has been given a central place in previous literature [Bang, 1999, Schein, 1985]. Schein [1985] argues that management is the major influence on organizational culture, since they have formal power to embed the organization with their definition of reality. This made it interesting to study organizational culture from a management perspective also in this study.

Choice of method

This study has used an interpretivistic perspective to explore and acquire rich understanding about the context of student-consulting firms and how management in these works with different managerial tools to mitigate the challenges of high employee turnover. In this particular study, three case studies have been conducted.

Researchers seem to be unanimous that qualitative methods ought to play a dominant role when mapping organizational culture [Bang, 1999, Alvesson and Empson, 2008].

This can partly be explained by regarding culture as a metaphor borrowed from the anthropology, which to large extent uses qualitative methods. Furthermore, the cultural phenomenon is in its own ambiguous, why it is hard to capture by direct methods such as surveys. [Bang, 1999] According Alvesson and Empson [2008] and Bang [1999]

qualitative methods in general and case studies in particular are an effective way of mapping and analyzing organizational culture. In the context of this study, it has been assumed that this is also valid when studying how management uses tools related to organizational culture.

The case study research design, of this study, has been characterized by the use of multiple case studies with multiple respondents in order to build a valid interpretation of how management uses different cultural tools. Both semi-structured interviews and observations have been conducted to investigate the research topic.

The more interpretative paradigm have been considered appropriate in this study since it enables further investigation of ideas that arise during the study. Furthermore, methods related to this paradigm have been suitable for being able to understand phenomena from both the researcher s and the participant’s perspectives. [Collis and Hussey, 2009]

(26)

Data collection

Theories on organizational culture, knowledge-intensive firms, socialization, employee turnover and other information for the theoretical background for this study, have been obtained from previous research. For the empirical part of this study, interviews and observations have been made to collect data.

The interviews in this study have been conducted in order to identify how management in the chosen student-consulting firms work with different tools to mitigate the challenges of high employee turnover and to find out what cultural aspects are important for the culture in such an organization. Throughout this study nine semi-structured interviews have been conducted, which have all been recorded and transcribed. The semi-structured approach have been used in order to maintain navigation and ensure that certain information has been acquired at the same time as it has enabled open discussion and spontaneous comments.

The conducted interviews consisted of four background questions and nine open-ended questions regarding the area of this study, see “Appendix B - Interview questions”. The background questions were intended to familiarize the respondent with the interviewers and reveal information about the respondent and his or her role in the company. The open-ended questions were broad enough not to limit the respondent to certain tools or situations but specific enough to expose relevant dimensions for this study. Collectively the questions were exhaustive and covered all relevant dimensions of this study.

The respondents were allowed to interpret the questions freely so that they would talk about what was important to them and their organization. For this study it have been considered important to listen carefully to the respondents and to be responsive to what tools they considered important. The interviewers probed for more information when the respondents talked about aspects relevant for this study. Furthermore, an interview guide was used to ensure that all relevant themes of the study were addressed in the interviews, see “Appendix C - Interview guide” By this interview method the authors expected to find out what managerial tools that were used to mitigate the challenges of high employee turnover, in student-consulting firms, and how these were used.

To acquire a management perspective, the interviews were conducted with people in management positions, current or previous, within the different firms. Each interview lasted approximately 30 to 60 minutes and was afterwards transcribed to facilitate coding.

Furthermore observations of the student-consulting firms’ and their workplaces were carried out, this because it has been considered more efficient to observe many of the physical artifacts. The observations were made as non-participant observations and key factors observed where physical artifacts such as office space, location, usability, interior, wall decor, and dress code.

(27)

Data analysis

The qualitative data that was collected through the interviews had to be reviewed, reduced, restructured, analyzed and interpreted. Coding was used to restructure data from interviews. From the data that was collected, in the form of transcribed interviews and interview notes, the authors’ developed codes that extracted the emerged themes of this study. The Web App Dedoose.com was used to code the interviews according to the defined codes. The interview data was structured and interpreted in conjunction with data from observations as well as the companies’ homepages to enable the authors to form rich and comprehensive empirical descriptions of the cases. At this stage, the codes were chosen based on the central topics that were raised by the respondents and discussed during the interviews. These first-level codes aimed to assign units of meaning to the information generated during the interview. A list of 21 first-level codes, representing the important topics that were brought up in the interviews was created. All cases were segmented based on the same codes. Further, codes that were not relevant to organizational culture were eliminated and the remaining codes were grouped together in themes based on theory from the theoretical background and the four dimensions of culture developed by this study. Consequently these so called patterns codes were, symbols, heroes, rituals and ceremonies, and values. The first- level codes and the subsequent categorization is visualized in “Appendix A - Reduction of codes”.

This study aimed to investigate how a strong organizational culture can be a key to mitigate the challenges that high employee turnover leads to and how management work with the different dimensions of organizational culture as tools to embed a strong organizational culture in this context. To achieve this, the data and the coding had to be put in relation to the theoretical background, previous theories, assumptions and the research questions. The different cases were reviewed, compared and contrasted.

Similarities and differences were discussed as well as the relationship between codes.

Excerpts from coding and empirical data were compiled and linked to theory. This phase of (re)interpretation and comparison of the codes and cases finally resulted in eleven defined management tools to mitigate the challenges of high employee turnover.

Table 1 presents the process of analysis in detail.

(28)

Table 1: Overview of the analytical process Phase of the

analysis process Objective Methods of

analysis Results

1. Initial

procedures To gain an overview of the interview material and topics

Assign relevant codes and code excerpts

21 first-level codes representing the topics brought up in the interviews 2. Sorting of data content that

included

descriptions and argumentation related to organizational culture

Focus on questions and codes

addressing organizational culture

Elimination of codes not relevant to organizational culture

3. Systematic

coding To identify

emergent overall topics by grouping first-level codes into themes (pattern codes)

Note related themes and structuring based on theory

Four pattern codes as main topics:

- Symbols - Heroes - Rituals and ceremonies - Values 4. Interpretation

of codes and categorization

To interpret and relate empirical data and codes to the literature study - To answer research questions

Compile excerpts from coding and empirical data linked to theory

- 11 defined management tools to mitigate

challenges of high employee turnover - Description of the role of

socialization in the 4 dimensions of organizational culture

Methodology credibility

The authors of this study have had a critical approach to the study and provided a genuine description of the whole working process in hope to be credible. This enables the reader to assess the quality of the study and the credibility of its conclusions.

This study has enhanced credibility by accurate descriptions of its approaches and methodology. The selection of methods for this study has been based on current conditions and has been verified by theory of research methodology. The authors have been trustworthy to the readers by clearly stating how the research has been conducted

(29)

and when subjective assumptions have been taken. In this study rich, reliable, and valid answers to the research questions have been sought.

As in all interpretivistic studies, the authors have influenced this study and thus repli- cation of it might be difficult. Therefore, reliability has not been a vital concern of this study. Validity have been of greater significance since the authors have been heavily dependent on the explanations and information received and interpreted from the interviews and observations. For this study high validity have been achieved through feedback from the respondents. Missing information and unclear interpretations have been collected and verified over phone or e-mail after the interviews. Furthermore, the logic behind the analysis have been of great importance and have been well structured and clearly explained to the reader. Having had the interviews transcribed, which ensured that vital information was not missed, also ensured validity. The interviews were conducted at the sites of the studied firms to avoid getting incorrect and mis- leading information, which according to Bang [1999] is a severe risk in these kinds of studies. Doing the interviews over phone or Skype would have been easier but the risk of getting incorrect data would have been increased.

Since validity have been of great significance in this study there has been an attempt to gain rich and detailed explanations, and as realistic interpretations as possible. This study has aimed for rich descriptions of reality, even if these might include bias from both researchers and respondents. To gain rich data first of all, good contact with the interview respondents have been sought and established. Meetings that were not time- tight and offered time for interaction and discussion both prior and after the recorded interview were sought and booked. Next, the interview questions were formulated to enable deep probing in interesting areas. Furthermore, all interviews were recorded and transcribed to not miss relevant information or details.

Limitations

Data, collected through interviews, contain several potential sources of bias that have been noted as limitations of this study. The respondents described their own experiences and interpretations, which unavoidably lead to subjectivity in their answers. It is possible that information therefore was obscured in order for the respondents not to degrade themselves or that information was embellished in order to appear better than reality actually was. Another limitation has been that interviewees often were past employees whom might have left their student-consultancy firm a few years ago.

This might have affected the accuracy of the respondent’s answers and influenced what they choose to remember. Subsequently the data collected did only cover snapshots of the periods from when the chosen respondents were active in the firm. In this study, choosing respondents from different time-periods in the firms’ histories has reduced these limitations. Also by the way questions were asked in the interviews, by the probing technique that have been used and by not asking leading or partial questions these limitations have been tried to be minimized.

Interpretation of interview material and the respondents’ thoughts has been a great

(30)

challenge for this study. The authors and their prior knowledge will inevitably have an effect on the outcome of what is being investigated, as a result, research with these methods are to some extent value-laden and biased [Collis and Hussey, 2009]. In order to ensure credibility and reduce biases the data analysis, of this study, involved separate interpretations of the interviews and observations by the authors. Unclear interpretations as well as results have also been verified with the respondents by tele- phone or e-mail after the interviews.

This study was constrained by the due date of the assignment. Therefore, the topic and the scope were chosen to, as far as possible, fit the time frame of this study.

Consequently, there has been a limited time to complete the literature review, apply the methodology, gather and interpret results and there can always be a wish of more time for reflection between each step of the process.

Since the authors themselves aimed to establish a student-consulting firm at their university, there has been a risk that respondents at the selected firms would have been somewhat restrictive with the information they have shared. However, the businesses would not be competitors due to the difference in geographical location and the different educational foci at the universities. Further, the research questions were not questions that would have an effect on competition. However they required insight in the companies, which could have been a problem if the firms regarded the authors’

project as a threat. To reduce this potential limitation, the authors tried to be honest and give a trustworthy and professional impression in the relation with the firms. Also, since the results of this study were of great interest for the selected companies, the authors had something to give back. With this as an incentive the authors hoped the respondents would be open enough so that access to information were not a limiting factor in this study.

(31)

Case Study Results

This study has investigated three student-consulting firms and how organizational culture can be used to mitigate the effects of the especially high employee turnover these firms face. Student-consulting firms are consulting firms operated by students that work part time alongside their studies. University education are often very theoretical and do seldom offer students the opportunity to practice their acquired knowledge.

Finding a relevant part time job alongside university studies is also difficult and there is tough competition for the few opportunities offered. To change this, while also cap- turing part of a large market for consulting services, several student-consulting firms have been established at several universities. These firms offer highly qualified consulting services at competitive prices, done by students with academic skills from their university. They offer support to companies that lack available resources, or specific knowledge. The business models of these firms are based on an undertaking of projects where students work in teams to help the client find solutions. The consulting teams consist of students with expertise in the areas required to highlight and manage the projects full complexity.

Generally students engage about ten hours a week for this work, however the management team works slightly more. The CEO, and sometimes the Executive Vice President, takes a one-year break from his or her education when accepting the position and work full time for the organization. The management teams in these firms typically consist of 6-10 students with different roles and responsibilities. Generally there are a CEO (Chief Executive Officer), an Executive Vice President, CSO (Chief Sales Officer), and CHRO (Chief Human Resource Officer) as well as business area managers for the different business areas of the firms. Working task in these firms are both internal, to develop the firm’s own operations, and external with clients in the business world. Assignments can be very different in both nature and magnitude, and can include anything from programming to process mapping and more strategic advice. The workplace is also very varying and work can be carried out wherever the employee wants, at home, in school, public places, and the firms also have their own offices that offers some space for the employees to work. Sometimes there is work that needs to be conducted at the client’s office. However it is not as usual to execute the work at the client’s office, as it is for regular consulting firms. The projects student-consulting firms typically conduct does not always require client contact and the employees only work in the client’s office when absolutely necessary.

In this study three different student-consulting firms have been investigated and three respondents on each firms have been deeply interviewed. Table 2 gives a brief overview of the companies and their operations. The respondents interviewed are from different time-periods in the firms’ history, see table 3. The names of the companies as well as the respondents have been changed to ensure anonymity. This section describes the findings of the interviews and the observations in conjunction with the visits at the firms. Each of the different firms are discussed under the same paragraphs, representing the central topic that were discussed during the interviews and related to organizational culture, also a short description of the culture of the firm is given.

(32)

Table 2: Overview of the companies and their operations Proficient

Consulting (PC) Infinity Consulting

(IC) Universal

Consulting (UC)

Founded 1997 2004 2003

City Gothenburg Gothenburg Lund

Business areas Large enterprises, Small enterprises and Public sector

Construction and architecture, Energy techniques, Information

technology, Logistics, Production, Product

development, and Technology development

Technology, Information technology, Economics, and Law

Service areas Business and engineering, Finance, Law, Logistics, Marketing, Environment, Organization, and Strategy

Technology and design,

Construction and architecture, Processes and flows, Energy techniques, Information technology, and Business and engineering

Market, Information technology, Strategy, Technology, Energy and environment, Communication, Law, and

Education Number of

employees Approximately 70 Approximately 60 Approximately 35 Employee turnover Almost 100 % in

one year Almost 100 % in

one year Approximately

100 % in 13 months Management team CEO, Executive

Vice President, CFO, CMO, CHRO, and 3 business area managers

CEO, Executive Vice President, CSO, CMO, and 7 business area managers

CEO, Executive VicePresident/CFO, CHRO, and 3 business area managers

Organizational Culture in Student-Consulting Firms: Maintaining Culture Despite High Employee Turnover

Organizational Culture in Student- Consulting Firms

MAINTAINING CULTURE DESPITE HIGH EMPLOYEE TURNOVER

PETER GRUNDSTRÖM JOHANNA LUNDIN

Organizational Culture in Student- Consulting Firms

Maintaining culture despite high employee turnover

Peter Grundström Johanna Lundin

Organizational Culture in Student- Consulting Firms

Organizational Culture in Student- Consulting Firms

Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Introduction

Purpose

Delimitations

Disposition

Theoretical background

Management’s influence on organizational culture

High employee turnover

Division of Cultural Concepts

Socialization

Method

Selection of study object

Choice of method

Data collection

Data analysis

Methodology credibility

Limitations

Case Study Results