Organizational culture and organizational performance of privatized organizations in Uganda

Abstract

In most change processes like privatization in Uganda, culture compatibility is not considered which in turn affects organizational performance. The study sought to establish the impact of privatization on organization culture and organization performance in stanbic bank formerly Uganda commercial bank and national insurance corporation which are faced with hyper competition locally and internationally. It was a qualitative study that used in-depth interviews for five senior managers from the companies used in this study. Data was analyzed using qualitative techniques. The first level of data processing involved clustering or coding the interviewees‟ comments, the second level involved identification of major themes, while the third level involved forming categories that strengthen and form the basis for interpretation of the phenomena. Results from the above analyses were displayed by utilizing matrices. Results show that culture orientations of people and market significantly changed after privatization. There was not much change realized in performance orientation. Financial performance of the organizations in the two sectors improved after privatization with each dominating the market. In conclusion, the insurance and banking sector organizations studied changed certain aspects in the way things are done after privatization to drive the business. The banking sector had stanbic bank dominating the market as a result of increased productivity annually and national insurance corporation dominating the insurance sector with small improvements after privatization but this is attributed to the slow penetration of insurance organizations and low knowledge and appreciation of Ugandans for insurance services.