Correlates of organisational culture, employee creativity, and innovation towards explaining entrepreneurial banks

Abstract

The South African commercial banks have undergone immense regulatory and technological changes post-1994, to such an extent that these changes have increased competition among the big players in South Africa, which have forced financial innovations, and other strategies to reduce costs and propel intrapreneurship. In this research, the relationships between organisational culture and entrepreneurial orientation, as well as human resource management and entrepreneurial orientation were explored. Furthermore, the relationship between employee creativity and innovation, were investigated using the perceptions of employees at specific banks selected for the study. Entrepreneurial orientation was applied using its three dimensions, innovation, risk-taking and pro-activeness. The banks selected for convenient sampling were: FNB, ABSA, Standard Bank, Nedbank, Investec, and RMB. A structured online survey was used to examine the constructs: organisational culture, employee creativity, human resource management, innovation, and entrepreneurial orientation. A link was sent to the employees in the selected banks and once all responses were received, the data was cleaned and the relevant statistical tests were applied. The results showed an inter-relationship between the constructs. It was determined that a significant relationship existed between organisational culture and entrepreneurial orientation, human resource management and entrepreneurial orientation, as well as employee creativity and innovation. The study concluded by noting the importance of leaders in organisations in driving a culture of inclusion where employees were given resources to innovate, and were motivated and encouraged to be entrepreneurial.