**1. Introduction**

Governmental parastatal and state corporations, under which KWS falls, are often seen as opposing transformation. The majority of these institutions strive for the ability to accomplish things but not change. The ability of an organization to adapt to a changing environment is key to the existence of both the organization and its employees. It should be noted that change will always be present, and learning to manage and lead during change

**Citation:** Okwata, Phoebe Akoth, Susan Wasike, and Kifleyesus Andemariam. 2022. Effect of Organizational Culture Change on Organizational Performance of Kenya Wildlife Service Nairobi National Park. *Administrative Sciences* 12: 139. https://doi.org/10.3390/ admsci12040139

Received: 10 August 2022 Accepted: 13 October 2022 Published: 17 October 2022

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**Copyright:** © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).

requires an understanding of human factors. Wanjohi (2014) conducted a study on organizational culture and change management practice in the Kenya media industry. The study established that change is a process driven by several strategic considerations including the need for more integrated ways of working and the need to improve organizational performance. The researcher only pointed out that culture has a role to play in change management but did not delve into the particular elements of how culture influences change management. Too (2018) conducted a study on the effect of organizational culture on change management in the county government of Nakuru, Kenya. The theories that were used in this study included Kurt Lewin three-step planned change model and Kotter's eight-step model. The researcher established that behavioral culture, organizational values, cultural beliefs, and organizational norms have positive and significant relationships with change management in the county government of Nakuru. While these studies have looked at the above change management theories, the studies were not anchored on any cultural theories such as the Hofstede (1980) theory, the Edgar Schein model, and the Denison dimension model, hence the theoretical gap. Indiya et al. (2018) employed a correlation research design to examine how organization culture affects performance in public universities in Kenya. In this study, a population of 215 personnel from the management hierarchy was employed. The study adopted a census survey, and primary data were collected using questionnaires. The study results revealed a strong positive and significant correlation between culture and performance within an organization. The researchers concluded that organizational culture significantly contributed to organizational performance and recommended that universities should ensure that they have positive beliefs that improve organizational performance. Whereas in the previous studies conducted on organizational culture and change management in public organizations in Kenya, the researchers have acknowledged that culture is a critical variable, all of them have looked at culture in its entirety. This study however broke down culture into three critical components: adaptability, mission, and bureaucratic culture. This study therefore looked at how adaptability, mission, and bureaucratic culture influence change management at KWS.

#### **2. Literature Review**

#### *2.1. Organization Culture*

Organizational culture is a major factor in ensuring an organization thrives in terms of performance because culture determines whether an idea or process is accepted or rejected. Sinaga et al. (2018) define culture as the values and norms that govern the conduct of group members and therefore need to be upheld by an organization and need to be regulated. Organizational culture includes involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission. With this view, organizational culture is relative from one organization to another, depending on the values and norms developed. Culture changes over time because people share experiences, adapt to similar conditions, and deal with their physical and social environments (Pakdil and Leonard 2014). The flexibility of a culture accentuates the importance of a flexible, proactive culture for organizational effectiveness. The mission culture stresses the role of clear direction in an organization's culture. Involvement and adaptability lead to both short- and long-term effectiveness (Garnett et al. 2008).

Sinaga et al. (2018) investigated how change in management, culture, and transformational leadership influence employees in Indonesia, and the results of this research indicated that there is a direct effect of management change on employee performance which is worth 17.7%, there is a direct effect of organizational culture on employee performance which is worth 17.8%, there is a direct effect of transformational leadership on employee performance which is worth 20.6%, there is an indirect effect of change management on employee performance through transformational leadership that is worth 3.8%, there is an indirect effect of organizational culture on employee performance through transformational leadership which is worth 5.1%.

According to Shahzad et al. (2012), complete knowledge and awareness of organizational culture is the responsibility of the management and helps to improve the ability of the

management to examine the behavior of an organization, which assists in managing and leading. The key to a successful organization is to have a culture based on a strongly shared set of beliefs that are supported by the structure of the organization. An organization with strong culture has employees that know how to respond to situations and know that they will gain recognition for demonstrating organizational values.

#### *2.2. Organization Culture Change*

According to Mohammadi (2020), working on organizational culture and its impact on organizational efficiency in the Denison model in District 19 of the Municipality of Tehran, Iran, by means of a descriptive correlational design with a statistical population consisting of employees of Tehran Municipality, questionnaires were employed to collect primary data. The study found a positive relationship between organizational culture change and organizational productivity. ul Mujeeb and Ahmad (2011) used an exploratory research design on a population of 60 respondents in Pakistan to report a positive correlation between culture and performance with a confidence level of 0.99. In addition, the correlation analysis revealed a positive significant association.

In a study on the impact of culture on organizational performance in selected textile firms in Nigeria, Aluko (2003) sought to determine the nature of the relationship, the determinants of performance, and the ways in which culture interacts with other factors within an organization. The author employed both qualitative and quantitative methodologies with a study population of 630. The author found that irrespective of the organization's employees' cultural backgrounds, employees appear to have absorbed the organization's way of life. The author further indicated a strong relationship between the cultural variables and the level of commitment, staff attrition, and positive attitude towards work. However, the author found a negative correlation between culture and performance and noted that culture did not translate directly to high levels of organization performance as other factors such as the economy, technology, and political climate had an influence on performance.

Chua et al. (2018) studied the impacts of an organization's cultural change on overall organization performance in Tanzania Public Services College. The authors employed a case study design with questionnaires, interviews, and documentation as the main data collection tools. The study found a strong association between the organization's culture and level of commitment, staff attrition, and a positive attitude towards work. Indiya et al. (2018) sought to determine the effects of organizational culture on performance in public universities in Kenya. A correlation research design with a population of 215 respondents from 11 public universities in Kenya was employed. The authors' study adopted a census survey, and the primary data were collected using questionnaires. The study found that there was a strong positive and significant correlation between organizational culture and organizational performance. According to the researchers, there is a strong positive relationship between organizational culture and organizational performance. Nikpour (2017), studying the mediation role of an employee's commitment on organizational culture and organizational performance, found that organizational culture positively impacted commitment and organizational performance. According to Nikpour (2017), organizational culture directly impacts organization performance and, at the same time, indirectly influences organization performance through employees' organization commitment. The study focused on involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission as organizational culture attributes and efficiency, effectiveness, productivity, quality, and innovation as organizational performance attributes.

## *2.3. Organizational Performance*

Public institutions in Kenya face enormous pressure to do extremely well in their performance, despite the highly unpredictable and aggressive environment in which they operate. In every organization, objectives, goals, or targets that are intended to be achieved within a stipulated time or in a long run are set out. In an event that the set-out objectives and goals may not be achieved based on the available evidence, the organization must effectively take action to revert the situation. According to Abolade (2018), organizational performance is an assessment of performance in comparison with the set goals and objectives. However, according to Karanja (2014), performance is the ability of an institution to achieve set-out goals and objectives by exploiting resources effectively and efficiently. The performance measurement may be construed as a key tool in assessing the current situation and helping in making key decisions. Ahmed and Shafiq (2014) define performance as a comprehensive measure that includes productivity, quality, and consistency. Organization performance is a key concept as it is a measure of success, defines the problem, and also finds the solution (Shahzad et al. 2012). Therefore, organizations should know about the performance indicators to measure, manage, and compare performance. However, measuring performance in the public sector is not easy, but it starts with the identification of performance indicators that allow for a detailed specification of process performance.
