The impact of restructuring on the morale of staff at a cultural organisation

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the effect of corporate restructuring on staff morale and motivation levels. The choice of the research topic arose from the need to determine whether the restructuring of the ATKV's business has had an effect on the morale and motivation levels of the ATKV staff. To understand restructuring and change, the literature study will look at employee involvement, employee's attitude towards Top management, communication, management models, management theories and the most effective leadership style to implement effective change. For managers to implement change effectively, they need specialist knowledge that allows them to enable engagement, critique current research or practises, and practically apply a comprehensive and systematic knowledge base of key terms, principles and theories on change management. The literature will further point out that for successful change, organisations need to design and implement strategies for processing and managing information so that they may conduct a comprehensive review of leading and current research, and use the resources of academic and professional or occupational discourses to communicate and defend substantial ideas that are the product of research. The research method used in this study consists of a literature review and an empirical study. Of a total population of 100 employees targeted, a response rate of 73% (73 questionnaires) was achieved. A total of 40 were returned by ATKV non-profit employees and 33 by ATKV for-profit. The results made known some gaps and parallels between the way that the restructuring process in the ATKV was carried out and what the literature reveals. It is, nevertheless, interesting to make a note of the fact that the restructuring process was overall interpreted as positive and did not have a big impact on the morale and motivational levels of employees. The major challenge is to positively restructure and change for the benefit of the organisation and all its stakeholders. With the evaluation of the research question it was clear that there was some negativity attached to the restructuring process. In general, the staff was comfortable with the restructuring process. However, it was very clear from the statistics that there was a significant difference between the respondents of the for-profit entity and the non-profit entity. It shows a shift of focus in the leadership styles of the two entities. It was clear that the organisation's non-profit entity, using Laissez-Faire leadership style, had a negative impact. The questionnaires also highlighted that no change management model was used as a starting point, something that should be looked into in the future. Recommendations are made to address identified problems to assist the ATKV in future restructuring initiatives.