A Transformation Model of Excellence-Oriented Culture in the Steel Industry

Achieving excellence is gradual and will be achieved mostly in the light of acceptance and institutionalization of a set of characteristics such as values, methodologies, standards and quality management tools. Organizational excellence models are used as powerful tools to measure the success rate of systems deployment in different organizations. Organizational culture and employee behaviour is the main concern in the workplace to achieve organizational effectiveness. Therefore, cultural characteristics are necessary to maintain and strengthen organizational culture. Despite the existence of extensive independent and various research in the field of organizational culture, organizational transformation, and organizational excellence, few cases of research in this field deal with the transformation of organizational culture based on excellence. For this purpose, this study aims to propose a model of excellence-oriented culture transformation in the steel industry.

Design/methodology/approach:

 This research is typically qualitative and based on GTM data. In terms of its purpose, it is an applied research. The research population included all specialists, experts, experts and managers in the field of human resources in the steel industry. Non-probability sampling was applied purposefully and according to the theoretical saturation index. The literature has been reviewed and the references have been collected using a library method, and field study has been applied to conduct the research. Using in-depth and semi-structured interviews, field observations and document review, necessary information for this study has been collected and by using Maxqda18 software, their categories, themes and relationships have been identified. Also, in this study, the Kendall coefficient has been calculated using the Delphi method, for which, a questionnaire has been made and it has been validated using the Delphi method and obtaining the coefficients.

Findings indicated that the transformation model of excellence-oriented organizational culture is created from causal conditions including technological factors, individual factors and organizational factors, which benefit from new technology, for which, aligning goals is also the basis. Also, intervening conditions including factors related to society and organizational justice help to create strategies such as economic-political factors, implementing laws and regulations, and evaluating and providing feedback, which ultimately lead to consequences such as personal growth, organizational development, and social development. Based on the data obtained from the Delphi rounds and different parts of the questionnaire in each round, the minimum, maximum, average, mean and deviation statistical indices were calculated.

Research limitations/implications: 

This research required the necessary equipment and participation of all human and material resources in the fields related to the subject of study. Some of the limitations were a long time to complete the research and problems of making tools and operationalizing the concepts due to their originality. This study has resulted in categories that can be tested quantitatively. Also, conducting experimental and semi-experimental studies according to the obtained components among the country's steel companies can be an opportunity for future study.

Practical implications: 

Based on the findings, the effective role of organizational culture must be seriously and deeply reviewed by the management of organizations, since organizations recognize the importance of knowledge and are looking for ways to create it. Hence, it is recommended to invest in research, development, workshops and skill training courses to increase the capacity of knowledge, and at the same time, try to create a culture with the characteristics of a learning organization.

Social implications: 

The researchers, while concentrating on the theoretical literature of transformation and culture and applied research in the field of organizational excellence and its drivers, have sought to design a comprehensive model of transformation of organizational culture based on excellence, which has greatly contributed to the local applied literature of management knowledge and facilitated the continuous movement of Iranian organizations in the path of organizational excellence.

Originality/value:

 In this study, a model was proposed to those organizations that identify and influence the components of organizational culture towards survival, stability and achieving organizational excellence.