Clash of Cultures - Why Organizational Schizophrenia is Bad for Performance

Sammanfattning: Seminar date: 30th of May 2018 Course: BUSN79 Business Administration; Degree Project in Accounting and Finance Authors: Oskar Lundin & Valdemar Olin Supervisor: Johan Dergård Keywords: Management control, Professional service firms, Clash of Cultures, Motivational theory, Social psychology theory Purpose: The purpose of this study is to contribute to the knowledge of why the performance of professional service firms decreases when facing high levels of bureaucracy and identify the major aspects of importance for this change in performance. Methodology: To answer the research question the study has a qualitative research approach, starting with a theoretical review, followed by a multiple-case study of professional service firms. Theoretical perspectives: The theoretical framework is based on an adoption Self Determination Theory, Social Identity Theory and various subtheories, to the Clash of Cultures phenomenon. Empirical foundation: The empirical data consists exclusively of primary data, and is collected through semi-structured interviews with eight participants employed at Deloitte, PwC and KPMG. Conclusions: This study shows that both motivation theory and social psychology theory provide important contributions in explaining the decrease in performance of professional service firms experiencing a Clash of Cultures. The main findings concern the level of intrinsic motivation of the individual employees, and the consequences of different groupings and the subsequent intergroup behaviours.