The influence of organizational culture and climate on idea management systems in the banking sector in Malta

Abstract

Through an exploration of idea management systems and organizational culture and climate in three banks in Malta, the study investigates whether the culture and climate of an organization affect employee creativity and whether, in turn, organizational culture and climate affect the use of the idea management system. Since organizational culture and climate are complex concepts and consist of several components (such a values, norms, the physical work environment, etc.), the most relevant topics were selected and these were used as guidelines to explore whether the aforementioned components affect the use of the idea management system in commercial banks in Malta. In order to examine the concepts under investigation, a qualitative approach was adopted. Data was collected by means of semi-structured personal interviews. The interviews were conducted with thirteen participants at the respective head offices of three commercial banks in Malta. The banks were selected on two main criteria : they should have a minimum of 150 employees agreed to participate in the study and the interviews were audio recorded. Thematic analysis was used to extract the prevalent themes.