Change Management and Organizational Culture Essay Example
- Contents Concept of Culture
- What is Organizational Culture
- The Internet and Organizational Culture
- Cultural Change
- The Classical Approach to Cultural Description
- New Ways of Describing Culture
- Culture as Emergence
- Steps in Organizational Culture Change
- Managing Organization Cultural Change
- Bibliography
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Concept of Culture
The concept of culture is complex and definitions of culture vary.The anthropologist Edward Tylor defined culture in the late 1800s as “that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and other capabilities acquired by a man as a member of a society” (Hill, 2005). More recently, Hofstede has defined culture as “the collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one human group or category of peop
...le from another” (Hofstede, 1984).Furthermore, De Long & Fahey (2000) describe culture more generally as a system of values, norms, and practices that are shared among a group of people and that, when taken together, constitute a design for living.
Values are ideas about what a group believes to be good, right and desirable. This is the deepest level of culture since values are often embedded in tacit preferences as well as they are difficult to articulate and change. Norms are derived from values and can be described as social rules and guidelines that prescribe appropriate behavior in particular situations.Therefore, they are more observable as well as easier to identify and change. Practices are the most visible symbols and manifestations of culture.
They are a way of understanding any widely understood set of repetitive behaviors and they also include repeated types of interaction that have identifiable roles and social roles. In other words, values, norms and practices ar
fundamentally interrelated, since values are manifested in norms which in turn shape specific practices. (De Long & Fahey, 2000)
What is Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is the characteristic spirit and belief of an organization, demonstrated in the norms and values that are generally held about the way people should behave and treat one another, the nature of the working relationships that should be developed and the attitudes to change (Torrington & Hall, 1991).
Like morale in the military, organizational culture is the great invisible force that decides the difference between success and failure and serves as the key to organizational change, productivity, effectiveness, control, innovation and communication (Feldman, 2002).
The Internet and Organizational Culture
The lure of the Internet for many organizations is that it not only presents a low-cost strategy of delivering goods and services to the traditional markets of companies (Peterson, 1997) but also enables every organization to establish both a national and an international presence without the usual costs associated with such ventures (Lee, 2003). However, this technology has also led to a range of dilemmas for organizations especially those that are commonly described as traditional ‘bricks-and mortar’ firms (Kanter, 2001).
Scholars have discussed the difficulties that organizations face in deciding whether to establish their Internet operations as separate businesses with distinct corporate identities or whether these activities should be integrated into existing businesses (Yakhlef, 2001). Furthermore, researchers have alluded to the potential implication that the Internet could have for competitive positioning, strategy making and managerial roles in organizations (Porter, 2001).Although much theoretical and practitioner discussion has been forwarded on various aspects of the Internet phenomenon, there is a surprising lack of research on the implications
of this technology for managing people in general and for organizational culture in particular. However, a limited number of studies have provided some discussion (frequently indirectly) of issues related to organizational culture. Boddy and Boonstra (2000) highlighted the importance of organizational culture in the development of Internet operations.They note that successful implementation of Internet strategy requires an ongoing renewal of the organizational culture (Boddy & Boonstra, 2000).
They draw on the work of Pettigrew (1992) to argue that Internet projects are more likely to be successful in organizations with adaptive and innovative cultural traits (Pettigrew, 1992). They present the cultural typologies of Quinn (1996) to explore the potential dilemmas that organizations can encounter when setting up Internet operations (Quinn, 1996).The theme of innovation in organizations is taken up by Martin and Matlay (2003) who argue that organizational culture can facilitate (and by implication can also stop) the innovative use of the Internet through the development of a supportive intra-organizational environment for organizational learning (Martin & Matlay, 2003). Similarly, studies of the Internet in public sector organizations have also concluded that such innovations present unique opportunities for organizations to transform their cultures and respond effectively to the demands of various stakeholders (McIvor, 2004).
Another recent discussion of the links between the Internet and organizational culture can be found in the work of Kanter (2001). Kanter’s (2001) study of Internet organizations lead her to develop three categories of organizations in the Internet age (including the ‘dot-coms’, the ‘dot-com enablers’ and the ‘wanna dots’). She argues that such organizations are distinguished by cultural values that go beyond the simple physical presence of the technology to beliefs about how Internet-based businesses
should be conducted.Consequently, she concludes that those organizations that were not founded as Internet companies (the ‘wanna dots’) are more likely to encounter continuing cultural opposition to Internet operations. She cites the example of one executive in her study that how different cultural interests within the same organisation were upsetting the development of successful Internet operations.
Thus, Kanter’s (2001) study suggests a link between organizational culture and the Internet in that traditional or conservative organizations are theorized to encounter significant difficulties in making the cultural transition to online operations.Other studies have also reached similar conclusions and have highlighted the pervasive implications of developing Internet operations (Yakhlef, 2001). Overall, while the above studies provide a useful starting point for assessing the cultural impacts of the Internet, none offers a substantive treatment of organizational culture. Given the claims that the Internet is likely to have profound and pervasive implications for work and work organisation (Kanter, 2001; McIvor 2004), studies that examine these issues are clearly required.
Cultural Change
Culture and Change Management is a form of organizational transformation that is, at times, a radical and fundamental form of change. It involves the changing of basic values, norms, and beliefs among stakeholders in order to improve organizational performance.
Companies today understand that improved processes can lead to better performance also need to understand cultural barriers that may exist that keep change from taking place. Unless companies identify and repair cultural barriers along with process barriers true organizational transformation cannot take place. Thomas Group inc. )
The Classical Approach to Cultural Description
The conventional approach to culture analysis is summarised by Wilkins & Patterson (1985) as:
- Where do we need to be going strategically as
an organisation?
This classical OD approach is based on two assumptions. Firstly, those organisations are usually, and preferably, in one state or another.This notion was best expressed in Kurt Lewin’s famous ‘unfreeze—change—freeze’ model (1946); implying that the change process requires us to somehow shake the organisation out of its current equilibrium so that we can change it while it is unstable and then let it settle into a new equilibrium state closer to our ideal (Lewin, 1946).
And here is the second belief—that, somehow, we can make organisations change; that by effective analysis, proper planning and appropriate action we can guarantee an outcome. Yet this conventional wisdom, adopted by so many managers and consultants, needs to be challenged.It seems that the evidence for it is extremely thin—we all know that most change programmes have little lasting radical effect. So perhaps it’s time to look for some alternative perspectives which might offer another approach. (Seel, 2000)
New Ways of Describing Culture
The view has been expressed that a better appreciation of the nature of organisational culture can be found by considering it as an emergent result of the conversations and negotiations between the members of an organisation (Seel, 2000)
Culture as Emergence
According to the anthropologist Mary Douglas, culture is not a static ‘thing’ but something which everyone is constantly creating, affirming and expressing.
She writes about, “…the admonitions, excuses, and moral judgements by which the people mutually coerce one another into conformity”. (Douglas, 1985)
In this view culture is not imposed from outside but exposed from within any programme which attempts to change culture in a planned way is likely to miss the mark. Indeed, as Douglas observes, “…the central issue is not cultural change.The amazing thing that needs to be investigated is cultural stability, whenever and wherever it is found.
” (1985). If culture is being created all the time by everybody how is it that we sense it as reasonably stable? In particular by looking at emergence the working definition of culture contains this as a key word: Organisation culture is the emergent result of the continuing negotiations about values, meanings and proprieties between the members of that organisation and with its environment. (Seel, 2000) In other words, culture is the result of all the daily conversations and negotiations between the members of an organisation.They are continually agreeing (sometimes explicitly, usually tacitly) about the ‘proper’ way to do things and how to make meanings about the events of the world around them.
If you want to change a culture you have to change all these conversations—or at least the majority of them. And changing conversations is not the focus of most change programmes, which tend to concentrate on organisational structures or reward systems or other large-scale interventions. (Seel, 2000)
Steps in Organizational Culture Change
The three major steps involved in changing an organization's culture. .
Before an organization can change its culture, it must first understand the current culture, or the way things are now.
- Once you understand your current organizational culture, your organization must then, and decide what the organizational culture should look like to support success. What vision
does the organization have for its future and how must the culture change to support the accomplishment of that vision?
Managing Organization Cultural Change
Analysis of literature pertaining to organizational culture change finds that existing research into cultural change can be broadly classified into two principal categories: studies of natural change and research into cultural management. Whereas studies into managed change centre on the effects of management action on organizational culture, research into natural change focuses on the evolution of cultures in the organizations (Sathe, 1983).
An example of study which focuses on natural change is that of Sathe (1983), who develops a conceptual model of how an organizational culture perpetuates itself. Sathe (1983) argues that new members of an organization ‘acquire’ culture through a process of socialization which is reinforced as employees interact and therefore any attempts at culture change should focus on the means of perpetuation (such as communication). Similarly Harrison and Carrol (1991) contend that culture has a tendency to evolve due to variables such as socialization and employee turnover.
Harrison & Carrol, 1991) Consistent with Smircich (1983), research into culture management can be classified into three subdivisions:
- studies which argue that culture can be managed;
- research which claims that culture may be manipulated, and;
- theory which argues that culture cannot be consciously changed (although natural change is argued to occur frequently).
The first stream of studies identified above comprises the work of those researchers who believes that culture is an organizational variable and logically assume that
culture may be changed (Smircich, 1983).Hence a significant theme in culture research has been the study of management attempts to direct and control culture. (Dawson, 1994).
The second stream of research centres on culture researchers who reject the view of culture as a directly manageable variable. These researchers frequently argue that culture cannot be viewed as something the organization has but is more appropriately conceptualized as something the organization is _ a view which mirrors Smircich (1983) paradigmatic classification.Hence Martin (1985) contends that changes to an organizational culture cannot be managed but may be manipulated under specific (and rare) contingencies (including the formation of an organization, periods of crises and during leadership turnover).
Finally the extreme stance of this argument rejects both the ‘culture can be managed’ and the ‘culture may be manipulated’ points of view.
Many theorists argue that even as the culture of organizations can and does change, the direction, impact and sustainability of the change cannot be subject to conscious action of management (Anthony, 1990).These views highlight a frequently under explored key issue within the domain of organizational culture theory; that is analysis of culture change appears to yield different results depending on the level of culture which is examined. The excess of literature on the issue of managing culture is clearly premised on the assumption that the performance of organizations is dependent on the alignment of organizational values to the espoused values of company strategy (Ray, 1986).
Hence, a common rationale for cultural management attempts is to exert cultural control in order to accomplish the goals of the organization. Edwards (1979) argues that control systems contain the dimensions of direction specifying desired actions, evaluation facilitating
feedback and discipline allowing reward or punishment for compliance or disobedience (Edwards, 1979). A significant amount of research has been conducted to classify the different strategies and types of organizational control over organizational culture (Child, 1984).
Arguably, Child (1984) presents the most holistic examination of control strategies, asserting that control mechanisms can be divided into four main types:
- personalized control;
- bureaucratic control;
- output control, and;
- cultural control.
Contemporary theorists argue that as organizations and their technologies evolve, a shift in control strategies is occurring: from the inefficient and costly methods of personalized control towards output and cultural control techniques (Willmott, 1993). Indeed Willmott (1993, p. 22) argues that cultural control ‘as a medium of domination, the scope and penetration of management control’ has been considerably extended. Hence populist management texts often exhort organizational members to have ‘a mission as well as a sense of feeling great’ (Peters & Waterman, 1982).
As the popularity of this medium of domination increases, a number of theorist are questioning the ethics of cultural control, often portraying the mechanisms used to achieve this as ‘exploitative’ and ‘emasculative’ (Ray, 1986).The brief review has found variety perspectives on organizational culture change. Extant literature includes studies of natural and managed changed.
Academic opinion pertaining to managing culture indicated three different views that:
- Organizational culture change can be controlled by management activity;
- Cultural change may only occur under particular organizational conditions, and;
- Conscious management of organizational culture is unlikely.
- This review identified a key issue of existing theory on organizational culture change – belief in the manageability of culture is linked to the opinion of each individual researcher as to what constitutes culture ( hence, if culture is
viewed as principally comprising basic assumptions then changes to values or behaviors will not be viewed as cultural change ).
An examination of the literature on organizational control found that the issue of control provided much of the rationable for attempts to alter organizational culture. (Lebas, M. and J. Weigenstein, 1986)
Bibliography
- Anthony, P. D.1990). The Paradox of Management of Culture. Personnel Review , 19 (4), 3-8.
- Boddy, D. , & Boonstra, A. (2000). Doing Business on the Internet: Managing the Organizational Issues. Journal of General Management , 26 (1), 18–35.
- Child, J.(1984). Organization: A Guide To Problems and Practice.
- London: Harper & Row. Dawson, P. (1994).
- Organisational Change: A Processual Approach.
- London: Chapman. De Long, D. W., & Fahey, L. (2000). Diagnosing Cultural Barriers to Knowledge Management. Academy of Management Executive , Vol. 14, No. 4, pp. 113-127.
- Douglas, M. (1985). Introduction. In Rayner, L. G.Jonathan, & Steve, Measuring Culture: A Paradigm for the Analysis of Social Organization.
- New York: Columbia University Press.
- Edwards, R. (1979). The Transformation of the Workplace in the Twentieth Century.
- London: Heinemann. Feldman, S. (2002). Memory as a Moral Decision.
- London: Transaction Publishers.
- Harrison, J. R. , & Carrol, G. R. (1991). Keeping the Faith: A Model of Cultural Transmission in Formal Organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly , 36, 552-582.
- Hill, C. (2005). International Business – Competing in the Global Market Place.
- New York, USA: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Hofstede, G. 1984).
- Culture’s Consequences: International Differences in Work-related Values.
- Sage, USA: Beverly Hills.
- Kanter, R. M. (2001, January). The Ten Deadly Mistakes of Wanna-Dots. Harvard Business Review , 91–100.
- Lebas, M. and J. Weigenstein. (1986). ‘Management Control: The Roles Of Rules, Markets and Culture'. Journal
of Management Studies , Volume 23(3), pp. 259-273.
M. Heathfield. (n. d. ). How to change your culture. Retrieved May 10, 2008, from www.about. com: http://humanresources. about. com/od/organizationalculture/a/culture_change. htm Thomas Group inc.(n. d. ).
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