Reasons Why an Organizations Culture Might Be Changed - Coursework Example

Organizational Culture and Change Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Introduction Organizational culture is one of the essential factors that affect an organization’s performance. Each organization has its own unique culture and depending on its strength, it may have a very huge impact on the behaviours and values upheld by members. Numerous studies have indicated the importance of organizational culture in the lives of the members of any organization and the contribution it has to an organization’s success or failure (Lee & Yu, 2004, p. 340). Organizational culture can be stagnant or flexible, conservative or innovative, focusing on the internal or external environment. Nowadays, due to increased changes in organizations’ internal and external environments, formation of strong and integral organizational culture based on common values has become increasingly important to ensure success in the performance of any organization. For this reason, organizations are increasingly conducting research of their own organizational culture and are becoming increasingly conscious to form and develop change in it, if necessary (Lee & Yu, 2004, p. 340). In view of this, this paper examines the factors that may influence an organization to change its culture. Further, it gives a description of how an organization’s culture might be changed. But before this, it will be prudent to look into the most appropriate definition of the concept of ‘organizational culture’ for the purpose of this discussion. Definition of organizational culture According to Linnenluecke and Griffiths (2010 p. 358), the concept of organizational culture initially emerged in 1970s and 1980s and soon became one of the most influential concepts in management research and practice. There have been different interpretations of this concept and as Linnenluecke and Griffiths suggest, there is lack of consensus regarding the definition of this term. However, Thomas (2005, p. 20) suggests that there is a common core which is connected with the term. Organizational culture is an implicit phenomenon which is “lived” and thus, it is obvious and natural to the members of any organization. It comprises values and collective orientations which impact on individuals’ behaviour. Further, organizational culture is usually a result of a learning process about how an organization has dealt with the internal and external environment (Thomas, 2005, p. 20). It is handled in a social process and it provides patterns for selection and interpretation of behaviour and thus, it provides orientation in a complex world. These points lead to the appropriate definition of ‘organizational culture’ for the purpose of this paper, which is adopted by E. Schein (as cited in Thomas, 2005, p. 20) in his book, Organizational Culture and Leadership. According to Schein, “Organizational culture refers to the pattern of beliefs, values and learned ways of coping with experience that have developed during the course of an organization’s history and which tend to be manifested in its material arrangements and in the behaviours of its members”(Thomas, 2005, p. 20). To elaborate further, Thomas explains that organizational culture is a pattern of basic assumptions which have worked well with an organization, to the extent that they are considered valid, and thus, they are taught to new members as the correct way to think, perceive and feel in relation to the problems of internal integration and external adaptation. According to Herzog (2010, p. 58), the shared values and beliefs in an organization help individuals to understand how the organization functions and thus, provide them with the norms for behaviour in an organization. Thus, the above definition of ‘organizational culture’ clearly describes the sub-foundation upon which an organization’s soft and hard skills are built. As well, it provides a clear picture of how ingrained these basic assumptions are. This allows one to understand how difficult these assumptions can be to change. The presence of ‘pattern of beliefs, values and learned ways’ in the definition implies that organizational culture is built upon basic shared assumptions and thus, in trying to change these assumptions, one needs to change them in everyone. Maier (2007, p. 59) provides a good illustration of this by use of an organization with a culture that values reactive repair, belief in reactive repair and which understands that maintenance exists simply to respond to the organization’s production needs-of-the-day. These are the basic assumptions of this organization over time. Suppose the assumptions no longer hold, the production equipment is constantly losing money and the organization is losing money. In this case, it will be easier for the organization to enhance change to a proactive work process given that the expressed value of reactive repair is no longer valid. Such a challenge opens the door for introduction of new assumptions and thus, opens the door for new change initiatives. The dissatisfaction with the current state and availability of a better alternative sets the stage for change (Hofstede, 1981 p. 19). Thus, the above definition of ‘organizational culture’ is critical to understanding gist this discussion. Reasons why an organization’s culture might be changed There are various factors that can influence organizational culture to be changed, which are grouped differently in various sources of scientific literature. Kulvinskienė and Šeimienė (2009, p. 27) categorize these factors into three major groups. The first group comprises factors that indirectly influence an organizational culture change (also referred to as organization’s macro-environment) which include social cultural, economic, political-legal, natural environment, scientific-technological and internal events. The second group comprises factors which influence organizational culture directly (also called organization’s micro-environment) and include customers and consumers, partners and other organizations. The third group constitutes the leadership factors that have an impact on the formation and change of organizational culture such as values, beliefs and their building techniques brought about by the founders of an organization and later by the organization’s new leaders (Kulvinskienė & Šeimienė, 2009, p. 27). Kulvinskienė and Šeimienė, (2009, p. 27) also note that one of the mysterious aspects of an organizational culture is that two organizations producing similar products or services by means of similar inputs, having similar origin of founders and operating in similar environments function quite differently in the long term. This is because of the different values, attitudes and goals of the leaders and founders of each organization. Brenton and Driskill (2010, p. 154) further explain that the culture of an organization, which is designed and developed by the leaders and founders of the organization, is usually fairly stable and rooted and thus, it is difficult, although possible to change. It is usually firmly anchored in the attitudes and values to which workers are committed and accustomed to. It is also protected by other factors such as rituals of the organization, philosophy of the statute, designed physical space and statutes, organizational structure and promotion and recruitment practices. In spite of these, there are situations in which the organizational culture must be changed. To start with, the change is necessary in a situation where an organizational micro-environment and macro-environment are no-longer ensuring success of its operations and competitiveness. According to Kortea and Chermack (2007, p. 647), a compelling need to replace the culture of an organization with a new one arises when indicators show a decline in efficiency in the performance of an organization, leading to a decline in performance such as financial loss. In such a case, the organization has to adapt to the changing environment or else, it may not survive. A good example is the impact of an archiving and centralizing process using computer technology in an organization. The old redundant processes adopted by such an organization get replaced by new hardware and software and the employees are required to retrain in order to operate the new systems. For instance, Gould changed about two thirds of its senior executives in trying to change from an auto parts and a battery company to a leader in electronics, in tune with the new culture (Cummings & Worley, 2008, p. 526). Second, the culture developed by the founders and the leaders of an organization may not always by strong. In such a scenario, the existing culture has to be changed in order to increase efficiency in the organization’s operations, which could involve appointment of new leaders who will establish a strong organizational culture. For example Jan Carzon of Scandinavian Airlines replaced 13 out of 15 members of the top management team in his turnaround of the airline (Wilkins, 2008, p. 523). How organizational culture might be changed Kulvinskienė and Šeimienė (2009, p. 29) suggest that in the process of organizational culture change, leaders must be the change agents and should convey the new ways of behaviours and values to the other members of the organization. It is also important to note that in many cases, especially when organizational culture is stable due to past success, organizational culture change requires a lot of resources such as time, effort and other ways to accomplish it. Kulvinskienė and Šeimienė (2009, p. 29) analyse three stages through which a successful process of organizational culture change may go. The first stage is the ‘establishment and early development of organization’ stage. This stage may involve incremental change through specific and general evolution, insight or promotion of hybrids within culture. In this stage, organizational culture is usually in the form of a positive and strong force, which requires to be developed further. The second stage is called ‘growth of the organization.’ In this stage, the leaders can enhance growth of organizational culture by choosing the acceptable values from sub-cultures such as technological seduction, infusion of outsiders, scandal and explosion of myth and systematic promotion from selected sub-cultures, and use them to enhance culture change in the desired direction. The final stage is the maturity stage, in which the major elements forming organizational culture must be changed. This might involve mergers or acquisitions, turnarounds or destruction and rebirth. The findings of a study conducted by Kulvinskienė and Šeimienė (2009, p. 27) to investigate the factors that led to successful organizational culture change in certain furniture manufacturing company from 2006 to 2008 indicated that the success was largely as a result of incorporation of persons from outside the organization in management and installation of new energy. Further, according to Sims (2000, p. 75), in order to make organizational culture change effective, the employees of the organization must be involved. Employees should be encouraged to embrace the new ideas and focus on the new desired culture, which has to be constantly maintained. Specifically, it must be expressed to the employees that there are no losers and the culture change is only for the best. Also, as Wilkins (1988, p. 523) notes, the results that the organization has already achieved should be constantly highlighted and efforts to change the existing culture should be made to infiltrate the organization and all members should feel every aspect of it. In other words, employees should be encouraged to change the old culture and to devote to the ideas of the new culture. Thus, they should be included in the process of organizational culture change and the new organizational culture should not be imposed on them. This can be confirmed by a study conducted by Tsui et al, (2006, p. 113) in different firms in China, seeking to unpack the nature of the relationship of leaders with their employees and the impact of the relationship on the process of organizational culture change. The results of this study showed a close connection between the relationship between leaders and employees and readiness for cultural change. This explains the fact that leaders play a very significant role in the process of enhancing organizational culture change. Conclusion In conclusion, organizational culture is one of the most important factors in the determination of an organization’s success or failure. As demonstrated in the discussion, there have been different interpretations of the concept and in fact, there is no clear-cut definition of the term. For the purpose of the topic for this discussion, this paper adopts the definition by E. Schein stating that; organizational culture refers to the pattern of beliefs, values and learned ways of coping with experience that have developed during the course of an organization’s history and which tend to be manifested in its material arrangements and in the behaviours of its members. There are various factors that might influence the move by an organization to change its culture, which fall into three groups: factors indirectly influencing organi­zational culture (macro-environment of an organization); factors directly influencing organiza­tional culture (micro-environment of an organization); and the factor of leaders’ impact. Finally, the process of organizational culture change might be enhanced through three main stages namely the establishment and early development of the organization, growth of the organization and maturity of the organization. In each of the stages, there are various options of change mechanisms of organization culture that may be adopted by an organization. References Brenton, A L & Driskill G W 2010 Organizational Culture in Action: A Cultural Analysis Workbook, Sage, London. Cummings, T G & Worley, C G 2008, Organization development & change, Cengage Learning, Mason. Herzog, P 2010, Open and Closed Innovation: Different Cultures for Different Strategies, Gabler Verlag, Heidelberg. Hofstede, G 1981, “Culture and Organizations,” International Studies of Management & Organization, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 15-41. Kortea, R F & Chermack, T J 2007, Changing organizational culture with scenario planning, Futures, vol. 39 pp. 645–656. Kulvinskienė, V R & Šeimienė E S 2009, “Factors of organizational culture change,” Available from http://www.leidykla.vu.lt/fileadmin/Ekonomika/87/27-43.pdf (13 September 2011). 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