Can organizational cultures be changed - Research Paper Example

Despite the many changes that occur worldwide, an organization can stay impermeable towards change. According to Miller, et al. (2003), if the organization is deeply rooted with their institutional context, thickened and insulated from the outside world and with predefined organizational dynamics, then the said organization can be impermeable with change. An organization can be measured with its history. The values, philosophies, vision and strategies of the organization during their foundation years contribute to the culture of that organization.

Every personal history of the individual within the institution contributes to the current and future decisions, behaviors and choices of the organization as a whole. And with time value, this organization becomes formalized and standardized thereby making them change resistant. The managerial practices and the core values demanded by this organization require new entities to follow their norms and whoever disagrees from it can leave anytime. If the leaders of the organization are tightly bounded with their set of standards and rules, they are bound to stand resistive of what is around them making culture change impossible.

This has been a reality in countries such as China, which is embedded with Confucianism, and Russia rooted with Communism (Miller,et al., 2003:393-394). Culture contributes highly to the overall functioning of an organization. It has an impact on the effectiveness of the organization which reflects the reasons why the organization existed in the first place. There have been a lot of researches done by various organizations to achieve that optimum effectiveness and functionality. According to Denison and Mishra (1995), for the function of a certain organization to be highly effective, there are various elements involved such as involvement, consistency, adaptability, and sense of mission or long-term vision.

These traits can indicate the organizations flexibility, sense of response, open-mindedness, direction, and integration. With these traits evident in the culture of an organization, it is easier to predict the growth, quality, satisfaction, profitability and the overall performance. To gain these traits, it is inevitable for the organization to steer with change throughout time. With time factor drifting from one era to another, it is imperative for everyone to adapt with change. The change in technology, communication, transport, machineries and other aspects, humanity are forced into dependence upon these changes for greater gain.

The advent of 20th century has toppled the traditional practices and various individuals and organizations must be creative in using their knowledge-based human capacity to balance their organization’s culture with the fast paced change happening in the world today. This has been a challenge for various minds, scholars and individuals to develop new and keen theories and methods applicable for organizations. Organizations of today are no longer conformed to the geographical location, religious beliefs and nationality.

Instead, there is a global vision, expansion, influence and competition going on (Walsh, Meyer and Schooenhoven, 2006). This has been evident to the many industries that are present today. Multinational industries with global influence have adapted various changes in their organization culture to cope with the realities that