Managing Change in the Workplace - Essay Example

Introduction Organizational Culture is one of the important issues organizations have to deal with in order to develop a well-founded organization.It defines the overall behavior of the humans and what meanings they actually attach to their actions. Organizational culture also signifies the shared values which define appropriate behaviors under various situations. It is critical to note that organizational culture can have both the positive as well as negative aspects and can really help an organization to achieve desired organizational change. It is however important to note that culture is fluid in nature considering the rapid changes organizations are subject to at the global level. Over the period of time, there have been constant changes in the external environment of the organizations making them more vulnerable to change. The debate on whether organizational culture is something organization is or has depends upon how organizations adapt the culture and mold themselves according to the overall given situation. Given the overall complexity of the management of the culture specially the sub-cultures, it is relatively difficult to actually determine as to how organizations should tackle the issue of organizational culture and overall change management. Viewing culture as something an organization has suggests that having a right kind of culture can actually decide about the future success and failure of the organization. Whereas the approach of culture as what an organization is also requires an extensive exploration of how organizations become their culture. This paper will discuss about two approaches to culture and their impact on managing organizational change. Why Organizational Culture is Important? Organization’s culture has become an important metaphor for the organizations due to certain important changes taking place at the global level. Changes in global competition has made it relatively important for the organizations to focus on develop culture which can suit to the change requirements at the global level. Further, intense competition as well as the change in focus of the organizations to reconsider the traditional management theories has also required that the organizational culture should be considered seriously. These rapid changes and renewed focus on developing an organizational culture therefore suggests that managers are now more than willing to have an impact on the organizational culture. (Lee & Yu, 2004) It has been argued that organizations have their own culture like a web of interconnected values and practices which are shared and owed throughout the organization. Culture is considered as shared meaning, understanding and overall sense making. It therefore outlines as to how organization is going to assign the meanings to its actions and based upon this, how it can make sense of its overall shared meanings and understanding. Organizational culture also attempt to account for the overall differences within the organizations while at the same time describe how members of the organization actually live and make sense out of the world they work in. organizational culture also helps employees to actually focus upon values, attitudes as well as behaviors. These collectively define the overall organizational culture and why it is important for the organizations to develop and maintain. It is important to understand that organizational culture is not an easily understandable phenomenon as it involves various subconscious and emotional mechanisms which guide the overall behavior of the individuals within the organization. It is also because of this reason that there are multiple ways through which an organization’s culture can be expressed. On one hand, culture is seen as a historical and socially constructed expression whereas on the other hand culture can also be viewed from the symbolic context. Symbolic context of the culture outlines the interpretations through which the organizational identity can be formed. Based upon these social contexts, values and beliefs the members of the organizations are identified to groups outside the organization. As such the culture of the organization outlines the very identity of the organization as well as its members. (Buch & Wetzel, 2001) Culture is what organization is This perspective is based upon the assumption that organizations should be conceptualized as cultures. The organizational culture is viewed as the part of the culture rather than what the organization has. Culture is viewed as a socially constructed phenomenon which can only be influenced rather than managed within the organization. This assumption is therefore based upon the notion that organizational culture occurs as a result of the interaction of the individuals and the organizational processes. The argument of organization as its culture is based upon the argument of root metaphor. Root metaphor is an image or narrative which shapes the overall perception of the world and how to interpret the world. It is therefore critical to note that the organization is viewed as the manifestation of human consciousness and its expressive form. The argument of culture as organization is therefore is based upon the view that organizations are formulated through the expressive manifestation of the overall human consciousness therefore it is relatively difficult to actually separate the two. Culture is therefore something which makes sense however in order to create and sustain it, it is important to create communication channels and interactions. Organizational culture therefore can only make sense if its members, collectively, can develop effective communication and interact with each other. This therefore also requires that the organization should develop the strategies which can help it to introduce such communication strategy within the organization. To help flourish the communication and make culture as the organization, strategic management plays an important role. (Miller, 2009) Making sense however also depends upon the rituals and stories which are used as generative processes to yield any meanings and subsequently shape them. This view also provides an overall deep sense of understanding as to how the various members of the organization actually view the world and make sense out of it. As such both the organizations as well as individuals working within organizations both make sense of the world in which they operate. This argument therefore suggests that the very essence of the organization is its culture and changes in such culture takes place through a natural process of evolution where each member of the organization contributes towards this change. When culture is viewed as a root metaphor, it is based upon three important and primary elements. These primary elements include complex i.e. the construction of values and beliefs at multi-level, communicative construction in which these beliefs and values are constructed and reconstructed to bring in the required change as well as the sub-cultures and counter cultures. Sub-cultures and countercultures however emerge as a result of differential interactions which take place between the individuals within the organization. Shared experiences of different groups within the organization also help create the sub and counter cultures besides similar personal characteristics also play an important role. (Condrey, 2010) The above discussion therefore suggests that organizational change takes place through a natural process of evolution and over the period of time. Change in such scenario therefore can be easily managed because it will be coming from within the organization through the construction and reconstruction of the shared beliefs and values of the individuals as well as the organization. For example, if any organization is willing to bring in change in its human resource policies, under this assumption, it can occur through the natural process of how existing job incumbents view the overall nature of the jobs at hand. If with the change of technology superior skills are required, employees from within the organization may feel the need to initiate a systematic training and development process in order to help the employees to become more skilled at performing new jobs and activities. Culture as Organization has This argument is based upon viewing culture as a variable rather than a metaphor therefore there is a significant difference between the two approaches and how culture is viewed from each perspective. Culture therefore emerges as a result of the organizational activities which are performed by both the individuals as well as the organizations. Culture therefore is the by-product of organizational activities and is duly supported by the rituals, stories as well as heroes. It is therefore important to note that the culture emerged as a result of the rituals performed in the ordinary day to day operations of the organization as well as the stories which are created out of the interaction of individuals within the organization. One of the key and fundamental assumptions of this perspective is based upon the notion that culture is just one of the organizational tools. Culture is used as a tool to improve the organizational effectiveness and can easily be changed as opposed to the first view. This assumption therefore suggests that culture can be acquired by the organizations and can be used to improve the overall working of the organization. Culture therefore is not a certain fixed constant which remains same but a variable which can be managed easily by the organization. (Buchanan, Hor, & Bryman, 2009) Considering culture as a variable also requires that it is seen more like an objective and functional view of the social reality faced by the organization. It therefore also takes into consideration certain sociocultural subsystems as well as other variables also It is also critical to note that the cultural traits are either produced by the organization or are accompanied with them. This assumption therefore indicates that the values, beliefs, expressions as well as the norms of the organization can be produced and reproduced by the organization. They are not something which come with the natural interaction of the organization and the individuals but rather come through the organization’s own effort to produce them and thus form the overall organizational culture. Strong corporate cultures can emerge when organizations actively pursue the development of such cultures. Strong corporate cultures however are based upon four important components i.e. values which also form the basic beliefs and concepts, heroes who help to personify the organization’s cultural values, rites and rituals and a cultural network. Rites and rituals are the public display and expression of what organization does to highlight its values whereas cultural network serves as the primary carrier of the cultural information. Cultural information is mostly based upon the stories, myths, legends and even jokes which are being circulated within the organization over the period of time. (Knights & Willmott, 2007) Considering organizations from this perspective also suggests that workplace needs to be informed of the overall values. As such the organizational values are not formed through the interaction of the individuals and the organization but rather employees and different groups are being told of the values which organization wishes to adapt. As such there is a critical difference between the two approaches as to how they impart culture within the organization. Many academicians endorsing this view also suggest that organizational culture actually brings in systematic balance within the organization and improve the overall effectiveness of the organization. This view point therefore requires that organizations must impart the organizational values and these must be adapted by the individuals of the organization. (Carayon, 2007) It is also important to note that initially this view supported that the strong corporate cultures can effectively result into strong organizational performance. However, increasingly, this view now is replaced with the argument that organizational culture can result into organizational change. The overall improvement in the organizational effectiveness as well as improved performance therefor is viewed from the perspective of how effective organization is at managing culture for the change. Increase in organizational effectiveness is based upon managed cultural change within the organization and how organization actually pursues this managed cultural change. (Sypher, 1990) In order to bring in effective change management within the organization, it is important to manage the cultural change. In fact the cultural change is viewed as the change management process because if organization is successfully in bringing in the required cultural change management within the organization, it is relatively easy to than follow through to the overall organizational change to take place. This view also suggests that certain positive functions are performed by the culture and culture can work as stabilizing factor if organization is considered as a system. The sense of identity and commitment provides individuals enough reasons to actually look for positive change within the organization. Since change comes from the management therefore it may be relatively difficult for the organization to manage it. To manage it properly, management needs to focus on managing culture well in order to ensure that there is a least resistance to the change. Management needs to be actively involved in managing change in a manner which supports the overall organization’s objectives while at the same time engage employees and other stakeholders also. (Smircich, 1983) For example, one of the key challenges to change management through laying off employees may attract lot of resistance because existing employees may be facing greater level of threat for their job. However, management is able to convince the existing employees that the desired change may be good for the company as well as for the existing employees. A low level of employees may help an organization to become more efficient and hence can lead to further improvements in compensation and job prospects for the existing employees. The above scenario therefore requires that management should actively communicate this change within the organization. As such it is important therefore that management must also develop open lines of communication so that all the information about the potential changes can be easily communicated. It is therefore because of this reason that it is important for the management to develop a culture which can easily cater to the needs of information and can easily create a rapport between employees and organizations. Conclusion There are two important arguments regarding the culture and the organization and how both relate with each other. Culture has become one of the most important strategic aspects to manage because of the many changes taking place at the global level. Extensive competition as well as changing external environment has made the organizations more vulnerable. Organizations therefore need to develop a culture which can help them to drive the behavior and actions of individuals to achieve the overall organizational objectives. The argument of organizational culture as organization is suggests that organizations are manifestations of their own culture. Culture is a socially constructed phenomenon which can only be managed rather than changed. The overall change management process therefore becomes a natural and evolutionary process wherein change occurs naturally. Management is not required to enforce change on the employees as it occurs naturally and without any significant resistance from various stakeholders. The argument of organizational culture as organization has however suggests that organizational culture can be managed with the help of management. Culture is something which an organization has to develop and therefore can influence also. Culture is used as one of the tools through which a firm can actually improve its organizational effectiveness as well as improve its performance. To bring in changes and manage such changes, firms need to develop better communication with the stakeholders in order to culture change management within the organization. Both the change management and cultural change management are considered as one under this argument. Bibliography Buch, K., & Wetzel, D. (2001). Analyzing and realigning organizational culture. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 22(1), 40 - 44. Buchanan, D., Hor, & Bryman, A. (2009). The Sage Handbook of Organizational Research Methods. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Carayon, P. (2007). Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care and Patient Safety. London: Routledge. Condrey, S. E. (2010). Handbook of Human Resource Management in Government. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Knights, D., & Willmott, H. (2007). 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