Building, Sustaining, and Changing an Organizational Culture - Literature review Example

Change Management Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Analysis of the Articles 3 Analysis of Article 3 Analysis of Article 2 4 Analysis of Article 3 6 Analysis of Article 4 7 Analysis of Article 5 8 Analysis of Article 6 8 Analysis of Article 7 9 Analysis of Article 8 9 Analysis of Article 9 10 Conclusion 11 Reference List 12 Introduction Resistance to change is inevitable is every aspect known to us. Resistance to change has always been a tendency among human beings, even if the same is aimed towards bringing in growth and development. Change has now become a constant phenomenon and without it, development is not possible. Change in an organization seems to appear in various forms such as, change in the format of operation, technological shifts or a change in culture. Regardless of the nature of change, employees in most of the cases are found to retaliate, thereby hampering the process of change. As a result of that, companies are left with no option, but to ensure efficient management of the proposed change by undertaking several strategies and techniques (By, 2005). This paper aims to discuss about organizational change and the way for a company to efficiently manage the same. In doing so, eight to ten scholarly (peer-reviewed) articles relevant to the role of organizational culture in change management will be selected. The articles then will be analyzed from various perspectives of business. Ultimately, on the basis of the findings from these articles, a conclusion will be drawn. Analysis of the Articles Analysis of Article 1 The first article chosen for analyzing the role of organizational culture in change management is by Llyod C. Harris and Andrew Crane, titled as “The greening of organizational culture: Management views on the depth, degree and diffusion to change”. In this article, the authors have discussed about the importance of eco-friendly operation for a business. Harris and Crane (2001) argue that change is inevitable and without change, a company will not be able to maintain long-term sustainability. The authors mainly emphasize on the requirement of eco-friendly business and believe that in order to do so; they need to incorporate change in the organizational culture. The article enlightens that in order to behave in a sustainable way; the actions of the organization needs to consider beyond technicalities and requires integrating eco-friendly beliefs, values and behavior. One of the key findings from the article was that the degree of green culture change that is taking place is dependent on the facilitators or barriers to such change. The article clearly makes it evident that in order to successfully incorporate change in the organization, it is important to bring in change in the organizational culture as well. Furthermore, in-depth analysis of the study shows that cultural change is a great facilitator of organizational change; but, the intended change needs to be managed efficiently for better results. On the contrary, a company failing to properly manage the planned changes might have to witness certain malfunctions in the organization or even collapse. Hence, the inference that can be drawn from this article is that regardless of the change that a company is planning to incorporate, it needs to manage those competently. For deriving the best results, a company should focus on changing the overall culture of the organization. This will enable the company to facilitate an overall development. Analysis of Article 2 The second article is written by Martin E. Smith and is titled as “Changing an Organization’s Culture: Correlates of Success and Failure.” The article discusses organizational culture and its role in the welfare of an organization. The author emphasizes on the fact that organization culture is the tool or an element that determines ability of an organization to cope with the external world and that way in which the members must react with the group. One of the key findings from the articles was that culture change is itself one of the major alterations in an organization. The author involved more than 200 respondents to recognize the most important change required by an organization for its betterment and development. The survey reflected that organizational change is the second most significant of all the changes taking place in an organization. The first position is held by the re-engineering changes taking place. (Source: Smith, 2003) It was also observed that technological advancement, cost trend, process control, increasing competition and product related problems are the major drivers of change in an organization. (Source: Smith, 2003) The analysis of the article shows that with the change in organizational culture, a company would be able to bring the other necessary changes more easily. Furthermore, the chances of resistance from the employees due to the proposed change also reduce greatly. Analysis of Article 3 The third article chosen for this study is written by Meredith Gorran Farkas and is titled as “Building and sustaining a culture of assessment: best practices for change leadership”. In this article, the author argues that “organizational culture is a major determinant of the success or failure of any change initiative” (Farkas, 2012, p.16). The author also indicates that any change initiative that has been taken without considering the culture of the organization, often results into severe negativities. Individuals functioning within the organizational system may not be aware of the culture of their own organization as it is generally more evident to those who are external to the organization. Hence, from these facts, it can be stated that the role of organizational culture is indispensible in the process of change management in the organization. It has been observed that culture is greatly influenced by attitudes and behaviors of the people who functions within the organization. In addition to that, this article also discussed the need of leadership in the changed management process. The author stated that the eight steps to change by Kotter can be extremely useful for the companies seeking change. Apart from that, building a culture of assessment is also critical for the management of complex changes. The analysis of the article clearly portrays the fact that organizational culture acts as a key element towards improving the ability of a company to respond efficiently to external threats and environmental changes that are taking place. The inference that can be drawn from this article is that any change proposed in the organization must be implemented with proper planning and sequential implementation of the required steps. Analysis of Article 4 The next article chosen for this assignment is written by Jo Rolfe and is titled as “Change is a constant requiring a coach”. The author through this article has expressed the significance of coaching. The author has mainly emphasized on the fact that change is a constant phenomenon and its requirement depends upon various factors. One of the points highlighted by the author is the constantly changing demand of consumers. Consumers always seek new products and services and as a result of that, companies have no other option, but to bring changes in their system. In addition, robust technological advancements are the other key drivers to change. The author in this context argues that coaching can be an effective tool to remain consistent with the changes (Rolfe, 2010). However, coaching strategy can be only be implemented if the organizational culture supports the same. Thus, it is obvious that organizational culture needs to be such that it supports a learning and development environment. There are numerous companies operating in the market place that hardly takes any initiative to foster learning and development. Even so, to contradict this, research studies have shown that significant developments can be achieved with coaching or by developing a culture that fosters learning and development in an organization. Therefore, it can be stated that a company must establish a culture that supports learning and development environment in order to enjoy mutual benefits. It should be also noted that a company must make deliberate attempts to integrate coaching in their organizational culture and this in turn will allow the firm to manage the changes efficiently. Analysis of Article 5 The next article is by Bryan L. Banish and Muhammad I. Nawaj, titled as “The Role of Culture in Organizational Change”. The authors mainly emphasizes on the fact that companies nowadays are devising strategies that are aimed at providing comprehensive solution to customers, rather than mere delivery of products and services. There are numerous companies that have an inherited culture from the past, allowing them to function efficiently. The article has also shown that with a culture that values innovation, change can be easily brought into a company. The author exemplified the case of IBM, where he has described how from a hardware manufacturing company, IBM was transformed into a global software service company. In order to facilitate complete transformation, the company had to change its internal culture. In the similar way, Schlumberger, a Franco-American venture, has been highly successful in the field of oilfield. Even so, the sudden shift to a product-centric and technology-focused perspective led the company towards failure (Banish and Nawaj, 2013). After a shift in the organizational culture, the company achieved their desired results. Hence from this article, it has been learned that change is always not appropriate, but what is important is to develop a culture which is flexible and can be changed when needed. Analysis of Article 6 This is the sixth article chosen for evaluating the role of organizational culture in managing organizational change. The article is titled as “The Management of Organizational Culture” and is prepared by Lesley Willcoxson and Bruce Millett. As the title describes, the article is directed towards analyzing how a company should manage its culture. In-depth investigation reflects that the article is trying to underpin how change can be implemented in an organization with the support of the prevailing culture. The author describes organizational culture as “a set of norms, beliefs, principles and ways of behaving that together give each organization a distinctive character” (Willcoxson and Millett, 2000, p.93). The author emphasizes that similar to the national culture, organizational culture of a company is found to alter with time and is principally in order to sustain with other changes taking place in the company. Even so, analysis of the article makes it evident that it is hard to pursue two different cultures at the same time. The in-depth analysis of the article have pointed out that changes take place in an organization in fields such as, recruitment, selection and replacement, performance management or reward systems, leadership and modeling, interpersonal communication and structures, policies and procedures of resource allocation. The author claims that changes in the aforementioned fields are inevitable and hence, change in the organizational culture over time is indispensible. From this article, it can be concluded that companies should continuously evaluate their positions and make adjustments as and when required. Analysis of Article 7 This article is written by Michael J. Austin and Jennette Claassen and is titled as “Impact of Organizational Change on Organizational Culture: Implications for Introducing Evidence-Based Practice”. Most of the articles chosen above have tried to underpin the role of organizational culture in the change management process of a company; but, this article is chosen with the aim of evaluating the role of organizational change in managing the organizational culture. The author argues that companies are increasingly becoming aware of the need to change the way that they are structured and managed. Gordon (1991) argues that change and innovation are the vital drivers of organizational development and these are possible only when there are certain changes in the company. Broadly speaking, organizational change appears in two forms, namely technical change (change of products) and administrative change (change of services). Irrespective of the type of change that a company is planning to incorporate, there is an obvious requirement of transforming the existing culture. Nevertheless, this article indicates that once a change is implemented in the company, the cultural shift will automatically take place (Austin and Claassen, 2008). Therefore, after thorough analysis of the article, the only inference that can be drawn is that both organizational change and organization culture are highly sensitive factors and are found to share strong correlation, i.e. a change in one would obviously bring the same in the other. Analysis of Article 8 This article is chosen with the aim of assessing level of interdependence between organizational culture and organizational change. It has been written by Peter Stoyko and is titled as “Organizational Culture and the Management of Organizational Memory”. The article describes the way in which culture of an organization acts as a ‘vessel’ and at the same time, as a ‘force’ that assists organizations to preserve the organizational memory as well as helps in managing the same. The author has tried to breakdown the elements of organizational so as to identify the exact factor impacting the organizational change. On deeper analysis, the author found that the role of managers in building the organization as well as managing the change is instrumental. It is a fact that culture of the organization cannot be manipulated directly and thus, it is duty of the company or their managers to promote a culture within the organization with the help of their leadership skills and strong sense of socio-psychological dynamics (Stoyko, 2009). From the analysis of the article, it has been found that the culture of an organization is dependent on the history of the same, pertaining to resistance to change and company’s operational practice. Therefore, the perspective adopted will be responsible for determining the cultural changes taking place within the organization. In addition to that, it has been also unearthed that there are no definite answers to questions such as, the most appropriate or relevant way to maintain the organizational changes. Analysis of Article 9 This is the last article chosen for evaluating the role of organizational culture in managing the organizational change. This article is written by Donald E. Gibson and Sigal G. Barsade and is titled as “Managing Organizational Culture Change: The case of long term care”. The authors through their article emphasizes on the fact that for few decades now, organizations around the world are confronted by the force for change. As a rebuilt of the changes taking place in the organization, companies now need to rethink their strategies deeply. The strong cultural values and beliefs that the company is pursuing since long needs to be analyzed for ensuring that these match with the current requirements (Gibson and Barsade, 2003). This is because change will always be a part of the business, but it is more important to adapt those changes without generating major transformations. As a result of that, flexible organization culture that fosters innovation, creative and is futuristic can be a viable option. From this article, the only conclusion that can be made is that a company needs to carefully devise strategies for efficiently managing the change. Conclusion Among the various obstacles that a company faces while implementing change is the changing fatigue of the workers. Employees are quite sensitive to organizational issues and as a result of that, they retaliate very easily. Similarly, employees act as a strong resistance when a company is planning to bring changes in the organization. Studies have shown that employees in most of the cases resist organizational changes out of the fear that the proposed change will render them obsolete and as a result of that, they feel insecure. The study was aimed at evaluating the role of organizational culture in managing the organizational change. Analyses of the nine different articles chosen for this study have underlined diverse dimensions associated with the subject. It indeed reflected that the role of organizational culture in management of the organizational change is pivotal. For example, a culture that fosters creativity and innovation would hardly face any difficulties in implementing changes in the organization. In the similar way, improper management of change can lead a company towards failure. The study has also upheld that organizational culture and organizational change are interrelated and modification in one of the factors can lead to the same in the other factors. However, the most interesting finding of the study is that organizational change is not always fruitful or necessarily impacts the company positively. Numerous cases have shown that organizations have failed after bringing in changes in their system of operation or organizational culture. Therefore, owing to these facts, it can be concluded that companies should develop an organizational culture that is forward-looking, supports innovation and flexible in nature. Reference List Austin, M. J., and Claassen, J., 2008. Impact of Organizational Change on Organizational Culture: Implications for Introducing Evidence-Based Practice. Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work, 5 (1/2), pp. 321-359. Banish, B. J. and Nawaj, M. I., 2013. The Role of Culture in Organizational Change. [pdf] Available at: [Accessed 07 March 2014]. By, R. T., 2005. Organisational Change Management: A Critical Review. Journal of Change Management, 5 (4), pp. 369-380. Farkas, M. G., 2012. Building and sustaining a culture of assessment: best practices for change leadership. Reference Services Review, 41 (1), pp. 13-31. Gibson, D. E. and Barsade, S. G., 2003. Managing organizational culture change: The case of long term care. Journal of Social work in Long Term Care, 2 (1/2), pp. 11-34. Gordon, G., 1991. Industry Determinants of Organizational Culture. Academy of Management Review, 16 (2), pp. 396-415. Harris. L. C. and Crane, A., 2001. The greening of organizational culture: Management views on the depth, degree and diffusion to change. Journal of Organizational Change and Management, 15 (3), pp. 214-234. Rolfe, J., 2010. Change is a constant requiring a coach. Library Management, 31 (4/5), pp. 291-303. Smith, M. E., 2003. Changing an organization’s culture: correlates of success and failure. Leadership & Organizational Development Journal, 24 (5), pp. 249-261. Stoyko, P., 2009. Organizational Culture and the Management of Organizational Memory. Pennsylvania: IGI Global. Willcoxson, L. and Millett, B., 2000. The Management of Organizational Culture. Australian Journal of Management & Organizational Behavior, 3(2), pp. 91-99. Read More