Organisational Culture Change, Politics and Power and Merger Acquisitions - Literature review Example

SELF REFLECTION ESSAY: ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Introduction In this essay, I will be expressing a critical opinion about organisational culture change, politics and power and merger acquisitions. The essay is reflective thus the understanding from the study materials and the following case studies is portrayed. Along with various theories and models those were developed based on organizational culture study, observation would be cited within to give an idea about understanding of the subject. A reflection in itself is an act of seeing an event or subject from one’s own perspective that generates an idea of what learning has been gained out of the exercise (Frost, 1985). From the module I obtained different things but in the current reflection will be stating the issues like change from the perspective of organisational culture, power and politics of the internal environment of the organisation and impacts of mergers and acquisitions culture issues. The Kolb’s model of learning cycle was used to develop the idea for the reflection. Kolb’s Learning Cycle The learning cycle in simple terms gives the learner a perspective of objective of learning in a systematic way that helps in identifying and interpreting a subject in a step by step manner. Harb et al. (1993) explains learning is interpreted into actions which would need the 4 perspective of an individual for better understanding. Each step of learning is linked with each other for a complete experiential learning that has the elements of watching, thinking and doing. Furthermore, Beck et al. (2014) added the stages or learning maturity or integration and reconciliation abilities of the learner to successfully integrate and execute learning in improved ways, with age or development stages. The stages again are sub-categorized into 3 modes of learning which have age limits to each as the level of maturity and experience changes the perspective of an individual about a subject. Acquisition of knowledge during early years gives the basic ‘cognitive structure’ about the subject, which is culture in this case. Specialization with adolescence comes when the individual’s personal experiences are shaped by the peer group at school or in organization at early years of adulthood. Integration or the stage where the learning finds its expression in action and expression of views would show the actual integration of the subject with the individual’s experiences, cultural feelings and sentiments. Kolb’s Dual Continuum Line of Learning Model aided me to critically contrast different aspects and theories of organisational cultural change, power and politics issues in the organisational perspective. Moreover, I am able to evaluate effects of mergers and acquisitions on the organisational cultural issues Organisational Cultural change: From the module I got the concept of cultural change and its impacts on the organisational performance. ‘Culture’ as a part of vocabulary gives an impression of an organization or individual about few traits of behaviour, ways and trends of the particular subject. Senior and Fleming (2006) describes culture as the way of life, shared values, beliefs and assumptions of what is taken for granted for a group of people, that increased my knowledge on the cultural issues effecting organisational and groups performance. Further, Busher ( 2006) observed that organization culture as a set of shared inter-related, behaviour within the organization. Nevertheless, Wasson (2004) divide culture into two distinct perspectives as objective and subjective. I am able to gain the concept or the expression of cultural dialect that the group reflects on others. Objective culture is the language, symbol, climate, ecology are expressed by a set of people with distinct cultural background. The subjective part of the axis gives me groups viewing of an event from the group’s cultural lens. I am able to state an example that will express the culture of an organization may be interpreted with its way of dealing with its female worker. I can state that the organizational culture would show the subjectivity of its culture of equal treatment of female workers at par with male workers. I am also able to objective culture would define the words which the culture in the organization. I can state that communication plays crucial role in disseminating various aims and objectives and management can be able to manage the organisational culture as per employee background and requirement. According to the slide or lectures I can differentiate the culture of an organization in 3 different forms as per the its expression to an external observer. Senior and Fleming, (2006) suggested that the three elements which forms the organizational culture as a whole can be expressed as Artefacts, Espoused values and assumptions of the culture of that particular organization. Artefact or the observable, visible traits of the organization or the observable outer skin of the organization to an independent observer is where a deeper symbol or value of organization is precipitated. An example is the drawings on the doors of restrooms that game me an impression of male from female restrooms in an office with symbolic diagrams. However, Poole and Van de Ven, (2004) noted that shared value of an organization is a greater picture that it projects on observers about the values that the organization aspires to achieve. These concepts helped me to emphasise on the standards of value they wish to aspire, internally. This is deep seeded among the employees about what events or practices would be taken seriously if there is a breach in such performance standards or deviation in such set ethical practices. I am able to link the concept with the use of clean drinking water for production of Coca Cola which cannot be breached at any cost and the organization would ensure that the product gets the same quality of water in every batch of production. The breach in standards of water treatment and the actions followed thereafter would give an impression about the shared value that the organization follows. This not only determines the values of the business but also gives an impression to the observer about the care and value they put into developing their product. Therefore, it is the value in use or the reflection of their inherent trend of keeping consumer protection first over their cost savings or delays internally (Carnall, 2002). Such reflection will aid me to comment upon the business processes and also projects their values to market ensuring nothing goes wrong with water so that water borne diseases never reach market via their product. The Espoused values would suggest the visible values those are in use to what they actually claim to be. The values espoused out of an organization gives an overall impression that the company would continue to hold on to whatever the case is, ingrained into the value system of the organization in an entirety. Further, Sense and Badham (2008) argued that the espoused values of an organization suggest the alignment of employees with their core values. An example is equal rights of employment to both male and female employees or no racial bias in the organization which I can state in terms of reporting the aspects from an individual. The basic underlining of the culture is those taken for granted by the organizations which suggest its underlying assumptions. I observed that the Nike has incorporated its Corporate Social Agenda’s in 2010 which was developed to keep innovation a part of business (Nikebiz.com, 2015). The organisation implemented certain policy of change management is inbuilt within the culture of its operations design. I gained the concept of reward as the better product, better process and thus better business. The culture which is a product of social influences on the business evolves and changes with time and is learned by as new joiner in the process of learning and induction. Since the organization is a social creation thus the education, historical, political and people’s perception matters in its culture development, for any business depending on the society that it is living in. The culture of the society, where the business has taken shape has to groom itself in accordance to their learning and belief systems. However, the change management in an organization and its various perspectives is discussed later to evaluate the source of culture at the change management strategies. The stark difference is at times seen in merger of two organizations of different culture. However, the learning cycle for globalization of organizational culture is on and is incorporating new trends fast to evolve with changes. Therefore, more trends of adoption of ethical values, openness in operations with well networked stakeholders, especially when social media is so vibrant, are observed in the businesses. Cultural change due to the power and politics contrast From the lecture module I gained the idea that organisational politics is the form of power that converted into action. I am able to explain the concept of power in organizational perspective. Power determines the role employees and members of a business in terms of political perspective. I observed that political and power perspective impacted organisational decision making. Successful organisations need to maintain balance among the power and political concerns of individuals in organization. Akin and Hopelain (1986), also described the concept of power and politics in cultural change of any organisation. This contrast helped me to resolve various issues and influenced that determines who, what, when, where and how gets the power. However, Krackhardt, and Mintzberg (1985) observed that a personnel can only claim to be in power that has the ability to determine the course of action in a particular situation, have the power or control over others in a fashion that they desire the outcome to be like. Module also taught me about the different forms of hierarchy, bureaucracy, implementation structures, commanding authority in a business. According to the study lectures I can state that decision making powers would get significant affect of power and politics. Nevertheless, Bellot (2011) argued that in an organization the power is delegated, while in some it is an individual property and at times it is dependent on relationships and acquaintances. Power creates an atmosphere of influence that may be portrayed in force, rules, processes, persuasion, and grievance and situation management. Lorange and Roos (1991) argued that the power of an individual is observed by few traits in an organization that gives one the authority formally to exercise discussion on resource use, decision making independence, knowledge and information flow regulations and ability to act in a particular situation, uncertain in nature over others (Krackhardt and Mintzberg, 1985). The conflict management shows the use of power to an external observer like the researcher who would judge from a conflict management process about the power politics culture that organization possess. Griffin and Engs (2000) opined, the resulting effects of the processes followed in grievance management is to encourage openness, appropriate decision making time, responses, objectivity, approach of neutrality and ethical considerations in conflict management. This suggests the use of power in an organization portrays an idea of the cultural dimensions that the organization practices (Mintzburg, 1985). From the study I am able to contrast the power can manipulate the employees from different aspects like physical supremacy, resource manipulation (Mintzburg, 1985). Slides helped me to gain situational authority, expertise and individual supremacy. Power and politics have certain negative influence on the employee behaviour (Bellot, 2011). I have gained idea on political tactics adopted by the employees. Employees are forming coalitions and arrangement among each other. Employees are having diversified feeling for the management (Frost, 1985). I have gained certain political tactics that the management uses to enhance the performance of employees. Major political tactics are information dissemination, resistance strategies and responsibility delegation (Dawson, 2015). Lecture slides also helped me to outline different resistance of imposing organisational change strategies. I think that narrow egotism is one of the major resistances of change (Bellot, 2011). Misunderstanding and lack of trust are other factors that will increase resistance among the employees. Inefficient communications can affect the perceptions of employees and gradually tolerance of the employees will reduce (Carrabine, 2011). Mintzburg (1985) described politics as group behaviour, diverse and culturally considered as illegitimate without any formal foundations or accepted ideology. The power politics plays on the basis of strength in number over ideology. Impacts of mergers and acquisitions in the cultural segment of the organisation From the slides I came across the concepts of joint ventures, strategic alliances and acquisitions. Joint ventures concepts mainly outline evolution of a new organisational body from different organisations (Frahm and Brown, 2007). The new organisation will maintain core businesses operations. I can state strategic alliances concept as the mixture of two business entities into a new one. Both the parties will be able to explore resources available with each other. Again, I can emphasise acquisition terms a combination effort among two or more firms. Acquired company will be transferring the ownership and decision making to the acquiring firms. I can state the example of Nokia and Microsoft acquisition contract (Dawson, 2015). Microsoft acquired Nokia very recently and they are introducing new mobile hand set in the name of Microsoft (Carrabine, 2011). From the lecture module I can state that both the mergers and acquisition have certain complexity that will restrict the success. Potential of the different type of merger acquisition and strategies will get limited with the restriction of cultural change. From the lecture I observed that 66% company’s faces deviating market share in the initial months of developing merger strategies. However, 90 to 95% firms starts earning profits in the 9 months to first years of succession merger strategies (Frahm and Brown, 2007). This gives an individual related to understand the reasons for the change and cooperate to bring the designed changes for organizational benefits. Greener and Hughes(2006) observed that the resilience and the will to hold on to or unwillingness of a sub set of people to change gives rise to the power politics play in the organization which may be a barrier to change management facilitation. Therefore, Steininger (1989) suggested the solution where the potential sources of resistance are identified to be kept preoccupied and thus neutralize the threats, if any. This is change management diplomacy but I personally find the process of cooperative discussion and stakeholder’s opinion more valuable so that the process is smooth and may actually aid the process by having the change objectives and benefits cleared (Frahm and Brown, 2007). Outcome For the remedial purpose I can state the assessment performance among the employees and organisational culture. Operational processes of the organisations must be assessed to ensure more effective procedure. Employee’s culture evaluation will outline the cultural differences that can arise due to merger and acquisition. It is a complex task to evaluate pre and post merger activities and success (Busher, 2006). Moreover, I can suggest that the firms are having the certain links among the organisational culture, power and politics and mergers and acquisitions. Mainly I can cite that the cultural issues and power politics policy of employees are controlling the success rate of merger acquisitions. Reference List Akin, G. and Hopelain, D., 1986. Finding the culture of productivity. Organizational Dynamics, 14(3), pp.19-32. Beck, A., Virudhagirinathan, B., Santosham, S. and Begum, F., 2014. Developing cognitive behaviour therapy training in India: Using the Kolb learning cycle to address challenges in applying transcultural models of mental health and mental health training. International Rev Psychiatry, 26(5), pp.572-578 Bellot, J., 2011. Defining and Assessing Organizational Culture. Nursing Forum, 46(1), pp.29-37 Busher, H., 2006. Understanding educational leadership. Maidenhead: Open University Press. Carnall, C., 2002. Knowledge Management. Journal of Change Management, 3(2), pp.189-190 Carrabine, E., 2011. Images of torture: Culture, politics and power. Crime, Media, Culture, 7(1), pp.5-30 Dawson, P., Organizational Policy and Power structures, 2015. [online] Ro.uow.edu.au. Available at: [Accessed 21 March 2015] Frahm, J. and Brown, K., 2007. First steps: linking change communication to change receptivity. Journal of OrgChange Mgmt, 20(3), pp.370-387 Frost, P., 1985. Organizational culture. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications. Greener, T. and Hughes, M., 2006. Managing change before change management. Strat. Change, 15(4), pp.205-212 Griffin, A. and Engs, W., 2000. Moving from training to behavioural change in the workplace12 steps. Performance Improvement, 39(1), pp.16-22 Harb, J., Durrant, S. and Terry, R., 1993. Use of the Kolb Learning Cycle and the 4MAT System in Engineering Education. Journal of Engineering Education, 82(2), pp.70-77 Krackhardt, D. and Mintzberg, H., 1985. Power In and Around Organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 30(4), p.597 Lorange, P. and Roos, J., 1991. Analytical Steps in the Formation of Strategic Alliances. Journal of OrgChange Mgmt, 4(1), pp.60-72 Mintzberg, H., 1985. Spinning on Symbolism: Imaging Strategy. Journal of Management, 11(2), pp.63-63 Nikebiz.com, 2015. Changing World, Urgent Challenges - NIKE, Inc. [online] Available at: [Accessed 21 March 2015] Poole, M. and Van de Ven, A., 2004. Handbook of organizational change and innovation. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press Senior, B. and Fleming, J., 2006. Organizational change. Harlow, England: Prentice Hall/Financial Times. Sense, A. and Badham, R., 2008. Cultivating situated learning within project management practice. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 1(3), pp.432-438 Steininger, T., 1989. Organizational power and the politics of performance technology. Performance Instruction, 28(5), pp.31-32 Wasson, R., 2004. Five steps to effective change management. 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