Changing Organisational Culture - Coursework Example

Changing Organisational Culture Name: Lecturer: Course: Date: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Organizational culture 3 Strong and established culture: culture maturity and readiness for change 4 Components of ingrained organisational culture 5 Challenges in changing organizational culture 6 Change management process 7 i) Motivating change 8 ii) Organising transition process 9 iii) Implementing change 9 iv) Consolidation of change 9 Role of leadership and give example of role models 10 Culture Change success factors and use companies to illustrate 11 Conclusion 12 Reference List 12 Introduction Organisational culture is the combined programming of the mind that makes the members of a group distinct from the other. It provides an effective manner through which the notions and concepts of an organisation can be understood (Sun 2008). In practice therefore, no matter how small or large an organisation is, it must have an organisational culture that distinguishes it from another organisation (Alvesson & Sveningsson 2007). This paper examines why changing organizational culture is a challenges facing managers in the public sector. It further explores how public managers effectively plan and manage organization culture Organizational culture Organizational culture is apparent in the distinctive features of an organization (Sun 2008). Put differently, it should be viewed as the right manner in which people do things or solve problems within an organisation. It is an accepted view that organisational culture consists of the deep-rooted values and opinions the personnel within an organisation share. According to Lunenberg (2011), organisational culture consists of the distinctive outcome resulting from entwining individuals within collective and community programming of the mind that tells them apart from other people. Its components comprise beliefs, values, opinions, customs, and norms that people hold in common with other individuals of the same group or social unit. Sun (2008) further posits that it is a set of shared beliefs and values that interact with an organisation’s organisational structures, people and control systems to generate certain behavioural norms. Plainly put, the term organisation culture describes the “set theory” of vital beliefs, values, norms, and understandings that organisational members share or make them distinct. Alvesson and Sveningsson (2007) suggest that cultures offers best systems of feeling, thinking as well as reacting that can assist managers to arrive at decisions or coordinated organisational activities organization. Strong and established culture: culture maturity and readiness for change As Combe (2014) suggests, companies with strong established cultures, or cultural maturity have high readiness for change or agility. This is specifically so for organisations with established reputation around their corporate cultures. Strong and established culture signal change maturity. According to Change Management Institute (2012), change maturity is a key component of organisational agility that enables organisations to constantly adapt and meet changing economic and competitive challenges. The Change Management Institute (2012) defines such an organisation as having clearly defined vision, change monitoring mechanism, and adaptive change mechanisms. For instance, Wal-Mart’s culture deeply ingrained and has reached a stage of change agility adaptability. The company has reached cultural maturity leading to low readiness for change (Prenhall nd). The culture of low prices has also been passed on from Sam Walton’s vision of keeping prices low. To Walton, value for money and frugality were idea forms of business. Apparently, Wal-Mart had operated its stores based on this philosophy (Prenhall nd). When it comes to symbol, Wal-Mart used the mission catchphrase “Everyday low prices” and later. “Save money, Live Better,” both of which have made Wal-Mart distinct for its low prices and readiness of its staff to make the customers happy by caring for their wellbeing. The culture of frugality and thriftiness, which was founded by Sam Walton has characterised the company is evident at the company’s headquarters in Bentonville, where the premise is old-fashioned and less exciting and where employees have formed the culture of working for long hours, beginning from 6.30 a.m. and working through weekends (Prenhall nd). Behaviours and artefacts provide some symbolic value of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart’s culture of commitment ensures that the staff works for long hours, hence allowing shoppers to buy groceries easily and inexpensively even on Sundays. The culture is also adaptive and tends to break through universal traditions. For instance, in 2006, the company started stocking morning-after pills. It also signed up with the Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce in the United States in the same year (Prenhall nd). Components of ingrained organisational culture It is the well-established components of organisational culture such as norms, traditions, symbols, rituals, values, heroes, and beliefs that make the change process difficult (Sun 2008; Coleman 2013). In view of this, Hofstede (1997) suggested four layers or key components of organisational culture: values heroes, symbols, and rituals. Figure 1: Components of organizational culture in an onion diagram (Hofstede 1997) As indicated in Figure 1, an organisation’s values are central to its culture. They are the most profound and are intricately intertwined with ethics or morals of an organisation. For instance, Wal-Mart has three fundamental values: the customer is always the boss. Next, “all things have to be done by sundown.” Lastly, “the staff should greet any customer who is within 10 feet.” Next, rituals consist of a set of activities that are regarded as socially critical. Heroes are the individuals possessing features that are highly valued. They are usually the great motivators and “winners” in an organisation. The company created its culture around its hero Sam Walton, who is also the founder. As Prenhall (nd)shows, Walton was polite, genuine, whole-come and civic-minded, enthusiastic and nurturing. These qualities, according to Prenhal (nd) have characterised Wal-Mart staff. Lastly, symbols are the most obvious components of organisational culture. They consist of the objects, gestures, words and actions that symbolise something differently and which tend to provide meaning to the members of the group. Challenges in changing organizational culture Organisational culture, as Millington and Schultz (2009) show, is a difficult task. One reason for this is since organizational culture is largely recognized yet it consists of commonly shared perspectives and interpretations whose patterns may be difficult to modify. For instance, shifting Wal-Mart away from market and hierarchy cultures towards adhocracy and clan cultures has been a challenge mostly because of the predominant mechanisms that hold together the established cultures. Indeed, the difficulty in changing organizations is because of the cultures may have been deeply rooted through decades, which makes it difficult to change the cultures in a year or so. For instance, attempts to set up self-directed work teams or quality-circles at Wal-Mart have been difficult due to the company’s well-established hierarchy cultures. Additionally, the collective norms and cultures comprises of a set of individual’s mental models and beliefs that are mostly created by emotions, and may therefore not accurately represent what each of the departments think or staff believes. Organizations also tend to get involved with dramaturgical and symbolic elements that given an illusion of change in values and vision. In this case, approaches to change that fail to engage with employees to create new culture may it difficult to change established culture (Prenhall nd). Change may also face resistance from members of the organization due to poor communication or instances where employees feel that their values are threatened (Millington and Schultz 2009). Change management process Change management process requires effective planning. It also requires motivating change, coordinating transition, implementing change and consolidating change (See Table 1 below). Table 1: summary of organizational culture change management process i) Motivating change The motivating change process entails motivating members to pursue change in order to avoid change resistance. In creating change, a basic awareness of the problem the organization faces and the goals needed to be attained through change if organizational. Through this, the public managers should inform employees of the need for change through clarification. Next, TACS (2014) suggests that the change purpose should be redefined through shared vision in order for the managers to show the employees what needs to be achieved once the culture of the organization is addressed. The management has to show its faith and support in realizing the shared vision. This can be ensured by creating an influential coalition of managers or staff to convince others on the need for change. Third, the management should clearly communicate the employees of the direction the organization is taking to avoid rumours. Fourth, the management should build coalition to get an assurance of key influential members who determine whether realizing the vision is attainable (Alvesson & Sveningsson 2007). ii) Organising transition process The process involved developing a plan for transition, where a clarity and consensus on steps to be taken are laid down in a logical framework. It shows where the organization is heading with the new cultures. Next, people’s readiness for change is assessed to allow them time to disengage with the old organizational cultures. Afterwards, the management examines its expectations and assesses it against that of employees (TACS 2014). iii) Implementing change In the third process, the management develops a change strategy to enable employees to support the process of change. This may include carrying out training and learning programs, advice, facilitating participation through meetings, providing instructions and offering compensations. Later, a momentum is developed by empowering employees to creatively look for solutions in the existing organizational cultures. Additionally, the management should plan for and cerate short-term wins by giving employees tangible results to boost their confidence that the change process is working out positively (TACS 2014). iv) Consolidation of change In the fourth process, the results from the previous effort are harvested. The change is also monitored by assessing the change progress and the change in attitudes of the employees to see whether the change agents or people involved show supportive attitudes. Integral change is also organized at this stage to see whether the change affects the organization in its entirety (TACS 2014). Role of leadership and give example of role models The change agent and the manager offer leadership during the change process. The change agent may be anyone in the organization who has been assigned temporarily to achieve change. The change agent creates a vision and upholds members’ faith during the transition. This also means that he must be a role model. For instance, a change agent who is worthy of imitation should talk positively of the need for change, support the change, and get to influence positive emotions to gain support for the change. The public managers offer leadership during the change process. He may also take the leadership role of a change agent and the change sponsor. He empowers employees and creates a facilitative environment for change by coaching others to assists in change, mobilising employees to self-organise, motivating other to use their problem-solving skills to push for change, and creating respect through examples. For instance, if the organization seeks to change its hierarchical structures, he should be a role model by allowing teams to self-organise. Culture Change success factors and use companies to illustrate According to Millington and Schultz (2009) for organizations to successfully create values-aligned organizational cultures, the executive leadership has to show dedication for the long-term process by embracing and championing for it. For instance, Apple Inc’s innovative culture that leads to innovative electronics’ designs is linked to the high commitment to innovative culture by the executive leadership who create responsibility and need for maintenance of culture, starting from Steve Jobs, who was the founder (Staples Hub 2014). Values have also to be defined in practical behavioural terms by creating attainable mission. This makes the desired behaviour tangible, measurable and observable (Coleman 2013). This is the case with Wal-Mart, whose values are defined in behavioural terms. The company’s culture of frugality and caring for the interest of employees are defined in its vision statement of providing product and services at relatively low-cost than competitors (Staples Hub 2014). Accountability for delivery of targeted valued behaviour is also essential. Positive impacts of meeting values have to be described and demonstrated. For instance, it is suggested that when Sam Walton wanted to encourage the culture or frugality and low-cost, he praised and encouraged it as well as demonstrated how it was helping the firm gain a large customer base (Prenhall nd). The employees must also be involved in the cultural transformation at each process of change. This involves inviting their ideas rather than the management solely communicating its expectations (Coleman 2013). At Google for instance, change management to bring about informal product development has be through employee engagement. For the staff to embrace change, they are engaged in the change prices to motivate them. The employees have a high access to Google’s chief executive and co-founders, which encourages informal product development (Staples Hub 2014). Conclusion Organizational culture is simply a pattern of values, practices, beliefs, learned ways and norms of contending with challenges and experience that materialise in the course of an organisation’s operation and timeline from the day it is started and which tend to show through its members’ behaviours. Components of organisational culture such as norms, traditions, symbols, rituals, values, heroes, and beliefs that make the change process difficult. Resistance to change and commonly shared perspectives and interpretations whose patterns may be difficult to modify make organisational culture change management difficult. Change management process requires motivating change, coordinating transition, implementing change and consolidating change. The public managers offer leadership during the change process. They empowers employees and creates a facilitative environment for change by coaching others to assists in change, mobilising employees to self-organise, motivating other to use their problem-solving skills to push for change, and creating respect through examples. Reference List Alvesson, M & Sveningsson, S 2007, Changing Organizational Culture: Cultural Change Work in Progress, Routledge, New York Change Management Institute 2012, Organisational Change Management Maturity, viewed 20 Mar 2015, Coleman, J 2013, "Six Components of a Great Corporate Culture," Harvard Business Review May 2013 Combe, M 2014, “Readiness for Strategy Implementation," Project Management Institute, viewed 20 Mar 2015, Hofstede, G 1997, Culture and Organisations: Software of the Mind: Intercultural Cooperation and its importance for Survival, McGraw-Hill, New York Millington, M & Schultz, J 2009, "The Challenge of Organizational Culture in Quality Assurance," Journal of Rehabilitation Administration, vol 33 no 2, pp.121-10 Prenhall nd, What Companies Have Built a Reputation around Their Corporate Cultures? viewed 20 Mar 2015, Read More