culture & change

• Personality of the organization. • Comprised of the assumptions, values, norms

and tangible signs of organization members and their behaviors.

• Difficult to express distinctly, but everyone knows it when they sense it

• Particularly important when attempting to manage organization-wide change

Organizational Culture

Importance:

• Organizational change failure is credited to lack of understanding about the strong role of culture and the role it plays in organizations.

• That's one of the reasons that many strategic planners now place as much emphasis on identifying strategic values as they do mission and vision.

Core Values

Expressed values

Visible Culture

Levels of Corporate Culture

Functions performed by organizational culture:

• Employee Self-Management– Sense of shared identity– Generation of commitment

• Stability– Sense of continuity– Satisfies need for predictability, security, and

comfort

Functions performed by organizational culture: (continued)

• Socialization– Internalizing or taking organizational values as

one’s own• Implementation Support of the Organization’s

Strategy– If strategy and culture reinforce each other,

employees find it natural to be committed to the strategy

Stages of the Socialization Process

Pre-arrival

Encounter

Metamorphosis

Creating and Sustaining Organizational Culture

Cultural Symbols Company Rituals and Ceremonies

Company Heroes

Stories

Language

Leadership

Organizational Policies and Decision Making

Aspects of organizational culture

• Cultural Uniformity versus Heterogeneity• Strong versus Weak Cultures• Culture versus Formalization• National versus Organizational Culture• Organizational Fit– Baseball team culture– Club culture– Academy culture– Fortress culture

Types of Culture : -

There are different types of culture just like there are different types of personality

• Academy Culture (highly skilled and tend to stay in the organization) Eg :universities, hospitals, large corporations, etc

• Baseball Team Culture (Employees are "free agents" who have highly prized skills,high demands)Eg : Investment banking, advertising, etc.

• Club Culture (Requirement for employees in this culture is to fit into the group)Eg : Military, some law firms, etc

• Fortress Culture (Employees don't know if they'll be laid off or not. These organizations often undergo massive reorganization) Eg : savings and loans, large car companies, etc.

Organizational Change

• Organization culture can facilitate or inhibit change in an organization.

• A firm attempts to change organizational culture because the current culture hinders the attainment of corporate goals.

• Environmental and internal forces can stimulate the need for organization change.

Forces for Change: Environmental Forces

• Put pressure on how a firm conducts its business and its relationships with customers, suppliers, and employees.

• Environmental forces include:– Technology– Market forces– Political and regulatory forces– Social trends

Forces for Change: Internal Forces

• Come from decisions made within the company.

• May originate with top executives and managers and travel in a top-down direction.

• May originate with front-line employees or labor unions and travel in a bottom-up direction.

Resistance to Change

Self-Interest

Lack of Trust and Understanding

UncertaintyDifferent

Perspectives and Goals

Cultures that Value Tradition

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Overcoming Resistance to Change

• Education and communication• Participation and involvement• Facilitation and support• Negotiation and agreement

Models of Organizational Change

• Lewin’s three-step model

Lewin’s Three-Step Model of Organizational Change

Unfreezing RefreezingMoving

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Implementing Change

• Unfreezing: getting ready for change• Moving: making the change• Refreezing: stabilizing the change

Implementing Organizational Change

Top-down Change

Change Agents

Bottom-up Change

Change agents should take the following steps to obtain a successful change outcome:

1. Establish a sense of urgency.2. Form a powerful coalition of supporters of

change.3. Create a vision of change.4. Communicate the vision of change.

5. Empower others to act on the vision.6. Plan and create short-term wins.7. Consolidate improvements and produce still

more change.8. Institutionalize new approaches.

Tactics for Introducing ChangeCommunication and

Education Employee Involvement

Negotiation

Coercion

Top-Management Support

Applications of Management Perspectives:For the Manager

• Certain types of changes routinely provoke strong employee resistance:– Changes that affect skill requirements.– Changes that represent economic or status loss.– Changes that involve disruption of social

relationships.• By being aware of the sources of resistance,

managers can better apply tactics to make the changes more palatable for employees.

Applications of Management Perspectives:For Managing Teams

• Teams can help test the waters for a proposed change.

• Various employee teams can serve as focus groups in order to find ways to make a change in policy more acceptable to employees.

Applications of Management Perspectives:For Individuals

• Learning the specifics about the company culture can help you determine your fit with the organization and the possibility of succeeding.

• Ask questions and gather information during the recruiting process to get a handle on the company culture and assess whether you will function comfortably in it.