Which Of The Following Is Not A Force For Culture Change?

15.v Creating Culture Change

Learning Objectives

Explain why culture modify may be necessary.
Understand the procedure of culture change.

How Do Cultures Change?

Civilization is part of a company's Dna and is resistant to change efforts. Unfortunately, many organizations may not fifty-fifty realize that their current civilisation constitutes a barrier against organizational productivity and performance. Changing company culture may exist the primal to the visitor turnaround when there is a mismatch betwixt an organisation's values and the demands of its environment.

Certain atmospheric condition may help with culture change. For case, if an organisation is experiencing failure in the curt run or is under threat of bankruptcy or an imminent loss of market share, it would be easier to convince managers and employees that civilisation alter is necessary. A company can use such downturns to generate employee commitment to the modify endeavor. Even so, if the organization has been successful in the past, and if employees do not perceive an urgency necessitating culture change, the change attempt volition be more challenging. Sometimes the external surround may strength an organisation to undergo culture alter. Mergers and acquisitions are some other instance of an event that changes a company's culture. In fact, the power of the two merging companies to harmonize their corporate cultures is often what makes or breaks a merger endeavour. When Ben & Jerry'southward was caused by Unilever, Ben & Jerry's had to modify parts of its civilization while attempting to retain some of its unique aspects. Corporate social responsibility, creativity, and fun remained as parts of the culture. In fact, when Unilever appointed a veteran French executive every bit the CEO of Ben & Jerry'southward in 2000, he was greeted by an Eiffel belfry fabricated out of ice foam pints, Edith Piaf songs, and employees wearing berets and dark glasses. At the same time, the company had to get more than performance oriented in response to the acquisition. All employees had to keep an eye on the bottom line. For this purpose, they took an accounting and finance course for which they had to operate a lemonade stand (Kiger, 2005). Achieving culture change is challenging, and many companies ultimately fail in this mission. Inquiry and case studies of companies that successfully changed their culture indicate that the following six steps increment the chances of success (Schein, 1990).

Effigy 15.12 Half-dozen Steps to Culture Change

Six Steps to Culture Change: 1) Create a sense of urgency, 2) Change leaders and other key players, 3) Role model, 4) Train, 5) Change the reward system, 6) Create new stories and symbols

Creating a Sense of Urgency

In order for the modify attempt to be successful, it is important to communicate the need for change to employees. One manner of doing this is to create a sense of urgency on the part of employees and explain to them why changing the fundamental way in which business is done is and then important. In successful culture change efforts, leaders communicate with employees and nowadays a instance for culture change every bit the essential element that will lead the company to eventual success. As an example, consider the situation at IBM Corporation in 1993 when Lou Gerstner was brought in as CEO and chairman. After decades of dominating the market for mainframe computers, IBM was apace losing market share to competitors, and its efforts to sell personal computers—the original "PC"—were seriously undercut by cheaper "clones." In the public's estimation, the name IBM had go associated with obsolescence. Gerstner recalls that the crisis IBM was facing became his ally in changing the system'southward culture. Instead of spreading optimism about the visitor'due south hereafter, he used the crisis at every opportunity to get purchase-in from employees (Gerstner, 2002).

Changing Leaders and Other Fundamental Players

A leader's vision is an important factor that influences how things are done in an system. Thus, culture modify oft follows changes at the highest levels of the organization. Moreover, in social club to implement the change effort quickly and efficiently, a company may find information technology helpful to remove managers and other powerful employees who are interim as a barrier to modify. Because of political reasons, cocky interest, or habits, managers may create powerful resistance to modify efforts. In such cases, replacing these positions with employees and managers giving visible support to the change endeavor may increase the likelihood that the change endeavor succeeds. For example, when Robert Iger replaced Michael Eisner equally CEO of the Walt Disney Company, one of the starting time things he did was to abolish the cardinal planning unit, which was staffed by people shut to ex-CEO Eisner. This department was viewed every bit a barrier to creativity at Disney, and its removal from the company was helpful in ensuring the innovativeness of the company culture (McGregor et al., 2007).

Role Modeling

Role modeling is the process by which employees modify their own beliefs and behaviors to reverberate those of the leader (Kark & Dijk, 2007). CEOs can model the behaviors that are expected of employees to change the culture. The ultimate goal is that these behaviors volition trickle downward to lower level employees. For example, when Robert Iger took over Disney, in guild to show his commitment to innovation, he personally became involved in the process of game creation, attended summits of developers, and gave feedback to programmers about the games. Thus, he modeled his engagement in the thought creation process. In contrast, modeling of inappropriate behavior from the height will pb to the same behavior trickling down to lower levels. A recent example of this blazon of role modeling is the scandal involving Hewlett-Packard Development Visitor LP lath members. In 2006, when lath members were suspected of leaking confidential company information to the press, the company's top-level executives hired a team of security experts to find the source of the leak. The investigators sought the telephone records of lath members, linking them to journalists. For this purpose, they posed as board members and called phone companies to obtain the itemized home phone records of lath members and journalists. When the investigators' methods came to light, HP'due south chairman and four other peak executives faced criminal and civil charges. When such behavior is modeled at top levels, information technology is probable to have an adverse touch on on the company culture (Barron, 2007).

Training

Well-crafted training programs may exist instrumental in bringing nearly culture change by teaching employees the new norms and behavioral styles. For example, after the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated upon reentry from a February 2003 mission, NASA decided to alter its culture to get more prophylactic sensitive and minimize determination-making errors leading to unsafe behaviors. The change effort included training programs in team processes and cognitive bias awareness. Similarly, when auto repairer Midas International Corporation felt the need to change its civilization to be more than committed to customers, they developed a training programme making employees familiar with customer emotions and helping form improve connections with them. Customer reports take been overwhelmingly positive in stores that underwent this training (BST to guide culture modify attempt at NASA, 2004).

Changing the Advantage System

The criteria with which employees are rewarded and punished have a powerful office in determining the cultural values in existence. Switching from a commission-based incentive construction to a straight bacon system may exist instrumental in bringing about customer focus amidst sales employees. Moreover, by rewarding employees who embrace the company'southward new values and even promoting these employees, organizations tin make sure that changes in culture have a lasting impact. If a visitor wants to develop a team-oriented culture where employees collaborate with each other, methods such as using individual-based incentives may backfire. Instead, distributing bonuses to intact teams might be more successful in bringing most civilization change.

Creating New Symbols and Stories

Finally, the success of the culture alter effort may be increased by developing new rituals, symbols, and stories. Continental Airlines Inc. is a company that successfully inverse its culture to be less bureaucratic and more team oriented in the 1990s. Ane of the first things management did to evidence employees that they really meant to cancel many of the detailed procedures the visitor had and create a civilisation of empowerment was to fire the heavy 800-page company policy manual in their parking lot. The new transmission was simply fourscore pages. This action symbolized the upcoming changes in the civilization and served equally a powerful story that circulated among employees. Some other early on action was the redecorating of waiting areas and repainting of all their planes, again symbolizing the new order of things (Higgins & McAllester, 2004). By replacing the old symbols and stories, the new symbols and stories will help enable the culture change and ensure that the new values are communicated.

Key Takeaway

Organizations need to change their civilisation to respond to changing weather in the environment, to remain competitive, and to avoid complacency or stagnation. Culture change oftentimes begins by the creation of a sense of urgency. Adjacent, a change of leaders and other cardinal players may enact change and serve as constructive part models of new beliefs. Preparation can also be targeted toward fostering these new behaviors. Reward systems are changed inside the organization. Finally, the organisation creates new stories and symbols.

Exercises

Can new employees modify a visitor's culture? If so, how?
Are there conditions under which change is not possible? If and then, what would such conditions exist?
Have you ever observed a change process at an organization you lot were involved with? If so, what worked well and what didn't?
What recommendations would you have for someone considering a major change of culture inside their own system?

References

Barron, J. (2007, January). The HP Fashion: Fostering an ethical culture in the wake of scandal. Business Credit, 109, 8–10.

BST to guide civilization modify effort at NASA. (June, 2004). Professional Condom, 49, 16; J. B. (June, 2001). The Midas touch. Preparation, 38, 26.

Gerstner, L. Five. (2002). Who says elephants can't dance? New York: Harper-Collins.

Higgins, J., & McAllester, C. (2004). If you want strategic change, don't forget to change your cultural artifacts. Journal of Change Management, 4, 63–73.

Kark, R., & Van Dijk, D. (2007). Motivation to lead, motivation to follow: The role of the self-regulatory focus in leadership processes. Academy of Direction Review, 32, 500–528.

Kiger, P. J. (2005, Apr). Corporate crunch. Workforce Direction, 84, 32–38.

McGregor, J., McConnon, A., Weintraub, A., Holmes, S., & Grover, R. (2007, May xiv). The 25 most innovative companies. Business organization Calendar week, 4034, 52–60.

Schein, E. H. (1990). Organizational civilisation. American Psychologist, 45, 109–119.