Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ABSTRACT The 1992 study of Kotter and Heskett on successful corporate culture change reveals
one of the most empirically convincing models for organization change management. The procedure
demonstrated by Kotter and Hesketts research fits the pattern and dynamics of a universal social
phenomenon of culture change defined in 1956 by Wallace as revitalization. Applying the
psychodynamics of revitalization explains how this procedure of corporate culture change in
distressed organizational cultures creates an adaptable culture of new behavioral norms. The
driving force of this procedure is the transference of dependency wishes among anxious
organization members onto their perceived powerful organization leader. An understanding of
how and why organizational cultures change according to this model can guide the values and
behavior of organizational leaders in successfully managing organizational change.
KEY WORDS : Culture, anthropology, revitalization, transference, norms, leadership
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management results in successful change. They can also guide the values and
behavior of leaders and change management professionals in successfully
managing organizational change.
The revitalization model is one of the most widely taught theories in the field
of cultural anthropology. Although revitalization has been usually applied to
explain spontaneous, religiously inspired culture change, this article takes the
position that, The obvious distinctions between religious and secular movements
may conceal fundamental similarities of socio-cultural process and psychodynamics . . . (Wallace, 2003, p. 25). The socio-cultural process and psychodynamics of revitalization have been examined in great depth; applying them to
the similar process of managing organization culture change results in a detailed
understanding of the determining variables for successful change.
Corporate Culture and Performance
John Kotter and James Heskett (1992) conducted a quantitative study of performance in 207 enterprises in 22 industries during the years 1979 through
1990. They measured performance in terms of annual growth of net income,
average returns on capital investments, and appreciation in the value of stock.
In all cases of successful culture change they found that corporate leaders
completed each stage of the change procedure in a specific sequence before
moving on to the next stage. Rushing through or skipping stages never produces
a satisfying result (Kotter and Heskett, 1992, p. 3). The procedure of successful
corporate culture change that Kotter and Hesketts research discovered holds to
the following pattern:
Initial Culture
Eventually, these managers are promoted and run the company. However, they
understand business processes but not the corporate vision and culture. Their
behavior conflicts with the corporations cultural norms. This aberrant behavior
can include arrogance, lack of value for key constituents, hostility towardleadership, and resistance to change.
New Leadership, New Vision
A new chief executive is appointed who identifies a crisis within the company
and presents a vision for a plan to correct it. The chief executive is often an established and charismatic business leader who has a plan for changing the corporation
before accepting the position. The new chief executive appoints task forces or
hires consultants to gather and communicate information and to clarify the vision.
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Reorganization
The leader maintains high visibility among employees, frequently reinforcing the
plan through word and deed, which includes restructuring systems and policies,
providing role models and communicating why new behavior is needed, endorsing
and supporting new activities proposed by others, and changing specific personnel
or the criteria by which people are recruited and promoted.
Successful Culture Change
The new actions appear to achieve the desired results, which begin to motivate
new behavior among the membership. Behavioral norms and shared values
begin to change to be more in accordance with the new vision and the new strategies. These behavioral norms seem to be driven by a value system that stresses
meeting the legitimate needs of all the key constituencies whose cooperation
is essential to business performanceespecially customers, employees, and
stockholders (Kotter and Heskett, 1992, p. 3).
Cultural Revitalization
Revitalization movements involve establishing new religious or political ideologies in societies that are threatened by cultural crisis. In describing culture,
Wallace (2003, p. 90) employs a systems-and-meaning definition in which:
Culture refers to a pattern of ideas, a cognitive system, consisting of a relatively small
set of abstract propositions, of both descriptive and normative kinds, about the nature
of the human self and society, and about how people should feel and behave. This
culture is shared, and shared uniquely, by the competent adult members of the
community; it forms a template for all behavior . . .. These high-order generalizations
about how members of a community see themselves and each other help the
anthropologist to understand the social structure and the economic system.
Preceding the revitalization movement itself is the Steady State period, in which the
culturally recognized means of satisfying emotional needs operate well enough so
that most individuals within the culture can cope with stress within tolerable limits.
The Period of Increased Individual Stress
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M. W. Phelan
means of coping with stress become decreasingly effective. Some people prefer to
tolerate stress rather than change their behavior and adapt, while others resort to
regressive behavior, which can include intra-group violence, disregard for
mores, irresponsibility among public officials, and extreme passivity. Some of
these regressive behaviors become new cultural patterns, and the culture
becomes distorted. Symptoms of anxiety over the loss of a meaningful way of
life become commonplace and disillusionment and apathy develop toward
problems of adaptation.
The Period of Revitalization
During this crisis a prophet or visionary comes forth with a plan, often given by a
supernatural being in a vision, by which society can reform, giving rise to the
Period of Revitalization. The plan presents a culturally relevant goal, such as
returning to a societys golden age of success or establishing a utopia, in effect,
revitalizing the culture. The Period of Revitalization incorporates the following
six functions:
Mazeway Resynthesis:
The prophet preaches the revelation, attracts converts, and gathers disciples and
followers who believe in and proselytize the prophecy.
Organization:
A small clique of special disciples (which often includes a few already influential
people) forms around the prophet and a campaign organization develops with
three levels of personnel: the prophet, the disciples, and the followers. Disciples
become responsible for spreading the word. The converts believe that they
come under the care of the supernatural being who presented the plan and that
by following the plan they will benefit materially.
Adaptation:
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realism of the groups doctrine and the amount of resistance that opponents
use against the group. As Wallace says, If the organization cannot predict successfully the consequences of its own moves and of its opponents moves in a
power struggle, its demise is very likely. If, on the other hand, it is canny about
conflict, or if the amount of resistance is low, it can be extremely unrealistic
and extremely unconventional in other matters without running much risk of
early collapse. In other words, probability of failure would seem to be negatively
correlated with degree of realism in conflict situations, and directly correlated
with amount of resistance (2003: 27 28).
Routinization:
If the mazeway formulation of the new culture maintains a low level of stress, a
new steady state arises that incorporates the new cultural values and behavioral
norms.
Examples of revitalization movements that have created new political
organizations include the formation of the Iroquois League at the direction of
the Mohawk visionary Hiawatha (Wallace, 2003). Other revitalization movements
have occurred in segments of societies, such as the Transcendental Meditation
movement of the 1970s (Phelan, 1979).
Organizational Revitalization
Both models of change involve a new leader who organizes believers in accepting
a new plan for new behavioral norms to replace traditional norms that fail to
cope with perceived threats to the group culture. The procedure for change
must occur in specific stages that can be summarized as follows:
1. A perceived crisis induces increased stress and a sense of urgency.
2. Conventional cultural norms no longer apply, leading to increased stress among
individuals.
3. The increased anxiety leads to unsanctioned or aberrant behavior becoming
commonplace.
4. A new charismatic leader communicates a plan for new behavior.
5. The leader inspires believers in the plan and organizes followers to promote it.
6. The plan has initial success, which inspires more people to adopt it.
7. The followers consolidate and refine the plan to cope with inconsistencies and
opposition from traditionalists.
8. The new behavior becomes institutionalized as cultural norms.
Wallaces revitalization model and Kotter and Hesketts corporate culture and
performance model have important similarities and differences, most notably
the distinction between sacred and secular ideologies. Although Wallace allows
for secular applications of revitalization, he reserves the name revitalization
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for culture change within a whole society. As for applying the term to similar
organizational procedures, he (Wallace, 2003, p. 7) asks:
But what are we to call efforts to abruptly reform, or revive, merely an institution
like a university or a telephone company, or other small component within the
larger society, without pretension to wider goals? Here my own preference would
be to recognize the possibility of a similarity of process but not to employ the
term revitalization, lest it be diluted by too liberal usage.
The psychodynamics of the role of leadership in coping with crises are comparable
in revitalization movements and Kotter and Hesketts procedure for organization
change management.
Intention and Crisis
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The role of a leader in directing individuals under stress to change their behavior
is essential to crisis theory and both the revitalization and corporate culture
change models. In corporations, the vision for change must come from the relevant
leader. If the change is intended for the entire organization, the vision must come
from the CEO; if the change is intended for a division of a corporation, then the
vision must come from the head of the division (Kotter, 1998, p. 4).
Although most CEOs might not agree with favorable comparisons of themselves with charismatic religious prophets, both the revitalization movement
and organizational culture change model describe the relevant leaders as charismatic. One CEO who completed successful culture change was described as
having had a cult following of enthusiastic employees (Kotter and Heskett,
1992, p. 103).
Wallace states that individual followers believe that they come under the care of
the supernatural being who presents the plan, which they believe that by following
they will benefit materially. To alleviate their anxiety, followers have a need to
find a powerful and potentially benevolent leader, which they satisfy by displacement of transference dependency wishes (Wallace, 2003, p. 21) onto the charismatic prophet. In other words, as the perceived representative of authority, the
prophet takes on the role of a parent surrogate who is perceived as capable
of providing well being by making things right again. Transference dependency
explains the need for the corporate leader who presents the plan for change to
be the organizations highest authority figure, whether a division head or the
chief executive officer.
Remaking Organizational Norms
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The purpose of revitalization movements is to resynthesize credible, anxiety-reducing mazeways among individuals. Kotter and Hesketts procedure for change
management follows the sequence and dynamics of revitalization; it can be
inferred that the purpose of this procedure for organization culture change is to
resynthesize the mazeways of organization members to realistically introduce consistent, anxiety-reducing behavioral norms into the intended organizational
culture. Wallace (2003, pp. 27 8) asserts the critical importance of credible mazeways in saying, Where conflict-realism is high and resistance is low, the movement is bound to achieve the phase of Routinization. Whether its culture will be
viable for long beyond this point, however, will depend on whether its
mazeway formulations lead to actions which maintain a low level of stress.
Contradictions and Failure
This view of cultural norms as providing predictability for shared behavior corresponds with Wallaces (2003, pp. 170 1) view that the purpose of the mazeway is,
To give meaning to messages, to relate incoming sensory data to the whole
complex of objects, values, and techniques that is the mazeway, so that action
may be taken that can be expected to reduce stress or maximize pleasure not
merely in the presenting situation but within the great maze of situations that
the mazeway represents.
An extreme example of a causal relationship between inescapable contradictions within perceived reality and mental illness is the double bind dilemma in
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families where the presence of schizophrenia has been diagnosed. The double bind
involves contradictory choices that inevitably result in negative consequences for
the chooser, no matter which choice is made (Bateson, 2000).
The Revitalization Phenomenon
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