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Module Outline

303HRM Managing Organisational Change


Reflective Learning Journal 2
Name of student:

Rachelle Carpio Bengala

Case Study:

Googling in China

Date of entry:

9th December 2015

Generalization, Principles and Theories


Altering an organisations culture is one of the most complex leadership challenges. This
is because an organisations culture comprises a matching set of goals, roles, processes,
values, communications practices, attitudes and assumptions.
The fundamentals fit together as a mutually reinforcing system and combination to
prevent any attempt to change it. Which is the reason why individual-fix changes, such as
the introduction of teams, or Lean, or Agile, or Scrum, or knowledge management, or
some new process, may appear to make progress for a while, but eventually the matching
elements of the organizational culture take over and the change is inevitably pinched back
into the existing organisational culture.
Altering a culture is a significant responsibility, and all of the organisational tools for
varying minds will need to be put in play. However, the order in which they deployed has
a dangerous impact on the probability of success.
Culture Levels
There are three levels of culture:
Artefacts
The foremost and mainly observed level of Scheins model is the artefacts of what you
see, hear and feel. By observing and emotional reactions to environment around - the
architecture, the dcor and the climate, based on how people behave towards an
individual and among each other.
In different organizations, things are done in another way. This is something that can
sense right away as it is visible. How members of the organization dress, behave and
communicate with others and with organizational outsiders.
Values
This level deals with the professed culture of an organizations members.
Company slogans, mission statements and other operations creeds, are repeatedly
expressed, local and personal values are extensively articulated within the organization.
Organizational behavior at this level is studied by interviewing the organizations
members and using questionnaires to gather attitudes towards the organisational
membership.

Underlying Assumptions
An assumption or unspoken assumption is an assumption that includes the underlying
agreements made in the development of a logical argument, route of action, decision, or
judgment that are not clearly voiced nor essentially implicit by the decision maker.
Regularly, these assumptions are completed based on personal life experiences, and are
not intentionally clear in the decision making surrounding. These assumptions can be the
source of clear paradox, misunderstandings and struggle to change in human
organizational behavior. Implicit assumptions contain those moral or religious arguments,
racism, political affiliations.
Testing and Application
Espoused values were used in this case of Googling with China. These espoused values
consist of strategies, targets, plans, company regulation and philosophies. These values
are legal, which require every member in the company are given a chance to go with it.
One example is, Googles internal HR created a practice for employees to engage in
innovation. Engineers are allowed to take 20 percent of their time to focus on their own
projects. It has been said that over half of Googles products innovations each year which
includes Gmail and Google News gave life to them because of the 20 percent given
time
Values that were used in this case are observable, behaviors and surface.
Symbolic Change
This is a culture that an organization is changeable that can be manipulated by leaders.
Being created and re-created only exist to individuals as personality by group social
interaction as the culture to the organization. This culture contains organization features
and behaviors, systems, protocols, politics and processes. A culture cannot be easily
manipulated entirely or turned on or off immediately but it can be deliberately influenced.
Invisibility is usually the deepest levels of culture and because of this, it is tremendously
difficult to notice let alone change.
Google has a broad mindset when it comes to change. While they were going through a
challenge with setting up Google in China, they had to go through levels of walls to be
able to function according to their own organization value. The Chinese government did
not have the same opinion to the agreement of an unfiltered search engine and Google
announced that it would redirect searches from Google to China to Google Hong Kong.

Hong Kong is still considered as a Chinese territory but has a different political system
from Mainland China and an independent judiciary. The Chinese authorities threatened to
withdraw Googles license to operate as an Internet content provider if this continued.
Functionalist
This culture is seen as a variable in an organization as the psychological pre-dispositions
that employees in an organization own which leads them to perform in certain ways. This
culture can be independently identified through visible artefacts by observing substantial
layers of deeper meanings and basic assumptions of the culture which can be understood.
This can be possibly changed with the suggestion of culture.
This culture was implemented in Googles organization. Their internal HR created a
practice for employees to be more engage in innovation. Engineers were allowed to take
20 percent of their time to focus on their own projects. Over half of Googles products
innovations each year which includes Gmail and Google News gave life to them
because of the 20 percent given time. This has lead them to perform in a different way
to develop the organization.
Realist
A realist culture accepts employees values and beliefs will not be changed. Changing
behavior is what can be achieved within the organisation. Values and changes to the
organisation is something that cannot be measured while behavioral change and
observance is more realistic and easier than changing attitudes and values. Exterior
fundamentals of organisational culture are changeable and can be influenced within the
organisation and over time deeper underlying assumptions can change.
During the early stage of staff meeting, it was set out clearly: Dont be evil. We believe
strongly that in the long term, we will be better served- as shareholders and in all other
ways- by a company that does good things for the world even if we forgo some short
term gains. This is an important characteristic of our culture and is broadly shared within
the company.
With this, fundamentals can start within the organization and in time assumptions can
change.
Organization Development

It is agreed that the following helps an organization development. An organization to


move beyond received wisdom, distinguish harms as wholes and combine ideas from
unconnected sources. Every challenge an organization pass through establish learning and
practices. With every edge of competencies, organization will operate by looking at
visions of the future rather than by accommodating to the standards of the past. Creating
mechanisms for exchange of information or new ideas will help recognize and encourage
differences.
Culture Change
The possible outcome is a transformed organisation which leaders trust their staff and
encourage them to develop an apprehension for organisation goals.
Organisational success can be seen directly back to a very sturdy culture, moulded with a
set of beliefs and values while the intention is unashamedly business oriented.
This journal has summed up to a conclusion of coming out of their comfort zone,
articulating new directions, establishing new protocols, identifying culture gaps and
closing culture gaps.
Things that are complex only make sense in hindsight. Theyre messy but knowledge,
innovation, collaboration and most things that are involved with people, are complex, and
at the same time a hundred things that an organisation could set out to do without
knowing what to expect in return. In order to progress and move forward, we will not try
to fume the ocean instead help the organisation identify areas that really matter to the
business and foster the good.
References
Wood, J., Zeffane, R., Fromholtz, M., Weisner, R., & Creed, A. (2010). Organisational
behaviour: Core concepts and applications (2), Brisbane: John Wiley and Sons. ISBN
9780470818565 Retrieved: 6th December 2015
Kuntze, R & Matulich, E. (n.d) Google: Searching for Value Journal of Case Research
in Business and Economic. Retrieved: http://www.aabri.com/manuscripts/09429.pdf 8th
December 2015
Edgar Scheins Retrieved: http://www.careeranchorsonline.com/SCA/ESabout.do?
open=es 8th December 2015
The Corporate Culture Survival Guide by E. Schein Retrieved: 9th December 2015

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