Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Chapter 13
Organizational Culture and Change
Opening Case
In the Pit
This case profiles the Toronto Symphony Orchestra (TSO), and chronicles
the significant changes it has encountered recently in its fight for survival. Many
internal and external forces for change are at work in this situation. The orchestra
appears to have been through the unfreezing stage and the change stage. One
of the big changes is the new CEO. Now the TSO is headed for the refreezing
stage. The new CEO seems to be fully aware of the difficulties that lie ahead and
appears to anticipate the need to deal with resistance to the changes. Given its
near-death experience, all stakeholders will be watching Andrew Shaw as he
guides the TSO into the next stage of its history.
Chapter Summary
Chapter 13 - 1
Kreitner/Kinicki/Cole
Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour: Key Concepts, Skills, and Best Practices
Chapter 13 - 2
Kreitner/Kinicki/Cole
Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour: Key Concepts, Skills, and Best Practices
You might assign your students the task of interviewing teachers and/or students
in different departments in the college or university as to what they think their
culture is regarding the department and its students. They could devise a
questionnaire, complete a survey, tabulate the data and make a presentation to
class on the topic of culture as it applies to your college or university.
There are two basic processes for embedding organizational culture into
the organization: socialization and mentoring. Organizational socialization is
defined as the process by which a person learns the values, norms, and required
behaviours that permit him to participate as a member of the organization.
Where else do we see socialization in our society? Do all organizations in all
societies socialize their employees and managers?
Chapter 13 - 3
Kreitner/Kinicki/Cole
Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour: Key Concepts, Skills, and Best Practices
Getting the most out of mentoring. In order to get full benefits from a
mentoring program:
Chapter 13 - 4
Kreitner/Kinicki/Cole
Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour: Key Concepts, Skills, and Best Practices
Forces of Change
Chapter 13 - 5
Kreitner/Kinicki/Cole
Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour: Key Concepts, Skills, and Best Practices
Social and political pressures. There are examples such as the tobacco
companies getting lots of pressure and political events such as the fall of the
Berlin Wall. You might want your students to fill in what they think the most
important social and political events of the last 20 years.
Internal Forces. Internal forces for change include the changes that
comes from the inside to the organization. These forces can be subtle such as
low job satisfaction or can manifest in outward signs such as low productivity.
Lewins change model. Lewins model of change has three stages for
creating change:
Chapter 13 - 6
Kreitner/Kinicki/Cole
Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour: Key Concepts, Skills, and Best Practices
organization. What consultant does not carry a pre-existing set of biases and
values?
Chapter 13 - 7
Kreitner/Kinicki/Cole
Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour: Key Concepts, Skills, and Best Practices
What are the ethical concerns behind each of these approaches? Is ethical
behaviour important in changing behaviours?
Internet Exercises
1. Organizational Culture
1. What are the organizations espoused values and beliefs? Answers will
vary by organization.
Chapter 13 - 8
Kreitner/Kinicki/Cole
Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour: Key Concepts, Skills, and Best Practices
organizational change, and then click on the online quiz. The quiz is
automatically scored by clicking on Score the Exercise. The higher the score,
the greater the students comfort with change. The questions asked are:
1. What was your score? What does it tell you about your level of
acceptance of change? Personal opinion.
2. If your score was low, indicating resistance to change, what might you do
to try to become more open to change? Explain. Personal opinion,
probably seeking out information about changes and discussing them with
others.
3. If your score was high, indicating comfort with change, think about how
this might make it difficult for you to deal with others who fear and resist
change. How might you try to understand their point of view? Explain.
Personal opinion, probably discussing the changes with others to find out
why they are uncomfortable. They may feel they will lose out as a result of
the change, and may see you as someone who will benefit.
Experiential Exercises
This exercise asks students to evaluate a company they work for, or are
familiar with, that has undertaken a change effort. After completing the 16-item
questionnaire using the 3-point scale provided, they sum their responses to
calculate a total score. The total score can be interpreted using the arbitrary
norms provided: 40-48 = high readiness for change; 24-39 = moderate readiness
for change; 16-23 = low readiness for change. The question asked is:
1. Did this level of readiness for change relate to the success of the
change effort? In most cases, the organizations with higher readiness
scores will have experienced more successful change efforts than those
with low scores.
2. Cross-Cultural Awareness
Chapter 13 - 9
Kreitner/Kinicki/Cole
Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour: Key Concepts, Skills, and Best Practices
1. Which national profile of work goals most closely matches your own? Is
this what you expected or not? Personal opinion.
2. Are you surprised by any of the rankings in the four national samples?
Explain. Personal opinion.
Chapter 13 - 10
Kreitner/Kinicki/Cole
Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour: Key Concepts, Skills, and Best Practices
Video Case
Gap Adventures
1. What corporate values have changed at Gap Adventures since the arrival
of Dave Bowen? Less focus on ethical sensibilities, conservationism, and
the laid-back family atmosphere, and more focus on customers, hard
work, discipline, efficiency.
2. Explain how the culture change at Gap Adventures has affected the four
functions of culture. The organizational identity has changed shifted from
a small, family atmosphere with entrepreneurial spirit to a more traditional
corporate identity. The collective commitment has been strained by Daves
style. The social system has become less stable with the advent of Daves
authority and the decrease in Bruces involvement in the day-to-day
activities of the company. The company may make less sense to
employees than it did before when it was so unique because its
underlying values have changed.
Chapter 13 - 11