Organisation culture and change management

Organisation culture
A system of shared values, assumptions, beliefs, and norms that unite the members of an organization. Reflects employees views about the way things are done around here. The culture specific to each firm affects how employees feel and act and the type of employee hired and retained by the company.

Organizational Culture and Change In order to survive, organizations and their

cultures must continuously evolve and change.
Conditions prompting change include:
Economic crises Changes in laws or regulations Social developments Global competition Demographic trends Explosive technological changes

Cultures change when an organization discovers, invents or develops solutions to problems it faces.

 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.

Managing Organizational 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 bottomup direction.

Organization Culture Issues Three important issues in an organizations culture:

Ethics Diversity of employees Leadership behavior

How does all this fit together?

Managers and leaders must use good leadership practices to be sure to introduce, develop, reward, and cement ethical practices and positive ways of working with diversity into the organization culture

Changing Organizational Culture Top leaders can set the tone for a culture and for culture change.
Leaders who strive for high-quality products and services understand that they must:
Involve the keepers and holders of the culture. Build on what all organizational members share. Teach new members how to behave.

Implementing Organizational Change

Top-down Change Change Agents

Bottom-up Change

Targets for Change Individuals Groups The Organization The Environment

Individual Targets Involves human resource changes

Changes in this area are triggered by new staffing strategies or by an effort to enhance workforce diversity.
The number and skills of the human resource component. Improving levels of employee motivation and performance.

Group Targets Involves changes in the nature of the relationship between managers and subordinates or the relationships within work groups.

Organizational Targets Changes in any of the following areas:

Basic goals and strategies of the organization Products, quality, or services offered Organizational structure The composition of work units Organizational processes such as reward, communication, or information processing system The culture

Environmental Targets Involves changing sectors of an organizations environment

For example, changes in products or services offered may require new technology or a new distribution system.

Change agents should take the following steps to obtain a successful change outcome:
1. 2.

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

of change.

5. 6. 7.

3. 4.

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

8.

Empower others to act on the vision. Plan and create short-term wins. Consolidate improvements and produce still more change. Institutionalize new approaches.