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Role of Organizational Culture in Change management
The role of organizational culture as a factor influencing successful change in organization becomes apparent when two organizations with different culture or organizations from two different national cultures are merged together. Organizational culture influences various phases of change and most importantly the implementation process of change.
Culture becomes an important factor that influences change when organizational, rather than individual, change is brought into effect. However, in the 1980s emphasis was laid on the importance of culture as a change management agent, but recently researchers have branded culture as an obsolete tool for change management.
This paper will discuss literature that demonstrates the role of organizational or corporate culture on the change management. The literature review is divided into sections dealing with theories of organizational culture, the impact of culture on change management, how culture can be an impediment to change, and the recent literatures that shows the effect culture has on change management.
Organizational culture and Adaptability
Culture has been a strong influence in the functioning of the social organization. Social scientists have often produced annals of work relating the relative effectiveness of culture on the functioning of organization. Denison and Mishra (1995) studied organizational culture and demonstrated the organizational effectiveness of culture.
Organizational culture is defined as a “clan” that can effectively motivate the functioning of the organization (Denison & Mishra 1995). The research paper demonstrates that organizational culture has a strong influence on better performance of an organization. Denison and Mishra adopted the survey method to collect their primary data to conduct their deductive quantitative research in order to validate their exploratory exploration.
Their research showed that culture has a strong influence on the effectiveness of the organizational performance. The traits that they used for their analysis are adaptability, mission, involvement, and consistency. They develop a model for organizational culture and effectiveness based on the four traits. They conducted two studies.
The first study was a qualitative case study of five firms that aimed to identify the four traits of change (Denison & Mishra 1995). Then they linked culture to effectiveness (Denison & Mishra 1995). The second was a quantitative study of the perception of the CEOs regarding the four traits identified from the first study (Denison & Mishra 1995).
They took a sample of 764 organizations. The results of their research supported their hypothesis regarding the effectiveness of these four identified traits and showed the complementarity of the two studies conducted (Denison & Mishra 1995).
Their research showed that the four traits were strong indicators of the direction and vision of the organization and therefore helped in defining the effective operations (Denison & Mishra 1995). This paper is important as it demonstrates that culture is an integral part in the process of organizational change.
A separate research on organizational culture showed that the general dimensions of culture are used in implementing the change process while adopted total quality management (TQM) (Detert, Schroeder & Mauriel 2000). The study presents a comprehensive synthesis of the dimensions of organizational culture that are essential for implementing TQM and bringing about change within a traditional organization.
The research has been conducted using extant research and shows how the general dimensions of change correspond to the values and beliefs that underline the TQM process. The essence of the research is on establishing a process wherein the new value systems and behaviour can be established while adopting a changed production system.
Thus, in order to embrace the change in the production system, it was essential to adopt a successful change in cultural values of the organization. They presented a framework for adoption of TQM through a change in culture (Detert, Schroeder & Mauriel 2000). In order to capture the various facets of the organizational culture, the researchers have tapped a micro nerve of the organizational culture concept rather than a larger aspect.
The research showed that there was relatively little number of dimensions available to understand the existing cultural concepts.
The basic dimensions about the organizational culture that their research found were – “the basis of truth and rationality and rationality in the organization”, “the nature of time and time horizon”, “motivation”, “stability versus change / innovation / personal growth”, “orientation to work, task, and co-workers”, “isolation versus collaboration / cooperation”, “control, coordination, and responsibility”, and “orientation and focus – internal and/or external” (Detert, Schroeder & Mauriel 2000, p. 854).
The cultural dimensions that were adopted by Detert, Schroeder and Mauriel were the usage and essence of “truth and rationality” in the organization, the importance of time placed by the employees and the top management, the nature of motivation and the quality problems faced within the organization, the importance of stability placed by the employees and the top management as opposed to innovation, change and growth, job orientation, collective working, responsibility taking within the organization, and internal and external orientation (Detert, Schroeder & Mauriel 2000, p. 255).
These eight dimensions were derived from the synthesis of the previous literature on organizational culture. They were used as generic dimensions to give a definitive form that can be adopted while implementing TQM in the organization. This research shows that for different kind of organizational needs corporate cultures have to be different.
For instance, for an organization that stresses on organizational learning, the culture has to show greater acceptance of innovation and collaboration.
When an innovation is adopted in the organization, some elements of the culture that supported the innovation have to be adopted throughout the organization (Detert, Schroeder & Mauriel 2000). The research has shown that subcultures within an organization too need to be further analysed.
Due to the changes in the external environment, – “political, regulatory, and technological” – organizations are facing an internal change (Greenwood & Hinings 1996, p. 1022). However, adapting to these changes is not simple as this requires, not only change in the processes that are followed, but also change in the culture of the organization (Greenwood & Hinings 1996).
The article utilizes neo-institutional theory to understand the importance of organizational culture in influencing the change process (Greenwood & Hinings 1996). The research shows that power of the groups is import parameters for change process. As groups enjoy differential power, they have less influence to enable or resist change.
This they state, “The relations of power and domination that enable some organizational members to constitute and recreate organizational structures according to their preferences thus becomes a critical point of focus” (Greenwood & Hinings 1996, p. 1038). Further, their research also shows that the commitment of the individuals within the organization will differ with difference in locations (Greenwood & Hinings 1996).
The pattern of the commitment and value system of the organization will also differ. As these variables are indicators of culture of he organization, it can be deduced that culture has a strong influence on the change management process. Thus, according to this research the cultural factors that influence change management process are commitment, power of groups, and value system.
Effect of organizational Culture on Cultural Change – Recent Research
Snopko (2011) studied the culture of the municipal organization in Poland and studied the role of organizational culture in stimulating or deterring organizational change.
She points out that due to the ever changing environment of the corporate world, management science has formed new organic form of organization structure, viz. project, team, etc. however, he believes that despite various advantages of these forms such as flexibility and cost-effectiveness, these structures are limited in their adaptation to management practices.
The multi-layered structure of the organizational culture is stressed in the paper (Snopko 2011). Organizational culture is believed to be important for the proper functioning of an organization due to various reasons such as integration of organization, perception of the surrounding of the organization, and the adaptive function of culture (Snopko 2011).
The study has categorised culture into “negative, introvertish, conservative, and bureaucratic” (Snopko 2011, p. 50) and pointed out that all these types of culture as essentially non-flexible and demonstrate and aversion to change. These forms of culture are categorised as effectiveness stifling cultures. While effective stimulating cultures are those that are “positive, extravert, innovative and pragmatic cultures” (Snopko 2011, p. 50).
They studied the organizational culture of the municipal offices with the aid of a questionnaire survey. The structural dimensions used for the study are “social, anthropological and cognitive” (Snopko 2011, p. 50). The various factors that are considered essential for assessing an open organizational that shows a positive culture were freedom, self-reliance, and independence. Thus, the research states:
Self-reliance, independence, freedom and freedom of decision making as well as initiatives that show, spontaneity, dynamics, readiness to take risks and to gain experience are appreciated.
On the other hand, a closed culture is based on the absence of alternative operational methods. Organisational rules, as a result of orders, regulations and instructions, present difficulties which result in passive, wait-and-see attitudes. (Snopko 2011, p. 51)
The organizational dimensions that influence culture and the cultural effectiveness are dependence, traditionalism, domination, individualism, and risk taking attitude (Snopko 2011).
The research showed that the municipal offices in Poland since 1989 had undergone considerable social and cultural changes. The changes were influenced by the changes that occurred in the overall administration of the Polish government office system. The local bodies were assumed power and the thus, managers in the local offices found out that the overall system was obsolete and disadvantageous to modern times.
Therefore, new structures and organizational system was brought forth to embrace the new conditions. This required change in the attitude and approach of the clerks and other employees working within the government system.
The research conducted a comprehensive analysis of the anthropological dimensions mentioned above and showed that organizational culture has a strong influence in the smooth transition of the change process. The values and feelings of the employees working in the municipal offices are important as they influence the workings of the employees.
A research conducted by Alas and Vadi (2004) on 906 employees in Estonian companies aimed at demonstrating the relationship between the organizational culture and the influence of the attitude of the employees on a process of organizational change within the organization when it was adapting to a post-socialist regimen.
They conducted a questionnaire survey to understand the influence of the change in the attitude of the people who worked in the socialist and post-socialist regimen in Estonia. As change management in organizations are considered a systematic process in organization literature it is important to concentrate on the state of unfreezing the stage in which the organization stood.
Employee attitude is believed to be a great influence on the change process. They believe that a person’s attitude has a great influence on the choices one makes. Thus, in terms of organizational change, attitude has to alter: “…the benefits of the change and the competence of managers to implement these changes—become important.
When seeking the information employees need for decision-making they focus on information consistent with their attitudes.” (Alas & Vadi 2004, p. 21) Organizational culture has a strong influence on shaping the attitude of the people.
As there was a change in the organizational structure of the Estonian companies as they moved out of the Soviet regime, they shed away the bureaucratic structure common in most erstwhile Soviet companies. During the Soviet regime, the organizations were found to be “internally passive” and “overstaffed” (Alas & Vadi 2004, p. 26).
Thus, the hypothesis adopted by the researchers was that “that relationship-orientation of organisational culture influences the attitudes toward change in people with a Soviet work experience more than those same attitudes in younger people without this experience” (Alas & Vadi 2004, p. 26). The researchers also aimed to measure the attitude of the employees during the change process.
Their research showed that dependent values of attitude and two orientations of culture were used to forecast attitude towards change (Alas & Vadi 2004). The research was divided into three age groups (Alas & Vadi 2004). The research’s first finding was that organizational culture predicted attitude:
Attitudes toward the benefits of change depend on task-orientation of organizational culture in all groups regardless of previous work experience, but did not depend on relationship- orientation among people with any significant work experience from the Soviet Union. (Alas & Vadi 2004, p. 34)
They found that age had an influence on the attitude of the employees. Relation was more important for employees older than 35 years. This is the group who begun their career in the political transition period.
Further, their research also found that there was a strong relation between task orientation and culture among younger employees. The older employees did not support the goals of the organization, as did the younger workers.
This is believed to be due to the older people’s prior experience with the Soviet regime: “During the Soviet period companies had slack resources, because the state was responsible for guaranteeing work for everyone.” (Alas & Vadi 2004, p. 34) Thus, the study demonstrates that organizational culture has a strong influence on the direction and nature of change management.
In another research conducted on the national bank of Namibia by Chiloane-Tsoka (2013). The research was conducted to see how organizational culture helped the bank that was influenced by internal and external change agents to pursue a smooth organizational change process.
The research demonstrated that corporate culture, taken as an independent variable, and organizational change as a dependent variable, showed a dominant relation between the two (Chiloane-Tsoka 2013). The research conducted a questionnaire survey on a sample of 50 employees in the Namibian national bank (Chiloane-Tsoka 2013).
The study’s results demonstrated that the bank had a hierarchical culture, which built internal resistance to change. This research ahs found that due to bureaucratic culture, change was not easily being accepted in the Namibian bank. Thus it was suggested that the “bank management should try to create an innovative culture in order for the Adhocracy culture to be the most dominant culture at the bank” (Chiloane-Tsoka 2013, p. 23).
Change management efforts in the offices of local governments in Victoria, Australia are studied in the paper (Kloot & Martin 2007). The paper mainly examines the culture of the local government offices and what has influenced their operations such as budgeting, financing, etc. while adopting change. The study used a survey method to collect data from the offices of local government in Victoria.
The study was conducted in 2004. Questionnaires were sent to all council’s management teams. The questions were directed to determine the history of the council, the cultural type of the office, communication in the accounting and budgeting process, and the demographic information of the respondents.
The research results showed that in order to adopt a change process in the financing and accounting system of the organization, the state government had to change the attitude of the employees.
A study by Green (2012) studied the importance of cultural change while implementing TQM process. The study establishes a link between cultural change and adoption of TQM. The paper goes on to state that the failure to implement TQM by many companies was due to their inability to change their culture to suit the new process.
The study states that some cultural model can be more successful than others in influencing a successful TQM implementation. The paper is a literature based investigation but provides deep insight into the investigation and demonstrates the important aspects of TQM and what aspects of cultural models can influence a successful implementation of the process.
References
Alas, R & Vadi, M 2004, ‘The impact of organisational culture on attitudes concerning change in post-soviet organisations’, Journal for East European Management Studies, vol 1, pp. 20-39.
Chiloane-Tsoka, E 2013, ‘The influence of corporate culture on organisational change of first national bank of Namibia ‘, International Journal of Business and Economic Development , vol 1, no. 3, pp. 15-24.
Denison, DR & Mishra, AK 1995, ‘Toward a Theory of Organizational Culture and Effectiveness ‘, Organization Science, vol 6, no. 2, pp. 204-223.
Detert, JR, Schroeder, RG & Mauriel, JJ 2000, ‘A Framework for Linking Culture and Improvement Initiatives in Organizations’, Academy of Management Review, vol 25, no. 4, pp. 850-863.
Green, TJ 2012, ‘TQM and organisational culture: How do they link? ‘, Total Quality Management , vol 23, no. 2, pp. 141–157.
Greenwood, R & Hinings, CR 1996, ‘Understanding radical organizational change: Bringing together the old and the new institutionalism’, Academy of Management Review , vol 21, no. 1, pp. 1022-1054.
Kloot, L & Martin, J 2007, ‘Public Sector Change, Organisational Culture and Financial Information: A Study of Local Government ‘, The Australian Journal of Public Administration, vol 66, no. 4, pp. 485–497.
Snopko, J 2011, ‘Organisational Culture of Municipal Offices in Poland in the Light of Empirical Research Culture-related Conditions for Organisational Changes’, Współczesne Zarządzanie, vol 4, pp. 48-58.
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