Organizational Change Sample Paper
Abstract
An organization that has great strategies but does not have a culture that can allow it to put the strategy into action seizes to be a prosperous organization. The purpose of this paper is to look into how organizational culture influences success in change strategies. The paper will expound on what a culture in an organization is and explain the impacts of a company with a solid culture and one with a weaker culture on change.
This therefore triggers the desire for change in an organization. According to Peter Drucker, change is inevitable. That means that he juxtaposed change to taxes and death. Change is postponed for as long as possible since change is not a preferable idea. However, in times of upheavals, change becomes a norm (Motley & McSparren, 2007). It is therefore timelier to embrace change when it seems necessary to an organization.
In addition to that, the environment of corporate businesses is changing to be a global norm. This therefore expands the international corporation between companies. In order to build high performing and competitive organizations, managers have to internalize effective means of managing organizational change (Alvessonl & Sveningsson, 2007). They therefore have to understand the relationship between organizational change and its culture.
The aim of this paper is to look into how the culture of an organization is a barrier to the organization`s change and how it is a promoter of the change. This paper will start with a literature review of organizational culture and then look into details how organizational culture relates to organizational change.
Literature review
Organizational culture is a collective way of behavior that applies to people in an organization and their application to the cultures` meaning to how they act. The cultures in an organization include the organization`s systems, values, working values, beliefs, habits, norms, and visions. According to Michael J. Austin & Jennette Claassen (2008), organizational culture is the pattern of some collective assumptions and behaviors that new members in the organization learn in order to feel, perceive, or think in conformity to the organization. The culture in an organization affects how groups and people interact with one another, their clients, and with their shareholders (Austin & Claassen, 2008).According to Ravasi and Schultz (2006), organizational culture is a set of some shared assumptions of the mind that usually guides the actions and interpretations in the organization with definitions of appropriate behavior in various situations. In addition to that, an organization may adopt a unique culture of its own. In bigger organizations, there are diverse and conflicting cultures that coexist due to the difference in the characters of the management (Alvesson, 2012).
There are various definitions of organizational culture. This paper will work with the definition that focuses on the relationship between the cultures and change in the companies. Schein (2009) defines culture as the mindset and behaviors that people share within an organization. Therefore, the culture of an organization does not only consist of what is done in the company, but also why it is done (Witte & Muijen, 2000).An organizational culture is an aggregate of other cultures that came up in response to some challenges that the company faced at different times by various groups within the organization. That explains why organizational culture is complex. In the analysis of the relationship between culture and change, three characteristics are crucial: culture comprises of mindsets and behaviors, culture is a result of self-reinforcement, and people in an organization share a culture in order to work together (Alvessonl & Sveningsson, 2007).The purpose of this paper is to expound on the impact of an organizational culture to change. It will start with an explanation of how culture in an organization is a promoter of change and then look into how it is a barrier to change.
Measurement of an organizational culture
There are ways that managers can use to measure, assess the cultures in their companies, and therefore increase the likelihood of success in the change management of organizations. The best system of assessing the culture of a company is by use of Integrated Cultural Framework (ICF). The ICF system is reliable and viable since it has been applicable to various companies to assess their cultures (Anderson, 2011).There are various dimensions used in the assessment of culture in a company. The first one is assessment via the ability to influence. In this dimension, one looks into the extent that the members of the organization influence on decision-making processes. The second dimension is the assessment of members` comfort with ambiguity. This is the assessment of how comfortable the members are with risk taking and uncertainties (Anderson, 2011).The third dimension is time and space orientation. This is the extent to which a company`s goals are based on the values from the past, the present, and the future. In space orientation, the physical layout of an organization is of interest. The other dimension is egalitarianism. This is the assessment of the extent to which equal opportunities exist for advancements. In addition to that, there is assessment of individualism versus collectivism (Anderson, 2011).
After a company has assessed its members, it gets to know the challenges it will face in the course of implementation of a change. The organization also gets to understand its weaknesses and strength. If the manager of an organization is concerned with change in his organization, then he should put the organization`s culture into consideration. If the culture is not consistent with the change on the way, then the culture has to be stream lined. If the manager does not work on changing the culture, then the organization will always be a failure (Foster-Fishman, 1994).
Organizational Culture As A Promoter And Barrier Of Change (Relationship)
The culture of an organization can be a portrayal of the relationship between the culture and change in an organization putting into considerations how culture promotes or bars change in the organization. Michael J. Austin & Jennette Claassen (2008) defines change as a process by which a company examines, identifies, and implements a new idea. In addition to that, the two authors confirm that innovation and change involves a gradual process of moving an organization from its current state to a different new state. Change is therefore a correlation to innovation. This is because change is the adoption of a new behavior or idea in a policy, system, process, program, or service (Ward, 1994).
Culture is a promoter of change in the fact that it is strong, and uses flexible cultures in then organization. Secondly, culture promotes change in that it supports entrepreneurship and innovation in the organization. It is therefore evident that understanding the culture of an organization is the main element in the change process of an organization. Foster-Fishman (1995) purports that the complexity of culture and its interrelation with change calls for various perspectives that puts into consideration the fragmented, ambiguous, differentiated, and consistent parts of the organization`s culture (Schein, 2010).
In addition to that, culture in an organization supports development, teamwork, and individual enterprise. Using culture in the change process, rewards are on contribution and not position as in the case of using other means of change. This is because culture involves brainpower and not physical power. Since change is radical and continuous, culture promotes change in that it has tight control over the key measures in the small corporate and middle management staffs. Strong and homogenous cultures are important in the introduction, implementation, and sustainability if the change. This is because a solid organizational culture exerts a great control over how the employees behave (Foster-Fishman, 1994). This makes change in an organization to be easier. Let us now look into how culture bars change in an organization.
Despite the fact that organizational culture has various advantages, there are also some barriers to change, as this section will discuss. The first barrier to change is that strong organizational cultures have problems in the creation and maintenance of change since a strong culture supports commitment, loyalty, and uniformity. Organizations with strong cultures have some behaviors that inhibit the ability of the organizations` response to change (Anderson, 2011).
The other issue is that in cultural change, there does not exist empirical evidence. Despite the fact that there is involvement of various cultures, the solution always goes back to only one way that the company perceives best. Involvement of culture in change triggers the assumption that all the organizations face the same opportunities and setbacks (Witte & Muijen, 2000).
In culture, people are the main assets in the process of change. The setback is that they compete against each other, they are dismissed easily, and people of different cultures get different treatments. The best way to use culture in the process 0f change is by use of The Japanese Approach. This approach is known as Kaizen that is the involvement of all employees in all aspects of the change process (Ward, 1994). The culture in a company can be both a barrier and a promoter of change in the company (Witte & Muijen, 2000).