Managing Organizational Culture and Change
setting up meetings with influential groups so that the new CEO has an opportunity to make his posi-tion known. As she says, “If you can show that your new leader is creative and dynamic, yet embraces the company’s core values, employees, customers, and other stakeholders will likely view any change objectively, rather than as an outright negative.”
2. Engage employees in the first 100 days. Bird and her staff knew that it was imperative to communi-cate with employees frequently, especially in the early parts of a new CEO’s tenure. Because any change of leadership is going to create concern and start rumors, Shelley publicized even small accomplishments and regularly communicated with employees “through a variety of channels—
e-mail, frequent updates on our intranet, monthly breakfast meetings with small groups of employees, site visits and even broadcast voice messages.” This empowered employees to act on the vision.
3. Keep management in the loop. In many organizations, the focus of communication is downward—the communication department is responsible for telling employees what managers want them to hear.
But Shelley found that it was equally important to let managers know about problems, complaints and suggestions raised by employees. This enabled the managers to consolidate improvements and produce more change.
4. Invite the community in. Bird not only worked on communications within the company, but also out-side the company. She worked hard to make sure community leaders were aware of planned changes, and that the effects those changes would make on the community were fully discussed. By doing so, she set up one branch of a powerful coalition of supporters of change.
5. In a similar fashion, Bird was also very open with the press—print, broadcast, and Internet. She knew that it was critically important to give the new CEOs time to delve into every aspect of the company they were managing, and that it wasn’t possible for a brand-new CEO to have very specific plans from his or her first day on the job. So, to give the CEOs time to work, while at the same time giving the media something to work with, Shelley crafted messages “at the 30,000 foot-level.” She also made sure that the media got the same stories employees got, to avoid surprises in both groups.
Again, these actions helped to build a coalition for change.
6. Finally, Bird recommends measuring results. Once results are measured and reported, new
approaches can be institutionalized in the organizational structure. She monitored company perform-ance, a substitute for looking at such “small picture” issues as employee satisfaction, corporate focus, etc. She found that at NCR, employees produced stronger than expected third quarter earnings. She backed this information up with survey results which showed that “employees around the world are engaged and have accessed the channels they are most comfortable with through the CEO communi-cations Web site.”
Source: Shelley Bird, “Communicating through Changes in Leadership at NCR,” Strategic Communication Management, 10 (1) (December 2005/January 2006), pp. 30–34.
Summary of Learning Objectives
This chapter has addressed the topics of organizational culture and change. Organizational culture is a system of shared values, assumptions, beliefs, and norms that unite the mem-bers of an organization. Organizational culture reflects employee views about “the way things are done around here.” Change is inevitable but can often meet resistance.
Maintaining an effective culture yet implementing needed change is often a management balancing act in today’s organizations. This chapter’s discussion of its seven learning objec-tives to help you to effectively deal with culture and change issues as an individual worker, team member, and manager are summarized below.
1
Identify the three major aspects of organizational culture.• Visible culture—things people can hear, see, or feel, such as formality or informality of employee dress.
• Espoused values—the expressed values of the organization.
• Core values—the fundamental values that drive what is important in an organization.
2
Describe the importance of organizational culture.Organizational culture performs several important roles in organizations including:
• Encouraging employee self-management by defining roles and expectations.
• Promoting stability by providing a sense of continuity.
• Socializing workers by helping them fit in with the organization.
• Contributing to organizational performance by supporting the strategy of the organization.
3
Identify the processes through which organizational culture can be developed and sustained.• Cultural symbols
• Rituals and ceremonies
• Stories
• Language
• Leadership
• Policies and decision making
All of the above can convey and sustain shared meaning and what is important in organizations.
4
Use classification systems to identify various types of organizational culture.• Control versus employee-involvement culture.
• Baseball team, club, academy, or fortress cultures.
5
Identify the sources of resistance to change.• Self-interest
• Lack of trust and understanding
• Uncertainty
• Different perspectives and goals
• Cultures that value tradition
6
Apply models to effectively manage change efforts• Lewin’s three-step model
• Force-field analysis
Discussion Questions
1. Think of a company you have worked at recently, either on a job or as an intern. What are the espoused values of this company? Did the managers or employees at this company behave consistently with those values? Give some examples if possible.
2. Pick one or more well-known companies that you are familiar with from media stories or firms that were dis-cussed in some of your classes, such as Disney, General Motors, Microsoft, Apple Computer, Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, or McDonald’s. Give examples for each of the following approaches to sustain organiza-tional culture for the company or companies that you have selected: (a) company rituals or ceremonies; (b) company heroes; (c) language; and (d) leadership. Does knowledge of these cultural activities reveal to you what it would be like to work at the company or
companies you have selected? How might you use this information?
3. Compare and contrast strong and weak company tures. What are the advantages of a strong company cul-ture? What are the disadvantages of a strong company culture? In what circumstances is it preferable to have a weak culture?
4. Why do some people strongly resist change, a normal part of life in organizations?
5. What are the steps in Lewin’s three-step model of organizational change? How can managers make use of this model? Are there situations in which the three-step model may not apply or be helpful?
Describe.
6. Suppose you are a change agent and are planning to introduce a bottom-up change in an organization. Which