An organization’s culture and structure have always been known to be the key elements that influence the way the firm is run internally. Culture in the context of an organization is known to carry a lot of weight with it hence issues relating to it always calls for utmost care. This is because an organization’s culture incorporates elements like the values that they share, the customs that they practice and even beliefs that they take to heart.
Having a proper understanding of an organizations culture is always very important, especially when one wants to efficiently manage a change process. managers are always faced with a hard task of dealing with culture especially being that it is mostly driven by the human resource, of which can mean to be very difficult and dynamic, hence chaos during change. if nurtures correctly, culture can be used as a unifying factor, a source of identity or even a focal point for power distribution.
So as to have a proper verdict of an organization’s culture before change is initiated, it is very important to have a proper evaluation of the organizations current state. This includes fully analyzing the current state hence knowing what are the undesirable elements that call for change. One should also have a clear line of sight of what they desire to achieve after the change process. These two elements identified above go in line with the necessary research that is generally expected before initiating change. a full diagnosis also include finding numerous alternative for achieving change in an organization’s culture (Denning, 2011).
It goes without say that an organization’s culture plays a big part with regards to running it. in general the culture comprises of elements that the organizations takes to heart and actively enforce during day to day running of the firm. In today’s world, one of the elements that have managed to bring culture into light is the element of globalization. Imagine a firm changing from just serving indigenous clients to a wider market that consist of more diverse clientele. It is not so easy to appeal to the numerous cultures unless we try to understand the principles and elements that drive their culture.
Elements of culture include organizational values. These are known to be the school of thought or philosophies that they use to guide their operations. Organizations also have unique rituals and rites that they perform indigenously. Some of them include ways of evaluating and rewarding performance or even celebrations to encourage better performance (Denning, 2011). The communication channels in the organization also play a big role as an element. It dictates whether information will flow through a formal or informal channel. While reviewing the elements of an organization’s culture, we also have to evaluate the norms that they follow. These are basically the different ways that they operate, or do things.
In order for a business to attain success, at some point it is almost inevitable for them to alter the way things are conducted in the organization. In relation to organizational change in accordance to culture, one can seek to change the elements that seem to drag the organization behind. One of the most significant, yet most thought-provoking elements to change includes the communication network and norms. This is because people in an organization always tend to feel comfortable using a communication system that they are used to (Weick & Quinn, 1999). This goes in line with the norms that they follow religiously. Norms include rules and regulations, and even the general organizational standard of performance. Resistance is always expected when change is being initiated being that employees are always bound to feel unsafe under the notion that they do not fully understand what the change has in store for them.
While trying to initiate change, it is always recommended for the management to provide employees with positive facts about the whole process. it is also very imperative to listen to their concerns, some of which can prove to be very instrumental in achieving change. Culture is known to be the force that binds an organization’s work force together. With that in mind, cultural elements must be handled with caution.
- Denning, S. (2011). How Do You Change An Organizational Culture? Forbes , 1-4.
- Weick, K. E., & Quinn, R. E. (1999). organizational change and development. Michigan: University of Michigan.
