COACHING
Organizational
Culture And Change
By Thrity Engineer-Mbuthia
M
any organizations are facing
diverse challenges in the
current economic climate.
These challenges may be within the
external environment or may be
within the internal environment. With
retrenchments, mergers and cost cutting
initiatives being implemented, no wonder
that the wave of change has hit many.
When such change occurs, both employees
and organizations are impacted. And
change is hard. Nothing makes change
harder than culture.
Culture has several definitions as
described by Bernard Burnes in his book
Managing Change.
• Culture… a traditional way of thinking
and doing things, which is shared to a
greater or lesser degree by all members in
an organization and which new members
must learn ( Jacques, 1952).
• Culture… a pattern of beliefs and
expectations shared by the organization’s
members (Shwartz and Davis, 1981).
• Culture… interdependent set of values
and ways of behaving that are common in
a community (Kotter and Hesketh, 1992).
• Culture… how things are done around
here (Dhennan, 1992).
Organizations have unique cultures driven
by years of existence, by organizational
values, norms and artifacts in the form of
processes, structures and rules. When one
joins an organization, the first thing one
notices and is probably exposed to at the
induction training is the dos and don’ts. If
you have ever joined a new organization
or changed jobs you will have experienced
this first hand. In some cases, people opt
to join organizations because of a great
organizational culture.
Some employees are open to change and
fit into the new culture without too much
conflict. These are the individuals who
can act as change champions. Others
may find the transition more challeng-
ing or may be openly hostile or resistant
to it. If these employees do not fit within
the new culture then one needs to make
tough decisions as to whether their pres-
ence will add value to the organization.
18
MAL31/19 ISSUE
Culture however is not static. Culture
can evolve over a period of time and
can change due to structure or the
environment. Handy in 1986 observed
that culture is built by dominant groups
within an organization. So when there is
change, culture can also change.
In some cases, there may be a need to
actively change the culture. For example,
after a merger or integration, there are
several groups of people from different
business units or organizations who
come together and have different ways
of working. There must be a harmonious
approach for all to work together without
which resistance creeps in and makes
work difficult. This situation leads to
discontented employees which leads to
drop in performance. Long term, this
impacts customer experience and can
result in loss of market share.
This is nothing new to a seasoned marketer,
but what can be a challenge is engaging
in a culture change exercise. Who would
be in charge of such an exercise? Would it
be a marketer or an HR counterpart? Or
would it be an external consultant?
Change management specialists would
probably tell you that a combination
of people are required to execute
organizational change. And in change
management programs, there must be
a keen focus on a company’s ‘opinion
leaders’ (Hassard and Sharifi, 1989); the
employees who have influence without
authority.
What if the change has to occur in your
department? As the marketer, that then
becomes an area of interest. You may