Question:

Abstract is needed
the example for essay can be used from case study below

Should a review of organizational culture be factored into any change-management plan?
CASE STUDY
When Adrian De Lucca inherited his father?s wine business in 2002 he thought he could continue to run his consulting firm, AD Organising Solutions and let the management team at De Lucca Wines run his father?s company. After all, the management team included his father?s brother Bruno and his mother?s brother Dan. Both Bruno and Dan took over as Deputy CEOs when Adrian?s father, Frank, passed away. Both Bruno and Dan reported to Adrian regularly after the passing of Frank. However, as Adrian?s business grew he started…

Answer:

Title: Should a review of organizational culture be factored into any change-management plan?

Introduction

Organisational culture is a pattern of shared basic assumptions learned by a group in the process of solving problems of internal integration and external adaptation. In the organisational setting, these basic assumptions are often taught to new employees as the correct way of thinking and perceiving whenever they are confronted with both internal and external problems (Mento 2002, p. 47). Ideally, change-management plans in organisations should dedicate one aspect towards transforming the organisational culture (Worren 1999, p. 281).

Transforming an established organisational culture is an extremely difficult process, as the case study of De Lucca Wines demonstrates. In this organisation, the management team went through a very difficult time trying to implement a change-management plan that was not properly conceived. The most glaring mistake was a failure by the two deputy CEOs to involve the company’s CEO, who best understands the company’s organisational culture. In simple terms, a review of organisational culture must always be factored into any change-management plan. This paper assesses the need for factoring the organisational culture into a change-management plan with close reference to the De Lucca Wines case study.

The role of organisational culture review in the change-management plan

It is important for all top executives of a company to understand the importance of organisational culture. At De Lucca Wines, the two deputy CEOs, Dan and Bruno, did not understand how important the existing organisational culture was for the maintenance of the profits that the company was making prior to the introduction of the new organisational structure. These two managers thought that they could manage a transition from the previous divisional structure to a functional structure in a matter of few months. Such a transition meant the combination of elite wines meant for sale overseas with home brands. This, in turn, entailed shuffling staff around, and having all Position Descriptions re-written so as to fit in with the new structure. Obviously, the staff members were annoyed with these drastic changes, chiefly because they were not consulted.

Whenever the feelings of all employees are not put into consideration during a change-management plan, they end up feeling anxious. This is because they feel undervalued and underrated, since the impression created is that they have no stake whatsoever in whatever happens in the organisation (Schneider 1996, p. 311). The employees feel that they have stripped of all influence to determine the destiny of their organisation. For instance, the employees who were used to working on overseas brands were very annoyed at having to work on home brands. Conversely, those who had for a long time specialized on home brands scoffed at the idea of working on overseas brands. This annoyance precipitated into a crisis that led to a loss of many gifted brains, including the highly relied-upon Director of HR.

To determine the importance of organisational culture, it is worthwhile to reflect on the seemingly trivial issue of mugs. De Lucca Wines’ employees were used to the good old mugs, with which they had developed a strong symbolic-cultural bond. The stationery and mugs constituted key artifacts of the company’s organisational culture, and it is sad that the deputy CEOs did not understand this. If they had understood their importance, they would have let them to remain. This means that they would not have go ahead with the process of changing the company logo. As Bruno learnt when it was rather too late, such a move amounted to an infringement into the company’s long-established corporate look and culture.

A review of organisation culture helps determine the extent to which the employees feel satisfied with the existing position descriptions. In the case of De Lucca Wines, all employees seemed to be satisfied with the existing system of defining their job positions. When new position descriptions were suddenly introduced, they could not make sense of them. Instead, they thought that these descriptions had fancy names and they interpreted this as an indirect way of indicated that they would have additional duties to perform in the near future.

Upon realizing the mistakes that had been done, Adrian, the CEO, got off to a positive start by gathering as much information about the company’s organisational culture as they could and then reviewing the findings after one week. The first task involved a review of the new roles that the deputy CEOs had introduced into the organisation. From this audit, it emerged that although the changes in position description that were about to be introduced would affect as many as 82 positions, they made everyone’s job highly redundant. No wonder everyone thought that they should brace themselves for additional duties come January the following year. However, this was not necessarily the case; it was merely a mandatory phase in the process of transitioning from a divisional structure to a functional structure.

Linking organisational culture to change-management plan: employees as key stakeholders

As part of the organisational culture review, consultation with employees plays a crucial role in determining how a change-management process will be executed (Todnem 2005, p. 377). It is naïve for top executives to think that they can count on the trust that has been built with the employees over the years. After working in an organisation for a long time, employees tend to develop an intimate connection with certain routines, duties, skills, and tasks, which play a complementary role of constituting the organisational culture. Therefore, any changes in any these aspects of the workplace life should be introduced only after sufficient explanations have been offered by management. However, such explanations were not made on the skill-intensive IT front, where new software systems for sales were introduced. To make matters worse, these systems were tied to the Lotus Notes email system, meaning that training was needed before the employees could move away from Microsoft Outlook, which they were used to.

Employees, by virtue of being the main agents of organisational culture, are key stakeholders in any efforts to design a change-management plan (Guha 1997, p. 108). This applies especially to old-timers, as exemplified in the De Lucca Wines scenario. After all, these employees have to embrace the changes in order for the change-management efforts to succeed. The De Lucca Wines case study shows that whenever employees are left behind in this process, they feel alienated, refuse to attend any training sessions, turn to rude comments on the suggestion box, and ultimately quit. For example, no employee showed up in the training sessions aimed at introducing the employees to the newly introduced Lotus Notes email system.

Conclusion

In summary, a review of organisational culture should always be factored into any change-management plan success is to be realized in the implementation process. Failure to bring all employees on board during the change-management process makes them feel anxious, leading to resistance and alienation from the organisation. A review of organisational culture makes employees feel appreciated as key stakeholders and contributors to the organisation’s wellbeing.

 

References

Guha, S, 1997, ‘Business process change and organisational performance: exploring an antecedent model’,     Journal of Management Information Systems, Vol. No. 1, pp. 102-184.

Mento, A. 2002, ‘A change management process: Grounded in both theory and practice’, Journal of Change Management, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 45 – 59.

Schneider, B, 1996, Creating a Climate and Culture for Sustainable Organisational Change, New York, Foundation Press.

Todnem, R, 2005, ‘Organisational change management: A critical review’, Journal of Change Management, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 369 – 380.

Worren, N, 1999, ‘From Organisational Development to Change Management: The Emergence of a New Profession’, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Vol. 35, No. 3, pp. 273-286.