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Don Quixote's Post Humous Virtual Expedition - Filling The Black Holes In Cyber Space
Perhaps the online community today is not so different from Don Quixote chasing after windmills, mistaking them for giants. Excessive web browsing might yield more or less similar symptoms of lunacy as those displayed in Quixote's mad adventures. ...
Knowledge is Power ... So, keep your mouth closed to keep it from getting away!
Did you ever wonder why it sometimes seems that communications is lacking within an organization or corporate culture? It is one of those frustrating situations that appear to put a halt to positive productivity. You meander around trying to gather...
Primal Leadership - A Book Summary
This article is based on the following book: Primal Leadership “Leading To Lead With Emotional Intelligence” By Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, Annie Mckee Published by Harvard Business School Press 2004 ISBN 1591391849 306 pages Primal...
Recognizing Generations
Recognizing Generations Or, they shall be known by their weekend It is typical for a family business to have employees that span an age range from early twenties or even late 'teens into the 60's and older. This happens not only because the family...
Seeking Initiative and Innovation? Reward Failure!
Based on Proprietary Research
"If you want to increase initiative and innovation, you have to encourage and embrace failure. A culture that punishes less-than-ideal risk-related outcomes will stifle both initiative and innovation".
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Organizational Culture Change: Is It Really Worth the Effort?
Much has been written about changing organizational culture.
It's an exciting topic because of the enormous potential
benefits derived from changing an organization's culture. While
exciting because of its enormous potential, attempting to change
organizational culture can lead to enormous frustration.
It is important to understand how deeply the roots of
organizational culture go. Organizational culture is rooted in
the shared tacit assumptions of the organization. These tacit
beliefs drive behavior throughout the organization.
Edgar Schein believes organizational culture provides members of
the organization "stability, consistency, and meaning." The
change agent who threatens those three things will surely meet
strong resistance.
Schreyoegg, Oechsler, and Waechter (three German researchers)
believe organizational culture provides members with a
worldview: how to perceive, how to conceptualize, and how to
make decisions.
In my book, "Strategic Organizational Change," I offered six
reasons for organizational culture's stubborn resistance to
change:
1. it is implicit rather than explicit
2. it is woven into everyday practice
3. it leads to uniform thinking and behavior
4. it is historically rooted
5. it guides all decision making
6. it is used to socialize newcomers
The main reason changing organizational culture is so difficult
is that it resides in the dark, unexamined recesses of the
corporate mind. The unexamined assumptions that make up the
organizational culture have not been questioned in years.
We know that most organizational culture change efforts fail. We
know that organizational culture changes that succeed only do so
after a frustrating uphill-battle against
the status quo. We
know that powerful organizational members have a vested interest
in maintaining the status quo.
So, my question to you is this: Should an organization spend its
limited resources (time, energy, and money) to change the
organization's culture? My answer is "yes." Let me explain.
Organizational culture change is necessary to support almost all
organizational change efforts (strategic, structural, or
process). Organizational change efforts will fail if
organizational culture remains fundamentally the same. The
effectiveness of organizational change efforts requires
embedding improvement strategies in the organizational culture.
Changes in procedures remain superficial and short-lived unless
there are fundamental changes in values, ways of thinking, and
approaches to problem solving. The resisting forces will simply
renew their efforts to re-establish the old status quo.
Cameron and Quinn bluntly state, "The status quo will prevail.
We repeat! Without culture change, there is little hope of
enduring improvement in organizational performance."
Cameron and Quinn offer the following hints for change agents:
1. Find something easy to change first.
2. Build coalitions of supporters.
3. Set targets for incremental completions.
4. Share information/reduce rumors.
5. Define how results will be measured.
6. Reward desired behaviors.
Organizational cultural change can be slow and frustrating, but
the benefits can include dramatically improved organizational
performance.
About the author:
Dr. Mike Beitler is the author of "Strategic Organizational
Change." Read 2 free chapters from the book right now at
http://www.strategic-organizational-change.com/
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