Organisational Culture & Change
The word culture has its origins from the Latin CULTURA – meaning Cultivation; Growing.
If the quality of soil is not regularly cultivated, it cannot sustain the reward of high quality crops being grown.
Culture, then, has relevance to an organisation in its capacity to cultivate and grow its business offerings, its people and rewards. How well an organisation grows and maintains its quality of offerings depends on the quality of its cultivation.
The conduct of all aspects of an organisation is reflected in the quality of its culture, and the relationship between that culture and the purpose for which it exists. The way in which all people in the organisation carry out their duties is dependent on culture - the way values and ethics are cultivated in the policies, procedures, systems and practices, and thinking, behaviour and decision-making.
So, staff need to understand how to go about their day to day work, and culture and changes in it need to be measured. It makes good sense, then, for the leadership of any organisation to drive business in accordance with clearly defined and articulated standards.
INFLUENCING CULTURAL CHANGE
How does cultural change occur in an organisation? Given the need to ensure any change to culture not only succeeds in its purpose, without causing harm to any stakeholders, there are two ways that usually trigger the change.
# 1 The Board.
The most influential, potent and expedient way to bring about cultural change in an organisation is via a ‘top down’ approach. This is particularly the case where there have been service failure(s), a changing marketplace and/or the need to eradicate any number of inefficiencies.
Culture and, therefore, cultural change are the responsibility of the board. It is the responsibility of the board to develop and be guided by:
The ethos of the organisation, which underlines its core values, forming the basis on which all decisions should be made;
Boundaries and rules – strict codes that bind the conduct of everyone in the organisation, that is, governance and risk management, including policies and procedures; and
A clearly stated purpose to ensure that all stakeholders understand what the organisation is cultivating and why.
Key to successful board-driven change s is open and honest discussion. This may sound like a simple process that comes naturally, however it is often not the case. Good leadership requires courage. This hallmark is needed to avoid saying yes to something that goes against the values of the organisation or that is poor for business and its stakeholders.
So, ultimately, successful organisational change will come from the board developing and articulating the desired change within its own ranks first.
# 2 Bottom Up.
Failing ‘top down’ board-driven cultural change, the second way to influence change is from the ‘bottom up’.
Issues that adversely affect culture and are fuel for ‘bottom up’ pushes for change include:
Unresolved, repetitive customer complaints
Poor governance creating management by crisis
Illegal or immoral activity
Confused or unclear guidance from the board and or management resulting in under-performance in the workplace
Borne out of poor results triggering frustration within various stakeholder groups – especially managers, this process is slow and fraught with risk. Not only can the process fail due to the lack of authority to instigate change across disparate sections of the organisation and/or the lack of pressure from the board to cease inappropriate activities, but it often results in high staff and stakeholder turnover, and therefore adverse business outcomes for the organisation.
CRITICAL ASPECTS TO SUCCESSFUL CULTURAL CHANGE
Beyond the board driving change, failure or sub-optimal outcomes in any cultural change process will occur if the following are not done well:
1. Communication. How organisational change is communicated is as important as the changes themselves. Those implementing the change must understand and believe in the change, and be supported and appropriately equipped to embrace the change.
2. Working Relationships. A person may or may not do as asked because they are paid to do so, but will go the extra mile to ensure the success of the change if all parties have a great working relationship. If however, the values, boundaries and organisational purpose seem to be being violated, it is only a matter of time before trouble arises. Certain people stay and become unproductive, while others leave for a better match.
3. Self-responsibility. The effect of cultural change on staff job descriptions, responsibilities and performance KPI’s must be taken into account to ensure each person knows the expectations of the board and management team. In the absence of clarity, individuals will either sit still and not act, make up their own rules or leave. In any case, the success of this change will be adversely affected and workplace chaos can ensue.
EXCELLENCE IN CULTIVATION & GROWING
In this rapidly changing world where everything the organisation does in its business is scrutinised and measured, the key questions any board and management team must ask are;
Are we meeting the needs and expectations of our key stakeholders?
What is best practice in our industry?
What do we need to do to maintain our reputation and relevance?
Can we afford to ignore the demands of our audience?
Those that don’t, will fail.
