Managing Culture and Change Essay

The present scenario has make the future of memorial tablets uncertain. Companies that argon excelling in their relevant industries right now may be pushed out in the near future by upstarts with better ideas and much versatility than them. It has happened so often in the past that the scarce certainty is that it will keep on happening in the future. The only long term sustainable belligerent advantage that make-ups mass hope to create is with their plurality, and the doings of these people is for the nearly part checkd by the corporate stopping point in which they atomic number 18 immersed.A masteryful corporate elaboration will see the musical arrangement through the near future, but unless the makeup is proactive in its c entirely to keep on adapting to the changing business surroundings, that same corporate polish may sound the death knell for the constitution in the future. bodily CULTURE AND PERFORMANCE The question on every entrepreneur, every CEO, and on every member of the Board of Directors mind since before the inception of the fantasy of an cheek as an institution has been how to make more money? at one time this fundamental urge has been recognized one nates comprehend the effort behind the actions of the above-mentioned in ensuring the success of their respective memorial tablets, as the present of past decades suck up proved that physical compositional success is the key decisive of great financial reward for them hence stemmed the need to identify the circumstanceors that would translate into success for an nerve. The idea that an organizations socialisation would influence its per diversenessance is b bely new.Search of Excellence, published in 1982 and authored by Waterman and Peters made the concept famous, and in 1992 in Corporate stopping point and Performance, Hesket and Kotter compared variant organizations and the relation of their performance within a time period with their cultivations. simpl y with increasing research being conducted on the correlation between an organizations good deal and the employees actions, doubt is cast on the efficacy of expecting that an organizations goal will determine its performance.Instead, consensus is being established that a few core value largely determine the success or failure of organizations. SUCCESS Success of an organization can be defined differently depending on the effort in which the organization operates. An organization in a high risk industry can view success as the ability to survive every last(predicate) these years. Another organization may view continuing growth over and above competitors as success, piece of music still another might essay to become the market leader in its particular industry in order for it to be considered a success. Pyramid of Organizational Development either(prenominal) the perception an organization has, in order to be successful an organization needs to follow six go or tasks at apie ce level of its growth in order for it to succeed at all of those stages. It needs to determine its market niche in which it will operate, organize the product/service jibely, acquire the relevant re springs be they land motor or capital, spuds a system of standardized procedures for operations, and and then the same for management, and finally, develop a corporate refining that management perceives as being authoritative to lead the firm.Before every(prenominal) further discussion can be carried out, corporate farming must be defined as, a construction of collective values and beliefs that work together with the systems, the organizational structure, and the employees to green goods norms, which then turn into what is necessary to the organization, and the processes of getting things done the how and the why. It is an intangible aspect of an organization that cannot be seen, touched, heard or smelt, but is present nonetheless and which in the end determines whether that organization will succeed or not.It is the core values that were mentioned earlier, to produce the norms that determine the behaviour of the employees, which ultimately determines the productivity and consequently success of the firm. The steps taken together are framed as a ranked model into a pyramid of organizational development that emphasizes the importance of each(prenominal) step for the organizations development depending on the stage of growth the organization is in at that point.The last three of the steps form the structure that will be the sustainable competitive advantage of the firm, inimitable by competitors, thus ensuring long term success for the firm. ROLES OF bodied CULTURE Corporate polish by itself plays some(prenominal) roles in the organization. It develops a cultural identity in an employee by establishing a commitment of the employee to achieving the organizations goals and objectives. That identity serves to increase the devotion and closeness of th e employee by making him/her reconcile the organizations success as his/her own.Corporate culture also utilizations a deductive approach to align an employees behaviour with acceptable norms that have been already determined by the organization so that it need not worry about policing the employee to do what is right according to the organization. Instead of the management having to interfere now the employees chums can consume a maverick back in line with acceptable behaviour as determined by the values of the organization. In addition to these, an organizations culture acts as a indigenceal tool that is more effective than managerial insistence.However, if the organizations verbalize values are out of adjust with the culture that is being promoted the employees will become disillusioned with the organization and its stated commitment to lineament of work life as the rewards will be based on the stated values as opposed to what the customary organizational culture promotes. TYPES OF CORPORATE CULTURE Strong The desired roles that the culture of the organization is to play and reality may starkly differ depending on the type of culture that is prevalent in the organization.A Strong ending is reminiscent of an organization that spends a significant amount of time and resources in communication and reinforcement by management of the values of the organization to the discordant employees. This is facilitated by having well-defined sight and mission statements that have been established with the financial aid of both the top and bottom rung of the organization. In addition, these statements and their espo expendd values are adopted by top management and thus succeed in their task of influencing the employees by convincing them of their commitment to the organization and its value system. faded On the other hand a Weak Culture is quite the opposite, in its lack of cultural identity and the divergence of employee behaviour and organizational goals. A wo rn out culture also involuntarily imparts an image of sonorous those employees that might be working towards organizational success, through the actions of their peers who have this weak corporate value system ingrained into them. Thus there is teensy allegiance to the organization and little unity inside it. inflamed An Unhealthy corporate culture rests on the basis that change is undesirable.In much(prenominal) an milieu risk-taking and experimentation for the sake of innovation is frowned upon, and so the organization has to anticipate ideas outside the firm for better practices and approaches. This is a costly result of the politicized environment that prevails in such an organization, where decisions are made based on the causality wielded by the participants and not on the value of their respective input. Adaptive The quaternary type of culture in an organization is an Adaptive one which is perverse to the unhealthy culture in its regard for entrepreneurial activitie s.Such an organization is a proactive entity that actively proves out innovative and experimental solutions to any issues that might have to be faced. Risk taking is encouraged to the close that employees might be funded to represent their ideas to life, in the recognition that successful adaption to the environment through risky enterprises enable the organization to prosper over its competitors. contradict IN CORPORATE CULTURE An organizations culture is influenced by the social tycoon of relationships, more specifically, the potential loss of those relationships.This invokes cognitive dissonance in a person more than does any other action, and thus motivates us the most to make sure that such a situation does not arise. From this motivation an organizations culture is developed as a means to protect these relationships, prima(p) to the theory of contravene resolution and culture development. amicable influences in the form of formal and informal networks, family networks, relationships with leaders, and legal regulations are what determine the behaviour of a person in an organization with regards to conflict resolution.Although conflict invariably leads to enveloping(prenominal) bond in relationships than before, it can also lead to rejection or irresistible impulse by one or both party. The conflict can only be resolved when both parties either cooperate in or reject the relationship. The eventual conflict resolution results in a differing point of view held by the onlookers as either a calculate of public confabulation or of private thought, which viewpoints are shared with others depending on the closeness of their relationship.And while cooperative conflict resolutions foster greater trust and unity, competitive conflict resolution in hierarchically dominated organizations, where management often passes judicial decision rather than mediates, results in a chasm between formal and informal cultures that causes a drop in organizational perfo rmance. HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGERS Human resource Management has become an increasingly important aim in organizations with the findings of several researches supporting the relation between high-performance and HR practices.The recognition through these researches that the only long term sustainable competitive advantage that an organization enjoys is the capabilities of its human resource has further caused organizations to reinvent this previously neglected function as well as resulted in an increase in the perceive advantages of a strategically-focused Human Resource Department. Amongst these, cultural management is an important gather that pertains to the development, communication, reinforcement, and change of the corporate culture to the employees.SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE CULTURE An organizations corporate culture can either hinder or contribute to the success of a firm by influencing the behaviours and attitudes of employees with respect to the general organizational strategy. A corporate culture that promotes behaviours that are aligned with the familys values provides guidance to the employees with respect to the accepted norms of the organization and reinforces those peer actions that support the desired culture.The HR as the manager of the corporate culture aligns its own practices in an effort to increase commitment amongst employees towards achieving the desired vision of the organization by reaching their performance targets, and by engaging in adaptive and innovative entrepreneurial activities. A successful corporate culture is one which supports the organizations execution of its strategy, with the help of HR managers, who align the desired values of the organization with the values that are actually prevalent.While some organizations seek to prescribe specific corporate values that will lead to greater performance, it has been discovered that instead it is the fit of these values to the internal and external realities of the organization the employees behaviour and the business environment that the HR must focus on as a culturally compatible management system. To do so, the practices of the HR Management, more specifically, the staffing, training and development, incentive and payment packages, performance appraisals and job design, all become areas where HR can influence the cultural communication strategy.As a company that dedicated its existence to the business and sale of coffee, Starbucks has put through phenomenal growth to reach its current market leadership position. From generating gross sales of $122 million in 1993, Starbucks has grown to such an extent that its competitors have less outlets in all of the United States than Starbucks has in California. And the stated conclude by its CEO, Howard Schultz, for this success is its people.The way we airiness our people affects the way they treat our customers and, in turn, our financial performance. In lieu of this statement Starbucks offers good quality of work life to its employees, adopts diversity as an integral part of doing business, maintains a high standard in its production processes, develops its customers, engages in Corporate Social Responsibility, and recognizes the importance of maintaining profitability as a means of continued success. NOT-SO-SUCCESSFUL CORPORATE CULTUREUnfortunately, discovering the right fit of values that an organization can use as a component of its successful corporate strategy can become the winners curse if left unmonitored, for while it is knockout to change any culture in any organization, changing a seemingly successful culture is next to impossible. No one wants to weed with a winning formula, whether collectible to superstition, the belief that it will weather any competition, or due to inability to accept that the environment has changed.Whatever the reason, news report is replete with vitrines of how successful companies were brought to their knees by a more versatile competitor. The US automobile industry was indifferent of the lower-costing, higher-quality Nipponese cars until it was too late, believing that the Japanese cars were just a momentary novelty. In the same way, until sales started diminish fast Sears remained ignorant of the changes brought to the organizations environment by Wal-Mart. The McDonnell Douglas Corporation is another example of a company that failed to adapt to the changing environment, and was acquired by Boeing.Core Rigidities Inducting the use of Standard Operating Procedures as a means to increase production by cutting down on wastage of time and resources, while honest in producing economies of scale can be harmful to the future success of the firm as well. These procedures and routines can serve as a source of suitable solutions to any problems that might be faced, but in doing so negate the possibility of searching for knowledge and innovation outside the organization. consequently the core competency of the firm is transfor med into the core rigidity as exploration is shelved for exploitation.In addition to which, the feedback from the use of SOPs is ignored due to selective filter of already existing procedures which siphon out any corrective measures that the feedback might have been trying to highlight. This is largely due to the fact that no firm can keep changing forever. There is an shock-absorbent capacity for every organization beyond which it is incapable of adapting to any more change. Crisis The only way to break out of such a potentially hazardous advantage is for there to be an existence of a crisis that jolts the organization out of its routine.Some companies even try to introduce the perception of a crisis in the organization in order to stimulate innovation, such as Hewlett Packard, following the story by Sturgeon, Microcosmic God in which Sturgeon negotiation of a miniature world which is introduced to numerous difficulties such as earthquakes, and droughts, and whose inhabitants are forced to either evolve or die out. While such practices might seem unethical it is disputed whether it is more advisable to let a firm fail because the leader of the organization could not bring it upon himself/herself to fool the employees for their future benefit.CONCLUSION If an organizations successful culture eventually ends up costing the organization in the future, can it actually be deemed a successful corporate culture? Up to the reverberate of an organizations absorptive capacity, a successful corporate culture should be redefined as a culture that while maintains all the characteristics as mentioned previously, is also a culture that can recognize that no matter what the fit of the organizations culture is at present, that fit can change, and the possibility of that change should not be ignored, rather it should be actively sought out.And while it is a difficult thing to change a culture at any point, the organization should be ready to do so if it is to maintain its c ompetitive advantage and not be replaced by a more nimble and recent competitor like Sears was by Wal-Mart.BIBLIOGRAPHY Cummings, T. G. & Worley, C. G. (2005) Organization Development and Change. USA. Thomson South-Western. Davenport, T. H. & Prusak, L. (2000) Working Knowledge. Harvard Business Press Hassard, J. & Pym, D.(1993) The Theory and school of thought of Organizations. Routledge Hitt, M. A. , Hoskisson, R. E. & Ireland, R. 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