Worldwide organizations located in countries that have experienced war or other politically related upheavals in recent times or during the past few decades are having to change for a number of reasons in order to gain and retain a competitive edge in the regional and international markets:
1. the need to bridge the gap between obsolete and state-of-the-art technology in one leap due to the isolation imposed by the unstable situation experienced;
2. super-normal post-war growth for which most were unprepared;
3. demographic changes locally, and political and market changes regionally;
4. the dysfunctionality of three incompatible sub-cultures within the workforce: the war-veterans, the expatriates and the fresh university graduates;
5. managerial structures that do not respond to contemporary needs or new trade legislation; and
6. the need to compete internationally by qualifying for ISO or other Quality Assurance certification. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it identifies the main agents of change required to survive in today's fast changing business environment.
With such powerful drivers of change at work, the constraints imposed by decades of war and isolation, plus the belief that "things will always be the way they are', only a fool would underestimate the challenges that lie ahead.
In counterpoint to the external drivers of change are the tremendous inertial forces within the organization. These come from individual and organizational resistance to change. The most common sources of individual resistance are:
Selective perception: Every individual has a unique view of the organization and their role in it. Most will reject any threat to a cherished element in that view.
Habit: Everyone has habits which allow them to do things quickly and easily. The more reasonable and rational these seem to the individual, the greater the reluctance to change them.
Security: That which is familiar brings security, while the unknown inspires fear. Most people prefer the security and comfort of the known, to the insecurity and fear of the unknown.
Economic: Any change which could affect an individual's basic pay, bonuses, benefits or other element in the reward package will be met by resistance.
Status and Esteem: Changes that could be perceived as bringing lower status or loss of esteem will be resisted.
Organizationally, it is the established structure and the policy and procedures that consolidate the status quo and make change difficult. In addition, are the shared assumptions and beliefs forming the present culture of the organization. It will be much more difficult to change these than to change artifacts such as the corporate logo.
The degree of resistance to change is a function of the magnitude of change and the strength of the prevailing organizational culture:
Resistance to culture change = Magnitude of the change in culture x Strength of the prevailing culture.
There is no doubt that managing culture change is no simple matter. It requires careful study and coordination of many aspects of organizational life. Here, it is worth considering the principles of culture change as outlined in Hassard and Sharifi's review of culture management literature.
Organizations possess values and assumptions which define accepted and appropriate patterns of behavior.
Successful organizations tend to be those which posses assumptions and values which encourage behaviors consonant with the organizational strategy.
Successful culture change may be difficult to achieve if prevailing values and behavior are incompatible with strategy.
If an organization is contemplating change it first needs to check to see whether the strategy demands a shift in values and assumptions or whether change can be achieved using other means.
Senior management must understand the implications of the new culture for their own behavior and be involved in all the main change phases.
Culture change programs must pay special attention to an organization's 'opinion leaders'.
Change programs must also take an organization's culture transmission mechanisms (such as management style, work systems and employment policies) into account.
In order to create a change in culture, channels should be programmed with new messages and old contradictory ones eliminated.
Every opportunity should be taken to reinforce the key messages of the new values and assumptions.
Qualifications
The deeper the level of culture change required (artifacts being the most superficial and assumptions the deepest), then the more difficult and time-consuming the culture change program is likely to be.
If there are multiple cultures and subcultures then this will make the change program still more difficult and time-consuming.
Some of the easiest changes to effect are alterations in behavioral norms.
Managing the deepest layers of an organizational culture requires a participative approach.
A top-down approach may work when there is only a single culture or when the focus is on changing norms rather than assumptions.
Top-down approaches yield changes which may be difficult to sustain in the long-term, because they produce overt compliance but not acceptance.
Participative approaches are most likely to be successful and are the only real option if assumptions are to be altered. However, they are difficult to implement and extremely time-consuming to enact.
Questions that need to be answered prior to any Change Management Program include:
1. Where do we need to be going strategically as an organization?
2. Where are we now as a culture?
3. What are the gaps between where we are as a culture and where we should be?
4. What is our plan of action to close those gaps?
Once these questions have been successfully answered, the Change Management Plan can be created and then purposeful actions can be taken and the end results better guaranteed.
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Fay Niewiadomski founded ICTN (International Consulting & Training Network) in 1993. ICTN provides complete management services to its clients who are among the leading regional and multinational players. Furthermore, she has worked with CEOs, Board Members, Presidents and Ministers of Government and other Leaders to help them meet the challenges of change within their organizations through creative problem solving, management interventions and powerful communication strategies. Prior to founding ICTN, she researched the subject of "Managing Change through Needs-Based Assessment' in large Lebanese Organizations" for her doctoral work at the University of East Anglia in the UK. Additionally, she also held various university positions as a professor at AUB and LAU and as Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at NDU.
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