Can cultures be managed within organisations?
Blog 1 background context
Organisational culture is often defined as a set of beliefs, behaviours, systems, symbols and values that an organisation holds about itself. It affects the way that people in an organisation interact with each other and with others external to the organisation, including clients and stakeholders. The tone for corporate culture is set by organisational leadership who design and implement the processes and systems within which the organisation operates and which enable employees to comply with the organisational values.
An organisational culture will take several years to establish before employees are influenced and enabled to adhere to the company’s values and standards. A goal of an organisation should be to enable every employee to abide by and live the organisation’s culture to enable it to achieve and deliver its clients’ expectations. During the lifecycle of an organisation there may be times when an entrenched culture needs to change to enable it to grow and sustain its business. This is one of the hardest tasks that organisational leadership may face.
In your response for this blog focus on what you think about how you would encourage organisations to embrace organisational culture supported by contemporary research to inform your argument. Do not rely on quotes from published authors – your blog must present your ideas and recommendations for effecting cultural change, supported by relevant citations.
Blog instructions (word count: 750)
Your task in this blog is to conduct independent research that will enable you to:
1. Select a real UK-based business [in an industry of your choice] that is currently facing a need to adjust its organisational culture in response to a business need such as competitive innovation, ethical challenges, economic pressures or societal expectation.
2. Explain the principal challenges that an organisation faces when seeking to adjust and accommodate changes in its cultural practice, based on your understanding of corporate culture and its implementation.
3. Propose implementation strategies that will enable your chosen organisation to transition its organisational culture to address the challenges that you have identified, and
4. Develop a charter statement that outlines what an organisation’s leadership should do to embrace new cultural practices including cognitive drivers, resource reallocation, employee motivation and embedding cultural practice.