Write 1 page response to post below.
There are three characteristics that form the foundation of an organization’s corporate culture; shared, intangible, affects behavior. According to the lesson, each of the characteristics are described below.
A shared culture represents a common understanding and interpretation of what is important and not important within the framework of an organization. An intangible culture reflects the values, norms, and assumptions upon which an organization is unwilling to compromise. The third characteristic is the idea that corporate culture affects the way that human capital assets behave. The cultural comparisons that were referenced in the lesson shed some light, for me, into the development of an organizational culture. Each of the seven dimensions have a conflicting ethic, or value. One is outward and the other is inward. I think that as the culture shifts to a diffusing state; the need for learning and greater understanding by the organization will be a key to its successful development. The culture that trends toward the internal direction will find a predominantly self-focused, closed-off culture. None of them are positive or negative cultures, until the norm is challenged.
Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner concluded that what distinguishes people from one culture compared with another is where these preferences fall in one of the following seven dimensions:
•Universalism versus particularism
•Individualism versus communitarianism
•Specific versus diffuse
People keep work and personal lives separate. As a result, they believe that relationships don’t have much of an impact on work objectives, and, although good relationships are important, they believe that people can work together without having a good relationship.
People see an overlap between their work and personal life. They believe that good relationships are vital to meeting business objectives, and that their relationships with others will be the same, whether they are at work or meeting socially. People spend time outside work hours with colleagues and clients.
•Neutral versus emotional
•Achievement versus ascription
•Sequential time versus synchronous time
•Internal direction versus outer direction
People believe that they can control nature or their environment to achieve goals. This includes how they work with teams and within organizations. (This also known as having an internal locus of control.)
People believe that nature, or their environment controls them; they must work with their environment to achieve goals. At work or in relationships, they focus their actions on others, and they avoid conflict where possible. People often need reassurance that they’re doing a good job. (This also known as having an external locus of control.)
One of these theories was the Eight-Step Change Process, created by change management guru, John Kotter.
Step 1: Create Urgency; Step 2: Form a Powerful Coalition; Step 3: Create a Vision for Change; Step 4: Communicate the Vision; Step 5: Remove Obstacles; Step 6: Create Short-Term Wins; Step 7: Build on the Change; Step 8: Anchor the Changes in Corporate Culture
Step 6 Create short-term targets – not just one long-term goal. You want each smaller target to be achievable, with little room for failure. Your change team may have to work very hard to come up with these targets, but each “win” that you produce can further motivate the entire staff.
Step 7 Kotter argues that many change projects fail because victory is declared too early. Real change runs deep. Quick wins are only the beginning of what needs to be done to achieve long-term change. Launching one new product using a new system is great. But if you can launch 10 products, that means the new system is working. To reach that 10th success, you need to keep looking for improvements.
Cultural change is always possible. Organizations “don’t just change because of new systems, processes or structures.” The organizational players begin to see bigger pictures and greater personal responsibilities as the development adapts to its people. In my lifetime, race and gender have been spoken of and implemented and challenged; but seemingly finding no real traction in comparison to the rhetoric. There are changes, for the better, but not in the timing that all would prefer. Change can always happen, but its effectiveness is a process of educating the entire organization and getting honest feedback (not always buy-in). Steps 6 & 7 in the above theory are keys to managing the organizational change needed to successfully grow in relevance and influence.