Solution 8: Changing the organisational culture

Some problems of organisations have to do with the organisational culture: the way in which the organisation, including its stakeholders, use to act and think.

This organisational mental make-up is -more than structure or strategy- the decisive factor in obtaining success.

If the organisational culture is blocking success, the change of culture has to be considered.

When is the organisation's culture a problem?

Organisational culture is a problem when the way in which the organisation usually operates puts obstacles in the way towards achievement.

Some examples:

• the goals of the organisation demand an external orientation of the members, but the organisational culture is characterised by internal orientation.
• transparency is needed to be accountable and to function democratically, but the tradition to involve family members and to favour them, may makes transparency cloudy. 
• being value driven as a main characteristic of a NGO stands not well with the businesslike attitude of our professionals.
• productivity, being directed towards goals, may be hindered by the grown habit to intervene in each other's work, directing most of the energy to each other instead of to the product.
• the not-outspoken rule not to intervene in each other's work (the non-intervention principle) may hinder the ideal working method of sharing ideas, innovations, solutions and problems.
• because of the one-sided fixation on ideology, satisfaction of personal needs may be considered as forbidden.
• a grown emphasis on output may have led to the situation in which reflection (base for learning) is considered a waist of time.

Organisational culture is not the result of just a decision, but the outcome of a lasting process, in which the attitude, beliefs and behaviour of people are gradually shaped. Organisational culture, even if not objectively effective, is always a logical adaptation to a changed environment. Organisational culture may be compared to coping mechanisms: once effective in one specific situation, but internalised, unconscious familiar, and hardly noticeable for the owner.

That is why change of organisational culture is not easy.

For the 'change agent' (the one who manages the process of change: the leader or manager or an outsider consultant) this entails:

1. modest aims combined with ambition
2. understanding the culture of an organization
3. flexibility in strategy

1) Modest aims and ambition

Modesty is needed because changing the 'personality', i.e. 'the soul' of an organization is very difficult. Nevertheless, the organisation (as its own change agent), or the leader of an organisation as its change agent, or a consultant helping the organisation in its change, each of them has to be ambitious, because if they do not believe in this process of change, who else will?

The change agent has to be modest and ambitious at the same time, and that means stimulating and rewarding activities and persons heading in the desired direction. Punishing people because they do not move quickly enough is not very helpful. Motivating them in a positive way is better. This is done by finding en stimulating the healthy nucleus that exists in every organization.

2) Understanding the culture of the organization

Organizational culture refers to what we call the personality of an organization: if the structure of the organisation is the body: the bone structure, the feeding structure of blood vessels and the communication channels of nervous system, then the personality or soul is the way people deal with one another, the values and beliefs that exist within the organization. Restructuring an organization, in order to achieve a certain goal, often fails or gets stuck because the personality does not change. That is why we focus on the culture of the organization when dealing with change.

Culture is defined as the collective mind-set or 'the software of the mind'. Because it is often difficult to describe what the personality is, the following method can be used to understand the deeper cultural aspects of an organization.

The organisation's culture can be described in terms of Hofstede's 'onion':

• the exterior layers consist of symbols (the building, the way employees are dressed, the 'language' they speak, the cars they drive, collective behaviour, etc.)
• one layer deeper one can notice the 'heroes' or the 'anti-heroes' in the organization (the leader or founder who is 'worshipped' or who is being used as an example, thereby telling a lot about how to behave here in order to be accepted)
• one layer deeper one can find the  rituals (eating together or not, greeting each other, how meetings are organized, celebrations of birthdays, etc.)

Through all these 'layers' one can see glimpses of the hart of the onion: the real values of the organization:

• the inner nucleus of the onion, the values of the organization: what is really valued or devalued. Be aware of the distinction between espoused and integrated values*. Espoused values are the values people say are important to the organization. But most of he times such espoused values delineate the future perspective of the organisation, not the actual moving values. Integrated values are the values that actually appear to be important; the heart of the culture. Sometimes there is a gap between the espoused and the integrated values. This can be a real problem, especially when dealing with gender: lip service and no real intention to integrate gender policies.

* how does an organizational culture develop?

To understand the culture of an organization and its development, it is important to analyse its 'birth' and history. For example: if an organization is born out of protest against the existing system, the fighting mood can be very strong. However  useful that may have been in the beginning, such a fighting mood can become a hindrance, if the organisation sticks to it, without an actual reason. This requires an attempt to understand the organization within its history and contexts, the traumas that influence the way they deal with external influences or change. Understanding is more useful than getting angry.

So the change agent has to include the following elements in the analysis:

1. its products: 'what business are we in?' Every branch has its specific 'smells', sounds, characteristics.
2. its history: like a personality, what are the traumas, life events, happenings, etc. How did the organization react and how does that still influence the way this organization deals with matters?
3. internal/external interaction (stakeholder's context): threats formed outside will have reactions on the inside.

* how does the culture within an organization sustain itself?

The answer is: by self selection, by selection and by socialisation.

• Self selection: People who are potential candidates to apply for a job in an organisation will, unconsciously and immediately, compare the organisational culture of that organisation with their own 'lifestyle'.  A good deal of them will drop out, others will feel attracted.
• Selection: the people that are responsible for new personnel act like gatekeepers. They will not only investigate the way candidates meet the formal requirements, but they unconsciously compare the candidates with the dominant organisational culture, and again some potential candidates will be dropped. This begins with the letters of application.
• Socialisation. To explain how socialisation works we watch an experiment. A caged group of monkeys is confronted with a bunch of bananas on bungling from the ceiling. There is a ladder placed invitingly just under the bananas. Immediately some monkeys rush to the ladder. As soon as they start to climb it they are all hosed down, not just the monkeys on the ladder but all the monkeys in the cage. As they don’t like water they leave the bananas. One hussy monkey tries again but the same thing happens, all of the monkeys are hosed. Now they watch each other to make sure no one comes near the ladder. Then one monkey is replaced by a new one unaware of ladder-water misery. He sees the bananas and rushes to the ladder, but to his surprise is beaten up by the other monkeys. Now a second monkey is replaced by a new one. He approaches the ladder and is beaten up. The first new monkey who himself had been beaten up participates in the mugging because he wont permit another monkey to do something he himself was not allowed. This continues until all the monkeys are replaced by new monkeys none of them having the experience of being hosed down or even having a faint idea about it. The reason why they wont permit each other to reach for the bananas has become of a metaphysical nature, it is simply not done.

Culture sustains itself through socialization, i.e. 'that is the way we do things around here'.  Here we wear ties. With us we make funny remarks all the time. Here we work like dogs, often 10 hours a day. With us the client is really the king.

* Changing the organisational culture.

• concentrate on positive aspects. It is easier to enlarge the positive aspects than to get rid of the negative ones.
• enlist the commitment of the top of the organization (being a model in their behaviour). There should be a clear mission with concrete goals. The top management should be involved. Change may be proposed from within, quite often as the result of interaction with the outside world, but top management should be involved too.
• organize bottom-up participation of people when defining the problem, in the analysis and solution-formation phase.
• define only the outlines, let people participate in formulating what these outlines signify for their work.
• external necessity . Look for an external necessity to change. New questions asked by target groups or donors can stimulate  the organization to make the necessary change.

3) Flexibility in strategy

Each and every organisation needs a well adapted strategy to be able to change its organisational culture. Tailor-made approaches are necessary: what is effective in this situation with these persons may differ from other situations with other persons.

There are other general key factors for success to identify:

• whichever variant is chosen for a successful strategy, it is important to make use of the existing energy.
• a second element of a successful strategy is to keep in mind that support will be created by involving people and giving them the opportunity to analyse themselves, examining what the problem is and what would be the best solution.
• a third element: always take into consideration the interests and needs of the persons which have to be motivated for the objectives of change.

  Try to explore the meaning behind a view someone is taking. Try to translate someone's stand in terms of  interests, needs, values, ideas, thoughts and emotions. Try to brainstorm about solutions that cover as many similar and different interests as possible.

It will be clear that change agents need a broad arsenal of strategies to achieve the change objectives, and that they have to be willing to continuously adjust their strategies to respond to ever-changing relations and circumstances.

Read:

• Hofstede: Cultural consequences. Sage, Beverly Hill, California 1980.
• Schein: Organisational Culture and leadership. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, 1987
• Scott-Morgan: The unwritten rules of the game. McGraw Hill, Londen, 1994
• Jacobs: Systems of survival. A dialogue on the moral foundations of commerce and politics. Random House, 1992.

^*  Espoused values express the genuinely embraced core normative standards of an organisation. An example: on the question: "what is the core value of your organisation?" members of a primary school could answer: "the prime value of our organisation is the intellectual, social and emotional development of the individual child." Such espoused values may come under pressure when external conditions provoke the integrated, less outspoken values. When the school for instance is confronted with a demographic change which could lead to the need to merge with other schools in order to guarantee the best possible education, integrated values show up. Continuity of the own job or being attached to the own team will concur the espoused values. It is difficult to predict which values will come out as the winner.
Beware: espoused valued are no hypocritical values. An organisation needs espoused values as a focal point for future actions.