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Changing Organisations - Achieving a Cultural Fit
Alka Bakaya, Senior Instructional Designer, The Business Workshop

A small organisation growing and expanding into a medium sized one, mergers of two extremely different businesses or even a sudden increase in employee turnover are all very common circumstances that organisations are faced with today. What is common amongst these very different occurrences?

The fact is that these changes within organisations can result in a change in organisational culture, which in turn demands that the employees adjust to this changed culture.

Is adjusting to this change traumatic? Is it the truth that any employee who cannot make this adjustment easily is a failure?

Here are some myths about coping with change that colour the perceptions of many mangers and businesses as quoted from Managing at the speed of change - Daryl R. Conner.

• Change will always be mismanaged.
• Organisational efficiency and effectiveness inevitably decrease when changes are attempted.
• Those who help you implement change are heroes and those who resist are villains.
• Management is inherently insensitive to problems caused during implementation of change.
• Employees are prone to resist any change that is good for the business.

Some messages are so well entrenched within our psyches, that it almost makes it impossible for change to be introduced and for it to be implemented within an organisation.

In reality, however, the management and the employees are equally committed to the improvement of business and for the well being of the organisation. It is for exactly this common goal, that the culture of the organisation changes, to incorporate the new adjustments that individuals have to make.

For example, an organisation that grows suddenly may have to undergo a cultural change from an extremely laissez-faire and informal management style to a slightly more formal reporting structure and a more accountable performance management system. However, the organisation may still retain the quality of appreciating and rewarding independence and creativity, which was inherent in its culture.

Similarly, amalgamation of two very different cultures is an even bigger challenge to reckon with. They bring with them not only different policies and means of operating, but also people who are engaged in certain patterns of relationships that are almost rigid in their dynamics. Thus, for the employees to establish a new pattern of interactions is an extremely traumatic circumstance. For the management, helping the creation of a new culture, which not only helps people adjust to it, but also evolve within it to better organisational performance goals, is a herculean task. It is no surprise that one hears of failed mergers so very often in the market place.

Therefore, what is the solution to this humongous task ahead. I would believe the first step is to recognize that the task is truly herculean. Only when you accept that the impact is extremely strong can you plan for all eventualites. Also, it will help management focus on sensitivity to employees trauma and for the employees to accept that this is an uphill task for the management as well.

The next step is to accept that an organisations culture is more permanent and bigger than the change being introduced. Even if the culture does evolve to accept the change it still cannot change completely to adapt to a change that is diametrically opposite to its own dynamics. Thus, in short culture shall prevail.

Thus, changes within organisations have to be planned and introduced in a manner that is not extremely opposing the current culture. If at all changes countering it are introduced, then the culture should have changed and evolved to adjust to it. The management and the employees are tuned to making this evolution and 'achieving a cultural fit'.

Graphic done by Sophiya