6.A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE ON ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

 A  CRITICAL DISCUSSION:

Organisational culture shapes the behaviours of the leaders  describes corporate culture as the ‘soft part’ of an organisation that is immediately noticeable by people as they come in contact with the organisation, employee and it can be “visible and feel-able,”

Organisational culture laid a playground for instituting ‘attitudinal’ and ‘behavioural’ standards for the entire organisation, which gives guidelines to the organisation’s staff (Mehta & Maheshwari, 2015). Rashid et al. (2003) emphasised that organisational culture is integral in the corporate change process and shapes employees’ attitudes towards organisational change.

There is already extensive research that argues that integrated corporate culture that foster 'involvement' 'consistency' 'adaptability' and 'clarity of mission ' diminish resistance to change and enhance employee continued commitment to organisational change (Janicijevic, 2012, Lok and Crawford, 2000, Parent &Lovelace, 2018, Harris & Ogbonna 2002, Mehta & Maheshwari, 2015, Chiloane-Tsoka, 2013, Rashid et al. 2003, and Islam, 2013).

French & Holden (2012) advance that positive organisational culture mitigates the ill consequence of grapevine during an organisational change. In his work, Harwiki (2016) notes that the corporate culture formats employees to quickly adapt to the organisational environment, putting on acceptable behaviour in executing their jobs following the organisation’s values.

To achieve successful organisational change, managers must create alignment between change strategies and culture (Kezar & Eckel, 2002, Rashid, Sambasivan & Abdul Rahman, 2003).

Attitude is tough to change; this is because of the tendency of inherency of resistance. Leaders can formulate appropriate changes strategies and effectively manage change processes. The employee perception of the change and the leader's ability to engage and create an inclusive environment will determine their response. It emphasise that an organisational change that requires significant changes in the conventional behaviour, power, structure, and culture tends to face stiffer resistance from an employee.

Since individual employees tend to respond to organisational change in different ways (Smith et al., 2012), managers should evaluate both positive and negative effects of change on employee adaptability and stimulate a positive and participative work environment (Parent & Lovelace, 2018).

Large-scale organisational change, whether in the form of mergers, acquisitions, restructuring, or downsizing, is a widespread feature of today’s ever-changing work environment (Parent &Lovelace, 2018:212). So, given the organisational dilemma, firms must gain optimal employee support to adjust to these ‘new features and abilities. It is these supports during the change process in the form of training, planning, and engagement that will shape employee behaviour and increase adaptability to organisational change.

Due to continuous change in the global business landscape,  agree that organisations should grasp and implement a corporate culture that is receptive to change; despite being enormous to attain.

Shared values and beliefs of employees constitute more incredible influencers of employee behaviour. Thus, changes in corporate strategies without congruent organisational behaviour, values, and belief could lead to change failure (Struwig & Smith, 2002) and stress and dissatisfaction with proposed change.

As leaders create a shared vision and stimulate actions to achieve the organisation’s goal, effective leadership remains crucial for implementing organisational change. Managers' behaviour and attitude towards employees affect social and psychological interactions. For instance, a survey conducted on 200 university teachers indicates that leadership and organisational culture directly impact the employees’ affective commitment to change (Yaseen, Ali & Asrar-ul-Haq, 2018). Its consistency induces employee inclination to an organisation and increases their commitment to organisational change.

The relationship between change and organisational culture in the present-day business climate is that, as Lewis et al. (2001) describe, while change is a determinant of corporate growth, sustainability and competitiveness, organisational culture stimulates employee response towards organisational change.

References:

Organizational Culture on attitudes towards Organisational change', Leadership & Organizational Development Journal, 25(2), pp. 161-179.

Adrian, C. (2002) ‘Organizational Culture: Organizational Change’? Journal of Organizational Change Management, 15(4), pp. 425-432.

Al-Ali, A. A., et al. (2017) ‘Change management through leadership: the mediating role of organisational culture’, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 25(4), pp. 723-739. DOI 10.1108/IJOA-01-2017-111.

Chiloane-Tsoka, E. (2013) ‘The influence of corporate culture on organisational change of first national bank of Namibia’, International Journal of Business and Economic Development, 1(3), pp. 15-24.