Change of Organization Culture - Coursework Example

Running header: Organization Culture Change Student’s name: Instructor’s name: Subject code: Date of submission: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 2 Change of organization culture 3 Need for a Quality driven Organization culture 4 Manager’s Role. 7 The steps I intend to take in changing the culture 8 CHANGING THE ORGANIZATION CULTURE 9 Conclusion 11 Reference: 12 Introduction For an organization to be considered successful, it must have a good organization culture which in turn will determine the level of success to which the organization goes. A good organizational culture is one that helps all the supervisors and employees as well as other stakeholders of the organization run the organization together in harmony. A good organizational culture is of benefit to each member of the organization regardless of their position in the organization. If any group of employees feels marginalized, then the culture could be improved. A good organizational culture is able to maximize employees' creative ideas and strategies. However, on joining Ultimate health care services last month, this was not the case. I observed that the organization has a very weak organization culture. The current organization culture lacks most of the below characteristics which characterize good organization culture. Innovation and risk taking- The current culture does not encourage innovation and risk taking among employees Attention to details – The current culture does not encourage attention to details by employees Change – The organization culture encourages maintenance of the status quo and as such, there has been very little improvement as far as quality is concerned as employees are always resistant to change. As a result, the organization has nothing to show its customers .Customers complain of poor services and the organization is almost running at a loss (Quinn, 2001). It is as a result of this that I have thought it wise that ultimate health services Ltd should implement a quality oriented culture. Quality is therefore what we will be known for. Change of organization culture Organizational culture `is the pattern of shared basic assumptions Invented, discovered, or developed by the organization as it learned how to cope with its problems of external adaption and internal integration .The assumptions have worked well enough to be enrolled and valued to be taught to new members as the correct way of doing things and as a way of life in the organization (Welber, 2007). In other words it is the specific collection of values and norms shared by people and groups in the organization and which control the way they interact with one another and stake holders outside the organization. Organization culture therefore includes the laid down organizational polices which control workers’ behavior and include such things as time, resources, official hours, regulations, etc which help in the smooth running of the Companies operations. Therefore without organization culture there will be calamity, stagnancy, confusion and general state of backwardness. For the organization culture to be acceptable, it must help the company/organization in achieving its goals and objectives (Cameron, 2008). However, if the organization structure does not serve its purpose, then it has to be changed. In our case, our organizational structure’s culture does not help in achieving our objectives and hence the need to change it. Need for a Quality driven Organization culture My organization’s need to implement a quality driven culture is necessitated by the fact that while the cost of our services may be forgotten, the quality of our services will be remembered forever. Quality is what will describe the attributes of our products. I recognize that the process of delivering quality products to the consumer plays a vital role to our organizations success. Furthermore, our survival in the market will depend on the quality of our products (Mason, 2009). It is worth recognizing that for the end product to be of quality, the entire processes which create the product as well as our organizations way of life must be of high quality. This will require implementing a quality driven culture. It will therefore be incumbent upon me as well as other executives in the organization to work together and set the stage and create the necessary climate to inculcate a quality culture in the entire organization. In implementing the quality driven culture, I intend to make all the stakeholders own the process so as to avoid any resistance that may arise. The company will also focus on the customers and align our internal processes with their satisfaction by ensuring that we meet their quality demands. As such, I will carry out a needs and expectations exercise to determine at each department who receives what benefits from the work of various departments so as to really support their needs and wants and meet their quality expectations. This will help us identify the critical processes and assign everyone in the organization to work towards achieving the shared g goal of quality (Trice,2003). In this regard, I will ensure that achieving a quality driven organization culture does not become a reserve of the top management but rather everyone’s concern and responsibility and hence create a quality culture throughout the organization. This will be achieved through programme management teams as well as cross functional and multilevel action teams that will be formed to identify key quality issues to be achieved and adopt and facilitate a long-term approach to continuous improvement. Having identified key quality issues to be incorporated in our culture, we will then focus on finding solutions to the issues. The organization’s policies and objectives will be redefined. We will also look outside the organization for best practices, obtain expertise and benchmark. in so doing, the organization will greatly benefit from integration of quality into the organization’s management model and commitment to quality process and a quality conscious culture. The organization will therefore be poised for a quality culture. As such, it will be realized that although establishing a quality culture calls for hard work, its benefits greatly outweigh the stumbling blocks. Such a culture will help everyone to clearly understand the processes that are involved in the delivery of value to internal and external customers with a clear value chain of quality from the supplier/ point of origination. However, in ensuring an effective quality driven culture, I will encourage the management to be change agents. The management will be required to have conviction and be committed to the process (Cray and Mallory, 1998). They will also be required to show leadership so as to ensure the entire organization has direction and objectives are achieved. The management will therefore be required to think quality, show quality and live quality and understand customers’ needs and expectations as far as quality is concerned. Every process and actions whether internal or external will be expected to ultimately result in quality addition to the customer and the customers delight. Everyone else in the organization will then be empowered to meet these customers’ quality needs and expectations. Quality in the organization will be seen from every quarter. As such, everyone will be expected to be a quality champion with quality output. For this to be achieved, the organization will give the employees the necessary guidance, teaching, skills and competence. We will also manage by facts where the organization will no longer assume on issues related to quality as quality will greatly influence our performance. As such, facts will form the solid base necessary to plan and perform and promote process improvement and facilitate continuous quality improvement. In other words, everyone in the organization will have to realize that there is no shortcut to quality (Cronk, 1999). It is about exceeding our customers’ expectations and will be the way of life in our organization. Manager’s Role. As the manager, I recognize the fact that I have the role of overcoming the forces that could impact negatively on the change process , I therefore have to understand what the change required is as well the impact the change will have on the entire organization. As such, I have to lead in making the appropriate changes in my own behavior, actions and attitudes so that they can reflect the desired culture change. As a leader, I recognize that I am the role model and therefore have to demonstrate more open communications (Deal, and Kennedy, 1999). Since, I direct the behavior and hence the culture of the organization am expected to show the organization how to change by doing what I expect them to do and being a role model in order to ensure success of the change effort. As the leader , I also have to present the vision of how things are expected to be after the new quality driven culture in a way that will help all organization members know how they stand to benefit and how they can harness their efforts towards the achievements of the vision. This will change their mindsets and overcome any external forces that may influence them. Moreover, as an effective leader of the change process, I have to come up with a way of changing the way organization members think so as to enable them adapt to a different behavior (Dunbar and Power, 1999). This is because, people are also influenced by internal forces such as comfort zones and therefore naturally tend to resist change. As a leader, I will also ensure I get all the stake holders on board so that they own the culture change process .This will be done by involving them initially for them to understand the what and why of the culture change and subsequently in the planning and rollout. I will also enlist the energy of early adaptors to move the change effort by making them campaigners of culture change. This will help the entire organization to move along and embrace change. Furthermore, I will use my valuable time on the change effort so that other employees will deem it important. By acting as a role model for the new culture, the employees will pick upon it. Finally, I will ensure all other executives are engaged in the change. This ill obviously go a long way in ensuring the success of the change effort and hence transforming the organization from the current culture to a quality driven culture. The steps I intend to take in changing the culture In changing the organizations culture to quality driven culture I intend to follow this steps as follows ; I will need to first learn and understand the current culture and the way things are currently this will help me understand the inadequacies of the current and hence beside where I want the organization to head to . Having understood the current culture and its weaknesses it will be necessary to decide what the organization culture should look like to support organizational success. In this case my organization will adopt a quality driven culture (Frost, Peter et al. 1991). this is because our vision is to provide quality solutions to our clients and to became the preferred choice of all Finally, I will mobilize all in the organization to decide to change their behavior so as to create our desired quality driven culture. CHANGING THE ORGANIZATION CULTURE As a manager I recognize that it is more difficult to change the existing organization than creating a new culture in a new organization. This is because the existing employees will have to unlearn the old values, assumptions and behavior before learning new ones. It is for this reason that I shall undertake the following that is expected to result in changing the organization culture . seeking for executive support I will seek the support of senior management (executives) in changing the organizations culture in ways beyond verbal support. In this regard, the executives will have to demonstrate behavior support for the culture change. We as the executives will be encouraged to lead the change by changing our own behaviors towards supporting a quality driven culture. Training I understand that culture change depends on behavior change. I will therefore develop training programs for all members of the organization to clearly understand what is expected of them in developing a quality driven organization. Employees/members will be informed of how to do the new behavior after they have been defined. Creating value and belief statement In so doing, I will use employees focused groups to put the mission, vision and values into words which state their impact on each employee’s job. An example of such a statement will be ‘living the value of quality customer care by listening attentively wherever a customer calls’. Such a statement will give the employees a common understanding of the desired culture which will actually reflect the actions expected of them in performing their jobs. Effective communication I will strive to ensure that all employees are informed of the organization culture change in order to ensure commitment and success (Goffee and Jones, 2000) .This is by informing employees what is expected of them is critical for expected culture change. Reviewing of organizational structure I will ensure the physical structure of the organization is changed as to align it with the desired Culture Restricting the organizational approach to reward and recognition I will ensure that the reward and the system is changed to encourage behavior vital to the desired quality driven organizational culture Reviewing of all work systems All work systems such as pay practices , performance management and employee selection will be reviewed to align with the desired culture of quality. Conclusion When an organization such as Ultimate Healthcare limited does not have a healthy culture, it necessitates some form of culture change which can be daunting. Although a lot of challenges are expected in the process, the change is necessary in our case so as to reduce employee turnover, influence employees behavior while improving the company, refocus the organization’s goals and objectives, provide better customer service and also enable us achieve our specific organization goals and results. It is expected that changing our organization culture will enable all the stakeholders have a clearly defined purpose. As such, everyone will always know exactly what our goals are and what each employee's job entitles in order to get there. The new culture will not only be of service to customers but will be a sense of service from each employee to the company itself. As such, everyone will want to work for the company and want to see the company succeed. Change of culture will also enable Ultimate Health Services Limited in becoming realistic. As such, the organization will always know when to expand, and when not. The organization can look at numbers and instead of giving a glowing report when it looks like recession to keep the stock up, it can analyze and see that hard times are coming and adjust accordingly. In addition, the new organization culture will help us become adaptable. As such, we will be able to roll with good and bad markets, seize an advantage/opportunity when one comes along, and can deal quickly with the unexpected. It is therefore of paramount importance that we achieve the desired culture change so that we can achieve all the above objectives. I however realize that I need the support of all staff as well as all the executives in achieving the desired organizational culture change. However, there should be the realization that change of organization culture is a long term project and therefore, one should not expect immediate results. However in the long run, every one of us will be proud of the joint culture change process since everyone will be put on board and will own the project. With successful implementation of the culture change process, our organization- Ultimate Health care limited will be known as the ultimate choice by all owing to the high quality of our services. Reference: Quinn, R, 2001, A special model of effectiveness criteria: Towards a competing values approach to organization analysis, Management Science, 39:363-368. Welber, M (2007), Implications of corporate culture: A manager’s guide to action, Organizational Dynamics, 12: 5-26. Cameron, K 2008, Research in organizational change and development, Newyork, Macmillan. Mason, R2009, Corporate culture and organizational effectiveness, New York, Willey. Trice, H2003, The cultures of work organizations, Englewood Cliffs, New jersey. Cray, David & Mallory, Geoffrey R. 1998, Making Sense of Managing Culture. London: International Thompson Business Press. Cronk, Lee 1999, That Complex Whole: Culture and the Evolution of Human Behaviour. Boulder, CO: West view Press. Deal, Terrence & Kennedy, Allan 1999, The New Corporate Cultures: Revitalizing the Workplace After Downsizing, Mergers and Reengineering, Perseus. Dunbar, Robin, Knight, Chris & Power, Camilla1999, The Evolution of Culture: An Interdisciplinary View. Edinburgh: University Press. Frost, Peter J. et al. 1991, Reframing Organizational Culture. Newbury Park: Sage. Goffee, Rob & Jones, Gareth 2000, The Character of a Corporation: How Your Company's Culture Can Make or Break Your Business. London: HarperCollins Business. Read More