Soft issues like culture, people development, etc, are then more often than not perceived to be a non-value added function, as it is not measurable in terms of Rands and cents. Leaders and managers also do not see any sense in pursuing these soft issues as it is possible in their disciplines to either mathematically or otherwise quantify the problem and then calculate what the solution should be. In their framework of reference, everything is backed-up by pure numbers, which is not always the case with the softer issue items like culture. The human mind seeks cognitive stability and surely it is therefore only human to favour the quantified over the abstract.
Creating an awareness of culture, its impact on business and the people in the business, is therefore the logical entry point for any cultural integration/change program. This is a field with more than enough empirical evidence to prove to any non-believer, in scientific terms, the importance of culture. This sensitisation should be done at executive level first in order to ensure buy-in and commitment, not lip service, from each executive member. If one does not have this, then do not even bother to proceed with the rest of the program.
Framework Building Block - Investigating and Understanding Culture Integrating and changing culture hinges on the success achieved in this building block. The first thing that should be clear is that we are not busy with a pure cultural change process, we are integrating the social, cultural and organisational culture, and only then can we change business culture. This integration process is vested in the following steps, and it might require additional or less steps, depending on the maturity of the organisation in this area:
• Create a task team that includes employees from all levels in the organisation. Include one of your executive team members on this team and preferably it should not be the Human Resources Executive. Cultural integration is a specialised field; if you do not have the necessary internal skills then it is preferable to use an external resource. There are however some dangers and limitations in
using external resources and the task team should weigh up the pros and cons.
• From the business objectives, formulate the principle business values/beliefs underlying the drivers for future business success. • Purposely analyse and study the vested social cultures of the business environment. If you have a distributed business there could be several cultures to consider. • The study of current business culture should include the many nuances at functional, sectional and team level and these should be incorporated into the core business culture. • Once business and social culture are described and understood, it is possible to identify the key values and the possible variance/nuances, and prioritise it from critical to superficial. This will form the basis to identify the critical social and business values from which the team will develop the new shared value system.
• Determine the most appropriate leadership
approach to foster the new culture that will be established. It is important to understand how the many aspects of leadership are impacted by cultural differences, for example:
- There could be varying attitudes toward authority between different cultures that could affect how the definition and context of leadership is perceived by both leaders and followers. - In distributed businesses, behaviour
patterns are often standardised or “streamlined” on a national or even global basis, irrespective of the location. The interface between local and business culture in the area where the business operates, is tightly interwoven and cannot be ignored. - Styles of decision-making may vary between the various cultures, i.e., social, business and sub-cultures. - Motivation and control can only be understood in the organisation if we understand the different cultures represented in the business (Kets de Vries, 2006). • Design specific interventions around primary and secondary embedding mechanisms that will purposely embed the new integrated cultural values of the business. Below is an indication of possible embedding mechanisms as described by Schein.
January 2012 | Management Today 95
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