Organizational Culture: Is It A Problem?

Faced with continuing economic pressures and increasing global competition, organizations are being forced to change and reinvent their organizational culture, structure, and managerial leadership. The government and the private sectors have called for change over the last decade to stay competitive in a tough, constantly changing environment. In the internal environment, most organizations have turned to team concept to deal with changes in the external environment and to better solve organizational problems and better meet customer satisfaction and demands.

Solving organizational problems usually involves the introduction of change, and change cannot be achieved without obstacles at both personal level and organizational level. On a personal level, change represents changing set patterns of behavior, defined relationship with others, and job skills. On an organizational level, change represents changing policies, procedures, practices, organizational structures, authority and responsibilities. Study after study show that resistance to change is a strong force that has hindered the change process in most organizations, and organizations that may be successful in adopting change and improving productivity have the culture and structure that are in alignment with the organizational objectives. Without fundamental cultural change and the adoption to a new approach to leading and managing, organizations will continue to experience significant difficulties in sustaining competitive advantage.

The issue of change, an in-depth study of culture and the desired cultural framework, the structure and the leadership needed to bring about change and sustain the change. Three questions should be kept in mind: 1) what type of culture you are working in, why some leaders are still having troubles in establishing the desired culture, and what the new culture should look like; 2) what characteristics the new organizational structure compose of and which organization would be likely the right candidate for it; and 3) what type of leadership is needed to bring about change and to sustain change in order to be competitive in the fast changing environment and the marketplace?

Three areas will be discussed:
1) cultural perspectives and framework
2) organizational structure and framework, and
3) the roles of leadership.

I will discuss in great details in future blogs. Until next time, I am interested in hearing from you.
Dr. Phuong Le Callaway (PhD), Organization and Management/Human Resource Management