Changing a Problem Culture

Read the overview below and complete the activities that follow.

When a companys culture is unhealthy or otherwise out of sync with the actions and behaviors needed to execute the strategy successfully, the culture must be changed as rapidly as can be managed. This means eliminating any unhealthy or dysfunctional cultural traits as fast as possible and aggressively striving to ingrain new behaviors and work practices that will enable first-rate strategy execution. The more entrenched the unhealthy or mismatched aspects of a company culture, the more likely the culture will impede strategy execution and the greater the need for change.

As shown in Figure 12.2 (below), the first step in fixing a problem culture is for top management to identify those facets of the present culture that are dysfunctional and pose obstacles to executing strategic initiatives. Second, managers must clearly define the desired new behaviors and features of the culture they want to create. Third, they must convince company personnel of why the present culture poses problems and why and how new behaviors and operating approaches will improve company performancethe case for cultural reform has to be persuasive. Finally, and most important, all the talk about remodeling the present culture must be followed swiftly by visible, forceful actions to promote the desired new behaviors and work practicesactions that company personnel will interpret as a determined top-management commitment to bringing about a different work climate and new ways of operating. The actions to implant the new culture must be both substantive and symbolic.

The goal of this exercise is to you to understand the kinds of actions management can take to change a problem corporate culture that stands in the way of strategy execution.

Before completing this exercise, be sure to review Chapter 12, Corporate Culture and Leadership; specifically, the section entitled Changing a Problem Culture, as well as Figure 12.2 (below).

In cultural change initiatives, arguments for new ways of doing things and new work practices tend to be embraced more readily if employees understand

Multiple Choice

• how much more money they will earn.

• how they will benefit from the new initiatives.

• how they can advance through the company.

• what additional training they will be given.

• how their colleagues will be affected

What are some of the cultural changing actions that company executives can take?

Multiple Choice

• Replacing high profile executives and managers who are covertly opposing the need for organizational change.

• Promoting individuals who can serve as role models for the desired cultural behavior.

• Designing compensation incentives that will reward teams and individuals who display the desired cultural behavior.

• Mandating employee cultural training programs.

• All of these are correct.