Chapter Fourteen

Thomson South-Western Wagner & Hollenbeck 5e

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ChapterChapterFourteenFourteen

Culture, Change,

And

Organization Development

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Chapter Overview This chapter examines the following topics:

– Organization Culture• Elements of Organization Culture• Managing Organization Culture

– Change and Organization Development• Resistance to Change• Action Research

– Organization Development Interventions• Interpersonal Interventions• Group Interventions• Intergroup Interventions• Organizational Interventions

– Evaluating Change and Development

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Chapter Introduction

Managing an organization, as an organization, is an extremely complex task

Managers must consider and actively shape the culture of norms, values, and ways of thinking that influence behavior throughout the firm

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Organization Culture Every formal organization of prescribed

jobs and structural relationships includes an informal organization characterized by unofficial rules, procedures, and interconnections

An organization’s culture is an informal, shared way of perceiving life and membership in the organization that binds members together and influences what they think about themselves and their work

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Organization Culture

Organizational culture fulfills four basic functions:– Gives members an

organizational identity – Facilitates collective

commitment– Promotes organizational

stability– Helps members make sense

of their surroundings

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Elements of Organization Culture

Deep within the culture of every organization is a collection of fundamental norms and values that shapes members’ behaviors and helps them understand the surrounding organization

Such fundamental norms and values serve as the ultimate source of the shared perceptions, thoughts, and feelings constituting the culture of an organization

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Elements of Organization Culture

The fundamental norms and values are expressed and passed from one person to another through surface elements such as:– Ceremonies: special

events in which members of a company celebrate the myths, heroes, and symbols of their culture

– Rites: ceremonial activities meant to send particular messages or accomplish specific purposes

• Rites of passage• Rites of degradation• Rites of enhancement• Rites of integration

– Rituals: ceremonial events that continually reinforces key norms and values

– Stories: accounts of past events with which all employees are familiar and that serve as reminders of cultural values

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Elements of Organization Culture

Other surface elements include:– Myths: special type of story

that provides a fictional but plausible explanation for an event or thing that might otherwise seem puzzling or mysterious

– Heroes: people who embody the values of an organization and its culture

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Elements of Organization Culture

The final two surface elements include:– Symbols: objects, actions,

or events to which people have assigned special meanings

– Language: another means of sharing cultural ideas and understandings

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Managing Organization Culture

Organizational culture grows out of informal, unofficial ways of doing things

Cultural norms and values provide social information, which helps employees determine the meaning of their work and the organization around them

Many experts argue that organizational cultures can be managed by using either of two approaches:– Symbolic management: managers attempt to influence

deep cultural norms and values by shaping the surface cultural elements that people use

– Organization development (OD) interventions: contributes to cultural management by helping the members of an organization progress through a series of steps

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Change and Organization Development

Besides stimulating and solidifying cultural change, organization development (OD) entails the more general process of planning, implementing, and stabilizing the results of any type of organizational change

The OD field of research specializes in developing and assessing specific interventions or change techniques

OD is characterized by five important features:– Emphasizes planned

change– Has a pronounced social-

psychological orientation– Focuses primary attention

on comprehensive change– Characterized by a long-

range time orientation– Guided by a change agent

or individual who serves as both a catalyst for change and a source of information about the OD process

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Resistance to Change

Change means to alter, vary, or modify existing ways of thinking or behaving

Setting change in motion requires identifying and overcoming sources of resistance and encouraging and strengthening sources of support

Force field analysis is a diagnostic method that diagrams the array of forces acting for and against a particular change in a graphic analysis

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Resistance to Change

There is no universal, fail-safe way to overcome the resistant factors identified in a force field analysis, but there are six, most often used options, available:– Education and communication– Participation and involvement– Facilitation and support– Bargaining and negotiation– Hidden persuasion– Explicit and implicit coercion

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Action Research

Organization development is a structured, multi-step process

The action research model is a detailed variation of this process that promotes adherence to the scientific method and places particular emphasis on postchange evaluation

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Action Research

The action research model depicts seven stages, with the latter four forming a recurrent cycle– Problem identification– Consultation– Data gathering and provisional diagnosis– Feedback to the client organization– Joint diagnosis and action planning– Activating the plan– Post-action data gathering and evaluation

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Organization Development Interventions

The target of an OD intervention is the aspect on which an intervention focuses

An intervention’s depth reflects the degree or intensity of change that the intervention is designed to stimulate– Shallow– Deep

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Interpersonal Interventions

Interpersonal interventions focus on solving problems with interpersonal relations

Depending on the particular intervention, the organization may attempt to redefine personal roles, clarify social expectations, or strengthen sensitivity to others’ needs and interests

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Role Negotiation TechniqueSensitivity Training

The role negotiation technique (RNT), an interpersonal intervention of moderately shallow depth, is intended to help people form and maintain effective working relationships

As a deep interpersonal intervention, sensitivity training focuses on developing greater sensitivity to oneself, to others, and to one’s relations with others

Designed to promote emotional growth and development, it typically takes place in a closed session away from work

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Group Interventions

Group interventions are designed to solve problems with group or team performance and leadership

In general, these interventions focus on helping the members of a group learn how to work together to fulfill the group’s task and maintenance requirements

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Process ConsultationTeam Development

Process consultation is a relatively shallow, group-level OD intervention

In a process consultation intervention, a change agent meets with a work group and helps its members examine group processes such as communication, leadership and followership, problem-solving, and cooperation

Team development is a deep, group-level extension of interpersonal sensitivity training

In a team development intervention, a group of people who work together on a daily basis meet over an extended period of time to assess and modify group processes

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Intergroup Interventions

Intergroup interventions focus on solving many intergroup problems

In general, these problems concern conflict and associated breakdowns in intergroup coordination

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Third-Party PeacemakingIntergroup Team Building

Third-party peace making is a relatively shallow intervention in which a change agent seeks to resolve intergroup misunderstandings by encouraging communication between or among groups

The change agent is not a member of any of the groups and is referred to as a third party who guides the meeting between the groups

Intergroup team building is a deep intervention that has three primary aims:– To improve communication

and interaction between work-related groups

– To decrease counterproductive competition between the groups

– To replace group-centered perspectives with an orientation that recognizes the necessity for various groups to work together

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Organizational Interventions

Organizational interventions are intended to deal with structural and cultural problems

Some of these interventions are directed at improving communication and coordination within the organization

Others focus on diagnosing and strengthening relations between the organization and its external environment

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Survey FeedbackOpen System Planning

The main purpose of survey feedback is to stimulate information sharing throughout the entire organization; planning and implementing change are of secondary importance

This technique is a relatively shallow organization-level intervention

The survey feedback normally proceeds in four stages

Open system planning is a fairly deep, organization-level intervention that is distinguished by its focus on the organization as a system open to its surrounding environment

The primary purpose of open system planning is to help the members of an organization devise ways to accomplish their firm’s mission

The intervention involves five steps

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Evaluating Change and Development

No matter what type of organization development intervention is used, the concluding stage of the OD process always consists of an evaluation of the technique’s effectiveness