Evolving Corporate Culture

Evolving Corporate Culture

Olivier Serrat

2017

Quid?

A Hypothetical Case Study: The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development

• Quid?—A regional, intergovernmental learning, knowledge, and enabling center for mountains

• Member Countries—Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, People's Republic of China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan

• Vision—Men, women, and children of the Hindu Kush Himalayas enjoy improved wellbeing in a healthy mountain environment

• Mission—To enable sustainable and resilient mountain development for improved and equitable livelihoods through knowledge and regional cooperation

Purview

The Hindu Kush Himalayas

• The world's highest mountains; the largest body of ice outside the Polar caps; 17% of the global glacial area

• The source of 10 Asian river systems; host to 28 Ramsar sites and 4 of the 34 global biodiversity hotspots

• Ecosystem services to 210 million people upstream and 1.3 billion downstream

• Most Sustainable Development Goals are relevant; mountains feature in SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation) and SDG 15 (Life on Land)

Strategic Goals

ICIMOD's strategic goals are:

• Widespread adoption of innovations developed by ICIMOD and partners to adapt to change leading to positive impacts for women, men, and children;

• Substantial advances in the generation and use of relevant data, knowledge, and analysis;

• Significant advances made in approaches and knowledge that promote gender equality and inclusive human development;

• Significantly developed human and institutional capacity;

• Policies and practices considerably influenced by the work of ICIMOD and its partners;

• Enhanced regional cooperation related to sustainable mountain development; and

• Global recognition of the importance of mountains and the need for more global resources made available to mountain people to ensure improved and resilient livelihoods and ecosystems.

Thematic Areas LivelihoodsEcosystem

ServicesWater &

AirGeospatial Solutions

Reg

ion

al P

rog

ram

s

Adaptation to Change

Transboundary Landscapes

River Basin Management

Cryosphere & Atmosphere

Mountain Environment Regional Information System

Himalayan University Consortium

Programs & Themes

Knowledge should be at the center of everything ICIMOD does.

• Effective dissemination of knowledge is arguably more important than its production.

• Knowledge is most valuable when it is actually used—not just identified, created, stored, or shared.

• "Data smog", "infobesity", "infoxication", and "information glut" describe the deluge of information that overloads our brains: a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention.

ICIMOD aims to:

• Encourage partners to be actively involved in the knowledge development cycle;

• Distill and communicate relevant messages toward sustainable mountain development at all levels; and

• Help policy makers transform the results of research into improved decision making and practical action.

"Issues"

On Diagnosis

Organizational diagnosis is a process that helps organizations enhance their capacity to assess and change dysfunctional aspects of their culture and patterns of behavior as a basis for developing greater effectiveness and ensuring continuous improvement.

Organizational diagnosis must be understood within a larger organization development process (e.g., start-up, diagnosis, intervention, and transition).

•Weisborg's Six-Box Model is relatively simple, widely used, and so was retained for this hypothetical case study.

ICIMOD's purpose, structure, relationships, rewards, leadership, and helpful mechanisms were examined, this to gauge the "issues" faced by the organization, identify the factors and forces behind these, and frame arguments to evolve the organization's culture.

Purpose

• There is some unease—apparent in everything ICIMOD does (or does not do)—from harboring "local" ambitions (that are still far from being achieved) in a region facing massive and irreversible damage from climate change. The fitness of ICIMOD's mission, meaning, the degree to which it is appropriate given the environment, is questionable.

Structure

• Changes to ICIMOD's structure have been rational (if slow); a rare occurrence, its configuration actually matches what is (or might be) needed. A research institution by nature, design, and universal agreement, formality predominates.

Relationships

• In hierarchies, relationships can be touchy: personnel is tentative; managers take care not to tread on what turf is not theirs. The units tasked with performing tasks execute these but minimize interdependence. Since all are part of the production process there is built-in variance that only goodwill can assuage.

Weisbord's Six-Box Model

Rewards• Supply-driven research rarely meets demand and much

painstaking research falls on barren ground. There is no clear-cut rationale for rewarding this or that.

Leadership• ICIMOD is a political organization, a platform for eight regional

countries. A few European partners offer directional advice every five years and grant financing every year. Leadership's role is to navigate power, influence, alliances, and internal friction. In a political organization there is little or no external competition; people turn inwards to compete.

Helpful Mechanisms

• ICIMOD is well-equipped with what usual helpful mechanisms, mostly formal, assist in planning, budgeting, controlling, implementing, evaluating, etc. They are there for the specified purposes, function in practice as they are meant to, cut across the other five boxes, and cannot be subverted.

Weisbord's Six-Box Model

Main

Characteristics

• ICIMOD is a controlled and structured place. Formal procedures generally govern what people do. The organization should aim for a greater purpose than its mission currently describes. A "preferred" culture might ascribe equal weight to adhocracy and market.

Organizational Leadership

• Leadership is preoccupied with coordinating, organizing, and smooth-running efficiency. Toward a greater purpose, a "preferred" culture might be adhocracy.

Management

of Employees

• Management is characterized by security of employment, conformity, predictability, and stability in relationships. Toward a greater purpose, a "preferred" culture might be adhocracy.

Organizational

Glue

• The glue that holds the organization consists of formal rules and policies. Maintaining a smooth-running organization is important. Toward a greater purpose, a "preferred" culture might be adhocracy.

Findings of an Organizational Culture Assessment

Strategic

Emphases

• ICIMOD emphasizes permanence and stability. Efficiency, control, and smooth operations are important. Toward a greater purpose, a "preferred" culture might ascribe equal weight to adhocracy and market.

Criteria

of Success

• ICIMOD defines success on the basis of efficiency. Dependable delivery, smooth scheduling, and low-cost production are critical. Toward a greater purpose, a "preferred" culture might ascribe equal weight to adhocracy and market.

The Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) is most useful if it helps frame in-house conversations in combination with other instruments. Are there opportunities for ICIMOD to accomplish its mission/goal/objective better? Might changes entail strengthening ICIMOD's current culture? Might changes entail evolving ICIMOD's current culture to another? Or, might a practicable mix of cultures be "preferred" (and, if so, in which of the six areas would one see the greatest need for change)?

Findings of an Organizational Culture Assessment

Toward a "Preferred" Culture

ICIMOD is a general hierarchy (with elements of market, clan, and adhocracycultures). In the 21st century, it would perform more effectively as a general adhocracy (with elements of a market culture).

• Adhocracy—A dynamic and creative working environment. Employees take risks. Leaders are seen as innovators and risk takers. Experiments and innovation are the bonding materials. Prominence is emphasized. The goal is to create and grow resources. Making new products or services available is seen as success. The organization promotes individual initiative and freedom.

• Leader Type—Visionary, innovator, entrepreneur

• Value Drivers—Innovative outputs, transformation, agility

• Theory of Effectiveness—Vision, innovation, resources

• Quality Improvement Strategy—Anticipating needs, surprising and delighting, setting standards, improving continuously, finding solutions

•Synergizing the Six-Box Model and Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument, actions in three areas can support a "preferred" culture change to an adhocracy.

Purpose—Reformulate ICIMOD's mission to indicate the organization aims to (i) integrate climate change mitigation and adaptation in mountain development in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, and (ii) advocate climate action elsewhere. [This would boost SDG 13 (Climate Action)]

Relationships—Support behaviors that encourage individual risk taking, innovation, freedom, and uniqueness in departments and teams. Toward this, effect changes in helpful mechanisms and rewards. E.g., Specify what ICIMOD must formally reward to fit with the environment. Consider if helpful mechanisms help or hinder the accomplishment of the reformulated mission.

Leadership—Exemplify and support behaviors that encourage entrepreneurship, innovation, and risk taking. Toward this, effect changes in leadership of departments and teams. E.g., Instruct ICIMOD's leaders to embody the reformulated mission and embed it in their programs.

Toward a "Preferred" Culture

Further Reading

Beer, M. & Spector, B. (1993). Organizational diagnosis: Its role in organizational learning. Journal of Counseling & Development (71) 6, pp. 642–650.

Cameron, K. & Quinn, R. (2011). Diagnosing and change organizational culture: Based on the competing values framework (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Gallant, S. & Ríos, D. (2014). The organization development (OD) consulting process. In Jones, B. & Brazzel, M. (Eds.), NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change : Principles, Practices, and Perspectives (2nd ed.), pp. 153–174. San Francisco, CA: Wiley.

ICIMOD. (2012). A strategy and results framework for ICIMOD. Kathmandu. Retrieved from lib.icimod.org/record/28290

Molden, D. & Sharma, E. (2013). ICIMOD's strategy for delivering high-quality research and achieving impact for sustainable mountain development. Mountain Research and Development (33)2, pp. 179–183.

Further Reading

Noolan, J. (2006). Organization diagnosis phase. In B. Jones & M. Brazzel(Eds.), The NTL handbook of organization development and change: Principles, practices, and perspectives (2nd ed.), pp. 192–211. San Francisco, CA: Wiley.

Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument. (2017, December 7). Organizational culture types. Retrieved from https://www.ocai-online.com/.

Serrat, O. (2016). Achieving impact through knowledge management and communication in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/celcius233/achieving-impact-through-knowledge-management-and-communication-in-the-hindu-kush-himalayan-region.

Weisbord, M. (1976). Organizational diagnosis: six places to look for trouble with or without a theory. Group and Organization Studies (1)4, pp. 430–447.

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