Change is most often needed when the organization has lost its effectiveness and is struggling to either” carry out or change its strategic goals. The manager trying to change an organizational culture faces lots of difficulties. Because organizational culture embody the organizational values, which are embedded in organization’s soul that stays stable irrespective of the changes in leadership and environment.
It is, however, possible to change organizational culture, to improve the organization performance. For this managers must change employee’s ideas about what is and what is not appropriate behavior. They must create new role model and new stories to help employees understand the meaning of what is happening around them. One way to brine about such changes is to manage the symbols that are important to the organization. An organization’s suggestion box is a symbol of an organization’s openness to the ideas of the employees. Some organizations try to emphasize the importance of employees’ ideas by rewarding them for their suggestions. However, if the suggestion box remains just a symbol and organization never translates the suggestions into actions, the box will have little effect on organization morale.
Once successfully made, changes in the organizational culture will be as stable as the old culture was. However, any organization willing to change its culture must realize that such a change is never easy and cannot be brought about simply by ordering employees.
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