Changing organizational culture Flashcards
(137 cards)
1
Q
innovative labs
A
tasked with coming up with new ideas, executing them, and iterating until the idea is fully executed or integrated into the business
2
Q
culture
A
the shared ideas, norm, values in an organization; what makes it different from another organization
3
Q
espoused values
A
values that you say are important, that you present to the outside world
-> On the website, e.g. written down values
4
Q
enacted values
A
vales that are experienced, values in use. More about sustainability, honesty. More difficult to observe.
5
Q
norms
A
directly related to values. Has a lot to do with how we perceive things that are done in the organization
-> E.g. deviate from safety regulations, people will do that
6
Q
unwritten rules
A
more on a practice level, your clothing, how you behave. More easy to observe
7
Q
taboo
A
unwritten rules that are not talked about
8
Q
organisational becoming
A
organisational change is not something static. Everyday, new changes occur that can influence an organisation
* The reweaving of individual webs of beliefs and habits of action leads to microscopic changes
* Microscopic change reflects the actual becoming of things
* organisations try to structure human behaviour, but at the same time are being transformed by the changes that individuals undertake
(Tsoukas and Chia, 2002)
9
Q
Substantive change
A
Don’t only focus on change ideas and values (cultural level) but also on substantive matters, such as structural and material
arrangements directly implying behavioural changes (A&S)
Let people behave differently (structural level)
* significant modifications or expansions of the nature or scope of an accredited institution.
-> structural change does not mean cultural change
10
Q
grand technocratic planned change programs
A
N-step models, top-down, managerial perspective
11
Q
What is a technocratic change approach? 6
A
Technocratic = selecting the most efficient, immediate goals
= the N-step models to change
* Evaluate the situation and determining the change goals
* Analysing the existing culture and sketching the desired culture
* Analysing the gap
* Designing a plan for changing the culture
* Implementing the plan
* Evaluating the changes and efforts
12
Q
What is the risk of top-down organized, technocratic change programs?
A
risk of isolation (of the managers from the workers)
13
Q
integrative perspective
A
since an organization exists in different states from one period to another, planned change can be implemented to move the organization from one state to another
-> assumes that all the employees share the same practices, values, culture, etc.
14
Q
punctuated equilibrium model
A
Lewin, 1951. N-step model with three phases: unfreezing, transforming, refreezing
15
Q
What is the first phaseof the punctuated equilibrium model?
A
unfreezing: creating motivation to change
-> Dis-confirmation to old situation/behaviour
-> Creation of change perspective
16
Q
what is the second phase of the punctuated equilibrium model?
A
transforming: running the change process
-> Restructuring organisational models, tasks creating new Business Process Redesigns (BPR)
-> Supporting cultural change by cognitive restructuring programs and communication of new corporate values
17
Q
what is the third stage of the punctuated equilibrium model?
A
refreezing: stabilising the new situation
-> Integrating new behaviour in business systems
-> Communicating new situation to relevant stakeholders
18
Q
What did Rosenbaum et al. (2018) say about Lewin’s punctuated equilibrium model?
A
- Identify the development of planned organizational change models over time
- Ongoing centrality of Lewin’s model in planned organizational change
- Lewin’s model must be understood as a developmental process
- Lewin’s model is very clear, but might be too simplistic (more than just three stages are needed)
- stages might be too much ‘stable’ stages
19
Q
What is a force field analysis?
A
Part of Lewin’s model (1951)
* distinguish which factors within a situation or organisation drive a person towards or away from a desired state, and which oppose the driving forces.
20
Q
What is the process approach? Characteristics
A
- Change is not an n-step trajectory but an ongoing process.
- focus on the change work itself, those who are involved
- A change process is a multi-level process. All levels need to be aligned
- change can be top-down or bottom-up
- Avoid dichotomy of change vs resistance: all actors can be both change agents and resitance
- Organize the change process close to those involved
- Choose iterventions a-typical to the current organization culture to avoid reproduction of an organization culture
- Use of symbols and rituals to support change and give meaning
- Socia-spatial interventions can support change
- Change as discourse
21
Q
What is the diffusion model?
A
- Change plan is bestowed with an inner force
- Change ‘move’ through the organization
- Subordinates are passive receivers of their roles and identities
* People are expected to be intermediaries, black boxes
22
Q
What is the Translation Model (Latour, 2005)
A
- Movements of ideas and objects (Latour 2005)
- Object will move according how people actively align with and make sense of it
- People do something active with the ideas instead of passive transmission
23
Q
What do Thomas et al., 2011 say about resistance?
A
- resistance is an integral part of multi-level and multi-authored process
- different people have different opinions. -> leads to generative or degenerative dialogues
- emerging generative (goes somewhere) and degenerative dialogues (don’t go somewhere)
- every top manager, middle manager, or employee can be resistor or change agent
24
Q
What might be reasons for a merger?
A
- to learn from another company
- because the other company might be too strong and might overrule yours
- expand, grow, or change
25
What are the different phases of mergers and acquisitions (M&As)?
* pre-acquisition phase
* the actual merger or acquisition
* post-integration process
26
What does the pre-acquisition phase entail?
* promises are made, see positive side of it
* emotions and irrational thoughts
27
What does the post-integration process result in?
* money and efficiency lacks
* often two groups don't want to work together
* cultural change process
28
How can M&A be strategic change?
* elements of culture spread from one system to the other and vice versa
* post-acquisition integration process is a cultural change process
* cultural integration is a socially constructed process in which organisational culture and cultural differences are (re)built
29
What is an ethnoventionist approach?
* creates interventions or where the researchers actively get involved by first developing an ethnographic or grounded understanding of a situation from the inside whilst aiming to actively change and manage to situation using the feedback from the study whilst it is ongoing.
Whilst ethnographic research is relatively passive and based on observation and interaction, ethnoventionist research is aimed at creating change.
30
Reflective interventions (Eikenboom & Van Marrewijk, 2023)
* can enable project actors to change their practices and support the transformation of critical points of intersection into points of opportunity in circular construction
* This approach stresses participation and interaction from various layers in an organisation through interventions (Balkenende, 2024)
31
Action research cycle (Coghlan & Brannick 2006)
* Action research is an approach which aims at both taking action and creating knowledge or theory about that action
* Cycle of plan, act, observe and reflect
32
Ethnoventionist approach
* The ethnographic studying of cultural processes in organizations and the suggesting of interventions based upon thiese ethnography
* On ethnogrpahic micro behaviours of people in organizations and coming up with solutions.
* Difference with action research cycle (ARC) is that the ARC is more circulair
33
The concept of hyperculture (A&S Chapter 9)
* A carved-out set of positive sounding statements about values, often decoupled from everyday-life thinking and practices
* Based upon the concept of hyperreality (Baudrillard 1995)
* Hyperculture is not unreal or false in relationship to ‘true’ culture
* Hyperculture overlaps target culture
* Hyperculture has a strong aesthetic appeal and elegance in presentations
34
The paradox in manufacturing hypercultures
The culture is invented by a consultant who must be disconnected to show that culture refers to the values of the firm
35
‘Walk the talk’ (Kotter 1996)
Manager should at least live up to what you preach. You should keep your promises, not ghost away.
36
Which paper used an ethnoventionist approach?
Van Marrewijk 2016
37
what is revitalisation as a change strategy?
employees recreate and re-form a culture by mixing elements of their existing cultural frameworks with other elements required to adapt to the change process
38
What is acculturation?
the process of changing so that you become more like people from a different culture, or of making someone change in this way (Van Marrewijk, 2016)
39
What are four strategies for acculturation?
1. integration
2. assimilation
3. separation
4. deculturation
40
What were the three subcultures in the merger of Telcom and iPioneer?
1. true believers (real iPioneers)
2. dogmatic believers (dogmatic iPioneer. Were very much interested to be part of the subculture)
3. non-believers (ex-Telcom employees. They thought control, structure, and models were needed
41
What is an ethical question of consulting?
e.g. you make clients too reliant
42
What is Power according to Clegg (1989)
Power is a social relation, produced and reproduced through the everyday practices of project actors
43
How are power relations formed, reproduced and transformed? (Levina & Orlikowski, 2009; Marshall, 2006)
Through concrete strategic practices and interaction of interrelated people and organizations in strategic change projects
44
What is the concept of 'surf the urge'?
* you think about what happens in your body
* you wait it out
* you surf the urge
* recommit to not doing something uncomfortable
45
Elements of order
* Integration,
* functional co-ordination,
* consensus,
* commitment,
* cohesion,
* solidarity,
* reciprocity,
* co-operation,
* stability
46
Elements of conflict
* coercion
* division
* hostility
* dissensus
* mal-integration
* change
47
Four facts about bottom–up change
1. Every employee is a change agent as decision making on the daily organisation of work practices is also being made at the micro-level (Boud et al., 2006)
2. Employees might know better than managers what is good for the company (Duguid, 2006)
3. Organisations are a constant on-going process of meaning making and organising, thus, producing everyday changes at a micro-level (Pettigrew et al., 2001)
4. Intentional change is a multi-level and multi-authored process in which power and resistance are an integral part
48
What are the phases in structural/instrumental interventions?
1. make it clear
2. make it known
3. make it real
4. make it happen
5. make it stick
49
What types of managements are important in mergers?
* program management (structural/instrumental)
* change management (interactive)
* meaning management (meaningful)
50
What does program management include in a merger?
structural, instrumental interventions are incredibly important, because without the whole merger might not even happen
51
What does change management include in a merger?
interactive, because without no one 'will come to the wedding'
52
What does meaning management include in a merger?
meaningful, because employees need to know why and that this merger happened in the first place
53
What is the dichotomy of 'corporate culture'
* everything is seen as culture (so change is also culture)
* corporate culture is 'where we come from' but also 'where we go to'
* it is thus a problem as well as a solution
(A&S)
54
What is a cascading process?
Changes implemented at the strategic level trickle down to other business levels, affecting all aspects of an organization.
* top-down organized
55
What is the toolbox metaphor?
researchers of various backgrounds start from the assumption that they all share the same research and practice thought style.
* toolbox dialogue approach reveals these underlying assumptions by asking simple (philosophical) questions
* everyone has their own tools to solve a problem (everyone has a different toolbox)
56
Why is storytelling important?
* when bringing bad news, a good storyteller can inspire people
* it can be trained, because not everyone has this skill
you need someone to deliver the story in the way that fits with the employees (e.g. Czech leader might bring something better to Czech employees than a Dutch leader could do)
57
Four potential traps for cultural change
* Hyperculture
* Symbolic poverty
* Over-focus on values
* Denial of ignorance
58
What is symbolic anorexia?
lack of stories, actions from managers, locally grounded vocabulary anchored in corporate history and practice (Higgins and McAllaster, 2004) --> cultural artifacts of a company
Symbolic anorexia was present in the Technocom case
59
Generative dialogue
* Collaborative emergence and facilitative power-resistance relations
* Not an easy managerial process, something that emerges in itself. Power-arena in which this dialogue emerges
* Helps you get out of the problem (solve the problem)
* You cannot really manage it, you can mediate but it’s emergent so you cannot bring it up yourself
60
Degenerative dialogue
Polarized reproduction and oppositional power-resistance relations, does not lead anywhere
61
What is the 'passing the baton' metaphor?
* continuity and consistency down all levels
* CEO, HR, all involved
* clarity on the meanings of values, and the importance on roles and tasks
62
Three concepts of culture (A&S)
1. Hyperculture
2. Experienced corporate culture
3. Anthropological culture
63
Hyperculture
Based upon hyper reality, means something that is created outside of the reality of employees itself. Values you can't disagree with (peace) so it doesn't really connect to what we actually want
64
Experienced corporate culture
How members itself give meaning to culture
65
Anthropological culture
Thick description and in-depth meanings based on ethnographic work and cultural analysis.
Deeply rooted, often acedmically studies, set of values, practices, hierarchical structers and ideas of the organisation that are not entirely known by change agents and employees in the organization but significally impact the way the organization works.
66
What is the practice perspective/theory?
it's about how people make and shape the world through what they do
* activity, performance, and work in (re)creation of social life
* human agency
* it concerns the interrelation of social structure and human action
67
Soccer metaphor
One player can't make the team, everyone is necessary. The metaphor is used in the context of how different actors give different meaning to change process
68
Critics on grand technocratic change approach
* Managerialism
* Big bites
* Quick fix
* Emphasis on planning and design work
* Limited expressiveness; lack of emotional appeal
69
What are sensemaking theories in change management?
* try to understand what is going on in everyday life in organisations
* It’s about performances, how do people shape their worlds and how do they reach their goals?
* How social structure and behaviour are intertwined
70
Critics on grand technocratic change approach: Managerialism
Agency is ascribed to top levels, other levels left out
71
Critics on grand technocratic change approach: Big Bites
Complex phenomena cannot easily be condensed into a few boxes (N-steps)
72
Critics on grand technocratic change approach: Quick fix
It is not a quick fix, transitions can be complex and inter-relational
73
Critics on grand technocratic change approach: Emphasis on planning/design work
While it is actually about the change work and understanding and meaning making of the employees of the change process that makes change successful
74
What is bricolage?
the skill of using whatever is at hand and recombining them to create something new.
* Not an expert: not going to develop a completely new thing
* But use the aspects of different domains
* Grab what’s at hand, and combine them for a certain aim
* Seldom has an ideal start, but forces you to be creative
75
How employees make sense of change is socially constructed:
Sensemaking is dependable on your position in the organization
76
‘Everyday framing’ (Thomas et al, 2011)
Thinking and reflecting: okay what am I doing in relation to the change objective? Formally I was that, what am I doing now?
77
What is the structure-agency debate?
Everyone has agency, but develops habits according to everyday’s structure, and thus keeps to the structure.
78
Paradox in multi-level thinking
Top-down initiated participation, bottom-up change is important but can’t be ONLY bottom-up. Top-down creates resistance , but only bottom up as well.
79
What is cultural capital?
It's embodied in the different diplomas you have
80
What is the Actor-Network Theory? (Latour, 1990s)
all actors are situated in networks
* No macro or micro; network of actors and relations
* Objects are being seen as having agency
“Computer is not doing what I want”
You give agency to the object
* Defines actors as being in relation with each other
* view technologies and materials in complex networks with people
81
What is a practice-based approach?
(Nicolini, 2012)
* More about understanding the live world of individuals than about changing organisational structure/culture
* Sees the world as made and remade through activities
* Makes space for agency and the role of agents
* Shows the critical role of materials and spatial settings
* Shows the centrality of interest, power and politics
82
What are Communities of Practice (CoPs)?
Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger (1990s)
* Group of people – practitioners – who share a common interest, profession or craft
83
What are characteristics of Communities of Practice (CoPs)?
* Domain of knowledge that creates a common ground
* Community as the social fabric that enables exchange and learning
* Practice as the means of learning and building knowledge
* Members of CoPs can learn from each other through interacting and sharing -> ‘situated learning’
Condition of a Community of Practice to be successful
* A common goal
* Trust
84
What is a tabletop exercise?
discussion-based sessions where team members meet in an informal, classroom setting to discuss their roles during an emergency and their responses to a particular emergency situation.
85
Living lab
Space where you can first try out on the micro-level and later use for a broader level of change.
86
Event co-creation:
* Involves the audience in artistic and cultural programming and production of events, emphasizing active participation, immersion and play
* Closes gaps between producer and consumer/organizer and audience
87
Anti structure:
* Could be an intervention. Could be resistance to the structure
* Temporarily experiences and then go back
88
Arnold van Gennep (1960) ‘Les rites de passage’
A rite of passage marks an individual’s or group’s transition from one social status to the next
89
What are the cultural elements of 'stories & narratives'?
histories, stories, narratives of heroes and heroines, myths, scripts, jargon, and figures of speech
90
Ritualization
* A culturally strategic practice for making distinctions and making something special in some way
* To stand still by its importance
* Applies a practice-based approach
91
What are the cultural elements of 'practices & routines'
the daily, ordinary (inter) activities and routines that keep the organization operational
92
What are the cultural elements of 'rituals & ceremonies'
the extraordinary practices and gatherings for meaning-making and transition
93
Strategies for avoiding collaboration
* Focusing on existing collaborations
* Reinforcing group boundaries
* Enacting legacy policies
* Minimizing social interactions
94
What are the cultural elements of 'spaces & artifacts'
the use of space, interior and exterior design, decor, materials, and symbols
95
Strategies for avoiding collaboration: Focusing on existing collaborations
Prioritizing established collaborations
Taking a purposeful approach to finding new collaborators beyond physical proximity
96
What can we see in the micro-level perspective?
sensemaking in micro practices (we can see and observe on the workfloor)
97
Strategies for avoiding collaboration: Reinforcing group boundaries
Interacting with existing colleagues
Respecting established group boundaries
98
Strategies for avoiding collaboration: Enacting legacy policies
* Different organizational groups keeping to their own culture, materials, values
* Following organization-specific rules and policies
Avoiding opportunities for collaborative problem solving
99
Strategies for avoiding collaboration: Minimizing social interactions
* People shushing each other
* Using bodies to minimize interaction
* Establishing, policing, and respecting informal rules to minimize interaction
100
What can we see in the meso-level perspective?
What does the organisation stand for? Practices of the organisation as a whole?
101
Sociomaterial perspective
* Sees the social and material as entangled and mutually enacting, rather than as separate, autonomous entities (Orlikowski and Scott 2008)
* Studies how human bodies, spatial arrangements, physical objects, and technologies are entangled with language, interaction, and practices in organizing.
* Seeks to gain insight into how materials and spatial settings can ‘act’ by constituting circumstances and shaping behavior (Latour, 1993)
* Shows how the material, in assemblage with the social, is agential in the construction of meaning and reality (Barad 2003)
102
What can we see in the macro-level perspective?
What is society pressuring?
103
What was the New Public Management (Van den Ende, et al., 2020)
* It was a new way to manage public service organisations like emergency service but also education to become more efficient in business like.
* To make them more productive. So it was very focused on very positivistic way of managing organisations. How do we help them to reduce costs? How can we make them more efficient, productive? How do we increase output? So it's very focused. On the functionality, the efficiency, effectiveness.
* But it also disregards social and cultural value of what public service organisations stand for and that's why it's also criticised.
104
What is the institutional theory?
addresses the relation between organizations and their environment, asserting the environment strongly influences the formal structures of organizations
105
What is the neo-institutional theory?
* A neo-institutional approach emphasizes legitimacy instead of efficiency to account for organizational survival (Thornton et al., 2015).
* gain legitimacy -> being seen as acceptable and appropiate in the eyes of society
* it’s less about doing things the smartest way and more about doing things that make the organization look good and "belong" in its environment.
106
What did a neo-institutional lens give insight to?
1. Dynamic relation between projects in relation to their environment
2. Opportunities for institutional change and transformation
* not looking how institutions are resilient, but the opportunities
3. Institutional work used by project actors for gaining legitimacy
107
What are three approaches to gain legitimacy for a project?
* administrative approach
* technocratic approach
* humanistic approach
108
What is an administrative approach of institutionalization?
Government authorities take the lead in investing in, devising and implementing urban renewal plans with a strong economic focus and a tendency to disregard community needs and interests (Hanna et al., 2016).
* Did not ask for input local communities
* Lead to protests
109
What is a technocratic approach of institutionalization?
Government elites take a back seat and rely heavily on the discretion of engineers and technical experts – i.e. a “technocratic, expert-based approach” (McAdam et al., 2010: 407) - focussed on innovative technological solutions and not in collaboration with the community.
* Put all the trust in technology. Did not work either, houses sank
110
What is a humanistic approach of institutionalization?
A project is deeply embedded in multiple, social contexts (Manning, 2008), and project actors carry out extensive institutional work to (re)shape the relationship between a project and its environment.
* Multiple stakeholders with different interests
111
What is discourse?
the use of language to communicate in speech or writing, or an example of this
112
What is organizational discourse analysis?
studies the process of sensemaking: it ‘highlights the ways in which language constructs organizational reality, rather than simply reflects it’ (Hardy, Lawrence, Grant 2005: 60).
113
What is the new (constructivist) view on discourse?
* Language as producing & mediating social phenomena which we experience as pre-existing & independent
* Language actively constructs reality and creates its own truths
* Societies are social constructions to be interpreted and ‘deconstructed’
114
What is nostalgia?
a mix of emotions, of comfort, joy, melancholy, fear, and anger
115
What is postalgia?
a longing for the future (hope, desires, fear, discontent, and restlessness)
116
What is post hoc?
occurring or done after the event, especially with reference to the fallacious assumption that the occurrence in question has a logical relationship with the event it follows.
117
why is no resistance a bad thing?
people are not moved at all; they are not committed (it's 'too far away')
118
What is the jazz band metaphor?
collaborative, flexible effort.
*open to change
* in contrast to an orchestra who are rigid
119
what is the monolith metaphor
an organized whole that acts as a single unified powerful or influential force.
120
What is the archipelago metaphor?
a way of organising the world that facilitates cooperation between different organisms (differentation perspective on org. culture)
121
How do practices emerge according to Bjørkeng, Clegg & Pitsis (2009)?
1. Authoring boundaries: What is a legitimate practice?
2. Negotiating competencies: What is a competent practitioner?
3. Adapting materiality: Through what devices are practices materialized?
122
What is change work (A&S)?
The actual doing of change during the design and implementation of cultural change program in organizations. Important because change is an open, continous and unpredictable process.
123
What is discursive approach?
* That organizations are percieved as bodies of texts
* Organizations can thus be changed through discourses
* Approach is seen as duality of deeper structures of communicative actions
* Discourses change the deeper structures in the orgsanizations (values, norms, assuptions) and vica versa
124
Reflection-in-action
reflecting in the moment of practice; spontaneous, thinking on your feet, backtalk
125
Reflection-on-action
reflecting back on something that has transpired; discursive, analytical
reasoning, feedback. Thinking about what happened and why etc.
126
4 stages in integration process merger IPioneer and Telcom:
1. Inertia phase: IPioneer retained substantial autonomy (preserves its culture) But were tensions
2. Domination phase: pressures of Telcom & aggressive approach led to structural integration (implementing managers and bureaucratic practices) Resistance by IPioneer workers.
3. Revitalization phase: IPioneer workers revitalize their culture, but resistance of telcom workers, they wanted more efficiency/structure than IPioneers informal freedom-oriented practices.
4. Absorption phase: Telcom had ‘absorpt’ IPioneers operations & culture (many left merged company)
127
4 stages in integration process merger IPioneer and Telcom: Inertia phase
IPioneer retained substantial autonomy (preserves its culture) But were tensions
128
4 stages in integration process merger IPioneer and Telcom: Domination phase
pressures of Telcom & aggressive approach led to structural integration (implementing managers and bureaucratic practices) Resistance by IPioneer workers.
129
4 stages in integration process merger IPioneer and Telcom: Revitalization phase
IPioneer workers revitalize their culture, but resistance of telcom workers, they wanted more efficiency/structure than IPioneers informal freedom-oriented practices.
130
4 stages in integration process merger IPioneer and Telcom: Absoption phase
Telcom had ‘absorpt’ IPioneers operations & culture (many left merged company)
131
Different levels of coping & awareness (Yanow & Tsoukas)
* Ongoing routine activity
* Malfunction
* Temporary breakdown
* Persistent temporary breakdown
* Total breakdown
132
Different levels of coping & awareness:
Ongoing routine activity
Absorbed coping practitioner absorbed in uninterrupted activity
133
Different levels of coping & awareness:
Malfunction
Reconstituted absorbed coping practitioner momentarily interrupted by backtalk, copes with surprise and resumes activity; reflecting-in-practice
134
Different levels of coping & awareness:
Temporary breakdown
Deliberate coping practitioner deliberately pays attention to backtalk and the activity; reflecting-in-practice
135
Different levels of coping & awareness:
Persistent temporary breakdown
Involved deliberation, practitioner becomes more involved to solve the backtalk issue in order to resume activity; reflecting-in-practice
136
Different levels of coping & awareness:
Total breakdown
Thematic awareness practitioner no longer immersed in activity, focus becomes analytical and theoretical; reflecting-on-practice
137
How to bring critical points of intersection to points of opportunity?
1. prioritize reflection
2. evaluating practices
3. create breeding ground
4. implement changes
5. embed in partners
