Culture Change

Who,What,Why, and When

Key Points
Culture
Culture Change, Why?
Successful Change
Teach and Embrace
Creating the Team
Sustain

Culture
Schein:
A pattern of basic assumptionsinvented, discovered, or developed
by a group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation
and internal integrationthat has worked well enough to be
considered valid and, therefore, to be taught to new members as the
correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those processes.
(Schein, 1985, p. 9)

Laymen's terms
Beliefs
Values
Ideas
Rules
Feelings

System

Groups

Teams

Process

Emotions

Do We Need To Change?
Research shows when organizations need to change
they need to understand what change is needed(Levin
& Gottlieb, 2009).
Many organizations try to change too much at once and
go away from their core competency's(Levin & Gottlieb,
2009).
Organizations need to keep their critical aspects and
build new ideas off of them(Levin & Gottlieb, 2009).

Successful Culture changes

Hewlett Packard. Problems several years ago
encouraged HP to change its culture; staff are required
to formulate three personal and three professional goals
each year, and are encouraged to cheer those that
meet them, such as getting away early to be with
family. Two years into the program, HP reports no loss in
productivity despite staff working shorter hours and
there is an increased staff retention rate. The program
has been marked by the extent to which managers
bought in, and modeled it in their personal lives(Sadri
& Lees,2001).

Teach and Embrace

Leaders need to embrace the desired change
Leaders need to teach associates on how to change
Leaders need to walk the walk

Believe/Believe/Believe/Believe

Create the right team

Creating the right team is important in any change you
want to make, but critical in shifting culture. The
research shows that forming the right teams, and
engaging them into business units and cross function
groups, helps them perform at higher levels(Levins,I &
Gottlieb,2009).
People will come up with great ideas when engaged
and empowered to do so(Ohno,1988).

Staying the course

This principle refers to the importance of managing the
culture change. Key planning and realistic goals must be
set to achieve goals in the culture shift. Targets and
timelines must be established(Alrawi,Hamdan, 2013).
The plan must be monitored and measured for
results(Levin,I & Gottlieb,2009).
This will allow the leadership team to keep the focus on
the culture change and make sure it has not stalled.

References
Sadri, G., Lees, B. (2001), "Developing corporate culture as a competitive advantage", Journal of

Management Development, Vol. 20 No.10, pp.853.

Alrawi, K., Hamdan, Y., Al-Taie, W., & Ibrahim, M. (2013). Organizational culture and the creation of a

dynamic environment for knowledge sharing. International Journal of Management and Innovation, 5(1), 111. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1430305701?accountid=28644
Levin, I., & Gottlieb, J. Z. (2009). Realigning organization culture for optimal performance:

Six principles & eight practices. Organization Development Journal, 27(4), 31-46.
Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/197997585?accountid=28644