Embracing Change: Aligning Your Organization’s Culture With Strategy

When organizations go through change, these changes become the most obvious.  The most drastic form of change is a merger or acquisition, when cultures often clash. However, smaller changes such as introducing a management tier can also lead to a clash if the strategy for growth-oriented change isn’t aligned with the current organizational culture.

What becomes painstaking is a difficulty at conceptualizing that it isn’t necessarily a deviation from the routine that becomes a cause of dissent within the organization. Rather, it is often a drift away from the existing organizational culture, or the accepted ‘ways of doing things’ that become a source of discouragement. Hence, the resultant impact of such a change can be an unmitigated turnover.

Introducing change in a manner that it is easy to embrace by the concerned people, processes and systems, requires an analysis of the organization, the environment, the competitors and the customers and stakeholders; preferably using a TOWS-framework.   TOWS framework is SWOT in reverse and focuses on developing a strategy that either cashes on strengths and opportunities maximized, or threats and weaknesses minimized. It should be used in general for developing strategies. If an organization intends to drift from its ‘usual style’ and put a spin to ‘how things are done otherwise’ so much so that it challenges the organizational culture, incorporating the desired change within the organization successfully should be strategically worked in a manner similar to every other tangible goal.

First Things First!

Contrary to what should be the case, there is often a pressing immediacy to dig into the dirt without thinking things through.  However, as is often the case, acting in an unplanned manner can put quite a lot at stake especially if it doesn’t comply with the existing culture web. Simply put, this consists of six interrelated elements.  These are the stories cherished, rituals and routines practiced on a daily basis, the symbols in place, the organizational structure, the control systems in place and the real power structure.

Two of these particularly that should be given due consideration when planning to bring about a change-conducive organizational culture, are the organizational structure and the power structure.  Organizations with flatter structures have limited number of reporting tiers, yet these are often dual. Bringing change into a department can immediately proceed into an involuntary change in a lateral department that has a common boss, in a flatter organization.  Organizations with a hierarchical structure have multiple reporting tiers. Therefore, bringing a change top-down instead of bottom-up is best as it is more conventional.

Similarly, the weight falls just as much on the organization’s power culture.  According to Training Point, these are power-driven, achievement-driven, role-driven or support-driven changes.  Each type of power culture has its own drawbacks. Where a power-culture can delay decision-making, a role-driven culture can become too mundane, an achievement-driven culture can become too competitive and a support-driven culture can become too informal for business.

Yet, it is the art of the organizational leader to align the power culture with strategy in a manner such that change comes forth as an opportunity instead of a challenge.