REPUBLIQUE DU CAMEROUN REPUBLIC OF CAMEROON

Paix-Travail-Patrie Peace-Work-Fatherland
********* *********
MINISTERE DE L’ENSEIGNEMENT MINISTRY OF HIGHER EDUCATION
SUPERIEURE *********
********* SIANTOU UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE
INSTITUT UNIVERSITAIRE SIANTOU *********
********* SIANTOU HIGHER INSTITUTE OF
ECOLE SUPERIEURE DES TECHNOLOGY AND INDUSTRY
TECHNOLOGIES ET INDUSTRIELLE *********
SIANTOU
*********

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE
And
ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE

COMPUTER GRAPHICS AND WEB DESIGN III

MAH ALVINE LEINYUY
ET2020065

COURSE INSTRUCTOR
COURSE
ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOUR Mrs. ACHANGOH BRENDA
 CHAPTER ONE: ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

1) What is organizational culture?

Organizational culture is the set of values, beliefs, attitudes, systems, and rules that
outline and influence employee behavior within an organization. The culture
reflects how employees, customers, vendors, and stakeholders experience the
organization and its brand.
Don’t confuse culture with organizational goals or a mission statement, although
both can help define it. Culture is created through consistent and authentic
behaviors, not press releases or policy documents.

Organizational culture affects all aspects of your business, from punctuality and
tone to contract terms and employee benefits. When workplace culture aligns with
your employees, they’re more likely to feel more comfortable, supported, and
valued. Companies that prioritize culture can also weather difficult times and
changes in the business environment and come out stronger.

Definition of Organizational Culture

Many Scholars have given the definition of organizational culture. Some of the
popular definitions are given below:

According to Robbie Katanga, “Organizational Culture is how organizations do

things.”

According to Alec Haverstick, “In large part, Organizational culture is a product of

compensation.

According to Bruce Perron, “Organizational culture defines a jointly shared

description of an organization from within.”
According to Richard Perrin, “Organizational culture is the sum of values and
rituals that serve as a glue to integrate the organization’s members.”

According to Alan Adler, “Organizational culture is civilization in the workplace.”

According to Elizabeth Skringar, “Organizational culture is shaped by the main

culture of the society we live in, albeit with greater emphasis on particular parts of
it.”

According to Abdi Osman Jama, “An organization is a living culture that can adapt
to the reality 4s fast as possible.”

Organizational culture affects the organization’s productivity and performance and

provides guidelines on customer care and service, product quality and safety,
attendance and punctuality, and concern for the environment.

It also extends to production methods, marketing and advertising practices, and

new product creation.

2) Features of organizational culture.

As individuals come into contact with organizations, they come into contact with
dress norms, stories people tell about what goes on, the organization’s formal rules
and procedures, its formal codes of behavior, rituals, tasks, pay systems, jargon,
and jokes only understood by insiders and so on. Some of these features include:

• Innovation (Risk Orientation)

Companies with cultures that place a high value on innovation encourage their
employees to take risks and innovate in the performance of their jobs.Companies
with cultures that place a low value on innovation expect their employees to do
their jobs the same way they have been trained, without looking for ways to
improve their performance.
 • Attention to Detail (Precision Orientation)

This characteristic of organizational culture dictates the degree to which employees

are expected to be accurate in their work. A culture that places a high value on
attention to detail expects its employees to perform their work with precision, and
a culture that places a low value on this characteristic does not.

• Emphasis on Outcome (Achievement Orientation)

Companies that focus on results but not on how the results are achieved emphasize
this value of organizational culture. A company that instructs its sales force to do
whatever it takes to get sales orders has a culture that places a high value on the
emphasis on outcome characteristics.

• Emphasis on People (Fairness Orientation)

Companies that place a high value on this characteristic of organizational culture

place great importance on how their decisions will affect the people in their
organizations. For these companies, it is important to treat their employees with
respect and dignity.

• Teamwork (Collaboration Orientation)

Companies that organize work activities around teams instead of individuals place
a high value on this characteristic of the organizational culture. People who work
for these types of companies tend to have a positive relationship with their
coworkers and managers.

• Aggressiveness (Competitive Orientation)

This characteristic of organizational culture dictates whether group members
are expected to be assertive or easygoing when dealing with companies they
compete with within the marketplace. Companies with an aggressive culture
 place a high value on competitiveness and outperform the competition at all
costs.
• Stability (Rule Orientation)

A company whose culture places a high value on stability is rule-oriented,

predictable, and bureaucratic in nature. These types of companies typically provide
consistent and predictable levels of output and operate best in non-changing market
conditions. These are the seven characteristics that are common in the context of
organizational culture. Of course, it is true that the characteristics are not the same
in all times and spheres.

3) Factors that determine Organizational Culture

1. Leadership

How important is status in the organization? How close or removed are top
management from the shop floor? What gets rewarded and recognized by leaders?
How do leaders communicate with their employees? How trusted are leaders?

2. Workload

To be clear, this is not an observation of the work itself, but of the expectations of
how much of a load employee are expected to carry. Is the workload distribution
equitable? Is it predictable? When an employee arrives for work today, will she
know what lies ahead during the day? Is the workload shared and what happens to
the work when they take leave?

3. Capability

How well are people trained to do their jobs? How long does it take for an
employee to reach a level of job mastery? Is the approach to learning and to
training structured so that employees can expect to reach a level where they can
function in an autonomous way?

4. Relationships

Does the workplace support and encourage relationship building? What are the
social norms of the workplace? What happens if somebody steps outside the social
norms? Do employees trust the organizational complaint or grievance systems?
How dependent are employees on one another in being able to achieve success?

5. Controls

What job controls exist to guide the work? How closely are people supervised? Is
their work checked, approved or randomly sampled? Can an employee expect to
receive regular feedback on their performance from a line supervisor?

These five categories are at the center of the majority of organizational conflict.
Interestingly, they align with the SCARF Model, developed by Dr David Rock, the
pioneer of Neuroleadership. The five domains of the SCARF model are listed on
the Leading Culture Model.

3) How can organizational structure be learned?

There are three main typical ways of how employees learn culture in the

organization where they work for such as stories, rituals, material symbols and

language. Although, as we all know that in every organization is not the same,

so it must be ways that employee should learn about it easily through the

company in advance.
First of all, ‘Stories’ must be the first one to explain. The word ‘Stories’ is

actually mean that when employees get to work in the organization, they are

free to know about the background of the workplace where they employ in.

This is kind of open information which everyone can know the origin of the

company through the falls and the successes. Moreover, in the ‘Stories’

contains the reaction of the customer or employee, rule breaking, gossiping, and

so forth. For example, KIT is an organization which all workers are free to

know about how did KIT create and all the background from it. In this point,

Mr. Takashi who is the founder of KIT already presented and shared the

historical of the Kirirom Institute of Technology called KIT to everyone,

especially all employees and students he recruits so it is freely to know

everything this institution.

Third of all, ‘Material symbols’ meaning as the organization’s personality

when you enter the company then you get the feeling of finding the type of

environment that you are in. These are the reflections and reactions of how it

shows to you such as the uniform, casual, how employees dress, the type of

automobiles provided to top senior manager, and the cooperate of aircraft.

‘Material symbols’ carries to employees who is important and the kinds of

behavior (for example, risk taking, individualistic, and so forth)

that are expected and appropriate. You see young people who are willing to

sacrifice to get the honor to the country in order to get the medal and ribbon for

their employment.

Last but not least, ‘Language’ is the verbal communication to identify the

culture of the organization. To learn this language, all employees have to accept

the culture in the organization they are working for. In every organization often

creates the terms to use in their workplace to describe the product, service,

customer, process and etc. In order to easily get involved in the culture of the

organization, they have to know all of the language used in there such as the

abbreviation and jargon. For example, if you work at the hotel, you have to

know all the languages and the jargon words such as DND meaning as Do Not

Disturb or MUR meaning as Make Up Room. Thus, like I mentioned above that

all organizations are different according to the theme of each company so the

languages use are also different either the culture too.

In conclusion, when employees get to work in every organization they have to

adapt with the culture of each organization. Stories, material symbols and

language are how employees use to learn the culture of the organization where

they employ which are the most important points.

 CHAPTER TWO: ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE

What is Organizational Change?

Organizational change means any significant shift or transformation in how a

company operates, particularly regarding its human resources practices. It includes
the organization’s growth and development processes in different forms.

Factors Affecting Organizational Change

There might be one single factor affecting organizational change or there might be
varied factors behind this change. These can be financial or economic,
technological, political, social, legal, staff performance, vision of leadership etc.

All of these and many others can be categorized into two groups- internal and
external factors of change

Let’s discuss each of category in detail.

INTERNAL FACTORS AFFECTING ORGANIZATION

Internal factors are those which are originated from an organization itself. These
are predictable factors because these lies within organization.

Leadership and management have clear understanding and quickly analyze that
what are internal factors and how can organization respond to these and embark on
journey of making change.

Following are some of the key internal factors which affect organizational change.

Vision
Some organizations are vision focused. Such organizations continuously make
changes to achieve its vision. These organizations also have tendency to revisit and
redefine vision. And this is key force behind accepting and executing changes.

Values
Organizations core values are also driver of change. For instance, values like
gender balance, cultural and ethnic diversity etc. are some powerful principles that
often lead to big changes in organizational strategies and processes.

Organizational Culture
Organizational culture has a powerful impact on the future of the organization.
If work place culture is vibrant, dynamic and leadership encourages creativity, then
it is likely that organization accepts and implements change.
Core Expertise
Core expertise of an organization also dictate change. If organization is strong in
one technical area, it will create innovate solutions and disrupt the existing
methods and culture of the entire industry.

Leadership
Sometimes change in leadership is the reason behind organizational change. Every
new leadership brings new vision, new strategies and new working culture to
his/her organization. So new leadership is a strong internal factor which affects
change.

The external factors of organizational change are difficult to manage because

these are unpredictable than the internal factors.

Following are some of the key external factors affect organizational change.
New Opportunities
Economic growth brings new business opportunities. And organizations expand
when they seize new opportunities in the market. For this to happen organization
make changes in their strategies, acquire new expertise and take new staff on
board.

Fashion
Latest trends dictate changes. For instance, people are becoming more sensitive
about health and hygiene. So organizations are offering healthy products and
communicating to their customers that how much they take care of health and
hygiene of the customers.

Competition
Competition is getting tougher every day. Organizations innovate new marketing
tool and strategies and disrupt the entire trend of market. It is such a compelling
factor that every player of the industry has to respond and develop it own strategy
to survive and thrive in market.

What Is Resistance to Change?

Resistance to change is the reluctance of people to adapt to change. Employees can
be overt or covert about their unwillingness to adapt to organizational changes.
This opposition can range from expressing their resistance publicly to
unknowingly resisting change through micro-resistance, language, or general
actions.

Reasons for Organizational Change Resistance

1. Mistrust and lack of confidence
When employees don’t trust or feel confident in the person making the change,
their resistance to it can be a huge barrier. Change advisor and author Rick
Maurer believes that lack of confidence in change-makers is one of the most
overlooked causes of internal change resistance in enterprise organizations the
change-maker represents, such as corporate headquarters or a faceless CEO.

2. Emotional responses
Changing the status quo is complex and people tend to react emotionally to
disruptions to their routine. This is a natural and inevitable response. Brushing it
off will only lead to stronger resistance.

Use change management models that focus on emotional reactions to change, such
as the Kübler-Ross Change Curve or Bridges’ Transition Model, to mitigate this
common cause of resistance to change. Both models recognize that change can
lead to feelings of loss and grief. As such, change-makers must be prepared to
manage these emotions and move people towards acceptance of the change

4. Fear of failure
People won’t support a change if they’re not confident in their abilities to adapt to
it. When people feel threatened by their shortcomings (real or imagined), they
protect themselves from failure by resisting the change.

6. Unrealistic timelines
Find a balance between creating a sense of urgency and allowing time to transition.
Don’t force change too quickly – when you push too hard for a change to happen,
it’s easy to get tunnel vision and neglect important elements of your change plan.

Start with a change implementation timeline. Map out every action and set
deadlines so you have a general idea of how long the entire transformation will
take. Often, designing the path between the current state and change adoption helps
you identify additional steps needed to facilitate the transition.

Of course, you shouldn’t be afraid to make adjustments. If your team needs more
time to understand the change or would benefit from additional change
management training, make it happen.

7. Existing organizational culture and norms

Resistance to change often occurs when existing company culture and norms are
deeply rooted in an organization, which hinders the acceptance of new ways of
doing things, such as new processes, leadership, team structure, or technology.

To overcome this change resistance challenge, enterprise should:

• Foster an adaptive, agile, open-minded, learning-centric culture. Foster

an environment that values continuous improvement and innovation.
Encourage employees to share their ideas and perspectives and reward those
who embrace change. Invest in frameworks and technology that enable your
employees to be continuously learning.
• Lead by example. Demonstrate change at the leadership level by modeling
your desired behavior change from the top down. When leaders actively
participate in and support a change, it sets a positive example for others to
follow and creates a sense that “we’re in this together”.

Tips to Overcome Resistance to Change

Here are a few of the best strategies to overcome change resistance in your
organization.
1. Show value through education and training
To avoid change resistance, provide proof that a new process, tool, or change will
greatly benefit your employees. Prioritize educating your teams on how this new
change will directly make their lives better and improve their day-to-day, and
provide ongoing training to ensure they feel confident and comfortable navigating
the new change.

2. Collect employee input prior to change

Many times, employees resist change because they believe their opinion doesn’t
matter and wouldn’t impact the decision to make an organizational change. Run
surveys with your team on how they feel about the change and how they would
make the process easier.

3. Come to an agreement with your employees

Never make a decision without consulting those on the front lines – your
employees. After consulting with your team, come to an agreement on the timeline
and overall plan for managing and implementing a new change.

4. Include employees in the change management plan

Employees feel they are taken seriously and their opinion matters when they’re
included in processes. Be sure to add key members of your team into the change
management and implementation process so they feel ownership of the project.
Team members should also be involved when setting change management KPIs
and metrics that will determine success.

5. Support your employees during organizational transformation

Don’t leave your employees out on an island – support your team members with
resources, change management tools, knowledge bases, and training on the new
process or tool you’re implementing. This will help your employees find value in a
new system quickly, causing them to build trust with you when it

6. Communicate clearly and frequently

Letting employees know about changes to the status quo as soon as possible helps
to build a bridge between employees and management.

Share any information you have with employees that you are able to share. If
you’re not sure about an answer or simply cannot provide an answer, it’s okay to
say something like, “I’ll look into that and follow up with you” or, “I’ll share that
information with you as soon as I have it.” The more open and honest your
communication with them, the less likely they are to speculate and spiral.

7. Measure the performance of your organizational change

Measurement is a key factor in the change process because it allows organizations
to understand how the implementation influences overall business performance. If
something doesn’t go as planned, there’s an opportunity to change it or include it
in the next phase of the change implementation.

You can't avoid change, but you can work through it

Anticipating and planning for resistance is an essential aspect of implementing

positive organizational change. When you dig into the reasons behind the
resistance to change, you’re better prepared to address it and move past it,
regardless of which type of organizational change you undergo within your
company.
From this we can notice that organizational change and culture are two very
important factors employers must always look into in order for the organization to
run properly.