ch10 Change MGMT Kurt Lewin

Organizational Culture
and Change
Chapter 10, Nancy Langton and Stephen P. Robbins, Fundamentals of Organizational Behaviour, Third Canadian Edition 10-1
Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education Canada
Henry Mintzberg on Culture
• “Culture is the soul of the organization —

the beliefs and values, and how they are
manifested. I think of the structure as the
skeleton, and as the flesh and blood. And
culture is the soul that holds the thing
together and gives it life force.”
• The pattern of shared values, beliefs, and

assumptions considered to be the appropriate
way to think and act within an organization.
– Culture is shared.
– Culture helps members solve problems.
– Culture is taught to newcomers.
– Culture strongly influences behaviour.
Layers of Culture
Characteristics of
• Innovation and risk-taking
– The degree to which employees are encouraged to be innovative and take
risks.
• Attention to detail
– The degree to which employees are expected to exhibit precision, analysis,
and attention to detail.
• Outcome orientation
– The degree to which management focuses on results or outcomes rather
than on technique and process.
• People orientation
– The degree to which management decisions take into consideration the
effect of outcomes on people within the organization.
Characteristics of Organizational
Culture
• Team orientation
– The degree to which work activities are organized around teams
rather than individuals.
• Aggressiveness
– The degree to which people are aggressive and competitive rather
than easygoing.
• Stability
– The degree to which organizational activities emphasize
maintaining the status quo in contrast to growth.
Exhibit 10-2 Contrasting
Organizational Cultures
Organization A Organization B
• Managers must fully document • Management encourages and

all decisions. rewards risk-taking and change.
• Creative decisions, change, and risks • Employees are encouraged to
are not encouraged. “ run with ” ideas, and failures are
treated as “ learning experiences.”
• Extensive rules and regulations exist • Employees have few rules and
for all employees. regulations to follow.
• Productivity is valued over employee • Productivity is balanced with treating
morale. its people right.
• Employees are encouraged to stay • Team members are encouraged to interact
within their own department. with people at all levels and functions.
• Individual effort is encouraged. • Many rewards are team based.
Culture’s Functions
• Boundary-defining
• Conveys a sense of identity for organization
members
• Facilitates commitment to something larger
than one’s individual self-interest
• Social glue that helps hold an organization
together
– Provides appropriate standards for what
employees should say or do
Culture’s Functions
• Serves as a “sense-making” and control

mechanism
– Guides and shapes the attitudes and behaviour of
employees
Exhibit 10-3 How Organizational
Culture Forms
Top
Philosophy management
of Selection Organization's
organization's criteria culture
founders
Socialization
The Liabilities of Culture
• Culture can have dysfunctional aspects in some

instances.
– Culture as a Barrier to Change
• When organization is undergoing change, culture may impede
change.
– Culture as a Barrier to Diversity
• Strong cultures put considerable pressure on employees to
conform.
– Culture as a Barrier to Mergers and Acquisitions
• Merging the cultures of two organizations can be difficult, if
not impossible.
CHANGE AGENTS
AND THEIR ROLE
WHO IS A CHANGE AGENT
• The individual or group that undertakes the task of

initiating and managing change in an organization
is known as a change agent.
• Can be Internal / External
• Internal VS External – discuss adv and disadv
• Team up ext with In-house (most likely HR)

Roles of change agents
• Consulting type – typically external agent –

bring outside perspective and compare with
internal benchmarks – analysis of valid data
for driving change
• Training
• Research
Factors impacting Change agents
success
• Proximity
• Energy
• Openness
• Power to reward (and reward for change agent
himself)
• Structuring
Approaches To Managing Change
• Lewin’s Three-Step Model

• Kotter’s Eight-Step Plan for Implementing
Change
• Action Research
• Appreciative Inquiry
Lewin’s Three-Step Change Model
Lewin’s Three-Step Model For
Implementing Change
• Unfreezing
– Change efforts to overcome the pressures of both
individual resistance and group conformity.
• Moving
– Efforts to get employees involved in the change process.
• Refreezing
– Stabilizing a change intervention by balancing driving and
restraining forces.
Exhibit 10-7
Unfreezing the Status Quo
Desired
state
Restraining
forces
Status
quo
Driving
forces
Time
Focus on behavioural change
• Identify the potency of the forces
• Changes in behaviour will happen only by changes in
forces within the field….
• Concept of Quasi – stationary equilibrium
• Normally a slow process except in crisis situations
• The focus of change must be at the group level and
should concentrate on factors such as group norms,
roles, interactions and socialization processes to
create ‘disequilibrium’ and change
Unfreezing
• Arouse dissatisfaction with the current state.
• Introduction of guilt OR survival anxiety
• Activate and strengthen top management support.
• Use participation in decision making.
• Create psychological safety
• the equilibrium needs to be destabilized (unfrozen)

before old behaviour can be discarded (unlearnt) and
new behaviour successfully adopted
Moving
• Understand the challenges and un-certainties of
unfreezing in Planned Change
• Establish goals.
• Institute smaller, acceptable changes that reinforce
and support change.
• Develop management structures for change.
• Maintain open, two-way communication.
• Build in rewards.
• (do you appreciate the links between T & D and
Change mgmt. process).
Refreezing
• Build success experiences.
• Reward desired behaviour.
• Develop structures to institutionalize the change.
• Avoid regressing to old behaviours
• Make change work.
• New group norms and routines established
• Stabilisation at a new Quasi Equilibrium
Kotter’s Eight-Step Plan for
Implementing Change
1. Establish a sense of urgency.
2. Form a coalition.
3. Create a new vision.
4. Communicate the vision.
5. Empower others to act.
6. Develop short-term “wins.”
7. Consolidate improvements.
8. Reinforce changes.
Source: Based on J. P. Kotter, Leading Change (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996).
Action Research
• A change process based on the systematic

collection of data and then selection of a
change action based on what the analyzed data
indicate.
The Process of Action Research
• Diagnosis
• Analysis
• Feedback
• Action
• Evaluation
LEWIN’S ACTION RESEARCH
MODEL
• analysis
• Fact finding and conceptualisation
• planning
• Acting (Execution)
• Observing (more fact finding)
• Reflecting and acting again
Appreciative Inquiry
• An approach to change that seeks to identify

the unique qualities and special strengths of an
organization, which can then be built on to
improve performance.
Steps of Appreciative Inquiry
• “Four D’s”
– Discovery
– Dreaming
– Design
– Destiny
Exhibit 10-9 Sources of Individual
Resistance to Change
Selective
information Habit
processing
Individual
Resistance
Security
Fear of
the unknown
Economic
factors
Cynicism About Change
• Feeling uninformed about what was

happening.
• Lack of communication and respect from one’s
supervisor.
• Lack of communication and respect from one’s
union representative.
• Lack of opportunity for meaningful
participation in decision making.
Exhibit 10-11 Sources of
Organizational Resistance to Change
Threat to established Structural
resource allocations inertia
Threat to established Organizational Limited focus

power relationships Resistance of change
Threat to Group
expertise inertia
Human reactions to change
DENIAL ANGER MOURNING ADAPTATION
REASONS FOR ACCEPTING/
REJECTING CHANGE
• NO CLEAR EVIDENCE THAT CHANGE IS
NECESSARY
• DOUBTS ABOUT FEASIBLITY OF PROPOSED
CHANGE
• DOUBTS ABOUT COST – BENEFIT ANALYSIS
• COULD CAUSE PERSONAL LOSS
• COULD BE INCONSISTENT WITH VALUES
• LEADERS NOT TRUSTED
Overcoming Resistance to Change
• Education and communication
– This tactic assumes that the source of resistance lies in misinformation or
poor communication.
– Best used: Lack of information, or inaccurate information
• Participation and involvement
– Prior to making a change, those opposed can be brought into the decision
process.
– Best used: Where initiators lack information, and others have power to
resist
• Facilitation and support
– The provision of various efforts to facilitate adjustment.
– Best used: Where people resist because of adjustment problems
Overcoming Resistance to Change
• Negotiation and agreement
– Exchange something of value for a lessening of resistance.
– Best used: Where one group will lose, and has considerable power to
resist
• Manipulation and cooperation
– Twisting and distorting facts to make them appear more attractive.
– Best used: Where other tactics won’t work or are too expensive
• Explicit and implicit coercion
– The application of direct threats or force upon resisters.
– Best used: Speed is essential, and initiators have power
OB at Work
For Review
1. How can an outsider assess an organization’s culture?

2. What defines an organization’s subcultures?
3. Can an employee survive in an organization if he or she
rejects its core values? Explain.
4. What benefits can socialization provide for the
organization? For the new employee?
5. Describe four cultural types and the characteristics of
employees who fit best with each.
For Review
6. How can culture be a liability to an organization?

7. How does Lewin’s three-step model of change deal with
resistance to change?
8. How does Kotter’s eight-step plan for implementing
change deal with resistance to change?
9. What are the factors that lead individuals to resist
change?
10.What are the factors that lead organizations to resist
change?
For Critical Thinking
1. How are an individual’s personality and an

organization’s culture similar? How are they different?
2. Is socialization brainwashing? Explain.
3. Can you identify a set of characteristics that describes
your college’s or university’s culture? Compare them
with several of your peers’ lists. How closely do they
agree?
4. “Resistance to change is an irrational response.” Do you
agree or disagree? Explain.
Point-CounterPoint
• Why Culture Doesn’t • When Culture Can
Change Change
 Culture develops over many  There is a dramatic crisis.
years, and becomes part of  There is a turnover in
how the organization thinks leadership.
and feels.
 The organization is young and
 Selection and promotion small.
policies guarantee survival of
 There is a weak culture.
culture.
 Top management chooses
managers who are likely to
maintain culture.
Breakout Group Exercises
• Form small groups to discuss the following:
1. Identify artifacts of culture in your current or previous
workplace. From these artifacts, would you conclude that the
organization has a strong or weak culture?
2. Have you or someone you know worked somewhere where the
culture was strong? What was your reaction to that strong
culture? Did you like that environment, or would you prefer to
work where there is a weaker culture? Why?
3. Reflect on either the culture of one of your classes or the
culture of the organization where you work, and identify
characteristics of that culture that could be changed. How might
these changes be made?

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Organizational Culture

• “Culture is the soul of the organization —

• The pattern of shared values, beliefs, and

• Managers must fully document • Management encourages and

• Serves as a “sense-making” and control

• Culture can have dysfunctional aspects in some

• The individual or group that undertakes the task of

• Can be Internal / External

• Internal VS External – discuss adv and disadv

• Team up ext with In-house (most likely HR)

• Consulting type – typically external agent –

• Lewin’s Three-Step Model

• the equilibrium needs to be destabilized (unfrozen)

• Stabilisation at a new Quasi Equilibrium

• A change process based on the systematic

• Observing (more fact finding)

• Reflecting and acting again

• An approach to change that seeks to identify

• Feeling uninformed about what was

Threat to established Organizational Limited focus

DENIAL ANGER MOURNING ADAPTATION

1. How can an outsider assess an organization’s culture?

6. How can culture be a liability to an organization?

1. How are an individual’s personality and an

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