Introduction
Organizational culture consists of internal behaviors and values that every organization upholds. The values and behaviors comprise of beliefs, way of thinking and future expectations. When it comes to leadership, changing an organization’s culture tends to be one of the hardest tasks for the managerial staff. The main reason that makes this a hard task is the many components associated with the establishments’ culture that include values, roles, communications practices, and interlocking set of goals. These components have been structured to work together in harmony and changing them would take long even for the employees to adapt to the change. Limited understanding of the changes and impacts of changing organizational culture and negative employees’ attitude should be looked into to understand how these factors would affect changing organizational culture.
Limited Understanding of the Change and Impacts
A lack of understanding of what the change will bring to the company is a total gamble for the employees and the stakeholders involved in implementing the change. Knowledge is one of the main considerations towards competition in the business-oriented organization hence it can be considered as a driving factor for organizational change. Limited know-how on implementing change can cost the organization in terms of capital and lead to employee loss. More importantly, plenty of data can be lost during the transition from the old to the new era as many changes will be made in the software and applications that were being used previously.
A lack of know-how leads to less productivity to the organization sometimes leading to poor results, and the company can incur losses due to the upgrades in the startup. Much time and resources are incurred by the company as it tries to look up ways to grasp the knowledge that is being incorporated in the new advancement (Patel, 2018). Many companies with enough capital venture into organizations change when they see emerging competition and want to benchmark with the rest. Without enough capital and know-how on the transformations, smaller companies tend to be reluctant to the diversity as they lack the appropriate channels and sometimes human resources to manage the development. With limited understanding of the modification, most laborers may lose their positions to pave the way for a workforce that is qualified for the task. This can have a major impact on the organizations’ structure especially when the change process involves information systems and process automation gadgets. An institution may lose the most qualified personnel due to such changes, costing it more money in infrastructure and labor.
As much as change is needed in every institution, various factors need to be put into consideration to avoid the collapse of the establishment. These factors may include leadership and management and the labor force. When a new transformation is affected, the management has no prior knowledge or is not appropriately trained to handle the demands, and the organization drag behind in the transition process. Clients can also be influenced by the alteration when they find new protocols that may confuse them while shopping or doing business with the establishment (Robbins & Judge, 2019). Changes may impact the whole workforce starting from the highest to the lowest rank by causing stress, fatigue, and confusion in the structure when trying to locate older items and where they are recently located due to the new modification. Moreover, due to the lack of skills, the market share will not be captured, the revenue targeted by the institution will not be increased and efficiencies will not be gained. As far as organizational change is advocated for, several factors should be considered to prevent loss of employees, loss of organization data, loss of resources, and loss of clients to other institutions.
Limited familiarity with a transformation of organizational culture poses a major threat to many establishments and can be corrected using various ways. Change may not be affected in all areas so the management should look into areas that require the revolution and come up with appropriate measures to effectively apply the modification. For instance, if an organization deals in the production sector, the management may consider revising the outdated production methods to remain relevant and maintain a competitive edge. Planning implementation can aid in the implementation of organizational change in that preparation calls for consultants who will educate the staff on how the transformation will take effect. The project manager will be able to guide on the entire development projects and thorough evaluation will assign key duties to various staff. Setting goals during the changeover can act as a motivating factor to the staff (Warrick, 2017). When improvement is already there, leaders should be on the frontline to manage the progress of the transformation.
Negative Employees’ Attitude
On many occasions, leaders and those in higher positions of the company tend to ignore employees with lower pay when coming up with changes in any particular organization. Workers who are recognized and involved by the organizations’ management in changing and implementing the new organizational culture tend to produce positive results. Changing the organizations’ culture impacts the employees massively as some may try to resist the new change due to a lack of proper knowledge on how to go about it. When employees are not conversant with what they are doing, poor results are likely to be received, loss of income, and more tie is lost trying to adapt to the new change. Moreover, some employees can influence other workers on resisting the change hence making it hard for the management to try and incorporate the new changes into the organization. It should be noted that employees are the stronghold of the company and when their certain demands are not met, some can quit making the organization lose more efficient workers in the process.
When working habits and styles are changed without proper communication channels for the employees, it creates questions. These questions influence the workflow from the workers by making the personnel change the daily routines and habits (Arditi, Nayak, & Damci, 2017). Cultural change may cause stress to the workforces leading to low job satisfaction, conflicts within the organization, poor results, and much sick leave. Instant changes with no room for mental preparedness may cause excess uncertainties, making resistance to the change inevitable.
When the employee image is lost for the staff that helped in building the standards for the old culture is erased, they become demoralized to start up the whole process of building another face for the organization. Moreover, introduction of the new organization changes comes with much work, especially during the transition period. The changes make the employees demand a pay rise, and sometimes the company cannot afford it due to spent in formulation the new organizational culture. Change in organization ethos affects the working environment as doubts about the systems are expected, which may change the team’s livelihood, and joy in carrying out duties is minimal.
Workers can resist the change due to the notion that they might be forced to acquire a new set of skills to adapt to the new change. Also, workers have the fear they might not be able to cope with the new rules that come with the working conditions set by the change (Felipe, Roldán, & Leal-Rodríguez, 2017). Furthermore, employees are afraid of venturing into unfamiliar territory as in most cases, what teams foresee is different from what the management sees.
For the new change to be implemented, this barrier can be conquered by enlightening the staff and stakeholders about the new change before it is implemented to prepare them psychologically. This will reduce the resistance that can be accompanied by the change when effected and will help in the fast transition from the old to a new culture. Involving all staff at all levels in the change process will create harmony in the organization and leading the workforce through the change will create a smooth transition (Shahzad, Xiu, & Shahbaz, 2017). By looking for ways to utilize the resistance caused by the employees instead of fighting can be a better way of overcoming the barriers to implementing new changes. In utilizing the resistance, employees are made to air their grievances into the matter where their points are taken into account and necessary alterations are made. Changes are made for the betterment of the organization and the changes can be the downfall of the company. Managers and stake holders should carry out detailed research on the change before implementing it.
References
Arditi, D., Nayak, S., & Damci, A. (2017). Effect of organizational culture on delay in construction. International Journal of Project Management, 35(2), 136-147. doi: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.10.018
Felipe, M. C., Roldán, J. L., & Leal-Rodríguez, A. L. (2017). Impact of organizational culture values on organizational agility. Sustainability, 9(12), 2354. doi: 10.3390/su9122354
Patel, B. (2018). What are the top risks in organizational restructuring?
Robbins, S., & Judge, T. (2019). Organizational behavior (16th ed.). Pearson.
Shahzad, F., Xiu, G., & Shahbaz, M. (2017). Organizational culture and innovation performance in Pakistan’s software industry. Technology In Society, 51, 66-73. doi: 10.1016/j.techsoc.2017.08.002
Warrick, D. (2017). What leaders need to know about organizational culture. Business Horizons, 60(3), 395-404. doi: 10.1016/j.bushor.2017.01.011
