Managing Organizational Culture: Compliance or Genuine Change?

The issue of managing culture is of key importance within management theory and practice. A number of extant studies have found that attempts to 'manage' culture frequently degenerate into the enforcement of espoused behaviours. The objective of this paper is to provide empirical evidence and discussion of the consequences of management attempts to change culture. The paper reviews existing theory pertaining to organizational culture change and presents the desire to control as the rationale for management attempts to modify culture. After a brief discussion of the research design and methodology employed, the findings of a single case study are presented. The findings suggest that within the case study organization, a recent change initiative had resulted in changes to material manifestations, behaviours and in some cases values. However, it is noted that modifications to values could be the result of 'instrumental value compliance'. The paper culminates with conclusions, implications and suggestions for further research.     

Organizational Resilience: A Valuable Construct for Management Research?

Recently, the concept of resilience has gained new momentum in organization studies. It is held to be a very promising concept to explain how organizations can survive and thrive amidst adversity or turbulence. However, findings from an earlier review about resilience in the organizational and business context show that, although empirical research on the concept has increased, there is still a need for more clarity in terms of its measurement. The aim of this paper is to present a systematic review of the organizational resilience construct that covers both conceptual and operational issues. We discuss why researchers criticize resilience for being fuzzy and move on to identify and analyse existing literature under the lens of construct development and taxonomies. With this study, we aim to point out conceptual problems for future researchers to address conceptual clarity and to develop a clearer, more parsimonious concept. We conclude with a suggestion about future measurement.     

Organizational Environments and Performance: A Linear or Nonlinear Relationship?

The external circumstances that organizations confront are an important influence upon their prospects of success. The resources available within the environment, the multiplicity of stakeholder demands to be addressed and the rates of change in these, each have serious implications for organizational functioning. Nevertheless, it remains conceivable that the effects of different dimensions of the environment are not straightforwardly positive or negative, but may follow nonlinear patterns posing very different challenges at different levels. To draw lessons for public organizations seeking to understand how best to respond the circumstances that they face, this paper examines linear and nonlinear effects of different dimensions of the organizational environment on the performance of over 500 organizations using both objective and subjective measures of the environment. Strong support is found for the presence of linear relationships between each environmental dimension and type of measure and performance, but no evidence of statistically significant nonlinear environmental effects. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Someone promised mentors: will you deliver?

What are recruiters promising? Many new hires say that they accepted a job because of a promised mentoring program--one that never materializes, and one that the manager doesn't know was part of the discussions. Where does that leave the manager who may not be aware of this expectation? Faced with anchoring mobile Gen Xers, organizations are exploring mentoring as an inexpensive way to improve retention. But mentoring is not a technique that can be applied like a warm blanket to solve the problems of orientation, training, skills development, and retention. There are two reasons why mentoring isn't foolproof--the mentor and the protégé. If you are considering a mentoring program, or becoming a mentor yourself, here are some points to ponder: (1) If you can't (or won't) do it, give convincing reasons up front; (2) establish the rules of engagement; (3) a mentoring relationship doesn't guarantee loyalty; (4) having a protégé has political risks; (5) you can't force anyone to take advice; and (6) expect a quid pro quo.     

Should Organizational Behavior Management Expand Its Content?

Abstract

The American Psychological Association (APA) has defined the years 2000 to 2010 as the “Decade of Behavior,” and has been promoting this designation in convention materials, newsletters, media briefs, and professional publications. But APA seems to be avoiding the leading discipline in analyzing and changing behaviors in industrial settings-organizational behavior management (OBM). Furthermore, with only a few exceptions, OBM does not receive the attention it deserves in university psychology departments, including graduate programs in industrial/organizational (I/O) Psychology. This paper entertains reasons for the low and decreasing academic attention to OBM, and offers some possible solutions. It is proposed that OBM is generally discussed in overly simplistic terms; and unlike I/O Psychology, OBM does not draw on the wealth of relevant concepts and principles in other areas, especially cognitive and social psychology. Specific examples are given for expanding the typical boundaries of the OBM curriculum in order to improve organization-based interventions and realize greater opportunities to demonstrate the unique qualities of a behavior analysis approach to real-world problem solving.     

Are you obsolete?

Are you vulnerable, regardless of length of service at your organization and your unique skill sets? There are ways to test vulnerability and assemble some hard evidence that your management role makes a difference. You need to conduct a self-test for obsolescence. Ask yourself the following questions: Are your skills state-of-the-art? As a manager, how do you compare with others doing the same, or similar, job at competing organizations? Is your role essential? Where does your job fall into the big picture? Can you be replaced easily? If a thorough examination of your skills and your role convinces you that your contribution returns more to the organization than your salary, can you prove it? Consider these strategies: (1) Put together a portfolio, (2) ensure your boss' support, (3) advertise your successes, and (4) cultivate recruiters. The best reason to analyze your value to the organization is that if you are laid off, getting another comparable job--or a better one--will be far less of a hassle.     

Do you demonstrate leadership skills when you speak?

Nervous about your next big presentation? Don't be. There are proven ways to polish your presentation, spice up your speech and capture your audience's attention. Find out how experienced physician executives deliver dynamic presentations and learn tips for avoiding common mistakes.     

What do you know?

If you run an organization, what do you know? What could you know? What is obvious--what we take for granted--hides deeper, contradictory realities. Such simple assumptions as "The goal of management is to get things done by motivating people to do them" not only hide a deeper truth, they keep us from getting to what's true. There is no short road to leadership. It is long-term. It is about relationship, in the deepest sense. Leaders don't create energy and momentum, they harness the energy and momentum that already exists in the people that they hope to lead. They connect with people, and they get out of the way.     

Can you communicate cross-generationally?

What is fractured cross-generational communication? When what one person heard was not what the other person said. Regardless of your age, you need to understand some of the differences in communication styles that must be overcome if people are to work well together. This is especially important in health care right now when there are other pressing issues. Interpreters are at a premium because so much misunderstanding clouds the communication process. Two management strategies are presented that will help bridge the gaps between communication styles.     

Was that really funny? The politics of humor

Everybody loves a comic--or do they? A Human Resources Department picked up a pattern when several departing employees, all excellent performers, said they liked their jobs but felt "excluded" from the camaraderie. One said he'd found the humor "barbed." Another said she's never seen anything funny in jokes that seemed to convulse everyone else. The past five years have been so gloomy, economically speaking, that, in many hospitals and health care organizations, laughter is a mega-event. But lately I've been listening to what employees joke about and watching how their humor affects others. Physician executives need to be alert to some kinds of humor that are weapons used by employees against other employees, their managers, and the company generally.     

Is it Just Me? Exploring Perceptions of Organizational Culture Change

A review of the literature on organizational culture change suggests that the field might benefit from studies combining both etic (researcher) and emic (employee) perspectives to examine individuals’ views regarding how and why their culture has changed. This paper seeks to deepen researchers’ knowledge of how individuals perceive organizational culture change by undertaking a two‐part study within an organization that has undergone planned cultural change initiatives. More specifically survey (i.e. etic view) data and interview (i.e. emic view) data are used to explore: (1) factors associated with (a) whether an individual will perceive that culture change has occurred, and (b) whether they categorize this change as for the better, for the worse or one that could not be categorized using these two labels; and (2) individuals’ rationales for why the culture has changed. The findings are mixed regarding the extent to which they support or refute existing research on organizational culture change.     

The Impact of Organizational Change on Employee Turnover Intention: Does Stress Play a Mediating Role?

This study examined the relationship between change interventions and employee turnover intention to see if change interventions lead to increased employee turnover intention. Moreover, the mediating role of employee stress was tested. Data were collected from 162 respondents working at various administrative positions in a large public organization. The results indicate that employee turnover intention is positively correlated to human process, techno structural, human resources, and strategic interventions. Limitations and direction for future research are provided.     

When Cooperation is the Norm of Appropriateness: How Does CEO Cooperative Behaviour Affect Organizational Performance?

The current study has tested the prediction that CEO cooperative behaviour has an impact upon organizational performance. This is a fundamental organizational issue that is in clear need of illumination through studies of practice. We pursued the issue through a study of leadership in organizations located in the Norwegian socio‐cultural context in which cooperation has been, and still is, a norm of appropriateness. The study provided empirical evidence of a positive relationship between CEO cooperative behaviour and organizational performance. This relationship appeared to be stronger in organizational contexts in which CEOs are perceived to have legitimacy and managerial discretion, and it appeared to be weaker in organizations in which individual performance pay is the rule. Since some organizational characteristics have the potential to enhance the impact of CEO cooperative behaviour while other characteristics might inhibit this impact, leaders have to consider carefully how to develop and maintain individual and organizational capabilities that are needed to act appropriately.     

Are you obsessed with interaction?

Too many organizations and managers, the author says, are using "interaction" among employees as a means to encourage them to buy-in, to stimulate teamwork, or to build morale. In too many cases, the forced interaction only serves to annoy or embarrass employees--or raise suspicions about management motives. Wise employees fear they will be burned if they open up and interact. There are better ways to run meetings, the author says, and she provides a few.