Culture Shock: Why Change Fails in Diverse Workplaces—and How HR Can Fix It

These reactions apply across all national cultures, although individual reactions may vary depending on the individual's competencies and personal situation. Differences in national cultures, however, may make managing change in a diverse or global organization more challenging.

Leaders have to be able to gather reliable feedback about how employees feel about the change. In some cultures, employees will be reluctant to share personal feelings or to display any doubts or discontent to someone higher in stature. Managers from outside cultures should turn to a trusted insider, someone from that culture or someone who understands both the management and the local cultures, for advice on how to "read" and communicate with these employee groups.

Organizational culture may affect successful implementation of change as well. In "Resistance to Organizational Change: A Case Study of Oti Yeboah Complex Limited," Rosemond Boohene and Asamoah Appiah Williams relate the experience of a Ghanaian wood product firm that, because of depletion of raw materials, decided to change from a sawmilling operation to a plywood producer.

The authors reported that:

This kind of change affected the strategy, the structure, the culture, the technology, and the work processes of the organization, which eventually brought about employees resisting the change because of certain new roles, redundancy, and responsibilities. This led to a series of strikes, boycott, and lockouts because of fear of the unknown and possible loss of job. The consequence was production stoppages and paying labour for no job done.

Boohene and Williams tracked a large share of employee resistance to the organization's culture. The predominantly young workforce was very disaffected: uninvolved in decision making, receiving little communication about changes or the reasons for them, distrustful of management. Management was inflexible and autocratic, responding to resistance to change by threatening loss of jobs. Implementing this type of strategic change would require far-reaching changes in business processes, required competencies, and roles. The failure of the proposed change could be predicted once the limitations of the organization's culture were understood.

Assessing Change Readiness

Before developing recommendations, HR must consider and assess the organization's, group's, or individual's readiness to change. Change is difficult for most individuals, so proactively preparing for possible issues will assist the change process. Exhibit 48 outlines some things that should be considered in assessing the readiness for change.

                                                   Exhibit 48: Assessing Readiness for Change

                                                        Assessing Readiness for Change

·        What is the nature of the change?

·        What is the expected duration?

·        What key milestones are associated with the change?

·        Where is the organization in the change process?

·        Who will have primary responsibility for implementing the change?

·        What language and cultural factors will impact the change?

·        What role will HR play in implementing the change?

·        What fears might people have about the change?

·        How much resistance is anticipated? From whom?

·        How will the organization deal with the temporary drop in productivity that may result from the change?

·        What benchmarks will be established?

·        How will local interests and needs be gathered and considered during change planning and implementation?

Conditions That Make Change Possible

McKinsey & Company consultants Emily Lawson and Colin Price identify several conditions that make it easier for people to get to the point where they will consider or try a new way of doing things:

·         Shared purpose. If people believe in the overall purpose of and reason for the change, or buy in to the objectives of the change initiative, they will make a legitimate effort to change themselves. Those leading a change initiative should communicate how proposed changes are necessary to achieve the organization's strategic goals and/or values.

·         Reinforcement systems. Structures, management processes and encouragement, measurement, communication, and other critical support factors must be present and congruent with the desired change initiative.

·         Skills required for change. While this need may seem obvious, it is often overlooked. Training is a much more efficient and effective method than trial and error for equipping people with the knowledge and skills to be successful.

·         Consistent role models. The presence of a role model within an individual employee's sphere of influence makes change real and demonstrates, in real time, that change is possible. Many role models (in addition to managers and executives) need to be present throughout the organization to keep the message of change alive until it becomes part of the way the organization operates.

Change Process Models

The Kurt Lewin model of change is often used to explain the dynamics through which organizational change takes place. By understanding these dynamics, HR professionals can offer the proper initiative for change. Exhibit 49 illustrates the three general stages of the Lewin change process. Exhibit 49: Lewin's Model of the Change Process.

                                          Exhibit 49: Lewin's Model of the Change Process

 

Unfreezing	Moving	Refreezing
Unfreeze the current state. The purpose of this step is to get people to accept that the change will occur. Reducing factors that work against change is critical at this stage.	Move toward the new state. During the second step, the focus is on getting people to accept the new, desired state.	Refreeze the new state. Once the change has been implemented and generally accept- ed, the focus should be on making the new idea a regular part of the organization.

 

There are many valid models for change. While some are more detailed than others, most incorporate some aspects of Lewin's model by describing activities that prepare for change, activities essential to facilitating the actual change, and activities or steps that focus on acceptance and adoption of the change.

A model developed by John Kotter (Leading Change), for example, provides insight into the "how" of the change management process by specifying eight contributors to successful implementation of the change:

1. Create a sense of urgency.

2. Assemble a strong guiding team.

3. Provide a clear vision.

4. Over-communicate.

5. Empower action.

6. Ensure short-term successes.

7. Sustain progress and build on achievements.

8. Institutionalize.

This integrated change strategy effectively illustrates both the theoretical and practical aspects of the change process. Another model to help analyze internal changes in an organization is the McKinsey 7-S Framework. This model is based on the theory that for an organization to perform well, seven elements need to be aligned and mutually reinforce one another:

·         Style. The organization's culture and the informal rules of the organization.

·         Skills. The institutional and individual skills the organization can call on and how they interact with each other. A change in recent years has been to consider what skills the organization should have and what customers and suppliers can provide to the organization.

·         Systems. The processes of the company, including HR systems.

·         Structure. The relationships between different levels of authority and decision making within the organization.

·         Staff. The people who make up the organization, workforce composition, and the people who might be needed by the organization.

·         Strategy. What the organization is trying to do to gain a competitive advantage.

·         Shared values. What the organization is trying to achieve, sometimes referred to as superordinate goals. These values should be reinforced throughout the organization.

The design of the model is intended to reflect the fact that all of these elements are important and interconnected and, as a result, change in one area will result in reassessments and adjustments in the other six in order to maintain a balance.

Facilitating Change

Whether working on a large organizational project or one on one with an employee or manager, HR professionals must determine the organizational interventions necessary not only to support organizational objectives but also to address the current day's challenge. Although employees of an organization, human resource professionals can be considered in-house consultants, ready to analyze and diagnose problems and recommend creative solutions that support both organizational and individual needs.

The ability to facilitate change is enhanced if HR develops an internal "service culture." Just as organizations must be mindful of the external customers who use their products and services, HR must be mindful of how its activities contribute to the organization's overall ability to function and deliver quality. HR is part of the overall organizational system, and the quality of service that HR delivers to its internal customers (other departments, leaders, employees) enables the organization to better serve its external customers.

When planning and implementing a change, organizations often rely on one of the following approaches.

·         Cascade. This approach relies on a top-down sequence with complete change at each level. Change at one level or unit high up in the organization eventually transforms the units and levels beneath it.

·         Progressive. In this model, the change originates at the top and is broadcast to the entire organization. Individuals slowly change with added information, and the change becomes uniform across business units.

·         Organic. This method relies on independent centers and multiple origins of the change within the organization. Points of origin can be at any level. Organic change radiates out unevenly but accelerates when top leadership supports local change and local leaders.