Core values meant to induce culture changes in an organization might result in a self-destructive outcome from within if not well implemented. Diverse approaches employed during culture changes among contemporary business entities form the basis upon which progress and mistakes are made. Without prior models to establish the impacts of new culture changes, a company opting for this move is likely to achieve retarded progress or total failure. A set of considerations must be made preceding a culture change in a company, for instance, weighing the effect on workforce morale, client or customer service, and general productivity. In this case, a cultural change program in the Australian manufacturing company, Arturo, shall be evaluated in regard to poor implementation.
According to Arturo’s management, the incorporation of new core values during the 1998 to 1999 culture change transition was aimed at influencing corporate decisions and results. The preoccupation of the company’s organizational structure with a new culture was essentially perceived as a key “variable” towards heightened success, at least during the initial implementation days. Several aspects of the culture were adopted, including virtues like integrity, respect, cooperation, excellence, and individual change. The company’s management saw this as a powerful tool for enhancing a total and advanced mechanism of managerial control. However, the case was contrary to Arturo’s employees, who interpreted the company’s aggressive implementation methods as unfavorable managerial dominance. This perception among the workers saw the implementation of the company’s stipulated core values failing in their primary stages of implementation. Research conducted on Arturo’s case identifies this instance as the principal cause of the company’s failure to implement its culture change program.
Analysis of the culture change program integrated into Arturo’s decision-making processes and organizational structure further expounds on the cause of its failure. The culture change program witnessed the establishment of behaviors that reinforce the values besides the acts that are not tolerated by each of the company’s core values. Resistance to change as a natural human character is a framework that research employed to evaluate Arturo’s situation in this transition period. For instance, change mediators contribute to inheritor reactions by forging broken agreements before and during change and by failing to reinstate the consequent loss of trust among the parties involved. Individual members tried to raise their voices of opinion during the training sections, and the negative reactions of influencers of the culture change program would shut them down immediately. In addition, the researchers discovered that workers were all bussed on that day from Arturo to a conference complex almost five kilometers away in the facilitation of the training program.
Analytical perspectives encompassed by investigators allow them to focus on certain phenomena while excluding other crucial ones. Moreover, in the proposition of significant strategies, some theoretical perspectives misguide analysts in believing that the logic of argumentation and proof at their disposal is feasible for implementation. As a result of such bias, the advisors to Arturo’s management could have underrated the impact of their theories on the company’s workforce hence cultivating extremely positive expectations. Considering the training day, the workers were organized in groups intended to compete against each other in doing tasks related to the company’s core values. The results of the exercises indicated that most groups were performing poorly in their tasks. Instead of focusing on the reason behind the mistakes, time was spent asking each group about the mistakes they had made and emphasizing corrections in the subsequent mini-contests. Such an approach centering on the problem instead of its roots is likely to cause the impulsive failure of the culture change program.
Arturo’s culture program could have been changed more effectively if the management team had considered a multidimensional strategy. A large-scale cultural change entails a revolutionary period of organizational changes and improvements. This calls for a gradual process that integrates both internal factors and external factors of a business entity. Internal factors such as the light equipment production process in Arturo should be extensively evaluated before any core values in the production process are established. A company ought to determine the impact of change in terms of workers’ comfort, adaptability, psychological preparation, and perception with respect to the success of the same. Otherwise, failure to understand the fundamental objective of a cultural change among employees becomes a hindrance to full productivity.
The difference between the theoretical dimension of a program and its practical dimension allows for analysts and advisers of a business entity to support the implementation of any program. Appropriate understanding and incorporation of evidence-based management could save Arturo’s manufacturing company from the clumsy process of formulating and testing a culture change program. This strategy could have been more convincing to the workforce and been accepted with ease. This is due to the presence of research-based evidence in such a model, something that helps employees anticipate success psychologically. As a result, there is the ease of adaptation to a culture change and increased morale in a company’s workforce.