1. Suppose you wanted to change your organization’s culture. What sort of resistance would you expect from employees? How would you deal with this resistance? To what extent is culture manageable? Changeable?
2. Moving from cultural change (Question 1) to general change, answer the following questions. Can organizations stop resistance to change? If so, how? Does organizational culture have a role in significant change? Explain the interaction between culture and change?
Expert Answer
Today the biggest challenge faced by the managers of almost every firm is to implement cultural changes in the organization. These changes sometimes become essential due to the various factors such as technological advancement, globalization or diversification of the workforce etc.
In the process of changing an organization’s culture, a manager would expect some resistance from the employees. For example- some employees would resist adapting to the new norms or culture because they are comfortable with the present culture and it would be difficult for them to readjust to the new culture. While on the other side some employees may find such changes to be unfavourable for the organizational growth and development.
As a manager, it would be really very challenging to deal with such resistance since employees are the most vital resource of the company. But in order to resolve this problem, it would be better for the managers to make them understand the benefits of such changes for the firm thereby advising them to adapt to such changes. The other way would be to appoint new employees to the organization who may fit to the cultural changes.
Thus, managing or changing organizational culture is quite a difficult and challenging task for managers but not impossible. As a manager, we need to deal with such type of conditions in a more practical manner. We can connect with all the employees and explain them about the possible advantages of such type of cultural changes.