Co-creating a change-adept organizational culture

Organizations are experiencing accelerated rates of change while at the same time organizational change initiatives are experiencing high rates of failure. If organizations are to be successful now and in the future, they must develop the capacity to become change-adept while maintaining business performance. This retrospective case study explores how an emergent change process influenced an organization’s movement toward a change-adept culture while continuing to perform its normal operations. Using a mixed method approach, the researcher analyzed artifact qualitative data by applying Kanter’s 3 dimensions of a change-adept culture—professionalism to perform, imagination to innovate, and openness to collaborate. The researcher utilized artifact quantitative employee survey and culture assessment data, collected at the beginning of the pilot and one year later, to support and enrich the qualitative findings. The researcher analyzed organizational artifact metric data, collected over a 2 year period—from the beginning of the pilot and continuing for 6 months after the end of the pilot, to determine the impact on operational and financial performance. Artifact interview data showed that over the 18 month pilot, managers increasingly applied and integrated Kanter’s 3 dimensions, thereby demonstrating continuous progress toward becoming more change-adept culture. The managers’ culture assessments and subsequent culture meetings showed year over year movement toward the preferred culture. Analysis of employee listening session data using Kanter’s 3 dimensions detected positive change year over year. The employee survey data indicated improvement of employees’ perceptions of the work environment year over year. Analysis of the metric data trends over 2 years and same quarter year over year Co-creating a Change-adept Culture xvii comparisons showed overall improvement in operations and financial metrics. Counter to other change studies, the organization in this study experienced enhanced business performance throughout the pilot change initiative and continued to experience enhanced performance 6 months after the end of the pilot. The researcher’s analysis indicates that as participants experienced/participated in an emergent change process, they began to integrate Kanter’s 3 dimensions, moving the organization toward a change-adept culture while improving operational and financial performance. Co-creating a Change-adept Culture 1 CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION Today’s organizations are experiencing accelerated rates of change that are increasingly unpredictable (Cameron & Quinn, 2006, pp. 9-10; Lawler & Worley, 2006, pp. 1, 4) and, at the same time, organizations are encountering multiple simultaneously occurring changes—some complementary, others competing (Dutton, Ashford, O'Neill, & Lawrence, 2001, p. 716). Organizations are struggling to handle these multitudes of change demands. Nevertheless given today’s complex rapidly changing environment, change is something organizations must learn to do well if they hope to be successful now and in the future. Unfortunately, “how” to change is greatly debated among scholars, consultants, and managers (Bamford, 2006, p. 181; Beer & Nohria, 2000, p. 1). Many change models and frameworks purport to offer effective ways for organizations to change (Burnes, 2004, pp. 887-890; Van de Ven & Poole, 1995), while actual understanding of organizational change lags behind. Current success rates for most organizational change initiatives are very low, creating doubts about the various approaches used by scholar practitioners (Bamford, 2006, p. 181; Beer & Nohria, 2000, p. 2). (Note: For the purposes of this study, scholar practitioner refers to scholars, consultants, and managers.) In fact, two-thirds of change initiatives undertaken by organizations either do not meet expectations or fail completely (Beer & Nohria, p. 2; Cameron & Quinn, 2006, p. 9). Failed change attempts lead to “cynicism, frustration, loss of trust, and deterioration in morale among organization members” (Cameron & Quinn, pp. 11-12). Some research shows that an organization may be worse off after an attempt to change than if the organization never attempted to change (Cameron & Quinn, pp. 11-12). Organizations face a dilemma; change is not Co-creating a Change-adept Culture 2 only risky and potentially detrimental to the business of the organization, but it is also required for success. If organizations are to be successful in the future, they must build their capacity to change and become adept at the process of changing while maintaining a high level of performance (Lawler & Worley, 2006, p. 19). Through the process of building a changeadept culture, changing becomes an integral part of organizational life and organizational performance (Cameron & Quinn, 2006, pp. 11-18). In a change-adept culture, “change is a natural way of life” (Kanter, 1997, p. 3), rather than a disruptive event. The business case for developing a change-adept culture is compelling. Change Perspectives The principle of complementarity provides insight into why so many change initiatives fail. “The principle of complementarity indicates that many phenomena can be understood only if several different perspectives are applied to them” (Bartunek, Gordon, & Weathersby, 1983, p. 273). Many change approaches used in organizations are too narrow in focus to address complex continuous organizational change. Change initiatives are usually decrees issued from the top with limited input from employees and are often stated in terms of immediate goals, focusing on specific actions. The phrases “flavor of the month” and “hang in there and this too shall pass” represent comments often made by employees caught up in these types of change initiatives. The narrow change approach, described above, contrasts with a broader change approach that is more holistic and systemic. A broader change approach recognizes the interconnectedness of employees within an organization and the importance of involving employees affected by the change and, perhaps, customers and suppliers outside the organization. Authors calling for a Co-creating a Change-adept Culture 3 broader approach to change include Fitzgerald (1999), Stacey (2001), and Tetenbaum (1998). This broader approach to change provides the grounding for this study. The Research Study The case study is based on a single case at a single location that includes longitudinal qualitative and quantitative artifact data. The focus of this research provides a retrospective examination of artifact data that was originally collected during a pilot change initiative which was ongoing from January 2006 through July 2007. The company that undertook the pilot granted the researcher permission to use the artifact data for this case study. To avoid reader confusion, the retrospective case study will also be referred to as “case study” or “study. ” The original pilot change initiative, on which the case study is based, will be referred to as the “pilot. ” By virtue of the fact that the case study is retrospective, it is based on artifact data. The artifact data provided a multiple level, multiple perspective, holistic view of one organization’s movement toward a change-adept culture using an emergent change process. Assumption and Purpose Echoing Lawler and Worley’s (2006) work, the underlying assumption of the case study is “that organizations always need to be changing and must be able to perform well while changing” (p. 19). The purpose of this case study is to explore how an emergent change process influenced an organization’s movement toward a change-adept culture while continuing to perform its normal operations. The study is based on the researcher’s premise that an emergent change process encourages and prepares an organization and its participants to become skillful at navigating in a continuously changing environment, which leads to the development of change-adept culture. Co-creating a Change-adept Culture 4 The Research Objective The research objective is to collect evidence from the case study in order to examine and document how an emergent change process moves an organization’s culture toward becoming more change-adept while continuing to perform its normal operations. This research objective will be met by— 1. Identifying key criteria of a change-adept culture based on current literature, 2. Using the criteria established, analyze evidence of movement toward a change-adept culture based on the artifact case study data and document the findings, and 3. Reviewing the artifact business metric data over the time period studied to determine the level of performance. The overall intent of this investigation was to develop a logical link between the data gathered and the purpose and objective posed by this study. Key Definitions For the purposes of this study, the following definitions will be used for key concepts. Emergent change is defined as • a process that has no beginning or end point; is continuously evolving; and is unplanned or unexpected, • occurring when people participate in everyday conversations, dialogues, and respectful interaction to create shared meaning (social construction), • leading to experimentation and improvisation that results in customized actions to meet local/micro-level needs, Co-creating a Change-adept Culture 5 • and over time, shapes and reshapes the flow of events to produce new patterns of organizing or fundamental change (Weick, 2000, pp. 223-241). Change-adept is defined as “skilled at changing. ” A change-adept organizational culture “anticipates, creates, and responds effectively to change” (Kanter, 1997, p. 3) and is “open to new possibilities, challenge, learning, and change” (Kanter, p. 25). According to Kanter, a change-adept organization looks at the gap “between current performance and the organization’s possibilities—its collective hopes, dreams, and aspirations [and]. consider[s]