A new leadership role for Managers
Because organisations have naturally formed into different business and management processes this necessitates a proactive approach to integrating them. Hunter and Beaumont (1993) suggest that there are two important questions organisations must ask: which approach in terms of techniques, concepts and practices is the most appropriate for our organisational circumstances;how can we ensure that the approach adopted become institutionalised ('refrozen') in the organisational fabric.When considering which approach to take it is worth noting that Whittle et al (1991) found that companies start adopting those models which are most compatible with their existing organisational culture and later may move on to other models when they discover inherent limitations, thereby acknowledging that, in opposition to the theories of scientific management, there cannot be one best way. Whittle's findings also help in addressing the second question, there is a gap between the espoused methods for implementing TQM and what companies are finding they have to do. Sometimes this is represented by a complete, although misguided, reliance upon training in order to change the culture as culture is socially constructed not by people but interactively between people (Bate, op.cit.).Implementing a continuous improvement programme which fulfils the criteria given at the beginning of this section, that it is appropriate and becomes institutionalised, is essentially about changing culture. As indicated earlier, implicit in this is the notion of strategy, culture and vision all being one and the same. Paul Bate (ibid) suggests a methodology to determine the effectiveness of change strategies applied in a given business which in turn provides a framework for the design of an effective approach to culture change.Bate (ibid) uses five design parameters:expressiveness, the ability of an approach to express a new core idea;commonality, the ability of an approach to create a unifying set of values;penetration, the ability of an approach to permeate different levels of an organisation;adaptability, the ability of an approach to adjust to changing circumastances;durability, the ability of an approach to create a culture that will be lasting.He used these to assess the effectiveness of four general types of change strategies: aggressive; conciliative; corrosive; indoctrinative. Bate (ibid) noted that these parameters equated to the various phases of a change cycle and therefore he was assessing the effectiveness of each type of strategy at each stage in the cycle. He rated each strategy against the design parameters on a scale of H (high), M (medium) and L(low). It is a simple step then to turn this approach around and use it to design suitable strategies which are appropriate in time (Bate ibid) and get away from traditional organisational change where people start with a fixed approach which they stick with throughout. This fits well with Whittle's (op.cit.) assertion that cultural change is not an event (although it may be changed through events) but an ongoing sequence of changes - a journey rather than a destination.In order to achieve this Bate (op. cit.) provides phases which correspond to the design criteria: deformative; reconciliative; acculturative; enactive; formative. The phases continue through time and after the formative stage has settled a new deformative stage will begin focusing upon another facet of culture. Unfortunately this is not just as easy as picking the high scoring strategies for each phase as the combinations are limitless; it is the appropriateness of the design at that point in time which is important. This approach bears more than a passing resemblance to unfreeze - move - refreeze (Lewin 1947) with the deformative stage replacing unfreeze and the formative stage replacing refreeze. As we have discovered the main effect of changing culture is to ensure that the changes become interwoven in the fabric of the organisation. Therefore the future role of managers is to guide the emergent culture using techniques which are appropriate in time. The following image provides a visual representation of a practical example of this as carried out at Magnesium Elektron .
