There are two main cultural change models; Natural evolution and forced evolution. The most successful and commonly used evolutionary approach is that by Sathe which dictates that new organizational members are brought in and the new cultural values inculcated into them (McVeigh, 2017) . The new members then socialize with the older members who contain the cultural traits that want to be eliminated. The interaction is always made dynamic in order for the transition to remain as smooth as possible. However, statistics indicate that over 70% of organizations who apply this approach when trying to change their culture tend to fail. This is a wanting statistic considering that the Sathe approach is considered the best and one would expect better results from it. Only between 10%-32% of companies manage to change their cultural behavior.
The statistics above conquer that cultural change is difficult to achieve. The structures needed to achieve them are complicated and demand a lot of effort. Whenever trying to impose cultural changes, leaders are daunted with the task of replacing some prevalent customs, symbols, and ideologies with new ones. Vividly, there are a lot more than one or two changes that need to be made at a go. Furthermore, it is not easy to control cultural change because the environment of the organization has influence over this. The influence, both external and internal, cannot be naturally controlled. It is worthwhile noting that the environment has a really big say in how an organization’s culture is shaped.
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The biggest hindrance to cultural change is an organization’s success (Lyons, 2017) . Companies that have had their successes in the past tend to hold on to the cultural values that have earned them their various accolades with the belief that these values are what will keep pushing them towards more success stories. These values may, at times, inhibit an organization from adopting environmental changes. Moreover, those in senior management positions fear that they may lose touch with the things that the organization needs or fail to support efforts that mid-level managers make to impose the changes. Most of the times, managers are afraid that they could make decisions that would frustrate the change efforts.
After firms hit their breakeven point and start streaming in income, it becomes difficult for any person in management to provide compelling reasons as to why the organization would need any cultural changes. Most of the times, the need for cultural changes is identified by one or two individuals who, then, have to convince the other people in leadership positions for the changes to be implemented. In the case that they are implemented, the leadership tends to lose confidence very early in the process if the results negatively impact the businesses at the start. Furthermore, the time taken for the changes to be fully imposed tends to be long. Experts predict that the time may range between four to ten years. Companies that have successfully gone through the process averaged six years. The longer the time taken, the higher the probability of things going wrong.
Arguably, the most difficult thing about the cultural change process is the fact that it tags along leadership breakdowns and communication problems between the employees and the management among various other correlated failures (Denning, 2011) . The key to a successful cultural change process lies understanding and utilizing the role leaders in the middle ranked management positions as they act as the link between the top leadership and the employees. If the middle management can handle most of the pressure that comes both from the top and the bottom, then the chances of the cultural change process being successful become higher.
References
Denning, S. (2011). How Do You Change An Organizational Culture?. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/07/23/how-do-you-change-an-organizational-culture/#42eb0fd939dc
Lyons, R. (2017). Three Reasons Why Culture Efforts Fail. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/richlyons/2017/09/27/three-reasons-why-culture-efforts-fail/#716b2345e077
McVeigh, T. (2017). Why is culture change so difficult?. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-culture-change-so-difficult-anthony-mcveigh
