An analysis of critical aspects of the existing organisational culture and systems must be conducted. There are scores of methods for assessing a work culture. While many of these will provide you with a highly detailed picture of a work culture, in order to implement innovation and technical change you do not need to conduct an assessment of all aspects of your entire organisational culture. You need only get a handle on the elements of your organisation's culture that are most relevant to your innovation, in the areas of direct concern to your project.
For example, if you are re-engineering the order entry process within a certain division or product group, this change will directly involves marketing, sales, accounting and distribution within that certain division or product group. Of course it is also relevant, indirectly, to production and to all other divisions and product groups. Your project is not directly and immediately relevant to people within these other areas. You can, therefore, concentrate your cultural assessment efforts in marketing, sales, accounting and distribution within the relevant division or product group.
You will not need to get 90% of your employees to fill out a ten-page questionnaire, or to conduct hundreds of two-hour interviews. Having your work group identify and assess several core dimensions will be enough. You will need to assess the culture in relevant areas in terms of certain key dimensions such as flexibility, risk aversion, values, and structure. You will not have to generate a detailed description of all cultural dimensions organisation-wide.
Remember that we are attempting only to assess the elements of the organisations' culture that are relevant to the implementation of innovation and technical change. We are not trying to assess all of it and we are not trying to change any of it. Our goal is to get a handle on the major cultural aspects that will likely act as significant barriers to implementation efforts. Once these areas have been identified, you can start the process of neutralising these road-blocks and exploiting the opportunities.
Three (3) distinct methods for cultural analysis are provided:
Cultural analysis method 1: The first method is structured and provides specific recommendations and strategies for proceeding, giving you an understanding of four(4) dimensions of organisational culture especially relevant for the successfull implementation of innovation and technical change.
[Click here to access the Cultural Analysis (structured method) application]
Cultural analysis method 2: The second method is questionnaire based. The questionnaire is designed to assist a work group or part of an organisation assess how open its culture is to change and to identify areas where an organisation or group is not open to change. The questionnaire aims to determine what, if anything, needs to be done to make the culture more open and flexible.
[Click here to access the Organisational Culture Questionnaire]
Cultural analysis method 3: The third cultural analysis method is less structured. Below is a series of questions you can ask yourself and your work-group. There are no specific recommendations based on the results of this less structured method, however it will give you an appreciation for the relevant aspects of your organisation's culture as they relate to the implementation of your innovation or technical change:
As a result of your analyses, you will need to identify potential road-blocks and strategies to neutralise them.
[See related presentation on changing organisational culture.]
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