Organizational and strategic changes often require employees to modify their behavior in ways that conflict with traditional ‘‘ways of doing things around here’’ — or, in other words, with the culture of the organization. Edgar Schein describes organizational culture as a set of assumptions and beliefs that shape how people habitually relate to one another, their tasks, and the broader environment. These assumptions are mostly tacit and taken for granted. They are usually reflected in more consciously held values, defining desirable or undesirable behavior deserving punishment or reward. These values are often formalized in organizational statements, but, together with the underlying assumptions, are also embodied in a web of visible and tangible expressions, through corporate jargon, symbols, stories, practices, myths, physical settings and others, collectively referred to as organizational artifacts. Schein’s framework is useful to describe an organizational culture at a given point of time. It draws attention to how the various elements of a culture are tied together in a relatively coherent whole and, also because of this coherence, how difficult to change culture is. People, according to this view, are reluctant to modify traditional habits. Altering more superficial practices, structures and systems may conflict with the deeper assumptions they embody and symbolize. Changing the way people relate to one another, or perform their tasks may generate uncomfortable dissonance with what they have always believed to be the appropriate way, reflecting these fundamental assumptions. Because of their taken-for-granted nature, however, these assumptions are not usually open to debate. How is it possible, then, for senior managers to promote and manage cultural changes? While there is general agreement that cultures tend to change naturally and incrementally because of demographic changes and changes in the broader cultural environment, scholars are divided about whether profound cultural changes can be introduced quickly and purposefully. Some authors celebrate the capacity of charismatic and visionary leaders to carry out rapid transformations in organizational norms and values, and to induce radical changes in people’s behavior. Successful cultural change depends on the capacity of organizational leaders to create a sense of urgency, articulate an alternative vision for the future, and encourage changes through a combination of substantial and symbolic moves that signal the rest of the organization that it has to revise its values and priorities.
