Organizational

Culture Change
Models

Culture Change Mechanisms

(Schein Model)

Systematic promotion from selected subcultures

Technological seduction
Infusion of outsiders

Midlife

Scandal & explosion of myths

Mergers & Acquisitions

Turnaround
Destruction
& Rebirth

Founding
Incremental change through general & specific evolution
& Early
Insight
Growth
Promotion of hybrids within the culture

Conditions for
Transformational Change
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Principle 1: Survival anxiety or guilt must be greater than

learning anxiety
Principle 2: Learning anxiety must be reduced rather
than increasing survival anxiety
Principle 3: The change goal must be defined concretely
in terms of the specific problem you are trying to fix, not
as culture change.
Principle 4: Old cultural elements can be destroyed by
eliminating the people who carry those elements, but
new cultural elements can only be learned if the new
behavior leads to success and satisfaction
Principle 5: Culture change is always transformative
change that requires a period of unlearning that is
psychologically painful

Culture Change

Kim Cameron

Robert Quinn

Six Steps when designing and

implementing organizational culture
change

4
2
1
Reach
consensus
on the
current
culture

Reach
consensus
on the
desired
future
culture

3
Determine
what
changes will
and will not
mean

Reach
consensus
on the
current
culture

5
Reach
consensus
on the
desired
future
culture

6
Determine
what
changes
will and will
not mean

Culture Change
Other Models

Lewins Three-Stage Process of Chang

Why Organizations Resist

Change
Organizations are coalitions of interest
groups in tension wherein balance (ultrastability, equilibrium) of forces has been
hammered out over a period. Change
upsets this balance.

Lewins
Force-Field
Theory of
Change

Organisational change occurs when:

forces for change strengthen
restraining forces lessen, or
both processes occur simultaneously

Steps in Force Field Analysis

1.

2.

3.
4.

5.
6.

7.
8.
9.

Define problem (current state) and target

situation (target state).
List forces working for and against the desired
changes.
Rate the strength of each force.
Draw diagram (length of line denotes strength of
the force).
Indicate how important each force is.
How to strengthen each important supporting
force?
How to weaken each important resisting force?
Identify resources needed.
Make action plan: timings, milestones,
responsibilities.

Assessing Resistance to Change Strebel

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Look for closed attitudes.

Look for an entrenched culture.
Look for rigid structures and systems.
Look for counterproductive change dynamics.
Assess the overall resistance to change by:
Examining to what extent the various
forces of resistance are correlated with
one another.
Describing the resistance threshold in
terms of power and resources needed to
deal with the resistance.

Responding to Resistance to
Change
1.

Strebels contrasting change paths

2.

Beer, Eisenstat and Spectors six

steps to effective change

3.

Kotter & Schlesinger

Possible Change Paths - Strebel

Beer et als Six Steps to Effective

Change
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

Mobilize commitment to change through joint diagnosis of

business problems.
Develop a shared vision of how to organize and manage for
competitiveness.
Foster consensus for the new vision, competence to enact it,
and cohesion to move it along.
Spread revitalization to all departments without pushing it
from the top.
Institutionalize revitalization through formal policies, systems
and structures.
Monitor and adjust strategies in response to problems in the
process.

Source: Beer, M., Eisenstat, R.A. and Spector, B. (1993) Why change programs dont produce
change, IN Mabey, C. and Mayon-White, B. (eds) Managing Change, London, P.C.P.

Kotters Theory of Change

Possible Ways of Dealing with

Resistance (Kotter &
Schlesinger)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Education & communication

Participation & involvement
Facilitation & support
Negotiation & agreement
Manipulation & co-optation
Explicit and implicit coercion