Leading Culture Change in Global Organizations: Aligning culture and strategy
Featured
Leading Culture Change in Global Organizations: Aligning culture and strategy
Reviewed by Dr. Aneeta Madhok, ACC, BMA Member
Non-Fiction
Publisher: Jossey-Bass: A Wiley Imprint, 2012
Price: INR 1721/- on Amazon. INR 1439 for Kindle edition
“Culture eats strategy for breakfast” A statement often attributed to Management Guru Peter Drucker. But that was back then when Organization Development was about adopting a “Unfreeze-Change-Refreeze” like simplistic approach to management of change and organization culture. Today, the world has arrived at mature ways to actually align culture and strategy so that they complement each other on the breakfast table. The foreword of the book by Edgar H Schein shares the analysis of the history of this evolution over the years.
The authors are professors at the flagship executive program of International Management Development Institute and over the years have studied several organizations and documented case studies on Organization Culture. Their experience enabled them to create and validate a tool on Organization Culture Survey that measures organization culture against the model they present in the book. Elements of culture that matter are: Mission, Adaptability, Involvement, and Consistency. The model further places these elements along the dimensions of flexibility-stability and internal-external focus.
Liberally seasoned with case studies of successful organizations, the authors draw out lessons for building a high-performance business culture, supporting the front line, creating strategic alignment and creating one culture out of many. Further, exporting culture change across boundaries, building a global business in an emerging market, and from an emerging market create a case for global alignment of culture. A futuristic view comes in the section of building for the future and trading old habits for new prepares the ground for insights on managing for sustainability of the business.
The appendix to the book is where the reader will find a tool with a full overview and resource guide. There are practical examples on how the survey was used to manage culture of a recently merged American and German organization
Practicing HR and OD managers will find this book provides them with lots of insights through the case studies presented and a model that is intuitively attractive. If you are a coach-for-hire, this book will help you understand the OD perspective better which is so important for anybody working in the HR space. If you are an HR and OD consultant who partners with organizations to deliver coaching based interventions for managing change, this book will be of immense value as a potential tool for adoption and implementation with your client organization. The Survey instrument will give you very clear and powerful directions to draw a transformation agenda for your clients.