Culture and Change: a case based exploration of the role of culture in change implementation

In the increasingly volatile and complex context in which organisations operate the need for continuous change is asserted to be necessary. However, within the literature (and practice) there is general agreement that a high... [ view full abstract ]

In the increasingly volatile and complex context in which organisations operate the need for continuous change is asserted to be necessary. However, within the literature (and practice) there is general agreement that a high proportion of changes fail to realise their goals. One major reason for this is stated to be the impact on change implementation of organisational culture. Whilst there is general agreement that there are relationships between change implementation and culture the mechanisms through which culture impacts on change are seen to be in need of empirical explanation.

In this paper we explore the possibility that culture impacts on organisational change through its effects on the sense making of actors within the change. We explore this by means of a case study design covering two significant change projects within a UK financial services organisation. The study entailed interviewing a number of participants in each project four times over a twelve month period (some 30 interviews in total).

Analyses of the data demonstrated that organisational culture did indeed frame decisions and actions taken by participants in the projects. However, we also noted that where external contractors were involved in the projects differing cultural experiences led to tensions in terms of the interpretation of issues within the change and decisions that were made and justified.

The paper concludes with a discussion of the contributions of the study to both the change management and organisational culture literatures, along with the study limitations and areas for further research.