Impact of Culture on Change Management

Change is a critical aspect of organizations and it defines their successes and failures. Many researchers have been fascinated by the impact of the historical changes in the leadership and organizational structures (Pihlak and Ruth, 244). In particular, Pihlak and Ruth examine the impact of cultural differences in change management in the organization from India, Chinese, and Estonia. Findings show that there are differences and similarities in the kind of resistance encountered in these organizations. Additionally, different employees have different ways of dealing with introduced changes within an organization. Smith explains that culture is the social glue that holds organizations together and provides standards for what employees should do or say (249). Thus, changes in the ‘social glue’ can be very challenging especially for large corporations.

The welcoming of the market economy created an environment that was less controlled. As a result, organizations in different parts of the world had to take up measures that would enable them to cope with the challenges in the new environment. Agrees that cultural change is critical for organizations and it is the reason “why some companies are more successful than others (Smith 249). Given the significance of the change to organizational performance, there is a need to find ways to manage resistance. First, it is critical to predicting possible resistance to organizational change. Pihlak and Ruth provide that national culture provides a greater a means of predicting resistance (225). In particular, the institutional environment in India, China, and Estonia was influenced by social regimes which in turn affected their culture. Further, religion, politics, and esthetical values affect define culture and thus affect response to change. Erwin and Garman say that resistance is individual’s behavior towards change and how they think and feel about it (42). To deal with the complexity that results from change and resistance, administrators need to deal with possible employees resistance, encourage involvement, and use favorable leadership styles whenever a change is planned (Pihlak and Ruth; Pihlak). Due to different cultures, organizations in the different countries have different strategies effective to change management. For instance, China was closed to foreign influence and thus employee involvement is critical to change management. On the other hand, Estonia and India were influenced by foreigners and are now democratic; therefore, involving foreigners in change implementation increased resistance. Conclusively, management of change is unique for every organization depending on location and type of culture influencing the daily activities. Understanding the unique cultural differences help in devising measures that can be used to mitigate resistance.

Employee involvement in change management is critical. Importantly, employees from organizations in the three different countries had different perceptions towards change which in turn influenced their response. According to Pihlak & Ruth, ”different triggers create stress among employees and decrease the ability of workers to accept changes and corporate with change leaders’ (229). Changes in the way activities are done in an organization results in excessive physical and psychological demands which can be managed with time and resources (Michel, Rune, and Burnes 763). For this reason, Will asserts the relevance of employee and manager interactions in creating value for changes needed (193). The interaction will ensure understanding and implementation of change that convinces employees and managers that their self-interests are considered. With this, an organization will be able to bar any form of resistance from both managers and employees.

The main causes of stress and resistance from employees in Estonia was workload and leadership issues in India. To mitigate this, communication was a tool used to help ease resistance and Erwin and Garman assert that there is a positive correlation between individuals that receive information about change and their resistance (46). For the cases where leaders failed to communicate about the expected changes, resistance was high (Pihlak and Ruth 229; Will 196). Thus, communication was encouraged to support negotiations and participant involvement. According to Will, broken communication negates a change process (195). Communication of leaders to employees provides a means to encourage and motivate employees on the benefits of a planned and implemented change. 50% of companies in India used communication to mitigate change while workshops and training were effective in Estonia. Both strategies were employed and effective in China.

Resistance to change was more similar in Estonia and India as opposed to China (Pihlak and Alas 235). Importantly, larger organizations having a larger scope of change faced more conflict and stress in Estonia and India. Chinese organizations did not see much resistance as they did not try to change the culture of a people. Thus, culture is a critical aspect to change implementation. Change agents need to take up measures that encourage employees to embrace the change process. The strategies involve having a trusting relationship between workers and leaders (Erwin and Garman 50). Important also is for leaders to critically examine the contexts of their organizations and how to change process can influence disposition resistance (Michel, Rune, and Burnes, 775). Actual and dispositional resistances vary due to group norms, situations, and how change is managed. With these understanding, it is possible for change agents to devise measures that facilitate successful change processes.

Selection Criteria

Content Criteria was used to select references. Here, information from different articles was evaluated. Information from the five articles was valid as they are well researched and peer-reviewed. The data sources used to fulfill their purpose and information is not biased. Authors from the five articles have a good reputation. Their origins have been documented, information attributed to the authors, and URL of university servers provided. The information from the five articles is substantiated as they are in full texts and the resources contain more than one contact detail. The references are accurate as they contain bibliography to confirm the accuracy of information and they do have typographical errors. They are comprehensive with informative titles, abstracts, and keywords among other aspects of a good research paper. They are well organized and selected from the most recent research materials.

Work Cited

Erwin, Dennis G., and Andrew N. Garman. ”Resistance to organizational change: linking research and practice.” Leadership & Organization Development Journal 31.1 (2010): 39-56.

Michel, A., Todnem By, R., & Burnes, B. (2013). The limitations of dispositional resistance in relation to organizational change. Management Decision, 51(4), 761-780.

Pihlak, Ülle, and Ruth Alas. ”Resistance to change in Indian, Chinese and Estonian organizations.” Journal of Indian Business Research 4.4 (2012): 224-243.

Pihlak, Ülle. ”Change management in Indian organizations compared to Chinese and Estonian organizations (2009-2011).” Baltic Journal of Economics 13.1 (2013): 111.

Smith, Martin E. ”Changing an organisation’s culture: correlates of success and failure.” Leadership & Organization Development Journal24.5 (2003): 249-261.

Will, Matthias Georg. ”Successful organizational change through win-win: How change managers can create mutual benefits.” Journal of Accounting & Organizational Change 11.2 (2015): 193-214.