Culture change

About: Culture change is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1531 publications have been published within this topic receiving 41922 citations. The topic is also known as: cultural change & culture changes.

The promoters and the barriers for organizational culture change in a Finnish construction company

Abstract: The construction industry has struggled with efficiency issues for decades. Organizational culture is identified as one of the biggest hindrances for the enhancement of efficiency in a highly labor-intensive sector such as construction. Based on recent academic studies, Finnish construction industry professionals would embrace clan and adhocracy culture features to achieve a better level of construction efficiency. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the promoters and the barriers for making the desired culture change happen in the case company.,The paper presents a semi-structured theme interview case study, including 12 in-depth interviews. The interviews were recorded, and later, transcribed into text, which forms the empirical data of this paper.,The Finnish construction industry must adopt a holistic approach to enhance its prevailing level of efficiency through the culture change. Basic learning and knowledge management processes seem to be missing from the industry and organizational levels. Better knowledge management in the case company would be the first step to start fixing this problem.,Because of the nature of a case study, the research results can be generalized only with caution in the Finnish construction industry. Generalizing the findings in another country would require further studies in a different cultural environment, e.g. in another European country.,The paper includes implications for the development of the organizational culture on the Finnish construction industry level and on an organizational level.,The found influencers are discussed through Engestrom’s activity model for the first time in the construction culture context.

Birds of a Feather . . . Enforce Social Norms? Interactions Among Culture, Norms, and Strategy

Abstract: This paper analyzes how shared beliefs and preferences (or values) cause the emergence of social norms; why people may enforce norms that go against their own beliefs and preferences/values; and how this may cause a disconnect to develop between the organization's norms and its underlying beliefs and preferences. We further show, among other things, that such social norms are more likely in attractive organizations, for behaviors that have modest personal consequences, and in organizations where employees depend on others' choices to a moderate degree. We finally discuss how these mechanisms help our understanding of culture change and of the interaction between culture and strategy. We argue that culture is not only an input to strategy, but also a substitute and a potential competitor.

Themes in Health Care Culture: Application of Cultural Transformation Theory

Abstract: Key aspects of culture change include familiarizing oneself with how relationships are structured and encouraging an awareness of how people relate to one another on a domination/partnership continuum (Eisler & Potter, 2014). In 2013, 200 nurse leaders were asked to rate their own cultures on a continuum of domination to partnership based on Eisler’s Cultural Transformation Theory (1987). Of those nurse leaders, 37.5% rated their organizations as being closer to a domination culture than a partnership culture. These findings prompted the development and delivery of a webinar series that applied Cultural Transformation Theory to healthcare culture. The attendees noted an overall change in self-rating of their healthcare culture as they learned about domination and partnership culture. This shift in rating could indicate Cultural Transformation Theory’s usefulness in understanding healthcare culture, and in identifying domination and partnership relationships. In discussions during the webinar three themes emerged: 1) Healthcare culture inclines toward domination and this has an impact on patients, 2) Leadership impacts organizational culture, and 3) Leaders are unaware of domination tendencies within their own cultures. Further discussion is needed to identify strategies that support cultural changes, ultimately leading to improvements in safety, quality, and patient experience within healthcare.

Developing More Authentic e-Courses by Integrating Working Life Mentoring and Social Media.

Abstract: Studies show that affordances of social media have not yet been fully exploited in the promotion of authentic e-learning in higher education. The e-Learning of the Future project (2009-2011) has met these challenges through working life mentoring using social media. In this paper, we examine the planning and implementation of social media in nine project courses and how these changes support authentic learning. A further focus of interest is the role of working life mentors in the process. The outcomes indicate that the introduction of social media measures strongly supported the strengthening of authentic learning principles (Herrington & Oliver, 2000) on the courses. Revisions to learning tasks centred on establishing connections to expert communities, the use of blogs, and the compilation of recorded entrepreneurial narratives. Working life mentors brought an up-to-date, work-oriented perspective to the process and highlighted skills required by workplaces of the future. Developing educational tasks that cross traditional boundaries raises issues of operational culture change, the roles of partners and transparency of education, and these implications are discussed in the paper.

A comparative exploration of culture change in nursing homes: the residents' perspective

Abstract: The need to provide an environment that ensures both quality care and quality of life for residents of nursing homes has long been recognized. The culture change movement in nursing homes emphasizes both principles. This mixed-methodology research explores the culture change process in nursing homes by evaluating to what extent core principles of culture change: quality of life, resident choice and control, and resident satisfaction, are demonstrated in the behaviors, attitudes, and day-to-day experiences of the residents. Four groups of subjects in two not-for-profit nursing homes, in which culture change is being implemented, participated in this study. Data were collected in the form of surveys and interviews from nursing home administrators, residents, direct care staff, and family members or friends of residents. The level of the culture change process was found to vary between the two nursing homes and a comparative inferential analysis of the quantitative data as to the resident quality of life, perceptions of choice and control, and level of satisfaction at the two nursing homes showed statistically significant differences in the quality of life domains of privacy and security only. No significant differences were found in resident satisfaction with the nursing home or resident perceived latitude of control. The analysis of the qualitative data from the four groups of participants identified the major themes in the categories of resident quality of life, perceptions of choice and control, and level of satisfaction. Common themes in the factors reported as essential to quality of life by the residents at both nursing homes were quality of care, relationships, activities, physical/functional ability, faith, and safety/security. Relationships and faith were again identified as common themes in the factors reported as essential to maintaining control in their lives by the residents at both nursing homes as were attitude and the ability to advocate for oneself. Only one theme common to both residents at both nursing homes was identified as the worst thing about living in a nursing home and as the best thing about living in a nursing home, the noise/behavior of other residents and relationships respectively.Implications for practitioners include the recognition of the importance of both peer-relationships and relationships with staff to resident quality of life, choice and control, and satisfaction and the process of adjustment to institutional living and the influence of resident attitude towards their living situation. Privacy and security were found to be important factors in the experience of the residents as was quality of care. Recommendations for future research include longitudinal and qualitative studies to explore resident perceptions of ongoing culture change and additional research to provide an increased understanding of the mechanisms by which relationships are formed and maintained between residents and staff in the long-term care environment. Further research exploring resident adjustment to…