Symbols of change in organisational culture
Author:
Beverley R. Lord
Address:
Department of Accountancy, Finance & Information Systems
University of Canterbury
Private Bag 4800
Christchurch, New Zealand
Phone:
+64-3-364 2620
Fax:
+64-3-364 2727
Email:
B.Lord@afis.canterbury.ac.nz
Acknowledgments:
The author acknowledges with gratitude both the encouragement and the
constructive criticisms offered by her colleague, Yvonne Shanahan. The author also
appreciated questions and feedback from participants in the Third Annual Student
Research Conference, University of Waikato, New Zealand, October 1996, at which
an earlier version of this paper was presented.
Special thanks must go to the change agent in this case study, who allowed
the author virtually unlimited access to people and places in both of the firms, over
periods of several months.
Symbols of change in organisational culture
ABSTRACT
Changing to total quality management (TQM) involves changing the
whole culture of the firm. In trying to effect change in the organisational
culture, change agents need to do more than just change processes and
structure. The change agent may make use of symbols to reinforce the
changes that are being implemented.
This paper reports on the use of symbols by a change agent in two
firms implementing TQM. In one firm the symbols were in evidence when
research was carried out several years after the implementation of TQM.
The researcher then observed the same change agent using many of the
same symbols in attempting to introduce TQM in the second firm.
However, reactions to these symbols and the changes they
represented were not always as expected. Sometimes people read the
symbols as negative. In one firm the accounting people had their own
symbols — of resistance to change.
Keywords:
total quality management, organisational change, change agent, symbols.
1
Symbols of change in organisational culture
2
ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE
In order to remain competitive in global markets, firms world-wide are
focussing attention on issues of quality. Many firms claim to be using total quality
management (TQM) techniques. Although there are no standardised definitions of
TQM, adoption of TQM includes participation of everyone in the organisation in the
drive for continuous improvement, elimination of waste, and a focus on customers,
both external and internal. It has been suggested that "TQM may be viewed as a
programme to change an organization's corporate culture" (Wilkinson & Witcher,
1993, p. 52).
Cultural change
This paper will treat the concept of organisational culture from the interpretive
perspective, which "views culture as something that an organization is that gradually
emerges and takes shape as a consequence of the social interactions among its
members" (Fischer & Dirsmith, 1995, p. 384). Culture arises from shared symbols,
language, ideology, beliefs, rituals, myths, stories and dominant metaphors (Fischer
& Dirsmith, 1995; Pettigrew, 1979; Meek, 1988; Bartunek & Moch, 1987).
Bartunek & Moch (1987) present three orders of cultural change. First order
changes are incremental changes within the existing cultural framework. In second
order change, a change agent attempts to effect cultural change by changing the
shared symbols, meanings, etc., of the existing culture, thus replacing one culture
with another. Third order change involves the members of a culture seeing the need
for second order change and implementing it themselves. For most firms, TQM is a
major change in strategy, involving an attempt at making second (or perhaps third)
order change to the organisational culture.
Attempts to change the culture of an organisation may meet with differing
levels of success. Greenwood & Hinings (1988) classify the results of proposed
change into four categories: inertia (no attempt to change), aborted excursions
(unsuccessful attempts to change), unresolved excursions (neither successful
change nor a return to the original state), or re-orientations (successful change).
Gagliardi (1986) categorise the results of attempted cultural change as: apparent
(that is, superficial) cultural change, cultural revolution (which "is always extremely
costly and necessitates the large-scale defection of old and an influx of new
personnel, financial and emotional disinvestments, corresponding new investments,
the destruction of old symbols and the creation of new ones" p. 130), or cultural
incrementalism, which depends on "a success which can be attributed, directly or
indirectly, to the leader's beliefs" (p. 131).
Symbols of change in organisational culture
3
The role of the change agent
The literature on TQM highlights the importance of top management being
involved as change agent in the introduction and establishment of TQM in their
organisation (see, for example, Bossink et al., 1992, Wilkinson & Witcher, 1993,
Porter & Parker, 1993, Duffin, 1992).
However, even if the change agent is a
"powerful leader", the success of the attempted change of culture is not guaranteed,
because any organisational change involves individuals and groups who may be in
conflict1.
Fischer & Dirsmith (1995) warn that "because culture is produced by social
interaction, it cannot unilaterally be created and manipulated by management" (p.
384). Change is the outcome of "the complex exchanges between individuals
pursuing a diversity of goals" (Georgiou, 1973, p. 308). Dermer (1988, 1990) and
Dermer and Lucas (1986) develop this idea, reminding us that in any organisation
there are a number of stakeholders. As Dermer (1990) puts it, "an organization is a
regulated, but not necessarily unified or controlled, ecosystem wherein a good many
agendae exist" (p. 67). Greenwood & Hinings (1988) cite the dominance of particular
interest groups within the organisation as being one determinant of the "track" an
organisation takes when faced with change. In other words, proposed changes may
not be realised because of resistance by sub-cultures and attempts by them "to
serve their own ends" (Fischer & Dirsmith, 1995, p. 390).
However, several writers have suggested that the use of symbols by the
change agent is an important ingredient in successfully effecting cultural change
(see, for example, Smircich, 1983; Peters, 1978; Pettigrew, 1979; Johnson, 1990).
The use of symbols by the change agent
Symbols are
objects, acts, relationships, or linguistic formations that stand ambiguously for
a multiplicity of meanings, evoke emotions, and impel men to action. (Cohen,
1974, p. 23)
New symbols show members of the culture what the proposed new culture will
be like — a prerequisite for the success of Bartunek & Moch's (1987) second-order
change; a necessity for Gagliardi's (1986) "cultural revolution" (p. 130). As well as
changing processes and structure, leaders should use symbols to signal to others in
the organisation what the leader's vision is for the firm (Bower & Weinberg, 1988).
Pfeffer (1981, p. 37), summarising Peters' (1978) arguments, claims that
The symbolic actions taken by management ... can have consequences for
the mobilization and motivation of support, for cooling off or placating
opposition either inside or external to the organization, and for focusing and
organizing activity within the organization to implement change.
Symbols of change in organisational culture
4
Peters (1978) himself believes that "symbols are the very stuff of
management behavior" (p. 10), whether the manager is using them consciously or
unconsciously. Westbrook (1993), however, advocates that managers make a
conscious effort
to replace negative cultural components with positive ones. Positive systems
must get positive reinforcement. ... Negative symbols must be ceremoniously
decommissioned. ... Positive symbols must be evident (p. 3).
The relationship between symbols and successful or unsuccessful change is
the subject of this research.
Necessary research
Dermer and Lucas (1986) encourage researchers to look at the nature of
internal opposition to change (p. 479). Meek (1988) also suggests that "symbols
need to be analysed in terms of a 'dialogue' between actors' sets of meanings and
other social organizational aspects of the institution" (p. 467). Gagliardi (1986) calls
for research and analysis in order to understand "to what extent and in which
circumstances symbolic management can promote or produce cultural change and
create new values in the organization" (p. 119).
The following examples from two manufacturing firms changing to TQM focus
on these research issues.
METHOD
The researcher used an ethnographic approach, in order to observe
interactions involving symbols over a period of time. Various data gathering
techniques were employed, including formal and informal interviews of managers
and employees, observation in the factories and at many types of meeting, and
perusal of newspaper and journal articles and company documents. Data were
collected during regular visits to the two firms. The researcher visited each site
weekly for four months, and also visited at other times to sit in on various meetings.
There were also opportunities to chat informally to people, for example, at drinks
after work, at social events, and sitting in the staff cafeteria at meal breaks.
THE CASE STUDY FIRMS
Firm A has been practising TQM since 1991. Before the introduction of TQM,
the working environment was described as "a dictatorship", and "a Dickensian
workshop — monochrome, dingy, dark." The change agent, Peter, was employed as
plant manager specifically to effect the change to TQM, as he had already been
involved with TQM implementation in several other firms including Toyota. His
assessment on arrival included these criticisms: "prone to error ... slow ... no formal
communication system ... conflict style management." In 1994, when the research
was carried out, there was evidence of many symbols being used by Peter which had
probably contributed to the successful introduction of change into the firm.
In 1995, Peter took the opportunity to move to Firm B. The owner of Firm B
was looking for somebody with experience in implementing TQM in several
Symbols of change in organisational culture
5
industries. As change agent, Peter used many of the symbols that he had used
successfully in Firm A. However, reactions to them were negative as well as
positive. Peter left the firm after seven months, convinced that the culture of Firm B
would never allow TQM to be accepted there.
The next section gives several examples of symbols used by Peter to
reinforce the change that was taking place in structure and processes, as well as
recording some negative reactions to them.
SYMBOLS OF CHANGE
Making change visible
The first symbols of change introduced in both firms concerned the
appearance of the working environment. In Firm A, the factory floors were cleaned
up, aisles were painted on the floors, and walls, ceilings and machines were painted.
The very obvious change in appearance signalled that other changes were also
beginning to take place in the structure and processes of the firm.
Although some cleaning up and painting was carried out at Firm B, it was
already fairly orderly, so the change was not as obvious. Machines were painted in
the firm's colours, and new rubbish bins provided, also in the firm's colours.
However, the latter symbol of change had a mixed reception, not because of the
colours, but because the rubbish bins were too small. Instead of being seen as a
symbol of change, some people saw them as a symbol of lack of communication: "it
would have been more logical for them to have come and asked us what sort of
rubbish bin would have been appropriate". This impression was quickly rectified.
Someone must have told Peter, because within three weeks some large plastic bins
(in the firm's colours) appeared — a symbol of improved communication.
Other symbols of change appeared in the cafeteria. All factory staff (about 30
people) have morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea breaks at the same time. Before
Peter arrived, everyone helped themselves to drinks. A woman from the factory set
out the cups, tea, coffee, etc. beforehand and cleaned up afterwards. Some food
was ordered and brought in at lunch time. Peter immediately arranged the
employment of a woman to provide food and manage the cafeteria. He had
tablecloths made for the cafeteria tables. As well as instituting a staff newsletter, he
had the idea of making several copies and putting them in plastic stands (like the
ones that hold menus in some restaurants) on the cafeteria tables. The newsletters,
which aid communication, are thus easy to read.
Symbols of change in organisational culture
6
Making performance visible
As well as making change visible, Peter uses the TQM philosophy of making
performance visible in his method of training people to use TQM techniques. Before
starting at Firm B, he arranged for all their staff to come to Firm A and see TQM in
practice. Follow up, once he started at Firm B, included showing slides and videos
of successful New Zealand TQM implementations.
Symbols of making performance visible are evident everywhere on both
premises. At Firm A there are a lot of displays on the walls, both in the factory and in
the administration area. These include definitions of TQM, cartoons, slogans,
drawings of new models, and examples of good quality parts and parts with various
defects, as well as white boards recording production, defects, scrap and rework
numbers, delays, improvements, multiskilling, etc., and notice boards with
performance graphs and weekly staff notices.
On moving to Firm B, Peter duplicated many of these wall displays. One of
the staff commented on these symbols of change:
I've noticed that the first types of things that he's done — he's very heavy on
generalities, and visual reminders and vision and stuff like that. He doesn't
start by giving them texts of TQM philosophies, but he starts by putting some
of these little things round, which individually take very little, but [which
become] building blocks.
However, use of the whiteboards at Firm B differed between teams. One of
the teams, whose leader had worked overseas for a Japanese company also
practising TQM, was very quick at adopting everything introduced by Peter. Even
though they could not remember how Firm A used the board displaying the skills of
the team, they made their own version of it. Everyone in that team immediately
worked on learning everyone else's skills, and displaying this on the board. In
another area, on the other hand, the boards were unused for weeks, after initially
recording some defects in the first week. Only one person in that area recorded on
the multi-skill board that he was willing to learn a new skill. However, that person
seemed to have been making fun of the display of skills, saying that really he was
too busy to train.
Flexible workforce
Peter wanted to change the employment contract at Firm B to introduce
competency and skill-based compensation. He presented it as more pay for multiskilling — a symbol of the benefits of the changing structure and emphasis.
However, it was not accepted as a positive offer by some of the staff, who felt, "there
must be some ulterior motive." The employees' representatives came with a "long
wish list" which was costed out by the accountant, and would have cost the firm
$400 000. From the employees' perspective, some felt that "management took our
list away, read it, and then basically went ahead and did what they said they were
going to do before they met with the employees."
Symbols of change in organisational culture
7
Team work
At both firms, the whole work force is divided up into "process improvement
teams". The new team structure is a symbol of the TQM principles of employee
empowerment and team work. Instead of supervisors, each team has a team leader.
Team members are empowered to offer and implement suggestions for continuous
improvements. Each week each team has a meeting at which they discuss
improvement suggestions and the success or otherwise of earlier improvements
being implemented.
The effectiveness of these team meetings at Firm B varied. Some teams very
quickly caught on to the idea of having one improvement effort in process at once.
However, when the researcher observed team meetings five months after the
introduction of the team concept, some teams were still spending their meetings
discussing large numbers of changes, many of which were not within their control. At
one team meeting half the members were looking at magazines during the whole
meeting, and one was listening to his Walkman.
As a symbol of the TQM attitude towards employees, team leader vacancies
are advertised internally (in Firm A they are also advertised externally). Internal
applicants must apply in writing as if they were external applicants. Each applicant is
interviewed, looking at "leadership skills, communication skills, attention to detail,
adaptability, delegation type skills ...[and] job knowledge".
However, the process did not have the expected positive reading at Firm B.
One of the team members of the first team to have a team leader vacancy said,
"I think it's just an excuse for management to get the workers to do some of
management's work.... One person is applying for the job, because he wants
more money. I don't want the job. It would just give me something to worry
about. Some things are more important than money."
After one person had been selected, Peter said that those who missed out did
not know how to handle not getting the job, even though he counselled them
beforehand, and let them know gently that they did not have it. One person who
missed out promptly resigned, and rumours started to go around that management
had already decided who was to have the job.
No hierarchy
Peter used many symbols to demonstrate that there was no hierarchy in the
TQM system. When he began at Firm B, he spent the first week working beside the
employees in the factory, familiarising himself with all processes. This really
impressed some of the employees. Even when in a leadership role as chair of
meetings, Peter uses symbols of being equals, such as not sitting at the head of the
table, wearing casual clothes, and sitting in a relaxed posture (for example, with his
foot up on a chair). He always has meal breaks in the cafeteria with the factory staff.
It was noticeable that not many of the administrative staff did this.
Symbols of change in organisational culture
8
A learning environment
Peter said, "The aim of TQM is: don't tell them everything they should do —
let them see the sort of thing and let them learn by making mistakes and then
learning ways of continuous improvement." His own philosophy is one of continuous
learning, and he communicated this to his employees by recommending books to
them (and to the researcher!).
At Firm A, one of the staff read The Goal (Goldratt & Cox, 1986). Peter gave
it to several managers, and discussed with them what changes they needed to make
to incorporate the principles in the book. At Firm B he gave all the new team leaders
a copy of The One Minute Manager (Blanchard & Johnson, 1983) to read. If they
wrote him a one page summary of it, giving their impressions, he gave them the book
to keep. Another symbol of this attitude to learning was introduced at Firm B:
business periodicals were placed in the cafeteria so that all staff were able to read
them.
Peter's attitude to learning and teaching was evident when he chaired team
leaders meetings. He always commented on something good or gave praise before
asking questions and talking about changes. He used humour:
Team leader:My team want us to discuss overtime hours
Peter:
Magic wand broken down, has it?
and understandable analogies:
"There are two languages in a business: the language of things which you use
in the factory, and the language of money which management use. We want
you to try to be bilingual, try to talk in management language as well. When
you get to the end of an improvement project, ask the accountant to help you
to put your improvement into money terms. If you are improving the
profitability of the company it is going to make our jobs more secure";
and
"Introducing a change like TQM is like bull-rush. To start off with you're like
the person standing in the middle and everyone's standing at one end or the
other, but as they run past you catch one or catch two until after a while
you've got a few people in the middle with you who are also keen on the idea.
Then eventually you have so many people in the middle that the few who are
left at the end either drop out of the game or can't help but get caught as
well."
However, staff did not always perceive Peter as "practising what he was
preaching". Even at Firm A, where TQM was well established, staff said:
"Peter wouldn't let us do TQM unless we did it his way. Maybe he had seen
our suggested ways tried and maybe he knew that they wouldn't work, but we
perceived it as him imposing his way of doing TQM."
Another employee thought that this was because
"the company was in such a bad way that change had to be immediate and
accomplished within 12 months. Therefore Peter often had to say, 'Do it my
Symbols of change in organisational culture
9
way! It will work — you wait and see.' Although this is not the TQM way,
Peter had to be 'bossy' because of the time frame for change."
Meetings
Changing structures are indicated by several symbols associated with
meetings: who attends them, where they are held, and how performance measures
are presented at them.
On arrival at Firm A, Peter announced that the whole factory would stop for a
meeting every day for ten minutes. The managing director asked, "Do you know
what that's going to cost us?" Peter retorted, "No, but I have an idea what it's going
to save us!" At Firm A there is a short meeting of all team leaders 30 minutes after
work starts every morning. Production for the day and any problems that could
hinder it are discussed and solved. Before morning tea break, each team leader
then communicates that information to their team.
As soon as he started at Firm B, Peter instituted the same meetings, a symbol
of work force involvement. These meetings were received positively:
"Before people took it for granted that you knew what was going on in other
departments, so they didn't think to tell you. Now everyone knows."
"I find out what production I'm expected to do today, rather than them coming
about five minutes before they want it saying, 'Oh, by the way, we need such
and such!'"
"The morning meeting is the best we have."
The venue of these meetings is also a symbol. A former employee of Firm A
said, "The factory staff and the office staff never really saw each other." Now the
factory team leaders are in the office daily, at the meeting in the board room. They
also prepare their own reports on the computers and photocopier in the office.
How information is reported at Firm A has also changed. Instead of pages of
typewritten financial figures, team leaders report monthly with overheads and paper
copies of coloured graphs. These indicate visually whether or not continuous
improvement is occurring.
Rewards
At both firms employees were rewarded for employee involvement. For
example, at both venues, there was a free barbecue lunch for all staff after the
busyness of introducing a new model. At Firm A ten employees were selected, by a
draw, to attend a major rugby game. Free lunch was provided at the factory (on a
Saturday), and they were transported to and from the game by bus.
After a couple of months at Firm B, Peter held a "Hat Party" at his place on
the day of the Melbourne Cup horse races. He invited people from both firms, mostly
at management and team leader level, who had been particularly helpful to him in
implementing TQM. However, this symbol of reward for involvement was seen
negatively at Firm B. At one of the process improvement team meetings, someone
Symbols of change in organisational culture
10
brought up the fact that they were "still unhappy about the 'them and us' feeling with
management because not everyone was invited to the Hat Party."
Symbols of resistance to change
As Dermer (1990) states, "organizations are made up of a variety of
stakeholders attempting to satisfy their individual wants amidst a host of conflicts and
constraints.... [We see] management as attempting to control conflict and maintain
order but as being unable to do so completely" (p. 68). This was evident in the
differing rates of adapting to change in Firm B.
Even in Firm A, where TQM was well established, some employees had their
own symbols — of resistance to change. For example, some areas of the factory are
still called by their old names (e.g., "B" shop for the press shop) even though no-one
can remember why the names were given in the first place.
The accounting area had a number of symbols of their resistance to change.
Mason & Mitroff (1973) compare impersonalistic and personalistic modes of
presentation of information.
Impersonalistic displays include "formal models,
computer printouts and displays and company reports" (p. 484), that is, the usual
output of the accounting area. Personalistic modes include "stories, drama, role
plays, art, graphics, one-to-one contact and group discussions [using] technologies
for presentation [such as ] television, radio, films and telephones" (p. 484). Dermer
(1990, p. 73) describes the ways in which successful change entrepreneurs sensitise
themselves to the organisational climate: "Such techniques as 'management by
walking around' (Peters & Waterman, 1982), open door policies, behavioural surveys
and the management of culture".
He concludes that "one of accounting's
weaknesses lies in its inability to deal with this important component of organizational
life".
Although Peter used many of Mason & Mitroff's (1973) "personalistic" modes
of information display, and exhibited many of the techniques listed by Dermer, he
had difficulty trying to induce the financial controller at Firm A to use different
methods. For example, Peter asked the financial controller to provide summary
graphs, instead of the long written reports prepared for management meetings. As a
symbol of his resistance to change, the financial controller did not discontinue the
long, written report, but simply attached one page of graphs to the front of it.
There are many published examples of accounting change in TQM
environments (see, for example, Seglund & Ibarreche, 1984; Neumann & Jaouen,
1986; Lammert & Ehrsam, 1987; Patell, 1987; Turk, 1990; Turney & Anderson, 1989;
Woods, 1989a,b). Documented changes to accounting include: using non-monetary
measures of performance, simplification of reporting, reduced paperwork related to
purchasing, simplified accounting for work-in-process, simplified labour recording,
changes in bases for allocation of overhead, different classification of costs,
automation of manual accounting procedures, and simplification and continuous
improvement of the accounting systems.
Few changes had been made to accounting reports and procedures at Firm A.
Another symbol of the accounting area's resistance to change is the continued use of
manual accounting procedures, such as a manual cash book, even though there is a
computerised accounting system. Also, instead of updating standards as continuous
Symbols of change in organisational culture
11
improvement takes place, the standards have not been reviewed for more than ten
years.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Some of the symbols, such as painting the factory and advertising for team
leaders internally, were used by Peter in both firms, although with differing success.
Some symbols were only tried in one firm or the other, such as graphical displays of
performance measures at Firm A, and tablecloths, newsletters and magazines in the
cafeteria at Firm B. This is because Peter noted, from his experience in many TQM
implementations, that "TQM isn't a generic system, even within the same country.
You have to adjust to the culture of the firm as well."
Although Peter used many of the symbols of change that he had used
successfully in Firm A, he was not successful in implementing TQM in Firm B. His
opinion was that TQM was not succeeding in Firm B because of the strong, dominant
personality of the owner. The owner's way of managing "is to assign blame and
punish those blamed, in some cases for things that he has caused." Others
corroborated this assessment: "In the past you would get into hot water if you
criticised anything"; and, "[The owner] didn't give his managers a large degree of
autonomy to make their own decisions. Anything that was at all big — 'Oh, you'd
better check with T___.'" Another person said, "They've talked about TQM before
[Peter came] and it hasn't happened. I think that management actually didn't want it
to happen."
Resistance from the sub-cultures in the organisation may have been another
reason for the lack of success in changing the organisational culture. For example,
one team at Firm B was without a team leader for weeks. It was a member of this
team that thought that the team leader's extra remuneration was not worth the extra
work. This was also the team that did not use their whiteboard displays, and whose
members read and listened to the radio during team meetings.
Firm B also lacked a "success which [could] be attributed ... to the leader's
beliefs" (Gagliardi, 1986, p. 131), a prerequisite for cultural incrementalism, the sort
of change that was required in Firm B. According to Gagliardi (1986, p. 132), it is not
enough for the leader to "manipulate the symbolic field" — success needs to be
visible and attributable to the changes that the change agent has introduced.
One wonders whether Peter stayed long enough to allow change in the culture
to take place. Dermer (1990, p. 72) reminds us that
Successful change entrepreneurs are aware that ... a sustained process of
persuasion is needed to overcome resistance.... Various techniques are
used, some direct, some indirect: suggestions may be made or articles
circulated; visits arranged and seminars recommended; data marshalled and
arguments put forward. The essential thing, however, appears to be
perseverance.
Maybe cultural change could have been effected if Peter had persevered, continuing
to use symbols and demonstrate that the change to the culture was both permanent
and successful.
This paper has examined the relationship between symbolic actions by a
change agent and the cultures that he was attempting to change. One organisation
Symbols of change in organisational culture
12
was successfully re-oriented, while the other made an aborted or unresolved
excursion (Greenwood & Hinings, 1988). This paper has also attempted to provide
some understanding of the extent to which "symbolic management can promote or
produce cultural change" (Gagliardi, 1986, p. 119). However, there is scope for
many more empirical investigations of this relationship.
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NOTES
1
Fischer & Dirsmith (1995) refer to these conflicting elements within an
organisational culture as "subcultures"; Meek (1988) "multi-cultures", and Dermer
(1988, 1990) and Dermer & Lucas (1986) "stakeholders".