Culture Change Case #2
Healthcare Acquisition Case

Six months after the merger described in Change and Culture Case Study I, the new administration initiated a significant reduction in force. A decision was made to redesign patient care delivery. The administration's first job redesign recommendation was that of a universal worker. The universal worker would deliver many support services. Aware that this model often failed when implemented in other organizations, your administrator charged you with making redesign work this time.

How would you begin the process of job redesign? Do not consider only the universal worker.

The process of cutting staff is a common practice these days in hopes to lower the costs associated with healthcare (Eaton-Spiva, Buitrago, & Trotter, 2010). This is creating a plethora of problems in job satisfaction and hence job redesign demands the utmost attention in order to mitigate some of the common issues. Furthermore, it is estimated that nearly fifty…...

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Works Cited

Collins, J. (2001). Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't. New York: Random House.

Eaton-Spiva, L., Buitrago, P., & Trotter, L. (2010). Assessing and Redesigning the Nursing Practice Environment. The Journal of Nursing Administration, 36-42.

Intergrated Healthcare Strategies. (2010). Separation Arrangements in Healthcare. Retrieved February 15, 2011, from IH Strategies:  http://www.ihstrategies.com/articles/139.pdf 

Li, L. (2005). The effects of trust and shared vision on inward knowledge transfer in subsidiaries' intra- and inter-organizational relationships. International Business Review, 77-95.

Organizational culture change is noted by Kotler et al. .(1996) noted to be a common aspect of every organization. This is due to the fact that change is the only thing that can be said to be constant in any given organization. Organizational change is often met with a lot of resistance. This resistance can undermine the operations and the performance of any given organization. Kudler Fine Foods Virtual Organization recently had a change in the leadership of its accounting department. The first level manager in this department (Senior Accountant) was fired as a result of involvement in corporate fraud as well as nonperformance. He was however liked by the staff in that department since he was an inspirational figure to most of the junior accounting staff. His departure as well as the introduction of a new team leader and procedures (processes) would no doubt be met with a lot…...

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References

Barr, P.S., Stimpert, J.L. And Huff, A.S. (1992) "Cognitive Change, Strategic Action,

and Organizational Renewal," Strategic Management Journal, 13 (Special Issue),

pp. 15-36.

Hassink, F et al. (2009).Corporate fraud and the audit expectations gap: A study among business managers. Corporate fraud and the audit expectations gap: A study among business managers. Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation. Vol 18, Issue 2,, 85 -- 100

HOME DEPOT'S BLUEPINT FO CULTUE CHANGE
Start reading Harvard Business eview (HB) article: Charan, . (2006). Home Depot's Blueprint Culture Change. Harvard Business eview, April, Vol 84 Issue 4 p. 60-70. Assignment Expectations (Content) Based HB article Charan (2006),pages paper

Home depot's blueprint for culture change

Steps the team took to make the change

The Home depot team undertook four main steps to ensure that the company changed its mechanisms are metrics, processes, programs, and structures. Metrics involved describing the company values and making it clear what each person would be accountable for Charan, 2006.

This way each employee and manager would understand their role within the company and work as a team. Metrics also provided measurement data in areas that had never been measured before. The data revealed some discrepancies towards the company's held beliefs. Employee performance reviews were not standardized. Using the metric system the team implemented a standardized performance process that was…...

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References

Charan, R. (2006). Home Depot's Blueprint for Culture Change. Harvard Business Review, 84 (Issue 4), P 60-70.

Stanford, N. (2011). Corporate Culture: Getting It Right. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

BP Change Management
The forces that are driving BP to change are relatively weak compared with the forces that are restraining change. The driving forces are a pending legal action, and the fallout from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The further that the disaster is from the public consciousness -- it occurred in 2010 -- the less impactful it will be in terms of sparking organizational change. Change is typically motivated in organizations by crises that take the key players outside of their comfort zone. Deepwater Horizon can still be used as impetus for change, but it would have been more effective had the company immediately used the incident to spark a cultural overhaul back in 2010. To do it today simply demonstrates a lack of urgency, lack of commitment and a lack of leadership. The people within the organization would have reason to doubt that leadership is truly committed to change.

The…...

Ladies and Gentleman
Cultures change dramatically over time, and thus how we view different cultural and societal roles have also changed. In a modern context, where women are fighting for greater equality, what is considered gentlemanlike and ladylike has evolved since the time of Baldassare Castiglione's The Courtier. Although some elements remain relatively similar when comparing a modern idea of what a gentleman is, there are a number of clear distinctions that have changed dramatically.

Castiglione's The Courtier presents a very clear and defined sense of what it was like to be a gentleman and lady back in the 1500s, when it was written. Published in 1528, the work outlines both the characteristics of a gentleman, or courtier, and a perfect lady written in the style of fictional conversations. From this description, a character type can be generated, which can then be tested against the more modern connotation of gentleman characteristics. According…...

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References

Castiglione, Baldassarre. (1903). The Book of the Courtier. C. Scribner's Sons.

Reed, Austin. (2010). What do women expect of a 'modern gentleman'? Newslite. Web. http://newslite.tv/2010/09/30/what-do-women-expect-of-a-mode.html

Sayre, Henry M. (2011). Humanities: Culture, Continuity and Change. Volume 1. Pearson Education, Limited.

Home Depot's move to target professionals with wholesale is unusual given their competencies. Professionals do not need much staff advice -- they simply need selection and price. The core competencies that deliver these are in logistics and purchasing. Therefore, for Home Depot to effectively move into this market they need to focus on improving their performance in those areas. The company needs to cut its back-end costs. The company also needs to shift its brand image as well. This is difficult, because Home Depot cannot sacrifice the DIY market, of which it still holds a significant market share. The separate stores may help, but it would be easier if Home Depot could incorporate the professional market into its existing stores, to take advantage of its current purchasing and logistics efficiencies as well as its existing real estate holdings. The professional market should not be courted at the expense of the…...

Change
There are a few instances were a company tried to institute a large-scale organizational change effort and failed. One recent one was with the FedEx purchase of Kinko's. FedEx had decided that Kinko's would complement its business since they had many mutual customers. The shipping company also felt that if it could professionalize the information Kinko's it would improve the company's profitability. That was not to be. Kinko's had a strong organizational culture that was a bad fit with the FedEx culture. Kinko's culture was informal in nature, while FedEx has a formal culture based on a high level of professionalism. After years of failing to integrate Kinko's into the FedEx culture, FedEx ended up taking a massive writedown on the transaction and rebranding the subsidiary as FedEx Office in an attempt to kill off any remaining Kinko's culture within the organization.

The change was radical, not incremental. FedEx basically made…...

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References:

Morris, B., Neering, P. (2006). The new rules. Fortune International In possession of the author

Goldgeier, D. (2007). A ream of culture clashes at FedEx Kinko's. AdPulp. Retrieved May 5, 2013 from  http://www.adpulp.com/a_ream_of_cultu/ 

Deutsch, C. (2007). Paper jam at FedEx Kinko's. New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2013 from  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/05/business/05kinkos.html?_r=2&oref=slogin& ;

Change Management Scenario
The contemporary business environment is rapidly evolving. Globalization has taken over the organization environment, and with this business is forced to undergo continuous and rapid change driven by increasing stakeholder expectations, new technological advances, and competition that is not only global, but viral (Bendell, 2005). This has resulted in a dramatically different business environment in which the modern business, in order to survive and prosper, is forced to evolve and regularly revise their internal and external business processes. Typically, aggressive and rapid change management systems germinate within the private sector -- only after trial and error, testing, and numerous permutations did they become standard within the public sector organization. This paradigm, however, changed in the late 1990s with a combination of rising client expectations to effectively address major socio-culture, economic, and demographic issues, and change in governmental oversight and minimal requirements pushed management in the public sector to…...

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REFERENCES

Home Depot, Inc. (September 29, 2012). The New York Times. Retrieved from:

 http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/home_depot_inc/index.html 

Aluise, S. (January 19, 2012). Frank Blake Has Brought Home Depot Home. Investorplace.

Com. Retrieved from:  http://investorplace.com/2012/01/frank-blake-has-brought-home-depot-home/

This also has major implications for military operations, both within a military unit and in the interaction between the military unit and another culture. Essentially, the problem of ethnocentrism can be seen at the root of the other cultural problems discussed in this context; it implies both a lack of understanding about the impacts of the unit's culture on the people of a foreign culture, as well as a lack of appreciation and understanding for that culture (Hoskins 2007).

Conclusion

Culture is strange, in that it is both constant and always changing. The only static culture is a dead one; as the various elements and generations of a culture interact, change is bound to happen. When there is no longer any interaction within a culture or between a given culture and other cultures, there is no longer any point to that culture, and indeed that culture could not realistically exist -- in…...

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References

DiMarco, L. (2003). Traditions, changes, and challenges: Military operations and the Middle Eastern city. Diane Publsihing.

Harrison, D.; Light, L. & Rothschild-Boros, M. (2008). Cultural anthropology: Our diverse world. New York: Wadsworth.

Hoskins, B. (2007). "Religion and other cultural variable in modern operational environments." Accessed 16 October 2009.  http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA470675&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf 

O'Neil, D. (2007). "Characteristics of Culture." Accessed 16 October 2009. http://anthro.palomar.edu/culture/culture_2.htm

" Change must therefore be accomplished by the institution of a strong leadership of just a single individual (Kotter,1996,p.25) .In this case, the person was Ghosn. Change however requires a special team of leaders as well as managers who have a common goal that is communicated succinctly by the team leader. Ghosn therefore "walked the talk" since his leadership style which was transformational, brought real change to the organization.
Conclusion

It is important to note that for any organization to succeed, a balance must be struck between leadership and the management. This is because there can never be any form of transformation without a true leader. All successful organizational transformations are only achieved via the right mix of leadership and management.

eferences

Baggaley, B. 2006. Using strategic performance measurements to accelerate lean performance. Cost Management (January/February): 36-44

Cloud, C (2010). Epilogue: Change leadership and leadership development. New Directions for Community Colleges; Spring2010, Issue 149, p73-79,

Elving,…...

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References

Baggaley, B. 2006. Using strategic performance measurements to accelerate lean performance. Cost Management (January/February): 36-44

Cloud, RC (2010). Epilogue: Change leadership and leadership development. New Directions for Community Colleges; Spring2010, Issue 149, p73-79,

Elving, W, JL (2005) "The role of communication in organisational change," Corporate Communications: An International Journal, Vol. 10 Iss: 2, pp.129-13

Kotter, J.P. (1995), "Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail," Harvard Business Review, March-April, 59-67

Changing Environment of Human Resources Management
Describe the business case for having HR report to the CEO/President in large organizations.

The Human Resources (HR) function in many firms, particularly in large firms with functional specialties, has traditionally been perceived as an administrative function that plays a support role in recruiting, training, paying, and retaining (or firing) members of the workforce. HR has also been seen as supporting other managers in providing a safe workplace and dealing with labor-relations issues. Over the past decade, as down-sizing has occurred throughout much of the corporate world, business cases have been made to reduce the size of the overall HR function, to outsource elements of the HR function such as pay or training, and to offload HR duties to other managers. This paper posits that a business case exists for retaining a strategic HR function in organizations, and for having the senior HR person report directly…...

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Bibliography

Barney, Jay and Patrick Wright. On Becoming A Strategic Partner: The Role of Human Resources In Gaining Competitive Advantage. Human Resource Management, Spring, 1998, Vol. 37, No. 1, pages 31-46.

Beatty, Richard, Jeffrey Ewing and Charles Tharp. HR's Role in Corporate Governance: Present and Prospective. Human Resource Management, Fall, 2003, Vol. 42, No. 3,-page 257-269.

Enns, Harvey and Dean McFarlin. When Executives Influence Peers: Does Function Matter? Human Resource Management, Summer, 2003, Vol. 42, No. 2, pages 125-142.

Fischer, Heinz and Klaus Mittorp. How HR Measures Support Risk Management: The Deutsche Bank Example. Human Resource Management, Winter, 2002, Vol. 41, No. 4, pages 477-490.

The offering of financial incentives, in the form of salary increases, premiums and bonuses, is often the most popular means of employee motivation. Non-financial means, such as flexible working schedules or promotion opportunities, also constitute a powerful source of stimulated employees (Bruce, 2002).
The realization of the important role played by the staff members within the Smith & Falmouth Company would lead to several beneficial effects. At an individual level, the employees would feel better valued and they would as such increase their loyalty to the organization, their commitment to supporting the entity achieve its goals and their performances. At the group level, the teams would be more united and better prepared to deal with organizational chores. In terms of the entity, it will be better able to pursue its interests.

b) Communications

The ability to communicate effectively and efficiently is the pillar of any successful organizational outcome. Communication in the workplace…...

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References:

Bruce, a., 2002, How to motivate every employee: 24 proven tactics to spark productivity in the workplace, McGraw-Hill Professional, ISBN 0071413332

Hickman, C.R., 2005, Management malpractice: how to cure unhealthy practices that disable your organization, Adams Media, ISBN 1593373503

Noe, R.A., 2004, Fundamentals of human resource management, ISBN 730209683X

Acheology
THE ROLE OF CULTURE AND ENVIRONMENT IN THE EVOLUTION OF HUMANITY

Undestanding the evolution of humanity has been one of the most citical quests fo most individuals in the cuent society. The intesection between envionmental influences and cultue ceates an aea of social inteest with a focus on human evolution. Empiical eseach shows that the society plays a significant ole in shaping the evolution of human beings as evidenced by psychological analysis of human evolution. The extaodinay coopeative natue of human beings aises moe questions on the peceived changes of human behavio and inteaction ove time (Hawkes, Paine, & School, 2006). Among the factos that dive human beings to stive to undestand thei evolution, include paleoanthopology esults that povide unique infomation that povides significant evidence to the aspects of human evolution postulated to have occued millions of yeas ago. Results fom fossil studies such as inceasing bain size and the emegence…...

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references: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 cultures. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 12(01), 1 -- 14.

Croll, E., & Parkin, D. (2002). Bush Base, Forest Farm: Culture, Environment, and Development. Routledge.

Darlington, P.J. (1978). Altruism: Its characteristics and evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 75(1), 385 -- 389.

Eagly, A.H., & Wood, W. (1999). The origins of sex differences in human behavior: Evolved dispositions vs. social roles. American Psychologist, 54(6), 408 -- 423.

Foley, R. (1995). The adaptive legacy of human evolution: A search for the environment of evolutionary adaptedness. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews, 4(6), 194 -- 203

Customer Service
We shall, for the purposes of this paper, accept the proposition that we are moving from a culture that can be categorized as "you get what I give" to one where the customer is always right. In the real world, there are companies that do either, depending on their business model. But for the sake of argument we will assume the position of a company that is seeking to shift from the former to a more customer-centric vision of customer service. There are two elements to such a shift -- operational and cultural. Operations can be laid out in such a way that barriers to customer service that may have existed in the past are now removed, for example. Yet, because service is inherently customer-oriented, based on interactions, it is critical that the organization shifts to a customer-service-based culture. This is a massive cultural shift from an organizational culture…...

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References

Brady, M. & Cronin, J. (2001). Customer orientation: Effects on customer service perceptions and outcome behaviors. Journal of Service Research. Vol. 3 (3) 241-251.

Homburg, C., Muller, M. & Klarmann, M. (2011). When does salespeople's customer orientation lead to customer loyalty? The differential aspects of relational and functional customer orientation. Journal of the Acad. Mark. Sci. Vol. 39 (2011) 795-812.

Leggett, K. (2014). Forrester's top trends for customer service in 2014. Forrester. Retrieved March 22, 2014 from  http://blogs.forrester.com/kate_leggett/14-01-13-forresters_top_trends_for_customer_service_in_2014 

Linnenluecke, M. & Griffiths, A. (2010). Corporate sustainability and organizational culture. Journal of World Business. Vol. 45 (2010) 357-366.

This essay examines the meaning of culture and provides several possible titles and topics that may be used as starting points for developing a paper on culture. It discusses the definition of culture, how culture is developed, and how cultures change. It shows how cultural identity and cultural differences are formed and how culture diversity is a fact of life. It also explains why in spite of diverse cultures commonly existing in one group there is usually a dominant culture that comes to the fore and is promoted by the leaders of the group. The essay closes with recommendations for other ways in which a paper on culture can be written.
Culture is the heart and soul of a society, group or organization: it is the manifestation of what a particular set of people thinks, feels, believes in, and holds as ideal. It is the communication of what a people view…...

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Cultural Norms: Shaping Human Behavior in Societies

Cultural norms are unwritten rules, customs, and values that guide and shape human behavior within a particular society. They provide a framework for individuals to understand what is considered acceptable and unacceptable, appropriate and inappropriate, within their cultural context. Cultural norms play a profound role in shaping human behavior in various societies, influencing everything from social interactions to economic decisions.

Internalization and Conformity:

Cultural norms are internalized through socialization processes, such as education, family upbringing, and interactions with peers. As individuals grow up, they learn and adopt the norms of their society and internalize them as....

## Systemic Formulation: A Comprehensive Approach to Organizational Complexity

Systemic formulation is a powerful tool that enables a comprehensive understanding of complex issues within organizations. It considers organizations as dynamic, interconnected systems where individual elements influence and are influenced by the overall system. By adopting a systemic perspective, organizations can gain valuable insights into complex challenges and develop more effective solutions.

Understanding Organizational Complexity

Organizations are not static entities but rather complex, evolving systems. They are composed of multiple interconnected parts, including individuals, teams, departments, and external stakeholders. Systemic formulation recognizes the interdependence of these elements and their collective impact on organizational outcomes.

By....