CULTURAL WEB Change Management

Student Name [Email address]

1

Table of Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 2

Culture Web analysis on Heinz Australia ...................................................................................................... 2

Key forces for and against change ................................................................................................................ 5

Key Strength of the new culture ................................................................................................................... 6

Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................... 9

References .................................................................................................................................................. 10

2

Introduction

“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives, it is

the one that is most adaptable to the change” Charles Darwin famously quoted about how

much change being important for survival and growth. It is the change in and around ourselves

based on the outside environment which ensures sustainability. The same theory is to be

applied on the organization, as the market has become dynamic and world is changing at the

breakneck speed it is important that organization around the world prepare themselves for the

continuous change and improvement to stay relevant in the market (Lepak, et al. 2006). In the

similar line, report discusses the case of Heinz Australia, which had turned into loss making

organization and everyone was doing the processes without thinking. Widdows, who turned

around the company in terms of culture and profitability is analyzed using the culture of web

analysis to understand his multi-dimensional change perspectives of the organization.The

theories and models of change management developed by thought leaders around the world

are used to implement the changes so that organization can implement such change

management practices related to culture web with greater ease at Heinz Australia. This essay

analyzes the Heinz Australia from the culture web and aims to explain important culture

changes that played important role in making the company profitable and self-sustainable to

become the market leader and innovative company.This report discusses how the elements of

culture web are instrumental in changing the culture at Heinz Australia and try to identify the

key forces for and against the change. Essay puts a strong argument that however be the

resistant to the changes based on external as well as the internal factors, organizations will

have to act upon the change management. Essay concludes that change management process

starts with problem identification which is instrumental step to solve any problem and moves

on identifying probable solution and selecting the best solution for the current environment

and implementing that change.

Culture Web analysis on Heinz Australia

Corporate Culture: To understand and analyze the culture changes at the Heinz Australia, first

we need to understand what corporate culture is and what constitutes it. People are most

3

important ingredient of building a corporate culture. Hence the emphasis is on building a

system that is self-correcting and improves as and when the mistake happens (Newell et al.

2009). It is the corporate culture that defines the common goal and how the organization is

open or closed to changes, challenges and handling issues at hand. It is based upon the values

of the corporate that are more or less harmonious among its employees.

Weiner (2009, p. 8) also emphasizes that change management is inevitable in today’s world but

to execute the change management, the organization readiness for the change is of paramount

importance. Hence the readiness of the organization for the change comes from the

organization culture of the company and this is also reflected in the mindset of the people.

Because it is the people who form the organization.

The Culture Web and its Elements that Changed Heinz Australia and Continue to Evolve:

The same organization culture has been depicted as a form of cultural web by Graetz et al.

(2010)

The Culture Web

*Source: Textbook:(Graetz et al. 2010)

4

The leadership changes carried out by Widdow’s for Heinz Australia with respect to the

corporate culture webis as follows.

Paradigm: Paradigm at Heinz Australia prior Widdow’s change was very negative, low risk and

punitive culture. The focus was very much inward where everything seemed like a too much

difficult or too much effort. Widdow brought in the feeling of positivity and transparency that

instilled confidence in the employee.

Routines and Rituals:Widdow’s defined one Mantra about the organization that “Great place to

Work”. Now to reflect this into every day ritual and routines, showing respect to each other and

listening to the opinion of everyone become part of their routine behavior in the organization

(Collins & Smith, 2006).

Stories:Stories spread across the organization by the senior management demonstrating ‘Walk

the talk’ approach in all their behaviors. This was led by Widdow’s on how we would behave

with towards others and how he expects other person to behave. Hence he served as a role

model for everyone in the organization whom everyone looked up to, including the senior

management and staff.

Symbolic Aspects:The symbolic expression of the great place to work was reflected in behavior

of the employees who were always ready contribute, challenge the complacency and innovate

new ideas. It is not an easy task to do but Widdow’s could achieve by constantly communicating

the same to its employees.

Power Structures: Widdow’s emphasized on removing the power structure and showing to its

employee that organization actually cares and respects them. The work life balance and mutual

trust between employer and employee was displayed by various initiatives such as flexible

working week, staff can take Friday off on daytime savings, and removing the monitoring of

staff.

Organizational Structures:Organizational structure at the Heinz Australia was changed by

reducing the 25% salaried staff, restructuring the board members by bringing in the middle

level board members. This clearly makes a statement that innovative ideas for the organization

5

comes from the middle and bottom level employees and to listen to them we need to bring

them on to the board. This also created the attitude change among its employee.

Control System:Control system is nothing but the measurement and reward system. Everyone

who contributed with innovative ideas, were rewarded by Widdow’s and the higher

management. This acts as a motivation for others as well as the one contributing the idea to

think and act more towards the betterment of the company. This is a continuous process where

everyone working on the day today activity decides to do it in better way and suggests it to the

superior. It was not the case earlier because people were afraid of speaking and thinking aloud.

The change in attitude and culture of the organization helped everyone to be more open and

positive.

Key forces for and against change

Key forces for and against the change are identified using the cultural web analysis of the

organization. During the analysis each element of the web describes the forces against the

change and the forces that can support the change.

Key Forces for the Change: Based on the Organization structure element, it becomes clear that

organization has been restructured to invite people from the middle management and

encourage their inputs. This will work for the new change to be implemented in the

organization as people will be more receptive towards the change.The symbolic aspect of

analysis states that behavior of the middle management has changed and it has become more

respectful and receptive towards the new ideas (Vinding, 2006). Hence this shows the trust in

the vision of the company and employee will be showing same level of behavior with the

subordinates and other members in and out of organization. The attitude and the positive work

environment of the company has played the major role in implementing the changes suggested

by Widdow’s. This has also led to the low attrition rate in the company that show loyalty for the

company.

6

Key Forces against the Change: The key forces against the changes for the organization was

identified in the routine and ritual analysis of the employee which showed very negative and

depressing work environment, lack of confidence by the higher management which felt that

every task is too much of an effort or too much difficult. This takes the optimism and faith out

of organization and becomes a inward focusing organization. The power structure also

suggested that board members did not include any one of the middle management hence there

was too much autonomy at the top and ideas and opinion of lower management were not

heard. For any organization to live Innovation is the important factor else the organization will

die (Roberts, 2007). Similarly in case of Heinz Australia, Innovation which was missing prior to

Widdow’s joining made the organization dull and dead. Lack of innovation and experiment led

to organization slipping into complacency and stagnancy.

Key Strength of the new culture

All the changes carried out as a part of change management has to comply with the overall

strategic objective of the company. The changes of openness, trust, challenging the status quo

that has been brought in the company is the basic ingredient of the innovative culture (Adams,

Bessant& Phelps, 2006).

Attitude and Behavior

The biggest strength of new culture is the change in the attitude and behavior of individual in

the way they treat each other with respect and hear everyone out with the opinion. This

ensures that nobody is taken for granted. The core belief of the company which was earlier

inward looking has now shifted to great place to work where innovation and experimentation

are encourages rather than looked down. The message was loud and clear from the top

management that we want to change, survive and grow with the help of employee

engagement, operational efficiency and desire to excel.

Openness and Transparency

Cultural norm determines what kind of knowledge is transferred in the given situation. Cultural

norm for the organization can range from rules, expectation, rewards and punishment. The

7

advantage for the Heinz Australia is that it has developed the culture of openness and

transparency, hence company is in the strong position because in the environment of

openness, knowledge flows to right people such that they are well equipped to handle the

future problems (Kang & Snell, 2009).

Loyalty and Commitment

Another key strength of the organization is that employee has developed a sense of loyalty

towards the company that is reflected in the lower attrition rate, also the level of engagement

with the superiors is high, this ensures that new learnings and knowledge stays within the

organization and is spread across the company to benefit others. This is possible because

employees has themselves answered the question why Heinz Australia is a great place to work.

When the employee themselves connect with the organization, it becomes a strategic force

where everyone is working together to achieve the common goal.

Self-learning mode of Continuous Improvement

Final key strength of the company is putting itself into the self-learning mode in present as well

as the future. The company is continuously learning and improving upon its mistakes and trying

harder to achieve better results. This is a process that has been set in and it will go a long way

in gaining the competitive advantage for the company.

Hence overall of culture of innovation and positivity has brought many direct as well indirect

benefits to the company which can sustain longer.

Aspect of organization that needs to be monitored and sustained

Sustain the Positive and Innovative Environment

We live in a very dynamic and globalized which has its advantages as well as the disadvantages.

The advantage being innovation at any corner of the world reaches you at the blink of a second.

This shows that how much we are coupled with the external environment. But it also has its

problem. Crisis in the external world also affect us and we are not immune to it. The global

financial crisis that brought challenges to many companies to shut down its operations. In the

8

time of such challenges, the aspect of Heinz Australia is not to bring back the culture of

negativity and pessimism and continue with the Mantra of great place to work. The positive

environment surrounded by the innovativeness and openness has provided the platform for the

employee to meet the challenges of the external world.

Avoid Complacency

Second aspect that company need to monitor is that even after becoming profitable and

successful, management should not become complacent. The basic behavior of mutual respect

and trust has to prevail for the organization to take leap bound. As the organization matures

and profitability becomes routine, it also tends to become complacent and stagnant (Alves et

al., 2007). Company has to ensure that culture of creativity and innovativeness prevails and

employee continuously communicated about the management vision.

Transparency and fairness

In terms of corporate ethics and practices, company has to treat its employee fairly. According

to cultural web – control system, the practice of reward and recognition to the right and

deserving candidate should be the practice in each unit of the company. This ensures that

deserving candidate is motivated to perform even better for the next time and other sub

ordinates are motivated to achieve the same.

Lead by example

Corporate culture of great place to work will have to sustained, to ensure that employees are

engaged with the organization and are willing to go extra mile to achieve the best. Widdow has

taken a great effort in changing the mindset and attitude of the individual to achieve the best

out of everyone and make the company profitable (Chen&Huang, 2009). His story of heroism

and selfless act should become part of story system of the cultural web as it will ensure that

employee have someone to look up to.

9

Innovations are facilitated by the flexibility and Heinz Australia has become flexible by being

open and innovative. This aspect has to be sustained over the period to bring in new innovation

and differences.

Conclusion

Heinz Australia which had slide into the pessimistic, inward focusing organization where people

were apprehensive to talk out openly was transformed into a successful and profitable

enterprise under the leadership of Widdow. The reason why Widdow was able to turn around

this organization was analyzed using the culture of web and the changes implemented by him

were focused on making the organization more open, transparent and sending the right

message to employee that Heinz Australia is the great place to work. The message was

delivered to the employees by higher and senior management by walking the talk. As the

culture of respect, mutual trust and openness evolved, people started discussing lot more ideas

and opinions. This lead to the lot of innovative thinking and experimentation that put Heinz

Australia on the path of profitability. First step in solving any problem is identifying one.

Widdow was quick enough to identify the problem of attitude and negativity, and took a

conscious effort to turn it around. The cultural web also helped in identifying the process of

change management adopted by Widdow and how it helped organization and its employee

turn more receptive towards the change rather than being reluctant. The paradigm of

negativity, lack of confidence and inward thinking shifted to the more open, transparent and

young organization that is not afraid to experiment and explore. Hence the cultural web

analysis helps a lot in identifying and analyzing the problems from various perspectives and to

come understand which system needs to be focused on for improvement.

10

References 1. Mento, A, Jones, R &Dirndorfer, W 2010, A change management process: Grounded in

both theory and practice, Journal of Change Management, vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 49-59

2. Chen, CJ&Huang, JW 2009, Strategic human resource practices and innovation

performance — The mediating role of knowledge management capacity, Journal of

Business Research, vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 104-14

3. Weiner, BJ 2009, A theory of organizational readiness for change,

ImplementationScience, vol. 4, no. 67

4. Newell, S, Robertson, M, Scarbrough, H & Swan, J 2009, Managing knowledge work and

innovation, Palgrave Macmillan,Basingstoke: New York

5. Kang, SC &Snell, SA 2009, Intellectual Capital Architectures and Ambidextrous Learning:

A Framework for Human Resource Management, Journal of Management Studies, vol.

46, no. 1, pp. 65-92

6. Vinding, AL2006,Absorptive capacity and innovative performance: A human capital

approach,Economics of Innovation and New Technology, vol. 15, no. 4-5, pp. 507–17

7. Graetz, F, Rimmer, M, Smith, A & Lawrence, A 2010, Managing Organisational Change,

3rd Edition

8. Lepak, DP, Liao, H, Chung, Y &Harden, EE 2006, A Conceptual Review of Human

Resource Management Systems in Strategic Human Resource Management Research, in

Joseph J. Martocchio (ed.) 25 (Research in Personnel and Human Resources

Management, Volume 25), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.217-271

9. Collins, CJ&Smith, KG 2006, Knowledge Exchange and Combination: The Role of Human

Resource Practices in the Performance of High-Technology Firms, Academy of

Management Journal, vol. 49, no. 3, pp. 544-60

10. Roberts, EB 2007, Managing Invention and Innovation, Research-Technology

Management, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 35-54

11. Moultrie, J & Young, A 2009, Exploratory Study of Organizational Creativity in Creative

Organizations, Creativity and Innovation Management, vol. 18, pp. 299–314

11

12. Çokpekin, O & Knudsen, MP 2012, Does Organizing for Creativity Really Lead to

Innovation?, Creativity and Management, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 304-15

13. Cooksey, RW 2011, Yours, Mine or Ours: What Counts as Innovation?, The Journal of

Agricultural Education and Extension, vol. 17, no. 3, pp. 283-95

14. Adams, R, Bessant, J, Phelps, R 2006, Innovation management measurement: A review,

International Journal of Management Reviews, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 21-47

15. Alves,J, Marques,MJ,Saur, I &Marques, P 2007, Creativity and Innovation through

Multidisciplinary and Multisectoral Cooperation, Creativity and Innovation

Management, vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 27–34