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Managing Organizational Culture: Compliance or Genuine Change?
Author(s) -
Ogbonna Emmanuel,
Harris Lloyd C.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
british journal of management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.407
H-Index - 108
eISSN - 1467-8551
pISSN - 1045-3172
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8551.00098
Subject(s) - extant taxon , organizational culture , culture change , compliance (psychology) , empirical research , value (mathematics) , enforcement , change management (itsm) , public relations , sociology , business , psychology , political science , marketing , epistemology , social psychology , social science , law , computer science , philosophy , evolutionary biology , machine learning , lean manufacturing , biology
The issue of managing culture is of key importance within management theory and practice. A number of extant studies have found that attempts to ‘manage’ culture frequently degenerate into the enforcement of espoused behaviours. The objective of this paper is to provide empirical evidence and discussion of the consequences of management attempts to change culture. The paper reviews existing theory pertaining to organizational culture change and presents the desire to control as the rationale for management attempts to modify culture. After a brief discussion of the research design and methodology employed, the findings of a single case study are presented. The findings suggest that within the case study organization, a recent change initiative had resulted in changes to material manifestations, behaviours and in some cases values. However, it is noted that modifications to values could be the result of ‘instrumental value compliance’. The paper culminates with conclusions, implications and suggestions for further research.