Culture Changing Initiatives, Essay Example

According to Hoffmann & Bateson (2010, p. 421), assessing the service culture in a firm needs to be based some important business principles. The main tool of assessment is a services audit, which is designed to analyze all aspects of service. There are several elements of the services, such as the profit and growth, customer satisfaction, employee loyalty, internal service quality, and leadership. If there is a shortfall in the quality in any of the elements, the overall quality of service will be affected. Further, the authors also state that managers should “go for a culture walk” (Hoffmann & Bateson, 2010, p. 432) in order to get a better picture about the quality of service, shared culture of the organization, and employee satisfaction.

Lovelock, Vandermerwe, Lewis & Fernie (2011, 1/18), in order to assess the processes within service delivery, it is important to analyze all the elements: product, place, time, quality, productivity, people, education and promotion, physical evidence, and price/cost. The authors also state that all the elements above are dependent on operations management and marketing, as well as human resources strategies.

Alvesson & Sveningsson (2008, p. 25), the drivers of change can be various; originated from market variation, new challenges, or the leadership. There are four different change metaphors the authors talk about: fix and maintain, build and develop, move and relocate, and liberate and re-create (p. 17).

Cameron & Quinn (1999) talk about using the competing values framework to assess organizational culture. The framework has two different dimensions: flexibility and control. When assessing the organizational culture in order to initiate change, it is important that managers decide whether they would like to focus on internal or external variables.

There are two main methods to understand the current culture of the organization: indirect questioning and observation (Hoffmann & Bateson, 2010). Culture interviews and surveys can provide leaders valuable information about employees’ perception about the company, their roles,  and what they would like to change.

The four culture changing initiatives that facilitate cultural change are TQM (total quality management), downsizing, re-engineering, and teamwork.

Total quality management has a great impact on customer satisfaction (Ronen & Pass, 1994). As the principles are applied to all departments, employees, and aspects of business, it promotes democracy. Further, it encourages the acceptance of shared values and culture. Total quality management is a powerful initiative that can transform organizations. In the case of a travel agency, for example, implementing this initiative can ensure that all agents work to a standard, therefore, those completing the booking will not have to correct mistakes on the booking forms.

Downsizing can be a tool that increases productivity, and – if done right – can increase remaining employees’ job satisfaction. When there are not enough tasks available, productivity drops, and employee motivation is reduced. Downsizing can increase productivity and employee motivation.

Re-engineering the organization can also increase productivity. The change needs to be originated from employee and customer survey findings. Meeting the needs of employees, market, and customers is equally important for a modern, quality service company.

Teamwork approach to initiating change is suitable for reinforcing culture within the organization and utilizing talent. It can also increase productivity and ensure that all employees have increased motivation and job satisfaction, which will have a positive impact on the quality of customer service and business performance.

References

Alvesson, M. & Sveningsson (2008) Changing organizational culture. Cultural change in progress. Routeledge.

Cameron, K. & Quinn, R (1999) Diagnosing and changing organizational culture based on the competing values framework. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall Series in Organizational Development

Hoffman, K., Bateson, J. (2010) Services Marketing: Concepts, Strategies, & Cases. Cengage Learning.

Lovelock, C., Vandermerwe, S., Lewis, B. & Fernie, S. (2011) Services marketing. Edinburgh Business School. pp. 1.16-1.17

Ronen, B. & Pass, S. (1994) Focused management: a business-oriented approach to total quality management. Management Philosophies. May/June 1994