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Herald GGF 24-Part Series Part 2_24 – Organisational Culture 19 April 2018

June 5, 2018 by GGF Africa in GGF Africa Library, Human Resources

 Organisational transformation imperatives in pre-election Zimbabwe: Organisational Culture Change (Part 2 of a 24-part weekly series) 

As we continue in the transformation journey, this week we focus on Organisational Culture Change as a key ingredient in building a winning institution. Most of us have experienced poor service from a service provider before…arriving at their office just before tea time to find them closing up for the break and telling you that whatever you need will have to wait until the time of their return. Remember how you felt as the customer? That employee was merely just showing you what their organisational culture was. 

Certain cultures drive away customers. They affect every aspect of your company, from the public’s perception of your brand to your employees’ job satisfaction to your bottom line. Because there’s so much at stake, it’s important that your corporate culture is adaptable and open to improvement – which starts with being able to articulate just what kind of culture your company has. Think about your organisation…what is your organisational culture? How do your employees interact with the clients or with each other? What are your corporate values and does your team know them and fully live them out? Is your culture enabling performance or holding back your team? If it is the latter, fear not… culture can be reoriented. 

Organisational Culture has become one of the most important words in many Zimbabwean corporate boardrooms, yet when it comes to shaping an organisation’s culture to achieve enduring advantage, many companies fall woefully short. Organisational culture affects how we, as individuals feel, behave and perform. More recently, sound science and corporate numbers show that culture drives performance…and leadership drives culture. Interestingly, the leaders define culture at the very top as can be seen with global megabrands like Apple. Apple’s organisational culture is a key factor in the company’s success. In Apple’s case, employees are effectively developed and integrated into an organisational culture that facilitates rapid innovation. Such innovation is observable in terms of products like the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. As a leader, what culture do you live out? 

Given the shifts in the operating environment (globally and locally), market leading institutions are dealing with the need for urgent, dramatic, and fast-moving changes in strategies for leadership, talent, and organisational performance. Lately we have seen an increase in Zimbabwean institutions undertaking culture surveys and reorientation programmes, aimed at clinching competitive advantage in their various sectors. Culture is the facilitator for achieving the broad strategic goals, but it is too often overlooked. 

Understanding that the way an institution goes about its business can be transformed, has seen the Government taking a firm stance on non-performing parastatals and state enterprises who have been advised to shape up and conform to the “business unusual” way of things or risk being dissolved. So what is it that you must do to transform your organisational culture so that it drives your strategy? 

You need to get your team on board – secure employee buy in. It is important that everyone understands that their current culture needs to transform to support the organization’s success and progress, change can occur. But change is not easy. By its very nature, changing your organisational culture is messy and challenging but is possible. 

Only 26% of organisational culture change efforts are successful according to a recent Global Survey. The rest of them fail not because the fundamentals were not done right, but because it was treated as an event and not as a process. As such, you need an organisational culture expert to guide you in navigating the tumultuous waters of change. You can change your organisational culture to support the accomplishment of your business goals. It only requires time, commitment, planning and proper execution—but you can do it. Yes, you can. 

This article was compiled by Lisa-Rufaro Marowa, a transformational strategist and resource mobilisation consultant at GENESIS GLOBAL FINANCE. The contents herein are for information purposes only. 

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