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Journal of Organizational Change Management

ISSN : 0953-4814

Article publication date: 23 June 2021

Issue publication date: 20 September 2021

The purpose of this case study is to gain insight into how a cultural change process develops as a result of organizational transformation.

Design/methodology/approach

This case study employs an ethnographic and longitudinal research design. The transformation period of the organization is described by means of desk research and interviews with the management. Simultaneously, the cultural change process is described following four organizational mindset analyses.

This paper supports the theoretical assumption that culture changes as a reaction to transformation. However, in this case study, culture is also proven to be proactive, in that it emerged a year before the actual transformation was carried out. It is believed that the announcement of the new transformation caused a shift in the organizational mindset, enabling its members to deal with a situation of high uncertainty and stress. Whether the cultural change process in reaction to the transformation will evolve into a new sustainable cultural equilibrium could not yet be determined.

Originality/value

This study has contributed to comprehending the relationship between transformation and the process of cultural change. Cultural change is not solely a reaction to transformation. It can also be proactive in that it emerges before the transformation is carried out. That makes cultural change both proactive and reactive in relation to transformation, an insight that, as such, has not yet been discussed in the cultural theory.

• Organizational culture
• Cultural change
• Change process
• Organizational transformation
• Change management
• Organizational change
• Public management
• Public change
• Critical event

Acknowledgements

This paper has been commissioned and funded by the secretary of Nieuw-West. The analysis of the mindset was part of a more extensive case study, lasting from 2011 to 2014, in which the organizational development was monitored.

The research was designed and conducted by the researcher. The role of Nieuw-West was limited to approving the suggested research question. During the research period, the results of each measurement were presented to Nieuw-West employees that were interested in the research. The secretary has approved using the data for research and publication purposes. Nieuw-West was not involved in writing nor submitting this paper.

Smit, W. (2021), "Insight in cultural change during organizational transformation: a case study", Journal of Organizational Change Management , Vol. 34 No. 5, pp. 1047-1062. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-08-2020-0255

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• Original Article
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• Published: 19 December 2017

GOOGLE: a reflection of culture, leader, and management

• Sang Kim Tran 1 , 2  

International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility volume  2 , Article number:  10 ( 2017 ) Cite this article

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This paper provides a viewpoint of the culture and subcultures at Google Inc., which is a famous global company, and has a huge engineering staff and many talented leaders. Through its history of development, it has had positive impacts on society; however; there have been management challenges. The Board of Directors (BoDs) developed and implemented a way to measure the abilities of their managers, which helped to identify problems. This paper will analyze the case study of Harvard Business Review, Oxygen Project, and clarify the management problem in Google’s organization. It will also compare Google with Zappos, a much smaller organization, and present how the BoDs of Zappos assesses its culture and subcultures. In this paper, we will recommend eight important points to building an organizational culture that is positive for stable growth of a company. We believe that much of what be learned could be useful to other business leaders, regardless of company scale.

Introduction

In a large society, each company is considered a miniature society (Mawere 2011 ). Similar to large societies with large cultures, small societies also need to build their own cultures. A culture is influenced by many factors and determines if it is a great culture. Corporate culture requires both the attention to the efficiency of production and business and to the relationship among people in the organization closely (Bhagat et al. 2012 ). Regardless if it is a large or a small organization, it must encounter issues of cooperation among individuals and groups. There are many factors leading to the success of business process re-engineering in higher education (BPR), the main four elements are culture, processes, structure, and technology. Culture is listed as number one (Ahmad et al. 2007 ). Hence, culture becomes the most important factor to the success of the development of a business. Organizational culture is the set of shared beliefs (Steiber and Alänge 2016 ), values, and norms that influence the way members think, feel, and behave. Culture is created by means of terminal and instrumental values, heroes, rites and rituals, and communication networks (Barman n.d. ). The primary methods of maintaining organizational culture are through the socialization process by which an individual learns the values, expected behaviors, and necessary social knowledge to assume their roles in the organization. In addition, (Gupta and Govindarajan 2000 ) and Fig.  1 in (Ismail Al-Alawi et al. 2007 ) illustrates that culture was established by six major factors, such as information systems, people, process, leadership, rewarding system, and organization structure. Therefore, there is a wide variety of combined and sophisticated cultures in the workplace, especially in big corporations like Google, Facebook, Proctor & Gamble, etc. Each organization tends to have a common goal, which is to create a culture that is different from other companies and to promote their teams to be creative in developing a distinctive culture (Stimpson and Farquharson 2014 ). Clearly, we can see that Google’s culture is different than others. What makes this company unique and different from others, as well as the dominant cultures and subcultures existing at this company? How do leadership behaviors impact the organizational culture? By operating a case study of a Harvard Business Review to analyze its organizational culture, subsequently, having compared it with Zappos’ culture, this paper will clarify the similarities and differences in managing organizational cultures between them and consider whether the solutions for the problems can be applied to other business models, and for tomorrow leaders or not?

Trends of using product by information searching

Company overview

This part shows how Google became famous in the world and its culture and subcultures made it a special case for others to take into consideration. Google is one of the few technology companies which continue to have one of the fastest growth rates in the world. It began by creating a search engine that combined PageRank system, developed by Larry Page (ranking the importance of websites based on external links), and Web search engine, created by Sergey Brin (accessing a website and recording its content), two co-founders of the company (Jarvis 2011 ; Downes 2007 ). Google’s achievements absolutely do not come from any luck. Google has made extra efforts in creating an index of a number of websites, which have been up to 25 billion websites. This also includes 17 million images and one billion messages to Usenet group (Downes 2007 ). Besides searching for websites, Google users are able to search for PDF files, PostScript, documents, as well as Microsoft, Lotus, PowerPoint and Shockwave files. Google processes nearly 50% of search queries all over the world. Moreover, it is the number one search option for web users and is one of the top five websites on the Internet, which have more than 380 million users and 28 billion visits every month, and more than 50% of access from countries outside the US (Desjardins 2017 ). Google’s technology is rather special: it can analyze millions of different variables of users and businesses who place advertisements. It then connects them with millions of potential advertisements and gives messages of advertisement, which is closest to objects in less than one second. Thus, Google has the higher rate of users clicking advertisements than its opponent Yahoo, from 50 to 100%, and it dominates over 70% market share of paid advertisements (Rosenberg 2016 ). Google’s self-stated mission: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful (Alves n.d. ).” Nowadays, it is believed that people in the world like “Google” with words “the useful-lively information storage”.

Predominant culture at Google

The dominant culture in the organization depends on the environment in which the company operates the organization’s objectives, the belief system of the employees, and the company’s management style. Therefore, there are many organizational cultures (Schein 2017 ). The Exhibit 3.1 at page 39 in (Schein 2009 ) provides what culture is about. For example, employee follows a standard procedure with a strict adherence to hierarchy and well-defined individual roles and responsibilities. Those in competitive environments, such as sales may forget strict hierarchies and follow a competitive culture where the focus is on maintaining strong relationships with external parties. In this instance, the strategy is to attain competitive advantages over the competition. The collaborative culture is yet another organizational way of life. This culture presents a decentralized workforce with integrated units working together to find solutions to problems or failure.

Why do many large companies buy its innovation? Because its dominant culture of 99% defect-free operational excellence squashes any attempts at innovation, just like a Sumo wrestler sitting on a small gymnast (Grossman-Kahn and Rosensweig 2012 ). They cannot accept failures. In fact, failure is a necessary part of innovation and Google took this change by Oxygen Project to measure the abilities of their multicultural managers. This means that Google itself possesses multiple different cultures (see Google’s clips). Like Zappos, Google had established a common, organizational culture for the whole offices that are distinctive from the others. The predominant culture aimed at Google is an open culture, where everybody and customer can freely contribute their ideas and opinions to create more comfortable and friendly working environment (Hsieh 2010a ).

The fig.  2 .1 in chapter two of (Schein 2009 ) and page 17 in part one of (Schein 2017 ) provide us three levels of culture which are Artifacts, Espoused values and Underlying assumptions helping us to understand the culture at Google. At page 84, in (Schein 2009 ), the “artifacts” are identified such as dress codes, level of formality in authority relationships, working hours, meeting (how often, how run, timing), how are decisions made, communication, social events, jargon, uniforms, identity symbols, rites and rituals, disagreements and conflicts, balance between work and family . It seems that Google is quite open in these artifacts by showing a respect for uniform and national culture of each staff individually and giving them the right to wear traditional clothes.

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Working at Google, employees enjoy free food served throughout the day, a volleyball court, a swimming pool, a car wash, an oil change, a haircut, free health care, and many other benefits. The biggest benefit for the staff is to be picked up on the day of work. As assessed by many traffic experts, the system set up by Google is considered to be a great transport network. Tad Widby, a project manager and a traffic system researcher throughout the United States, said: “I have not seen any larger projects in the Bay Area as well as in urban areas across the country” (Helft 2007 ). Of course, it is impossible for Google to “cover up the sky”, so Yahoo also started implementing the bus project for employees in 2005. On peak days, Yahoo’s bus also took off. Pick up about 350 employees in San Francisco, as well as Berkeley, Oakland, etc. These buses run on biofuels and have Wi-Fi coverage. Yet, Danielle Bricker, the Yahoo bus coordinator of Yahoo, has also admitted that the program is “indirectly” inspired by Google’s initiative (Helft 2007 ). Along with that, eBay recently also piloted shuttle bus transfers at five points in San Francisco. Some other corporations are also emerging ideas for treatment of staff is equally unique. Facebook is an example, instead of facilitating employees far from the workplace; it helps people in the immediate neighborhood by offering an additional $10,000 for an employee to live close to the pillar within 10 miles, nearby the Palo Alto Department (Hall 2015 ).

When it comes to Google, people often ask what the formula for success is. The answer here is the employees of Google. They create their own unique workplace culture rules to create an effective work environment for their employees. And here are the most valuable things to learn from Google’s corporate culture (Scott 2008 ) that we should know:

Tolerate with mistakes and help staff correct

At Google, paying attention to how employees work and helping them correct mistakes is critical. Instead of pointing out the damage and blaming a person who caused the mistake, the company would be interested in what the cause of the problem was and how to fix it as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Also as its culture, we understand that if we want to make breakthroughs in the workplace, we need to have experimentation, failure and repeat the test. Therefore, mistakes and failures are not terrible there. We have the right to be wrong and have the opportunity to overcome failure in the support of our superiors and colleagues. Good ideas are always encouraged at Google. However, before it is accepted and put into use, there is a clear procedure to confirm whether it is a real new idea and practical or not?

Exponential thought

Google developed in the direction of a holding company - a company that does not directly produce products or provide services but simply invest in capital by buying back capital. In the company, the criteria for setting the ten exponential function in lieu of focusing only on the change in the general increase. This approach helps Google improve its technology and deliver great products to consumers continuously.

Of course, every company wants to hire talented people to work for them. However, being talented is an art in which there must be voluntary work and enthusiasm for the work of the devotees. At page 555 in (Saffold 1988 ) illustrated that distinctive cultures dramatically influencing performance do exist. Likewise, Google, Apple, Netflix, and Dell are 40% more productive than the average company which attracts top-tier employees and high performers (Vozza 2017 ). Recognizing this impact, Google created a distinctive corporate culture when the company attracted people from prestigious colleges around the world (West 2016 ; Lazear and Gibbs 2014 ).

Build a stimulating work environment

When it comes to the elements that create creativity and innovation, we can easily recognize that the working environment is one of the most important things. Google has succeeded in building an image of a creative working. Google offices are individually designed, not duplicated in any type of office. In fact, working environment at Google is so comfortable so that employees will not think of it as a working room, with a full area of ​​work, relaxation, exercise, reading, watching movies. Is the orientation of Google’s corporate culture to stimulate creativity and to show interest in the lives of employees so that volunteers contribute freely (Battelle 2011 )?

Subculture is also a culture, but for a smaller group or community in a big organization (Crosset and Beal 1997 ). Google, known as the global company with many more offices, so there are many subcultures created among groups of people who work together, from subcultures among work groups to subcultures among ethnic groups and nations, multi-national groups, as well as multiple occupations, functions, geographies, echelons in the hierarchy and product lines. For example, six years ago, when it bought 100 Huffys for employees to use around the sprawling campus, has since exploded into its own subculture. Google now has a seven-person staff of bicycle mechanics that maintains a fleet of about 1300 brightly-colored Google bikes. The company also encourages employees to cycle to work by providing locker rooms, showers and places to securely park bikes during working hours. And, for those who want to combine meetings with bike-riding, Googlers can use one of several seven-person (Crowley 2013 ).

Leadership influences on the culture at Google

From the definition of leadership and its influence on culture; so what does leader directly influence the culture existed? According to Schein, “culture and leadership are two sides of the same coin and one cannot understand one without the other”, page three in (Schein 2009 ). If one of us has never read the article “Google and the Quest to create a better boss” in the New York Times, it is listed in a priority reading. It breaks the notion that managers have no change. The manager really makes a difference (Axinn 1988 ; Carver 2011 ). In fact, a leader has a massive impact on the culture of the company, and Google is not an exception. The leaders of Google concerned more about the demands and abilities of each individual, the study of the nature of human being, an appreciation their employees as their customers. At Google, the founders thought they could create a company that people would want to work at when creating a home-like environment. It is real that they focus on the workplace brings the comfort to staff creatively and freely (Lebowitz 2013 ).

In my opinion, a successful business cannot be attributed solely from a single star; that needs the brightness of all employees. It depends very much on the capacity and ability to attract talented people. It is the way in which the leader manages these talents, is the cornerstone of corporate culture. One thing that no one can deny is that a good leader must be a creator of a corporate culture so that the employees can maximize capabilities themselves (Driscoll and McKee 2007 ; Kotter 2008 ).

To brief, through the view of Google’s culture, BoDs tended and designed to encourage loyalty and creativity, based on an unusual organizational culture because culture is not only able to create an environment, but it also adapts to diverse and changes circumstances (Bulygo 2013 ).

Company growth and its impact

“Rearrange information around the world, make them accessible everywhere and be useful.” This was one of the main purposes set by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they first launched Google on September 4th, 1998, as a private company (Schmidt and Rosenberg 2014 ). Since then, Google has expanded its reach, stepped into the mobile operating system, provided mapping services and cloud computing applications, launched its own hardware, and prepared it to enter the wearable device market. However, no matter how varied and rich these products are, they are all about the one thing, the root of Google: online searching.

1998–2001: Focus on search

In its early years, Google.com was simply one with extreme iconic images: a colorful Google logo, a long text box in the middle of the screen, a button to execute. One button for searching and the other button are “I’m feeling lucky” to lead users to a random Google site. By May 2000, Google added ten additional languages to Google.com , including French, German, Italian, Swedish, Finnish, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Norwegian and Danish, etc. This is one of the milestones in Google’s journey into the world. Google.com is available in over 150 languages (Scott 2008 ; Lee 2017 ).

2001–2007: Interface card

A very important event with Google around this time was the sale of shares to the public (IPO). In October 2003, Microsoft heard news of the IPO, so it quickly approached Google to discuss a buyout or business deal. Nevertheless, that intention was not materialized. In 2004, it was also the time when Google held a market share of 84.7% globally through collaboration with major Internet companies, such as Yahoo, AOL, and CNN. By February 2004, Yahoo stopped working with Google and separately stood out for engine search. This has led Google to lose some market share, but it has shown the importance and distinctness of Google. Nowadays, the term “Google” has been used as a verb just by visiting Google.com and doing an online search (Smith 2010 ). Not stopping at the homepage search, Google’s interface tag began to be brought to Gmail and Calendar with the links at the top of the page. Google homepage itself continues to use this style.

In 2006, Google also made an important acquisition to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion (Burgess and Green 2013 ). However, the company decided to keep YouTube as a separate brand and not to include it in Google Video search. Thanks to the backing of an Internet industry giant, YouTube has grown to become the world’s largest online video sharing service (Cha et al. 2007 ).

2007–2012: Navigation bar, Google menu, Google now

Google began to deploy a new navigation bar located at the edge of the screen. It includes links to a place where to look for photos, videos, news, maps, as well as buttons to switch to Gmail, Calendar, and other services developed by the company. In the upper left corner, Google added a box displaying Google + notifications and user accounts’ image. Google Now not only appeared on Android and it’s also brought to Chrome on a computer as well as iOS. All have the same operating principle, and the interface card still appears as Android it is.

2013–2014: Simplified interface

Google has moved all of the icons that lead to its other applications and services to an App Drawer button in the upper right hand, at the corner of the screen. In addition, Google.com also supports better voice search through the Chrome browser. Google has experimented with other markets, such as radio and print publications, and in selling advertisements from its advertisers within offline newspapers and magazines. As of November 2014, Google operates over 70 offices over 40 countries (Jarvis 2011 ; Vise 2007 ).

2014–2017: Chrome development and facing challenges

In 2015, Google would turn HTTPS into the default. The better website is, the more users will trust search engine. In 2016, Google announced Android version 7, introduced a new VR platform called Daydream, and its new virtual assistant, Google Assistant.

Most of Google’s revenue comes from advertising (Rosenberg 2016 ). However, this “golden” business is entering a difficult period with many warning signs of its future. Google Search is the dominant strength of Google and bringing great revenue for the company. Nonetheless, when Amazon surpassed Google to become the world’s leading product in the search engine in last December, this advantage began to wobble. This is considered a fatal blow to Google when iOS devices account for 75% of their mobile advertising revenue (Rosenberg 2016 ).

By 2016, the number of people installing software to block ads on phones has increased 102% from 2015. Figure  1 illustrates that by the year’s end, about 16% of smart phone users around the world blocked their ads whilst surfing the web. These were also two groups having the most time on the Internet, high-earners and young people; however, these people have disliked ads (see Fig. 1 ).

Figure  2 shows the young people have the highest ad blocking rates. It is drawing a gloomy picture for the sustainable development of the online advertising industry in general and Google in particular. Therefore, in early 2017, Google has strategies to build an ad blocking tool, built into the Chrome browser. This tool allows users to access ads that have passed the “Coalition for Better Ads” filter so as to limit the sense of discomfort (see Fig. 2 ).

For the company impact, the history shows that speedy development of Google creates both economic and social impacts to followers in a new way of people connection (Savitz 2013 ). In this modern world, it seems that people cannot spend a day without searching any information in Google (Chen et al. 2014 ; Fast and Campbell 2004 ), a tool serves human information seeking needs. Even though when addressing this paper, it is also in need the information from Google search and uses it as a supporting tool. Nobody can deny the convenience of Google as a fast and easy way to search (Schalkwyk et al. 2010 ; Jones 2001 ; Langville and Meyer 2011 ).

Research question and methodology

In order to get the most comprehensive data and information for this case analysis, a number of methods are used, including:

Research data and collect information were mostly from the Harvard Study (Project Oxygen), which has been selected because it is related to the purpose of our study.

Data collection and analysis has been taken from Google Scholar and various websites related researches. We look at the history of appearance, development, and recognize the impacts of this company, as well as the challenges and the way the Board of Directors measures the abilities of their manager when the problem is found.

Analyzing: It was begun by considering expectations from the Harvard Study. Subsequently, considering the smaller organization (Zappos) in comparison of how its cultures and subcultures are accessed as well. Since then, the paper has clarified the management problem that Google and Zappos confront and deal with it so as to help other businesses apply this theoretical practice and achieve its goal beyond expectations.

In our paper, we mainly use the inductive method approach by compiling and describing the other authors’ theories of corporate culture, especially Google and Zappos in merging and comparing, analyzing them and making our own results.

From the aspects of the research, the questions are suggested as below:

What is the most instrumental element found from the Harvard study?

Is there any difference and similarity between a huge company and a smaller enterprise in perspective of culture and subculture?

What makes Google different from others, the dominant cultures as well as subcultures existing? How do leadership behaviors impact on the organizational culture?

How organizational culture impacts on business achievements?

The Harvard study

Project oxygen summary.

This project began in 2009 known as “the manager project” with the People and Innovation Lab (PiLab) team researching questions, which helped the employee of Google become a better manager. The case study was conducted by Garvin (2013) about a behavior measurement to Google’s manager, why managers matter and what the best manager s do. In early days of Google, there are not many managers. In a flat structure, most employees are engineers and technical experts. In fact, in 2002 a few hundred engineers reported to only four managers. But over time and out of necessity, the number of managers increased. Then, in 2009, people and team culture at Google noticed a disturbing trend. Exit interview data cited low satisfaction with their manager as a reason for leaving Google. Because Google has accessed so much online data, Google’s statisticians are asked to analyze and identify the top attributes of a good manager mentioned with an unsolved question: “Do managers matter?” It always concerns all stakeholders at Google and requires a data-based survey project called Project Oxygen to clarify employees’ concern, to measure key management behaviors and cultivate staff through communication and training (Bryant 2011 ; Garvin et al. 2013 ). Research −1 Exit Interviews, ratings, and semiannual reviews. The purpose is to identify high-scoring managers and low-scoring managers resulted in the former, less turnover on their teams, and its connection (manager quality and employee’s happiness). As for “what the best managers do”, Research-2 is to interview high and low scoring managers and to review their performance. The findings with 8 key behaviors illustrated by the most effective managers.

The Oxygen Project mirrors the managers’ decision-making criteria, respects their needs for rigorous analysis, and makes it a priority to measure impact. In the case study, the findings prove that managers really have mattered. Google, initially, must figure out what the best manager is by asking high and low scoring managers such questions about communication, vision, etc. Its project identifies eight behaviors (Bulygo 2013 ; Garvin et al. 2013 ) of a good manager that considered as quite simple that the best manager at Google should have. In a case of management problem and solution, as well as discussing four- key theoretical concepts, they will be analyzed, including formal organizational training system, how culture influences behavior, the role of “flow” and building capacity for innovation, and the role of a leader and its difference from the manager.

Formal organizational training system to create a different culture: Ethical culture

If the organizational culture represents “how we do things around here,” the ethical culture represents “how we do things around here in relation to ethics and ethical behavior in the organization” (Key 1999 ). Alison Taylor (The Five Levels of an Ethical Culture, 2017) reported five levels of an ethical culture, from an individual, interpersonal, group, intergroup to inter-organizational (Taylor 2017 ). In (Nelson and Treviño 2004 ), ethical culture should be thought of in terms of a multi-system framework included formal and informal systems, which must be aligned to support ethical judgment and action. Leadership is essential to driving the ethical culture from a formal and informal perspective (Schwartz 2013 ; Trevino and Nelson 2011 ). Formally, a leader provides the resources to implement structures and programs that support ethics. More informally, through their own behaviors, leadership is a role model whose actions speak louder than their words, conveying “how we do things around here.” Other formal systems include selection systems, policies and codes, orientation and training programs, performance management systems, authority structures, and formal decision processes. On the informal side are the organization’s role models and heroes, the norms of daily behavior, organizational rituals that support or do not support ethical conduct, the stories people tell about the organization and their implications for conduct, and the language people use, etc. Is it okay to talk about ethics? Or is ethical fading the norm?

The formal and informal training is very important. The ethical context in organizations helps the organizational culture have a tendency to the positive or negative viewpoints (Treviño et al. 1998 ). The leader should focus on providing an understanding of the nature and reasons for the organization’s values and rules, on providing an opportunity for question and challenge values for sincerity/practicality, and on teaching ethical decision-making skills related to encountered issues commonly. The more specific and customized training, the more effective it is likely to be. Google seemed to apply this theory when addressed the Oxygen Project.

How culture influences behavior

Whenever we approach a new organization, there is no doubt that we will try to get more about the culture of that place, the way of thinking, working, as well as behavior. And it is likely that the more diverse culture of a place is, the more difficult for outsiders to assess its culture becomes (Mosakowski 2004 ).

Realizing culture in (Schein 2009 ) including artifacts, espoused valued and shared underlying assumptions. It is easier for outsiders to see the artifacts (visual objects) that a group uses as the symbol for a group; however, it does not express more about the espoused values, as well as tacit assumptions. In (Schein et al. 2010 ), the author stated: “For a culture assessment to be valuable, it must get to the assumptions level. If the client system does not get to assumptions, it cannot explain the discrepancies almost always surface between the espoused values and the observed behavioral artifacts” (Schein et al. 2010 ). Hence, in order to be able to assess other cultures well, it is necessary for us to learn each other’s languages, as well as adapt to a common language. Moreover, we also need to look at the context of working, the solution for shared problems because these will facilitate to understand the culture better.

According to the OCP (Organizational Culture Profile) framework (Saremi and Nejad 2013 ), an organization is with possessing the innovation of culture, flexible and adaptable with fresh ideas, which is figured by flat hierarchy and title. For instance, Gore-Tex is an innovative product of W. L. Gore & Associates Inc., considered as the company has the most impact on its innovative culture (Boudreau and Lakhani 2009 ). Looking at the examples of Fast Company, Genentech Inc., and Google, they also encourage their employees to take challenges or risks by allowing them to take 20% of their time to comprehend the projects of their own (Saremi and Nejad 2013 ). In (Aldrich n.d. ), it is recorded that 25%–55% of employees are fully encouraged and giving a maximum value.

The famous quote by Peter Drucker , “Culture eats strategy for Breakfast” at page 67 has created a lot of interest in (Manning and Bodine 2012 ; Coffman and Sorensen 2013 ; Bock 2015 ). Despite we all know how important culture is, we have successively failed to address it (O'Reilly et al. 1991 ). The organizational research change process from the view of Schein ( 2009 ); it is a fact that whenever an organization has the intention of changing the culture, it really takes time. As we all acknowledge, to build an organizational culture, both leader and subordinate spend most of their time on learning, relearning, experiencing, as well as considering the most appropriate features. Sometimes, some changes are inevitable in terms of economic, political, technological, legal and moral threats, as well as internal discomfort (Kavanagh and Ashkanasy 2006 ; Schein 1983 ). As the case in (Schein 2009 ), when a CEO would like to make an innovation which is proved no effective response, given that he did not get to know well about the tacit implications at the place he has just come. It is illustrated that whatsoever change should need time and a process to happen (Blog 2015 ; Makhlouk and Shevchuk 2008 ). In conclusion, a new culture can be learned (Schein 1984 ), but with an appropriate route and the profits for all stakeholders should be concerned by the change manager (Sathe 1983 ).

It is true that people’s behavior managed by their types of culture (Kollmuss and Agyeman 2002 ). All tacit assumptions of insiders are not easy for outsiders to grasp the meaning completely (Schein 2009 ). It is not also an exception at any organization. Google is an example of the multicultural organization coming from various regions of the world, and the national or regional cultures making this multicultural organization with an official culture for the whole company.

In this case, the organizational culture of Google has an influence on the behaviors of manager and employee. In addition, as for such a company specializes in information technology, all engineers prefer to work on everything with data-evidence to get them involved in the meaningful survey about manager (Davenport et al. 2010 ). Eventually, Google discovered 8 good behaviors of manager, which effect to the role of “flow” also (Bulygo 2013 ; Garvin et al. 2013 ).

The role of the “flow” and building capacity for innovation

More and more people are using the term of “patient flow”. This overview describes patient flow and links to theories about flow. Patient flow underpins many improvement tools and techniques. The term “flow” describes the progressive movement of products, information, and people through a sequence of the process. In simple terms, flow is about uninterrupted movement (Nave 2002 ), like driving steadily along the motorway without interruptions or being stuck in a traffic jam. In healthcare, flow is the movement of patients, information or equipment between departments, office groups or organizations as a part of a patient’s care pathway (Bessant and Maher 2009 ). In fact, flow plays a vital role in getting stakeholders involved in working creatively and innovatively (Adams 2005 ; Amabile 1997 ; Forest et al. 2011 ). An effective ethical leader must create flow in work before transfer it to employees for changing the best of their effort to maintain, keep and develop “flow” in an engineering job, which job be easier to get stress. Definitely, Google gets it done very well.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the knowledge from my Master course, a credit of managing culture which helps me to write this paper. The author also gratefully acknowledges the helpful comments and suggestions of the reviewers and Associate Professor Khuong- Ho Van, who provided general technical help that all have improved the article.

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Sang Kim Tran

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Tran, S.K. GOOGLE: a reflection of culture, leader, and management. Int J Corporate Soc Responsibility 2 , 10 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40991-017-0021-0

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Company Culture Is Everyone’s Responsibility

• Denise Lee Yohn

A top-down approach doesn’t work anymore.

A top down approach to building company culture no longer works for several reasons. For one, Covid-19 has upended how leaders interact with employees and how coworkers connect with each other. Next, company culture has grown in importance, thanks to recent high-profile crises at big name companies. A new culture-building approach is already in place at some organizations, one in which everyone in the organization is responsible for it. Importantly, this model doesn’t relegate culture-building to an amorphous concept that everyone influences but no one leads or is accountable for. And it weaves in perspectives from employees to customers, from middle managers to the CEO.

Here’s how organizational culture might have been handled in the past: The CEO commissions the Human Resources department to produce an effective company culture. HR designs a campaign to tout a mission statement and core values that the CEO and senior management developed. HR also implements some employee perks like free snacks in the break room or monthly birthday celebrations. Maybe they also field an annual employee engagement survey and report results back to the CEO. And then with their culture-building to-do lists completed, the CEO and HR move on to other priorities.

• Denise Lee Yohn is a leading authority on positioning great brands and building exceptional organizations, and has 25 years of experience working with world-class brands including Sony and Frito-Lay. Denise is a consultant, speaker, and author of What Great Brands Do: The Seven Brand-Building Principles that Separate the Best from the Rest and the new book FUSION: How Integrating Brand and Culture Powers the World’s Greatest Companies .   

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Explore the Levels of Change Management

How to Successfully Navigate Culture Change Management

Neely McHarris

Updated: May 6, 2024

Published: March 1, 2024

Over 20 years, we've learned that changing a company's culture is tough. Often, new plans fail because people aren’t on board—and some don’t even get along. This is where good culture change management helps.

At Prosci, we use a clear, step-by-step plan to manage culture change. A plan helps get everyone involved and reduces resistance. It's a good approach that ensures employees are more connected so that communication improves and the company's goals match its culture—leading to lasting improvements.

This guide shows you how to understand your company's culture, get everyone's support, and implement effective culture change, making your company stronger and more adaptable. 

Lead your organization through a successful culture change with expert insights from Prosci.  

Understanding Culture Change Management and Why It Matters

Workplace culture reflects the collective attitudes and behaviors of employees. Thus, culture change in the workplace is more than just a strategic shift—it's a transformation of beliefs and behavior. The change influences everything from employee satisfaction to business goals.

Change to an organization's culture can happen for many reasons—a merger or acquisition, senior leadership changes, hiring practices, or an intentional change to how the company thinks and operates. During the pandemic, for example, leaders recognized the significance of culture change management as the work environment, interpersonal communications, and employee expectations needed changing.

Unsurprisingly, 87% of respondents in the Prosci Best Practices in Change Management – 12th Edition study cited understanding organizational cultural awareness as important or very important.

Importance of Organizational Culture Awareness

The virtu a l l a ndsc a pe a lso me a ns we h a ve fewer touchpoints a nd a re more likely to miss beh a vior cues. Much more intention is required.

Prosci research on emergent contributors to change success reflects this reality, revealing culture change management as one of the top five contributors to long-term success in the post-pandemic era. 

Contributors to Success That Are Emerging or Growing in Importance

Managing Culture Change Effectively

Your first step toward successful change is to understand what’s changing. In rapidly evolving industries, aligning culture change initiatives with broader business strategies is crucial. During culture ch a nges, we a d vise clients to bre a k down the initi a tives into specific beh a viors. Wh a t a re you a ctu a lly a sking people to do differently? The closer their beh a viors connect to the outcomes of a str a tegic initi a tive, the more credibility they h a ve. Typic a lly, it a lso a llows beh a vior to connect to the bottom line.

We recommend utilizing the Prosci 10 Aspects of Change Impact model to capture a yesterday-versus-tomorrow view to understanding what's changing.

Prosci 10 Aspects of Change Impact 

While each impact of the 10 aspects is key in building your change plan, leadership should focus on critical behaviors and mindsets.

Critical behaviors: Your key to immediate change

Critical behaviors are the near-term changes you want to see in your organization's culture. These require a senior-level leadership commitment. Leadership's active and visible display of these behaviors is essential for long-term behavior changes to take hold in people across the organization.

Using sponsor coalitions and change agent networks is critical for instilling the behaviors you're looking for while supporting the people who must adopt them.

Example: Steps to deploying culture change management in DEI

An organization wanted to encourage more inclusive meetings as a part of its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiative. Prosci helped the organization successfully implement the change by following these steps:

• We spoke with employees across the organization to better understand what inclusion meant to them and how they would like to be included. This helped both define a future vision and identify early adopters.
• Once senior leaders outlined these new principles, we could enlist a coalition of other leaders and use them as change agents to demonstrate early wins.
• This approach helped employees to experience the new culture being implemented by influential networks.

The positive outcomes showed up in that year's engagement survey six months later.

Mindset shifts: Long-term goals

Changing how employees think and act at work takes time. It usually takes about 18 months for mindset shifts because everyone needs to start doing things differently and make that the new normal.  The key to making change easier is using a common change management language. Working together towards change is easier when everyone understands the same terms and ideas.

Prosci uses this approach to implement change management within organizations. Our goal is to build a change-ready culture where everyone is familiar with:

• The Prosci ADKAR® Model – Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. It's a sequential framework that enables people to move through their individual transitions, break through barriers, and get the support they need for success.
• The CLARC roles for people managers – Communicator, Liaison, Advocate, Resistance manager and Coach. Communicators share information, liaisons connect different groups, advocates champion the change, resistance managers remove barriers to change, and coaches help guide everyone. Individual contributors know their roles and can support the outcomes during change.
• Executives perform the ABCs of Sponsorship – Active and visible participation throughout the change, Building a coalition of sponsorship, and Communicating support and promoting the change to impacted groups.

The first step is ensuring everyone knows why the change is happening and wants to help make it happen. Then, training helps everyone understand how to make the change work individually. With effective change management, people from all levels of the organization can be successful in adopting a culture change.

4 Tips for Effective Culture Change Management

1. Communicate openly

Effective communication involves employees in the change process, thereby earning their support. Don't just disseminate information. Create dialogues, take employee feedback , understand concerns, and address them constructively. Download our free feedback form here .

During a culture change, it's critical to celebrate the behaviors you are looking for from employees. Continue to reinforce senior leaders visibly displaying these behaviors yourself. It shows that employees who want to succeed in this company should behave this way.

2. Involve middle management

Middle management , and especially people managers, acts as the crucial link between executive vision and the workforce. A bottom-up approach ensures that the perspectives and insights of employees at all levels inform and shape the change process, making it more inclusive and sustainable.

Leaders should actively and visibly display the behaviors and cultures your organization wants to see. This includes building this culture into your recruiting and onboarding tactics. It should also be part of the performance goals for all leaders.

3. Gamify the transition

4. Address resistance to change proactively

Resistance to change often stems from a lack of understanding or fear of the unknown. Here are some possible scenarios for resistance and ways to deal with them:

• Mergers – Determine which behaviors you want to retain from each merging company. Crafting a new, unified narrative helps align employees with the envisioned culture.
• Mass layoffs – Being as transparent as possible and being quick about it. Creating plans for people managers to have conversations with employees who remain with the organization.
• Losing a founder – Quickly shaping a vision and creating a culture where employees see themselves building the future.
• Sudden shift to remote work during emergencies – During the mandatory shift to remote work , staying calm, listening to employees, being transparent, and providing support have proven crucial in adapting to the new norm.
• Incorporating diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) – Starting with a common language helps overcome preconceived notions and unify the workforce under shared goals.

The Prosci Methodology and tools, as well as the Prosci Change Management Certification Program , offer structured approaches to managing culture change in the workplace.

5 Key Strategies for Culture Change With Prosci

Get started on a successful culture change by following these steps:

• Share your vision – Start defining and sharing your goal for change, ensuring everyone knows the direction.
• Engage leaders – Get your leaders involved to lead by example, following the ADKAR Model for support.
• Promote openness – Encourage everyone to share their thoughts and feedback, building trust and easing the change process.
• Celebrate achievements – Acknowledge and reward the behaviors that align with the new culture to motivate everyone.
• Adjust as needed – Keep an eye on progress and be ready to fine-tune your strategy based on what you learn.

Applying these strategies will enhance your ability to steer culture change in the workplace effectively.

Case Studies Showing Culture Change Management in Action

Let's look at two businesses that deployed culture change management successfully with help from Prosci.

SURA Asset Management

SURA Asset Management navigated significant regulatory changes and embarked on disruptive projects, including digitizing their pensions department and introducing a flex-office initiative. Recognizing the critical role of change management in these endeavors, SURA partnered with Prosci Global Partner Faculta (now Prosci Latam-Iberia) to enhance its change management capabilities.

Through role-based Prosci training for key personnel and leveraging the Prosci Advisory Services, SURA:

• Expanded its client base
• Decreased its client turnover
• Increased its pension enrollments
• Reduced operational costs by $240K
• Gained $706K in customer loyalty and retention savings

SURA Asset Management's successful use of Prosci change management strategies led to major savings, more clients and better retention, showcasing what happens when you apply change effectively.

Florida Hospital

Florida Hospital effectively adopted extensive systems and departmental changes by integrating the Prosci change management tools and the Prosci Methodology .

The hospital invested in Prosci change management training for its staff, led by a dedicated change practitioner.

The strategy successfully:

• Created a culture of change at all levels of the organization
• Trained over 100 practitioners
• Helped employees understand in the theoretical aspects and practical applicability of change management

Charting the Path Forward to Successful Culture Change Management

Navigating enterprise culture change management is a complex yet achievable endeavor. Aligning change with broader business strategies, involving the workforce, and leveraging tools like the Prosci ADKAR Model offer a solid path to success. No matter where you are on your journey, an effective approach to change management helps you build an adaptable, resilient organizational culture that can thrive under constant change.

Neely McHarris is a change practitioner, educator and DEI leader who supports a variety of client engagements, including enterprise resource planning and human capital management systems implementations. Leveraging the Prosci Methodology and ADKAR® Model, she coaches people and teams through changes, enabling them to break through barriers to adoption and transition successfully. Neely has a bachelor’s degree in communications and media studies, and master’s degrees in both theology and student affairs in higher education. She also holds a graduate certificate in organizational leadership and is a Conflicts Dynamics Profile (CDP®) certified facilitator.

See all posts from Neely McHarris

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Culture and Change Management

For future-ready companies, there’s no such thing as a one-and-done transformation. BCG builds the capabilities and culture that drive always-on change, so businesses can evolve in the right ways, at the right time—every time.

Transformation doesn’t have an off button. New opportunities, new disruptions, and new demands and expectations all come wave after wave. Successful companies continually adapt—almost on the fly. Sparking ongoing, on-demand transformation requires a fundamental shift in capabilities and a significant organizational culture change. But if the effort is substantial, so too is the reward: sustainable value creation.

Our Approach to Culture and Change Management

Three out of four large-scale transformations fail to meet their objectives. But there are ways to flip the odds: leadership commitment, a focus on culture, executional excellence, and inspiring and supporting people amid change. Our approach to organizational culture and change management combines all of these elements.

We use behavioral science to guide change management and to gain insight into what blocks or accelerates organizational culture change. We help leaders encourage, support, and ingrain new ways of working. And we build the capabilities to track and manage the current transformation—and all the transformations to come.

Our human-centric approach is built upon four key pillars:

1. Desired Culture

How you adapt, innovate, collaborate, and build a diverse and inclusive workplace : culture drives it all. We help create a high-performance culture that embraces and fuels always-on transformation. It starts with building momentum for culture change by quickly launching low-lift “no regret” practices (like recognizing employees for transformation-positive behaviors). That’s followed by articulating the unique set of cultural traits that support business strategy, activating them through leader and organization-wide practices, and embedding the culture and change in organization structures, processes, and policies.

2. Leader Enablement

Successful transformations share one characteristic: leaders who lead with their head, heart, and hands. This means envisioning the future and aligning on priorities (the head), inspiring and empowering people (the heart), and executing and innovating with agility (the hands). While most transformations address the head and the hands, relatively few focus on the heart. Yet in our experience, engaging all three translates to a 96% chance of sustained transformation success . So a big part of our work is creating agents of change: leaders who make a compelling case for change, model new behaviors, communicate with empathy, and demonstrate care amid transformation.

3. People Engagement

Transformations are disruptive: strategy changes, operations change, processes change. And these successive waves of change have a profound impact on an organization’s people. We take a human-centric approach to change management consulting because when people thrive, organizations thrive. This means making sure that employees feel seen and supported, that they understand what is happening and why, that they are motivated by the vision, and enabled to contribute and deliver. Through scientifically-backed engagement and communications tactics, we help companies identify what sparks and what hinders transformation—and activate the most important enabler of them all: people.

4. Executional Certainty

Change programs have many interconnecting components: new technologies, new priorities, new capabilities, new ways of working. Getting everything in sync—and ensuring sustainable value delivery--requires dedicated, hands-on management of the overall effort. We help organizations create, and empower, a transformation office —a hub for tracking progress, sparking new behaviors, and adjusting course when necessary. We bring adaptive, end-to-end program management models and strong governance to every engagement, helping clients keep change on track—and on point.

Our Impact on Culture and Change Management

We partner with organizations across the private and public sectors to spark the behaviors and mindset that turn change into value. Here’s some of our work in culture and change.

As part of a 12-week transformation, BCG worked with a global pharmaceutical company to help leaders articulate the case for change and foster clear communication between management and the workforce. This laid the foundation for a transformation that yielded $500 million in cost reduction, an earnings growth rate jump from 15% to 20%, and a rise in market value of $20 billion.

To accelerate a transformation for a leading brewery group, we helped leaders craft a shared purpose , articulate that purpose to employees, and involve people at all levels of the organization in changing organizational culture. This fueled a transformation that, over seven years, helped the company’s share price double, earnings per share rise 147%, and cash returns more than quadruple.

BCG worked with a South American telco to improve its procurement program by successfully investing in organizational culture change. Our change management consultants helped leaders engage staff throughout the process, communicate the purpose, and provide support through upskilling. The effort saw the company achieve $283 million in savings by creating a more adaptive procurement program.

Our Culture and Change Management Tools and Solutions

BCG’s culture and change experts are supported by an array of proprietary solutions: cutting-edge applications of AI, deep learning, and advanced analytics that ensure lasting performance improvements. Here’s some of our toolkit.

OrgVantage. The best starting point for transformation is knowing where you stand—and where change matters most. A holistic diagnostic, this tool assesses organizational effectiveness and helps companies zero in on advantages that can boost performance and engagement. It efficiently diagnoses, analyzes, and roadmaps meaningful organization improvement opportunities for large-scale transformations.

Momentum Meter.   Research has found that people’s attitude toward change is influenced by two factors. The first is confidence, or individuals’ belief in their ability to succeed. The second is mental capacity, or their bandwidth to complete complex tasks. These factors shift over time—often rapidly—and are affected by what is happening in their work life and personal life. Our meter is a weekly pulse check, supported by powerful analytics, that examines employee sentiment during periods of change and that provides insights that spark timely and precise interventions.

Transformation Academy. Developed by BCG change management consultants and transformation experts, this online and live learning program is tailored for each client and uses real case studies to ensure transformation best practices.

Key by BCG . Through configurable dashboards—connecting organizational data to advanced analytics tools—this tool facilitates fast, data-driven decision making. Used across all levels of an enterprise, it helps ensure value delivery and true P&L impact.

Culture Diagnostic. Culture can make or break a transformation. Our diagnostic tool helps organizations get the lay of the land—and zero in on the behaviors and beliefs that foster growth and value—before changing organizational culture.

Ready, Willing, Able. Employees are the lifeblood of transformation, which makes it crucial to know their sentiment towards change. This survey helps companies understand how ready, willing, and able their workforce is to adapt successfully.

Our Latest Insights on Culture and Change Management

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Analyzing massive data sets in real time, generating unbiased insights, enabling prompt course correction: an AI-based approach is powering up—and radically transforming—initiative management.

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Meet Our Culture and Change Management Consulting Team

BCG’s culture and change management consultants come from different regions and different backgrounds, but they’re guided by a shared belief: the best transformations don’t just improve processes, they create an environment for sustained success. Here’s some of our team.

Managing Director & Partner

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Safeguarding Against Insider Fraud : Protecting Enterprises in the Digital Age

I n the contemporary landscape of cybersecurity, the threat of insider fraud persists as a formidable challenge for enterprises worldwide. Recent cases prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) underscore the enduring nature of this threat, highlighting the need for proactive measures to mitigate risks and protect organizational integrity.

The Ever-Present Threat

From ancient times to the modern era, the specter of betrayal from within has loomed large in the annals of history. The recent case of a cybersecurity consultant exploiting stolen proprietary information to extort a vendor organization exemplifies the audacity with which insiders leverage their access for personal gain.

Case Study: Cybersecurity Consultant Extortion

In this instance, a cybersecurity consultant utilized stolen proprietary information to demand a substantial ransom from a vendor organization, threatening to expose confidential files unless their demands were met. This brazen act underscores the vulnerability organizations face from insiders with access to sensitive data.

Case Study: Healthcare Executives Embezzlement

Similarly concerning is the case of two executives at a healthcare claims processing company orchestrating a multi-million-dollar embezzlement scheme over eight years. By fabricating vendors and invoices, these insiders exploited their positions of trust to siphon funds undetected, eroding organizational integrity in the process.

Understanding the Risks

Insider fraud, particularly within large corporations, often involves high-ranking individuals exploiting their positions and privileged access to sensitive information. Executives wield considerable influence and autonomy, making traditional detection methods challenging to implement effectively.

The Complexity of Insider Fraud Schemes

The sophistication and complexity of insider fraud schemes pose significant challenges for detection and prevention efforts. Executives adeptly conceal fraudulent activities, leveraging their knowledge of internal processes and systems to evade scrutiny and perpetrate deceit over extended periods.

The Human Element: Motivations and Opportunities

Understanding the motivations behind insider fraud is essential for devising effective prevention strategies. While financial gain is a common incentive, other factors such as resentment, greed, or coercion may also drive individuals to engage in fraudulent activities. Moreover, opportunities for insider fraud abound in organizations with lax internal controls, inadequate oversight, or a culture that condones unethical behavior.

Building Resilience: Strategies for Prevention

Addressing the pervasive threat of insider fraud requires a proactive and multifaceted approach. By implementing robust internal controls, fostering a culture of transparency, and leveraging advanced technologies, organizations can fortify themselves against the risks posed by insider malfeasance.

Robust Internal Controls

Regular audits, risk assessments, and stringent oversight mechanisms are essential components of effective internal controls. By monitoring transactions, access privileges, and employee behavior, organizations can detect anomalies and mitigate risks proactively.

Promoting a Culture of Transparency

Cultivating a culture of transparency and ethical behavior is paramount for preventing insider fraud. By instilling values of integrity and accountability, organizations foster an environment where fraudulent activities are less likely to occur and where employees feel empowered to report suspicious behavior.

Leveraging Technology and Analytics

The integration of advanced analytics and AI technologies can enhance detection capabilities, enabling organizations to identify patterns indicative of fraudulent behavior. By leveraging automation and data-driven insights, enterprises can proactively mitigate risks and respond swiftly to potential threats.

Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing

Collaboration between industry stakeholders, law enforcement agencies, and regulatory bodies is crucial for combatting insider fraud on a broader scale. Sharing best practices, insights, and threat intelligence facilitates collective efforts to identify emerging trends, develop countermeasures, and strengthen resilience against insider threats.

Regulatory Compliance and Industry Standards

Compliance with regulatory requirements and adherence to industry standards play a pivotal role in mitigating insider fraud risks. By implementing robust security protocols, data protection measures, and compliance frameworks, organizations demonstrate their commitment to safeguarding sensitive information and preserving stakeholder trust.

In conclusion, the recent cases from the SDNY underscore the persistent and evolving nature of insider fraud in the digital age. As organizations navigate an increasingly complex cybersecurity landscape, proactive measures, including robust internal controls, a culture of transparency, and technological innovation, are imperative for safeguarding against the pernicious effects of insider malfeasance. By prioritizing the detection and prevention of insider fraud, organizations can protect their assets, uphold their integrity, and preserve stakeholder trust in an era defined by interconnectedness and digital transformation. Through collaboration, knowledge sharing, and adherence to regulatory standards, enterprises can collectively mitigate the risks posed by insider threats and fortify their defenses against the ever-present specter of betrayal from within.