What Is an Example of Cultural Management?
An example of cultural management involves intentionally shaping the organizational environment to influence employee behavior and adaptability, particularly during times of change.
Cultural management refers to the process of managing the shared values, beliefs, norms, and practices that define an organization's culture. It's about creating and maintaining a workplace environment that aligns with the company's goals and values. This can involve promoting specific behaviors, improving communication, fostering collaboration, and managing employee reactions to changes.
Examples of Cultural Management in Practice
Effective cultural management considers how employees perceive and react to significant organizational shifts. Based on practical scenarios, examples include strategies focused on managing the impact of changes on the workforce and maintaining stability.
Here are a couple of illustrations:
- Managing Resistance to Change:
- When a company needs to update its manufacturing processes, it can introduce these changes slowly instead of implementing them all at once.
- Cultural Management Aspect: This approach addresses potential employee resistance to sudden disruptions. By allowing time for employees to adapt gradually, learn new skills, and become comfortable with the changes, management is actively managing the culture of change acceptance within the organization. It aims to mitigate challenges employees may face and smooth the transition, thus managing the cultural impact of operational changes.
- Maintaining Stability During Leadership Transitions:
- If a CEO leaves, the company might introduce a new CEO rather quickly.
- Cultural Management Aspect: This action focuses on swiftly restoring a sense of normalcy and continuity in operations. By filling the leadership vacuum promptly, management seeks to prevent uncertainty and disruption from unsettling the organizational culture and workflow. It is a way of managing the cultural expectation of stable leadership and operational predictability.
These examples demonstrate how managerial decisions regarding the pace and method of implementing changes or transitions are forms of cultural management. They involve considering the human element – how employees will react and how the overall organizational climate will be affected – and taking steps to manage these cultural factors proactively.
By focusing on the impact on employees, managing transitions strategically, and fostering a specific environment (like adaptability or stability), companies engage in cultural management to ensure smoother operations and a more aligned workforce.
