HR Assignment Help online review study: Strengths & Weakness of culture, Kurt Lewin’s change management model, Force field diagram

Question 1. List one strength and weakness for each cultural perspective described in this case study.

Solution the question frames is::

Response to question 1:

There are various cultural perspectives which have been conveyed in the theoretical form by academic literature and Keleman and Papasolomou (Kelemen and Papasolomou, 2007)has identified three cultural perspectives which are:

• Integration Perspective
• Differentiation Perspective
•  Ambiguity Perspective

Strength for the cultural perspectives described in National Australia Bank (NAB):  Cultural Change Program:

•  Integration Perspective at National Australia Bank: It is most widely used perspective for cultural change and can be reflected in very tangible and visible manner across the organisation (Schultz, 1994). There has to be consensus within the entire organisation and it can be reflected through different mediums of organisations like performance targets and metrics, formal and informal rules, business strategies and management practices which govern the traditions stories, and manifestations. In case of NAB the business strategies became client- focussed. In order to create visible manifestations of its desired culture its priorities were seen in the vision, mission statements and the strategic objectives too (Martin, 1995)
  • Differentiation Perspective: It considers  culture to be an amalgamation of various cultures combined or being collected  which come together within the boundary of organization together (Martin, 2002). Since it is more focussed upon the inconsistencies which are found at the nucleus of culture it gives organisation and opportunity to correct these inconsistencies thorough better culture. If the inconsistencies are identified various cultural initiators can be identified within the organisation both internal as well as externally.
  • Ambiguity Perspective: This perspective neither follows the integration nor the differentiation view of cultural perspective, rather it suggests that the relationships existing between the cultural manifestations do not have proper clarity instead they lack clarity (Martin, 2002) along with them comes complete vagueness and contradiction. Individuals in any organisation might have common views and values which they share with each other but on certain views or values they might differ. It is seen as more realistic perspective regarding culture, because it allows the employees to bring forth the issues with which they do not agree with their line managers (Frost et al., 1991). Once the issues are found through ambiguity perspective steps can be taken to resolve them and this also guarantees employee satisfaction and involvement within culture of organisation.

                  

Weakness for each cultural perspective mentioned in National Australia Bank: Cultural Change Program:

Integration Perspective: The weakness of this perspective is that the integration perspective if has any unfavourable trait gets transferred all through the organisation because it is present all through the organisation. Sometimes culture persists in invisible manner which is not detectable within the organisation and can prove harmful too (Martin, 1993) .

•  Differentiation perspective: Various inconsistencies lying at the focal point of culture both internal as well as externally are identified. The weakness of Differentiation perspective is that culture is being depicted as a group of various manifestations, which can be contradictory to each other (Aicher, 2010).
• Ambiguity Perspective: In case of ambiguity perspective the employees might agree on some of the management regarding some issues but at other times they might pose as being ignorant, or may be completely indifferent or might stand up in total opposition to the whole managerial line. Thus eth ambiguity perspective of culture within organisations brings to the front the issues which might cause dissatisfaction amongst employees and staff (Alvesson, 1993).

Question 2. Complete a force field analysis using Kurt Lewin’s change management model clearly illustrating the driving and restraining forces for change in a force field diagram.

Response to question 2:

 Kurt Lewin’s Change Management Model

Figure 1: Force Field Analysis (Rock, 2008)

The ‘ Force Field Analysis’ Model developed by Kurt Lewin helps in describing the current  level of performance or being any state of equilibrium between the driving forces which  encourage the upward movement and are for the change  while the restraining forces discourage this equilibrium by working against the change. Thus it means that the existing equilibrium is maintained because the forces which act for the change that is the driving forces are equally balanced by the forces which act against the change that is the restraining forces.

• The Driving Forces are found to be positive reasonable, conscious, economic and reasonable too.
•  The Restraining Forces are usually negative emotional, unconscious, social or psychological and emotional too.

 While dealing with organisational change or managing change or reacting to change both the set of forces should be taken into account. Both the driving as well as restraining forces is very much real.

Lewin has suggested that to make the change easier and long lasting forces which work against the change should be reduced rather than increasing the forces which are for the change. He also suggested that the modification of the forces will help in maintaining the status quo in easier manner rather than changing or increasing the forces for change.

Force field Analysis

The Levin’s Model follows three steps:

Step 1: Unfreezing: Here the strength of the forces which are mandating the current equilibrium is being reduced.

Step 2: Moving:  The new organisational values, behaviours and attitudes are developed which help in moving the organization forward.

Step 3: Refreezing:  Then once the changes have made the forces need to be stabilised, so that a new equilibrium is being maintained (Miner, 2007).

But it is sometimes criticised because if the organisation is in fast moving environment it cannot afford to ‘refreeze’, then in such case does refreezing leads to the organisation becoming stale and staid. Or if in case the organisation was already in moving stage and was not possessing stability. Thus Lewin says that Refreezing should not be considered as a permanent stage rather it is a short term but it is very important for getting some kind of stability within the organisation.

 The length of the arrows depicts the magnitude of the forces and they can be interpreted as the causes of the force and from which group of people it is coming from. Whenever a change is implemented in organization, the equilibrium point is being moved. To move the equilibrium either the driving forces have to be added or increased and /or the resistance forces need to be removed or reduced. However it is even that if the driving forces are increased the resistance intensity also increases. Therefore the better policy is to reduce the resistance. This can be done using the techniques like:

• Motivation
• Involvement
•  Commitment

Mostly the reaction to change is seen in the form of:

• Acceptance
•  Indifference( Cope with, harness)
•  Resistance
  • Active ( Sabotage)
  • Passive ( Ignore,  Avoid) (Hicks, 2004)

  Question 3 which cultural change perspective was adopted by NAB during its change program

   Start your response here:-

  There have been numerous limitations being identified by the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) within the internal control framework of the bank and it also claimed that the cultural issues were lying at the heart of the failure of NAB (Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), 2004).

• 
• To get a better understanding of any entity’s construct and processes analysis of culture using symbolism is done. However analysing culture using symbolism lacks a scale of measurement therefore it does not provide a ready-made formula for measurement of change, analysis and improvement. It is believed that people cannot, manage what they are unable to understand (Simpson, 2004). This is the reason why the practitioners and researchers have to rely on the functionalist-integrative perspective view of the cultural change so as to get deeper insight into the nature of culture and how the culture can be managed in best manner to achieve the desired goals of organisation.
• 
• It is this functionalist-integrative perspective view of culture, which both the former as well as current executives of NAB share, forms the basis for PriceWaterhouse Coopers (PwC) and APRA for both the companies to conduct the formal investigations into the formal losses of Banks Trading. The functionalist-integrative perspective of culture lays emphasis on the factors which are found prevalent in the whole organisation. However, there is possibility that the foreign currency options trading room, in which the losses were being incurred by NAB, must have been a totally separate subculture to the organisation. This indicates that the Bank’s trading room existed as subculture to the organisation which suggests that the rogue traders usually operate in the functionalist-differentiation culture.

  But as pointed out by Martin (2002),  a study which is focussed on the  foreign currency options trading room of the bank is trying to adopt an  integration perspective but it is at very lower level ( which is a subunit not the organisational unit) of analysis. However a differentiation perspective is found to be better in analysing the relationships which are existing between various subcultures within the organisation, these multiple subcultures show  inconsistent  cultural manifestations, instead of getting focussed on one particular subculture. Therefore the functionalist-integrative perspective is found to be much more effective and applicable in analysing the culture in one single department of organisation as it is effective and applicable on a firm-wide basis.

  Integration perspective is much more opted by NAB during its change program. The steps it took for the cultural change were:

  • Readjusted the main priorities  so as to show NAB as client-focussed organisation
  • Believed in investing in its people , reputation and culture
  • Started differentiating through reputation as well as culture for the benefit of customers, employees and community.
  •  The visible manifestations of its culture through visions, strategic objectives and mission statements reflected on entire portfolio of NAB group.
  • Tangible change initiative was re-launch of NAB brand with a completely innovative and fresh logo.
  • To regain the confidence of public NAB launched the lobo and brand with Melbourne Commonwealth games 2006, whose topmost sponsor was NAB.
  • Focussed on community development
  • ‘developed ‘team-oriented ‘ structures
  • To assist restructuring all the employees were put under one roof at  new Docklands Headquarters

  Question 4: what would be your future recommendations to the CEO or HR team at NAB?

• Response to question 4:

• Future Recommendations to the CEO or HR team at NAB would be:

  • The new Leaders appointed at NAB should make conscious efforts to implement the cultural changes in effective manner.
  • The focus should not be on the process rather it should be on the substance of the issue.
  • Within the organisation there was lack of clear accountabilities and responsibilities, which needs to be seriously fixed by management for effective implementation of change.
  • NAB has a good news culture which prevents bad news from coming up, this is serious issue because it is better to address the problem or bad news in its nascent stage rather than when it grows bigger.
  • NAB follows the Bureaucratic culture and the company has the tendency to overcomplicate the things, thus by making a change  and improving the organizational culture a difference can be brought within the organisation in positive manner (National Australia Bank, 2004).
  • Cultural changes come along with deeper sense of personal commitment and the new CEO John Stewart, will have to think himself more as a “Chief Ethics Officer” rather than a CEO (Trevino, Hartman and Brown, 2000). As a Chef Ethics Officer Stewart will have to convey strong and strict ethics message which will help his co-leaders in commitment in personal as well as genuine manner.
  • As a leader Stewart needs to understand be enough knowledgeable of his powers and responsibilities. If the leadership at NAB adopts all these measures then only they would be able to address these issues in systematic manner and move ahead of this crisis situation and recreate its new brand image.
  • The six primary mechanisms which are being used by leaders for reinforcement and embedding the organisational cultures need to be changes (Schein, 2004).
  •  Attention should be paid not to portray the organisation as profit focused rather it should be completely client focussed. AS being profit focussed depicts short-term revenues and creates climate favourable for unethical behaviour (Cooke, 1991) (Trevino and Nelson, 1999).
  • Proper reaction to crisis strategy should be developed by NAB
  • Since the culture prevailing in NAB before the change was widely bureaucratic and it was organisation-wide very much ignorant this gave the traders an advantage to make use of managements  ignorance .thus the company needs to develop proper steps for managing the underlying issue rather than  managing the messages within the organisation ( APRA, 2004).

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