ORGANIZATION: PART 2:CHANGING CULTURE

Emperor Ashoka after Kalinga war

Whoever controls the narrative controls the people

You and I are poles apart-we are like parallel lines which never meet but stay together till infinity

Leadership is always about change-It’s not about mobilising people to do things they have always done well-John kotter

Changing organizational culture

It is evident that organizations value and culture change over time. The organization has a number of stakeholders whether it be a firm,nation or family.When the stakeholders are given commitment of equal benefit in the organization,the same  remains fit and healthy. Over the ages cultural change has repeatedly changed the balance in all organizations between the stakeholders. Thus the family had male dominance during agricultural stage. Proffesional managers and industrial workers dominated in manufacturing era in business organizations. 

     A visionary leader can mitigate the imbalances in organizations through his narratives

Political leaders and narratives

To be in a culture is to share the common collective memory pertaining to religion ,history,ideology. It gives answers to questions such as who we are and helps determine common beliefs and what the community considers proper ,just and moral.The process of socialization of a child involves gradual inculcation of beliefs and moral of his culture.However there is a role for agency in the construction of individual and collective memory. The cultural events  which are disruptive to individual or groups are generally not incorporated. Thus the collective memory of America is of a free nation . The episode of the war in Vietnam or Iraq is not given prominence as they are contrary to the dominant belief of America.

   So certain types of narratives are incorporated easily. Those that do not confirm to the dominant belief systems do not make it. Again those beliefs which harm the material self interest of a group are not taken. The wealthy are more likely to accept a story in which people earn their money and poor are lazy.Receptivitity to a story also depends on how it resonates with those we already have in mind.Receptivity also depends on the position of the person in the organization and his reputation.

    Visionary leaders build narratives to change collective beliefs. They also spur them to collective action. The first step in this is to create a fierce urgency in NOW  and to emphasize the presence of a crisis. Next they tell the importance of participation. Thus they press on the fact that only their participation can solve the crisis.The message is that it is OUR story to write.lastly there is always a free rider problem in collective action.The leaders overcome this by a narrative which asks : What did YOU do when history called.Two other points where narrative is required after this is in coordination of collective action and mutual assurance of commitment. An example of how narratives can solve this is the story of Biblical migration to coordinate marches. During these marches the individuals see each other and this serves to  give mutual assurance of collective action

Business narratives

Today large business organizations are led by visionary leaders who lead by creating narratives. Firms frequently become complacent. Some of the reasons are there are no visible crisis in the crisis requiring urgent effort,too much happy talk from senior management,low overall performance standards,data from external performance are ignored. Pushing up the urgency level:create a crisis by limited financial loss, set high performance standards,eliminate obvious profligacy, disseminate external feedback to all employees

      The next step is to create a team to lead the change. A single person can never bring about sustained change in a large organiztion. Some of the ingredients of a team are team members should have credible reputation in firm and drawn from different expertise and management disciplines. The persons to be excluded are pathological narcissists with huge egos and sociopaths with expertise in telling lies to damage trust. Once constituted the team should be trusted by allowing delegation of work.

      The creation of a vision follows . Vision should take the interest of all stakeholders in the firm and not only managers and shareholders. “ Our vision is to become a firm which pays the lowest wage possible,charges the highest price market will bear,and divide the spoils between shareholders and managers, mostly the latter,”This type of transformative vision guides a few companies and they succeed for only short terms.The vision should have strategic feasibility.Vision means what is possible with existing resources and capabilities and cannot be a pipe dream.

   The narrative of vision has to be communicated effectively so that its meaning becomes evident to all stakeholders. The meaning should be communicated by simple statements and they should be repeated as much as possible.”Eeare going to be faster than anyone in industry in satisfying customer needs”

  Empowering employees to actually be able to implement the vision comes next. Frequently training of employees in new operations is required  Further the old system has created structural silos and barriers which prevent faster work.The momentum of change can be greatly accelerated by short term wins which are immediately rewarded.

Family cohesion

Family cohesion depends upon mutual commitments for lifelong support. The culture in which we live frequently can disrupt commitments. Separation then results leading to breakdown of marriage.Cultural factors in marriage breakdown requires effort of governments. Thus making divorce difficult,discouraging living in together ,empowering both young males and females by good jobs, providing subsidies to single mothers ,reducing the cost of bringing up a child,punishing abandonment of parents and domestic violence  can all restore family values integrity.Another factor is personality differences between the couples which frequently leads to conflicts.

    Personality similarity obviously leads to better cooperation, But even personality differences can  increase the combined strength by providing complementary interpersonal  skills.If one thinks emotionally and the other rationally in every situation there may be a conflict. However both skills are required in life.Similar is the case when one thinks impulsively with the aim to enjoy life as it comes. The other may be planning every step. One may be a skeptic in all situation and other a dreamer. There may be a conflict if one prefers staying at home and other likes moving out. 

  The family may however be affected by pathological personality . In case of narcissistic or antisocial personality this may result in prolonged conflict ,drunkenness,substance abuse,vverbal  abuse or wife beating.It requires counselling and if the conflict is irreversible ,divorce is a preferable option. Spouse selection before marriage is the best way to prevent future conflict in marriage. It has been found that family status, dating frequency do not have much influence in prediction of success of marriage.The presence of independent source of income of wife and a history of broken family,has a deleterious effect while wife’s access of husbands earnings and joint decision making in family spending has a beneficial effect. The most profound effect has been found to be the presence of family values of commitment to marriage as is found in traditional families.

 Pathological personality: politics

   Organizational dysfunction frequently results from individuals with personality disorders. Leaders political or business or coworkers or stakeholders all may be affected. The most frequent person types are the antisocial,narcissistic personality. As leaders they strive to be visionary but frequently of the negative type. Thus a political leader may give visions of racial superiority to his followers, divide the community into antagonistic groups, play ones against others and dominate everyone.They have a preoccupation of blaming others:their targets of blame.They have all or nothing thinking and solutions.They may have extreme charm and persuasion but be intensely emotional.

 The key to fighting aberrant personalities politically is to prevent their election. For this during the campaign, efforts must be made to build a similar relationship with the voters that the narcissist does not,but in a positive direction.So instead of a target audience show empathy to everyone,know the reality of the problems people are facing and identify with them. Give a realistic path of action and be strong.

 Next method is to screen out the antisocial personality. This screening may be done during candidate selection by party committees,party members and by voters themselves. For this they must be able to identify the leader tending to blame others ,extreme behaviours and threats ,all or nothing thinking.

Pathological personality:Business

Aberrant personality types in business are again the antisocial,narcissistic ones.They create toxic behaviour in three ways: Shaming others by condescending remarks,insults or nasty behaviour,secondly by backbiting to supervisors, unreliable in instructions,being distrustfully and territory seeking ,rejecting negative feedback and lastly team sabotage by meddling in daily affars and abusing authority.Generally feedback or informal strategies such as avoidance,managing the immediate impact or reconfiguring the situation does not work. 

To effectively tackle aberrant personalities a combined effort is required at organizational level,team and individual level.At organization level a policy preferably written must exist regarding mutually respectful behaviour requirement from everybody. The performance appraisal ,recruitment promotions should all take this requirement. Even if a person technically excellent he may be sidelined by a slightly less qualified but agreeable personality.At team level effort should be made to exclude toxic personalities in the team ,develop a value for mutual respectful conduct during team functioning and idenfy protectors and sympathisers of the person in the organization.At individual level it is best implemented by a leader. Start with targeted feedback,give a resolution in writing,give opportunity to improve,coaching of desired behaviour,and when all else fails recommend termination.

Ack:Narrative politics,Leading change,Married to a opposite,Toxic workplace,Why we elect narcissists and sociopaths,