Culture As a Barrier to Sustaining Change 
CULTURE AS A BARRIER TO SUSTAINING CHANGE
• 21 oktober, 2012
• I kategorin organisational development
• ← Till bloggen
This essay will be based on the assumption that change is carried out, facilitated and/or resisted by people. On the same premises, people also make sure that change is sustained. I will start this essay by introducing how different views of authors could be molded together and through that introduce culture and the cultural heritage as a potential barrier to sustaining change. I will then turn to discuss this barrier in relation to the six images of managing change. I will continuously contribute with my own thoughts on the matter of sustaining change, potential barriers and how a change manager could seek to sustain change by addressing the potential barrier of culture and cultural heritage.
Sustaining change – Culture as a barrier
Palmer, Dunford and Akin (2009: 355) discuss sustaining change in terms of change stickiness. They draw on the work of Nadler (1988) and Kotter (1995) stating that in order to sustain change it must become embedded in the organization as an integrated part of its culture. Similarly, Beer, Eisenstat & Spector (1990) state that the behaviour and attitudes of the people in the organization are influenced by the context of roles, relationships and responsibilities. These subjects could, therefore, pose a barrier to sustaining change. Feldman (2000) talks about routines and their role as sources of individual and organizational chamge and state that routines are “emergent accomplishments” (p.613). Similarly, organizational routines could, therefore, be seen as a power affecting the sustaining or counteracting of change. Chia and Tsoukas (2002) consider organizations as sites of continuously changing human action. They emphasize the interaction within and between organizational members, which is said to result in a continuous organizational becoming and changing. Drawing upon this, the sustaining of change could be
• 21 oktober, 2012
• I kategorin organisational development
• ← Till bloggen
This essay will be based on the assumption that change is carried out, facilitated and/or resisted by people. On the same premises, people also make sure that change is sustained. I will start this essay by introducing how different views of authors could be molded together and through that introduce culture and the cultural heritage as a potential barrier to sustaining change. I will then turn to discuss this barrier in relation to the six images of managing change. I will continuously contribute with my own thoughts on the matter of sustaining change, potential barriers and how a change manager could seek to sustain change by addressing the potential barrier of culture and cultural heritage.
Sustaining change – Culture as a barrier
Palmer, Dunford and Akin (2009: 355) discuss sustaining change in terms of change stickiness. They draw on the work of Nadler (1988) and Kotter (1995) stating that in order to sustain change it must become embedded in the organization as an integrated part of its culture. Similarly, Beer, Eisenstat & Spector (1990) state that the behaviour and attitudes of the people in the organization are influenced by the context of roles, relationships and responsibilities. These subjects could, therefore, pose a barrier to sustaining change. Feldman (2000) talks about routines and their role as sources of individual and organizational chamge and state that routines are “emergent accomplishments” (p.613). Similarly, organizational routines could, therefore, be seen as a power affecting the sustaining or counteracting of change. Chia and Tsoukas (2002) consider organizations as sites of continuously changing human action. They emphasize the interaction within and between organizational members, which is said to result in a continuous organizational becoming and changing. Drawing upon this, the sustaining of change could be