Page 342 - Managing Change in Organizations

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Exercises
Conclusion

The culture and the politics of any organization are both distinctive and important.
Without understanding both it is much more difficult to predict the outcomes of
any action or intervention as a leader or manager. Thus both need to be considered
during attempts to achieve change. In this chapter we have considered the most
influential work on corporate culture and examined a means of analysing corpo-
rate politics. Can corporate culture be changed? ‘Only in the long term’ seems to
be the most likely answer to that question. Can we therefore ignore the culture?
Only at the peril of seeking to introduce changes that are more likely to fail.

EXERCISES

1 What core competencies will be important for Philips NV in the next five years?
2 Do corporate politics play a positive role in change?
3 How would you characterize the culture of your organization? What implications
does this carry for successful organizational change?
4 Refer back to the KPMG case study in Chapter 1 (page 9). How did KPMG set
about changing the corporate culture?

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