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By Kim Jong-nam
An organizational culture is built by the interconnected consequences of various organizational functions. Without adjustment of the multiple factors affecting organizational culture, it is difficult to achieve change. Thus, there needs to be someone at the center of it all to play the important role of making such adjustments. This role of culture manager often falls to the HR manager. But HR managers often lack the assistance and support that they need in order to complete this task to the best of their abilities. Here are some things that corporations should keep in mind:
1. HR managers are often not prepared for the role that organizations require them to play. Most organizations do not have a department that focuses exclusively on organizational culture. That is why many HR managers end up playing the role of culture manager. This means they need expertise and competencies around organizational culture and support. Many HR managers complain about a lack of clarity on whether what they are doing is correct or incorrect in terms of culture change.
2. HR managers are often under-resourced. If HR managers seek help from their executives, they often find that these executives are, understandably, mostly focused on creating a strong financial performance for the company to survive and grow. Moreover, executives are deeply aware that they will be evaluated on their performance. Thus, it is very difficult for them to pay attention to whether the organization has a healthy and desirable culture and, if not, what actions need to be taken. Considering this, it is not rare to see executives engage in unilateral communication and decision-making in their relationship with their HR managers. A lack of budget, resources and time also plagues HR managers in the pursuit of organizational culture change.
3. HR managers are sometimes not given access to the big picture of the organization. Unless they are HR executives, they generally do not know the future direction of the organization, including its strategies and HR policies. If they do not know the organization-wide big picture, what they can do will be limited and restricted. There are even many cases of organizations not having a clear picture of their desired organizational culture. If HR managers have not been aligned with the organization's big-picture vision, they will tend to implement change measures that will cause the organizational culture to go around in circles.
4. HR managers face a lack of positivity. Organizational culture change requires changing existing deep-rooted practices and what is believed to be natural. However, overcoming the inertia of existing organizational practices is difficult because people do not like to change their ways of working, interacting, communicating and even thinking. Furthermore, culture change is often met with a collectively negative response from employees and managers. Resistance on the part of those who are affected negatively can be a big barrier. Therefore, the essential task of change management puts a lot of pressure on HR managers, who typically do not have a lot of power or influence.
5. HR managers are often given reactive, and not proactive, goals. Organizational culture change generally aims at resolving issues that have already happened in the organization and are causing harm. Accordingly, if HR managers have not been given enough time to understand what has caused these issues and how their elements are interconnected, their approaches and remedies will be ineffective. Indeed, some complex issues, like e-NPS or turnover rate, are reflections of an intermingling of various factors. If HR managers have to approach these problems without prior appropriate information, what they will be able to do will be superficial.
HR managers who work as culture managers in their organization face many obstacles. If organizational culture is an organization-wide phenomenon, only people who have enough knowledge of and power in their organization can influence it. However, due to various reasons, organizations fail to change their corporate cultures and repeat the same activities in vain, year in, year out. This is why many organizations need to think about whether their culture management system is effective, including the education of and support for HR managers. All in all, helping HR managers in need is the first step to bringing a positive culture change to many organizations.
Kim Jong-nam is the founding CEO of Culture Engine (www.cultureengine.co.kr), which specializes in organizational culture change via consulting, training and coaching.
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