| Continuous change has become the norm for many organizations (e.g., Rossi, 2006). Unfortunately, success rates, even for small scale change initiatives, are unimpressive (e.g., Hirschhorn, 2002). These poor success rates may be attributed to the lack of clear guidance regarding the key independent variables, or change drivers, that are available for manipulation in order to effect change (Porras & Hoffer, 1996 Kemelgor, Johnson & Srinivasan, 2000). According to Rodrigues (2006), very little is known about how organizational culture changes over time and what drives the process.Seven drivers of organizational culture change were examined: vision, leadership actions, changes in leadership personnel, turnover of personnel, changes in human resources practices, communication, and enabling changes in structure and processes. Data on these change drivers were collected from multiple sources including questionnaires sent to each organization and data held by central government agencies.The impact of each of these seven drivers of change on the fourteen culture dimensions was examined using regression analyses and bivariate correlation analyses. Results suggest that organizational culture change drivers include five of the seven change drivers considered in this research: changes in leadership personnel, turnover of personnel, changes in human resources practices, communication and enabling changes in structure and processes. The results suggest that excessive changes in leadership personnel can have a negative impact on a culture change initiative. Finally, the results suggest that a culture shift can be attained in as little as three years.This six-year study provided a rare and important opportunity to study a large-scale organizational culture change initiative in the Canadian federal government. Fourteen organizational culture dimensions were identified from the Public Service Employee Surveys conducted in 1999, 2002 and 2005. Fifty one organizations in the Canadian federal government were included in this study. The unit of analysis was the organization. |
