The organizational culture provides an image of the framework and shape of the company from the past to the present. Cultural change management is the transition process from the existing organizational culture to digital transformation. Organizational culture refers to how norms, shared values, and beliefs of employees influence their perceptions of the workplace, and how they respond to the accepted and agreed upon practices of other members of the organization (Schein, 2004).
To monitor, control and shape the behavior of members to help them become compatible with the organizational culture (Nelson and Quick, 2011). To allow leaders to grow and be promoted from within, to demonstrate a career path for members to allow smooth passage of organizational culture. If the organization hires an outside manager, they have to learn about organizational culture, which takes time and may not match their personality.
A good organizational culture can benefit the company, but when trends change and the existing organizational culture does not match them, it must adapt accordingly. Therefore, to maintain and improve competitive advantage, every company must recognize digital transformation as an important topic and the organizational culture must be suitable for such changes.
Digital Transformation
In any case, if the organizational culture contrasts with changing business trends or is not appropriate for the circumstances according to the expectations of stakeholders both inside and outside the organization, a decline may result. With the use of digital technology, the business community began to see an opportunity to communicate with individual consumers in real time. Business uses this personalized information to improve customer interactions in response to their specific needs (Schallmo, Williams, and Boardman, 2017).
In the future, digital transformation will become increasingly important and companies will continue to use digital technology to increase their competencies and competitive advantage. In the near future, digital transformation will dominate business strategy and this topic will become the first priority in moving companies forward. Those who are ready to change their organizational culture in terms of innovation will certainly gain a competitive advantage. Although digital transformation has been impacting businesses for decades, it is inevitable that businesses will incorporate digital transformation into their culture to at least remain competitive. But as mentioned earlier, organizational culture is the most difficult thing to change.
Cultural Change Management
An organization's leaders must be representative of what is expected of its members, acting as role models to implement change. Build "a guiding coalition." A project team should be established by the organization with the authority to work on the change program it proposes to implement. Formulate "a clear vision for change" that is easily understood so that everyone can immediately realize the organizational goals and support their implementation.
Findings should be reported to the team leader, enabling them to sponsor best practices and remove any barriers to change or improvement. Things must change over time, including the business environment, and organizations must be able to cope with change and uncertainty. In a time of digital transformation, many organizations need to change their culture to cope with digitization, in the same way as Airbus.
Research Design
- Problem definition
- Framework development
- Data collection
- Developing a scoring table
- Analysis
Achieving the (digital) transformation of companies by examining the change approach and lessons learned from other entities. After numerous reviews and discussions, the Benchmarking Team Lead ignored certain case studies and practices that were not relevant to the topic at hand. For example, a joint venture between Michelin and a Chinese company relied on leadership and human error that the Benchmarking Team leader considered unrelated to its objectives.
Since the framework of this study is based on cultural transformation, the change model adopted by John Kotter is used to select best practices and achieve cultural change and transformation in the Airbus organization. The researcher worked closely with the Benchmarking Team Lead and this open communication channel facilitated the progress of the work and feedback from the Benchmarking Team Lead by email. The Benchmarking Team Leader reviewed the case study to identify the most interesting findings and those that were not relevant.
The Airbus Corporate Benchmarking team provided a list of their suppliers and business alliances as an alternative information source to find the relevant information for a relevant case study. For cultural change and transformation, each lesson learned in the four case studies is categorized and assessed according to the eight steps of change: (1) create a sense of urgency; (2) create a guiding coalition; (3) create a vision for change; (4) communicate the vision; (5) remove obstacles; (6) create short-term wins; (7) consolidate improvements; (8) anchor the changes (Kotter, 1995). The researchers analyzed best practice for cultural change and transformation using online materials due to the limited time frame available for research and lack of authorization to interview other companies or collect data in person.
For cultural change and transformation, the eight steps of change model (Kotter, 1995) is used to find best practice for benchmarking. After analyzing the cultural change and transformation category, four lessons were learned from four companies that could best benefit from Airbus Corporate Benchmarking. A benchmarking method was chosen to compare the data collected during this study with the identified criteria on the basis of which conclusions can be drawn.
Levels of Efficiency of Change and Transformation: Creation of a Framework
- Create a sense of urgency Level 1: There is no sense of urgency
- Create a guiding coalition
- Create a vision for change Level 1: There is no vision for change
- Communicate the vision
- Remove obstacles
- Create short-term wins
- Consolidate improvements
- Anchor the changes
Members who do not accept the change are identified and given instructions on which barriers should be removed immediately.
Company Selected
- Jaguar: Cultural Change
- Pfizer “Dare to Try”
- Veolia “SATAWAD” Project
- FUSO — Proactive Sensing
The new management team introduced a 'green book' which provides a firm way of dealing with staff relations to achieve the desired management objectives, involving the unions at the Halewood plant. Firstly, addressing the physical needs of the employees and secondly, taking care of changes in the plant by using new technology to improve task efficiency. Because a change in culture was paramount to the company's success, leading consulting firm Senn-Delaney devised the "Halewood Difference." The first stage of this uniquely designed workshop provided focus group activities for representatives of various organizational sectors and also included individual interviews.
Union leaders at Halewood also attended workshops to improve their understanding of the new organizational concept of using pride and dedication to produce cars. With the involvement of the union, which it saw as an important stakeholder, the company demonstrated the benefits of the system to the workforce and received support for the change. By involving all members of the organization in the cultural change program, it was relatively easy to establish a shared vision.
This case study can be applied to the HR Department's cultural change objective. This case study can be applied to Airbus' digital transformation and cultural change program and help achieve the objectives of the Military Aircraft Office's competitive mindset. The group uses its experience to continuously develop the knowledge of employees, partly based on the results of research and development.
This case study can be applied to the digital transformation, change approach and lessons-goals of the company transformation program. With its Head Office in Kanagawa, Japan, the Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation (MFTBC) became part of the Daimler Group in 2006. Furthermore, DTA has collaborated with Deloitte in adopting the Internet of Things in their vehicles.
From their systems, the trucks receive geographic data and real-time information on coolant temperature, oil pressure and battery voltage, as well as current and historical information on the overall condition of the vehicles.
Data Summary
- Jaguar: total score 30
- Pfizer: total score 25
- Veolia: total score 23
- FUSO: total score 28
Tables 4.1 The company's performance on cultural change and digital transformation through Kotter's eight steps of change. Even though the vision is clear, because of its length the company has a score of 3. The company also organized workshops for whole divisions to communicate their vision for change across all levels of the organization and this gives Jaguar a score of 4 .
With member involvement and feedback, and top management involvement, the company received a rating of 4 for removing barriers. Pfizer has been shown to have a strong leadership coalition with full authority to lead the program, so the company receives 4 points. There is no evidence to suggest that the company promoted a fully-powered leadership coalition to drive change, so Veolia receives 1 point.
We are innovative and develop tools that enable a fair distribution of costs." (Veolia vision and values, 2017) It is not difficult for the management team to convey this vision to the employees and they can easily understand it, which is why the company receives 3 points for this topic. Although the company has a vision, there is no evidence that it is communicated within the organization, so they receive 1 point. These activities show that the company is working hard to remove obstacles to its goal of change.
Through its workshops, the company consolidates improvements by analyzing feedback and collecting customer comments. This shows that the company has addressed any issues that arise, but not quickly enough, creating a sense of urgency when issues arise, so it receives 3 points for this theme. As a result, the information is clear and easy to understand, and the company's goal is to be number one, which makes it easy to identify KPIs.
This proves that the company is generating short-term wins in this project, so it receives 3 points for this problem. The company provides a clear picture of its direction, which strives for innovation, connectivity and consumer focus. For Veolia, through its workshops, the company consolidates improvements by analyzing feedback and collecting customer comments.
