ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Edition

WHAT LEADERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HOW CULTURE CHANGES 315Two fundamentally different leadership models have been promulgatedfor managing turnarounds—or, as they have come to bemore popularly known, “transformations.” In the strong vision model,the leader has a clear vision of where the organization should end up,specifies the means by which to get there, and consistently rewardsefforts to move in that direction (Tichy and Devanna, 1986; Bennisand Nanus, 1985; Leavitt, 1986). This model works well if the futureis reasonably predictable and if a visionary leader is available. If neitherof these conditions can be met, organizations can use the fuzzyvision model, whereby the new leader states forcefully that the presentis intolerable and that performance must improve within a certaintime frame, but then relies on the organization to develop visions ofhow to actually get there (Pava, 1983). The “We need to change”message is presented forcefully, repeatedly, and to all levels of theorganization, but it is supplemented by the message “and we needyour help.” As various proposals for solutions are generated throughoutthe organization, the leader selects and reinforces the ones thatseem to make the most sense. This model is obviously more applicablein situations in which the turnaround manager comes from theoutside and therefore does not initially know what the organizationis capable of. It is also more applicable when the future continues toappear turbulent, in that this model begins to train the organizationto become conscious of how to change its own assumptions as part ofa continuous adaptive process. Turnarounds usually have to be supplementedwith longer-range organization development programs toaid in new learning and to help embed new assumptions. To embednew assumptions in a mature organization is much more difficult thanin a young and growing organization because all of the organizationstructures and processes have to be rethought and, perhaps, rebuilt.Culture Change Through Mergers and AcquisitionsWhen one organization acquires another organization or when twoorganizations are merged, there is inevitable culture clash, because itis unlikely that two organizations will have the same cultures. The