ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Edition

334 ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND LEADERSHIPthe change program. To clarify these issues, a culture assessmentprocess of the kind described in the next chapter becomes appropriate.However, it is generally better to be very clear about thechange goals before launching the culture assessment. Several moreprinciples apply at this point.Principle 3: The change goal must be defined concretely in terms of thespecific problem you are trying to fix, not as “culture change.”For example, in the Alpha Power Company case, the court saidthat the company had to become more environmentally responsibleand more open in its reporting. The change goal was to get employeesto (1) be more aware of environmental hazards, (2) report themimmediately to the appropriate agencies, (3) learn how to clean upthe hazardous conditions, and (4) learn how to prevent spills andother hazards from occurring in the first place. Whether or not theculture needed to be changed was not known when the change programwas launched. Only as specific goals were identified could onedetermine whether cultural elements would aid or hinder the change;as it turned out, large portions of the culture were used positively tochange some specific elements in the culture that did have to bechanged. For example, workers had to learn that containing oil spillsfrom their vehicles was just as important as fixing the hospital generator,which was, for many of them, a major shift in their sense ofidentity.One of the biggest mistakes that leaders make when they undertakechange initiatives is to be vague about their change goals andto assume that culture change will be needed. When someone asksme to help him or her with a culture change program, my mostimportant initial question is “What do you mean? Can you explainyour goals without using the word culture?”Principle 4: Old cultural elements can be destroyed by eliminating thepeople who “carry” those elements, but new cultural elements canonly be learned if the new behavior leads to success and satisfaction.