The Destruction of an Organizational Culture

Among the managers of some companies, it is still a bad practice, when it comes to replacing others, to completely get rid of all the things that their predecessor did, especially if hi was in the highest position.

This could be beneficial, only if the previous management would have been 100% disastrous, and let's face it, no manager can be so wrong as to run a totally bad company.

When it arrives with these tabula rasa approaches, what usually happens is that some things are corrected, but a great part of others is discontinued, giving the impression that with these changes the organization does not advance, but regresses.

One of the aspects that is most affected by this type of actions is the Organizational Culture, which is an important intangible asset of the company, whose minimal variation can have consequences and problems difficult to solve in an organization.

We do not mean by this that the organizational culture must always remain immutable, there are cases in which it should definitely be changed, especially if it undermines the development of the company. But, in most cases, the organizational culture should not be touched, not at least without a good diagnosis.

In recent days we have witnessed some organizations in Latin America in which a simple change of schedule, increased restrictions, transfer or suspension of corporate rituals or change of discourse of managers, has systematically dismantled the culture of these companies, leaving the members a certain feeling of confusion first, then an increasing discontent, the decline of identification and finally the feeling of a loss of course, not knowing where to go.

Worst of all is that many of these managers were not even aware of what they were doing, lacking a systemic view altogether, many of them believed that they were solving some things, when in fact what they were doing was undermining the foundations of their own organization.

Do you imagine what it would be Starbucks if tomorrow their next CEO decides that Customer Service is not going to be the most distinctive of their culture, but low prices? Or what would have been Apple if Steve Jobs would have given in to the voices that asked him to make massive products instead of their exclusive products that still set a trend in the world of technology? Or Disney, if their current managers had ceased to "pay too much attention to detail," as their induction manuals inspired by the founder vision?

A company that destroys its own organizational culture, is a company, which has no idea what it is to have one, and therefore does not care, or pay attention and its partners do not defend it. Unfortunately these cases are no exception, there are still many companies, who do not have the slightest idea of what their culture is and therefore they will always be exposed to destroy it, and without even they realize it.