Zoekresultaten

Honours culture

How Change Management is influenced by differences in professional discourses.

This article describes the process of organizational change due to technological evolutions, suggesting that community-specific differences in discourse may have a considerable influence on its success. The questions for this study focus on: 1) how do we define a technically oriented employee who has to cope with organizational change? 2) Which factors determine the reaction to organizational change projects in which these technically oriented employees are involved? And 3) what are the consequences of these specific characters of technically oriented employees for implementing change programs in the most effective manner? First, while the present studies on professional communication do not pay any attention to change management, the current models of change management also barely pay attention to (professional) discourse. Second, we examine culture, which can be divided into national culture (NC), organizational culture (OC), and professional culture (PC). In this case study, we focus on the professional cultures of specific (change) managers and technicians and their discourse in the utilities sector. After this, we describe the case study, which exemplifies how change results can be influenced. It seems that in a technical environment, the change process and interventions need to be specific, concrete, and to the point. However, there also seems to be a dilemma between universal (e.g. mechanistic and formal) and contingency (e.g. organic, informal and emergent) approaches to the change process. The results of this study show the need to analyze cultures through discourse and through PC as a way to differentiate discourse between technical and non-technical employees. We suggest further research on three aspects that interfere and influence the change effort: context, discourse, and professional cultures of (change) managers and technicians.

Organizational culture from an internal and external stakeholders’ perspective

A culture change within an organization may be of importance in this turbulent world. An assessment of the current and desired cultural profiles can help estimate as to whether any changes are required. In this study the organizational culture of a housing association was examined from both the staff’s and external stakeholders’ perspectives. How does the current culture compare with the desired culture? Do the external stakeholders perceive the organization’s culture in a similar way? Do the staff’s and external stakeholders’ perceptions coincide with the organization’s intended image? The results demonstrate that the external stakeholders’ perceptions of the organizational culture in this case study are similar to those of the organization’s staff.

Business Process Management and Process Performance

Abstract Business Process Management (BPM) is an important discipline for organizations to manage their business processes. Research shows that higher BPM-maturity leads to better process performance. However, contextual factors such as culture seem to influence this relationship. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of national culture on the relationship between BPM-maturity and process performance. A multiple linear regression analysis is performed based on data from six different countries within Europe. Although the results show a significant relationship between BPM-maturity and process performance, no significant moderation effect of national culture has been found. The cultural dimension long term orientation shows a weak negative correlation with both BPM-maturity and process performance. Through a post-hoc moderation analysis on each dimension of BPM-maturity, we further find that long term orientation negatively moderates the relationship between process improvement and process performance. Three other moderation effects are also discovered. The results of this study contribute to insights into the role of culture in the field of BPM.

Safety Culture Development

Reason’s typology of safety culture (i.e. Just, Informative, Learning, Flexible and Reporting cultures) is widely used in the industry and academia. Through literature review we developed a framework including 36 markers that reflect the operationalization of Reason’s sub-cultures and general organizational prerequisites. We used the framework to assess to what extent safety culture development guidelines of seven industry sectors (i.e. aviation, railway, oil and gas, nuclear, healthcare, defense and maritime) incorporate academic references, and are similar to each other. Gap analysis and statistics showed that the guidelines include 53–69 % of the safety culture markers, with significant differences across subcultures and industry sectors. The results suggested that there is a gap between the industry guidelines and literature, as well as variant approaches to safety culture across the industry. The framework suggested in the study might be used as reference for completing existing safety culture development plans and constructing safety culture assessment instruments.

The Slovak Culture Strike: An Interview with the Open Culture! Team

Slovakia is in political turmoil since the conservative populist and Putin-versteher Robert Fico won the 2023 elections. Following the authoritarian playbook, the new government has targeted cultural organisations, especially those associated with LGBTQ+-communities, with a series of repressive laws and political appointments. To fight back, a group of cultural workers formed the Open Culture! platform, establishment of a new cultural workers, and declared the Slovak Culture Strike on the 5th of September 2024. They rally around three simple demands: good governance, fair payment, and an end to political censorship. The Culture Strike strike quickly garnered massive support among cultural workers throughout Slovakia, including those working in public institutions. It is still going strong, having developed into a serious movement. In this article, the organizers behind the strike are interviewed.