Organisational Culture: Organisational Change?

Citation

Holyoak, L. (2002), "Organisational Culture: Organisational Change?", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 23 No. 6, pp. 354-355. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.2002.23.6.354.4

Peter Elsmore’s book has grown from work carried out for his PhD and is described as an investigation of the links between organisational culture and change in two large businesses (page vii). In all, six companies had been approached which were known to be undergoing massive changes (for whatever reason), but only two were willing to take part, both of which had experienced the effects of the Conservative Government policy of privatisation in the 1980s.

The book starts with a chapter that introduces the history of the policy that required these organisations (British Telecom and British Gas [Eastern]) to change in the way they did, sets out the framework for the book and starts to look at the concept of organisational culture. The second chapter discusses methodology and the quirks of fate that resulted in these two companies being the sites of the research. The account of the underpinning philosophy determining the choice of methods is thorough, and once it got into its stride, very readable. The third chapter is a detailed discussion of the notion of culture, and looks at the term and its usage from the 1950s onwards in a range of literatures. Chapter four has a very similar title to Chapter two, and expands on how the research was undertaken in British Telecom and British Gas (Eastern). It also contains a brief introduction to the Graphics COPE software package that was used to analyse the interview data. The very lengthy (more than 100 pages) fifth chapter presents the findings of the study, and is followed by a separate chapter linking these findings to existing theory. This chapter also usefully draws some conclusions and makes recommendations pertinent to those undertaking large‐scale change. Finally there is an “endpiece” where the author attempts to relate his findings to research that has been published since the study was undertaken.

I was keen to read this book to refresh my knowledge of organisational culture and (particularly) change; however, it did not fulfil my particular need, and nor do I think it would be a good introduction to anyone new to the area. The chapter presenting the findings was really far too long, and although each interview question (or “discussion head”) was introduced with a theoretical rationale, it was very easy to lose sight of the overall purpose of the book. The final two chapters were good, though, and did condense the findings and relate them to the literature well. Skipping the fifth chapter might be the answer, as long as the idea of omitting very nearly half of the book is not too painful.

As well as my disappointment with the balance of content, I grew increasingly annoyed with the book’s repetitive feel. Organisational culture was introduced about three times, and I felt it would have been better to deal with the idea once thoroughly. Worse still, page 177 is almost a word for word repetition of material from pages 92 and 93, and the substantial quotation from the software documentation is exactly the same on both occasions. I was also irritated by the lack of care with the presentation – there are many typographical errors and the sources of some quotations are not clear.

On the positive side, the first chapter on methodology was good to read, and would be recommended to anyone who has tried and failed to gain access to organisations to carry out research. It was also clear that the author was on top of the literature and the realities of working in this type of organisation.