Organizational Culture Change Case Study

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 708 words ( 2 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 2

Page 1 of 2

BP Change Management

The forces that are driving BP to change are relatively weak compared with the forces that are restraining change. The driving forces are a pending legal action, and the fallout from the Deepwater Horizon disaster. The further that the disaster is from the public consciousness -- it occurred in 2010 -- the less impactful it will be in terms of sparking organizational change. Change is typically motivated in organizations by crises that take the key players outside of their comfort zone. Deepwater Horizon can still be used as impetus for change, but it would have been more effective had the company immediately used the incident to spark a cultural overhaul back in 2010. To do it today simply demonstrates a lack of urgency, lack of commitment and a lack of leadership. The people within the organization would have reason to doubt that leadership is truly committed to change.

The legal action is also a fairly weak motivator for change, at least relative to the restraining forces. Companies like BP face legal action all the time, and sometimes they will lose a costly judgment. Only when the one legal action sets a precedent for future legal action that will continue to cost the company money for the foreseeable future could there truly be impetus for change. The company is not in that position right now.

As for the job security of the senior management team, they answer to the Board of Directors, and the Board answers to the shareholders. The shareholders are motivated by share price, which means that by agency so is management.

Stuck Writing Your "Organizational Culture Change" Case Study?

View All Our Example Organizational Culture Change Case Study

Have A Custom Example Essay Written

. If the company is making money, then job security is not at risk, and therefore is not a huge motivator for BP's management. Only factors that are linked to the bottom line will genuinely put the company's management at risk.

This means that the factors restraining change are stronger than the factors driving change. The organizational culture is very firmly entrenched, and most of the senior management team has come up through the BP organization. The company and industry both have similar cultures, and there is little motivation for change within those cultures as long as they are still making money. A strong corporate culture carries with it a lot of inertia that can be difficult to overcome without a critical incident to motivate people to rethink how they run their company, and what kind of culture they want the company to have. If Deepwater Horizon wasn't enough -- and it wasn't -- then there is good reason to suspect that the organizational culture is a restraining factor that will be difficult to overcome, and is instead rather resistant to change.

Poor communication has also been cited as a restraining force within BP. The company is mostly a one-industry company but it operates around the world. It also works in partnership with a lot of other company during different phases both upstream and downstream. The lines of communication do not need to be poor, but at present they are, which means that even if senior management fully committed to change, it would be difficult to execute organizational change. Again, there would need to be.....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


Related Essays

Future of Policing Law Enforcement

policing needs to reflect the core values and ethics of the institutions of law enforcement. Only through leadership and organizational culture changes can the public expect to see tangible differences in officer comportment and procedural justice. The first pillar of change in 21st century policing is building trust and legitimacy (The President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, 2015). Community policing models are one way of building trust and legitimacy. Building trust and legitimacy means remaining responsive to community concerns. It also means improving the ethical standards of police behavior, improving accountability, and ensuring that officers are held to a higher standard. A possible means of achieving this all-important… Continue Reading...

Public Sector Performance Measurement

state. For this to be achieved, however, a number of factors are important: strong leadership commitment, organizational culture changes, as well as attention to individual, operational, and strategic dimensions. If effectively implemented, PBM can positively influence employee and organizational outcomes. Performance Management: Brief Literature Review With the operational environment becoming ever more competitive, and against the backdrop of austerity in resource management, the importance of performance-based management (PBM) cannot be overemphasized. Indeed, PBM has increasingly become a common practice in organizations of different sizes -- small and large -- and in diverse sectors -- manufacturing and service, as well as public and private sectors (Ploom &… Continue Reading...

sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Organizational Culture Change" (2014, November 11) Retrieved May 18, 2024, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/organizational-culture-change-2153587

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Organizational Culture Change" 11 November 2014. Web.18 May. 2024. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/organizational-culture-change-2153587>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Organizational Culture Change", 11 November 2014, Accessed.18 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/organizational-culture-change-2153587
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example