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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

(Name)
(Course name)
(Date of submission)
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Discussion Questions
Part 1
Modern conditions force organizations to look for new methods of increasing efficiency,
new ways to achieve competitive advantages and new management tools to achieve long-term
success. Accordingly, the point that strikes me the most regarding the success and failures behind
the transformational process in the organization and what provokes them is the extent of
readiness of employees to go out of their comfort zones and apply changes on the basis of the
permission potential1. The changes might be associated with developing new technologies and
the launch of new products and services on the market. They require innovations not only of
technology but also of an organizational-social nature. Meanwhile, innovation in technology and
management does not provide long-term advantages, as it can be “copied” by competitors. At
this point, organizational culture, being an extremely complex object of management, enables
achieving increased efficiency and competitiveness in the long term.
From my learning experience, I have been evidencing the complexities of organizational
culture in the context of organizational transformation such as mergers, acquisitions of small
companies by large ones, and the transformation of company divisions into independent
structures. In this regard, the role of HR becomes especially important, as the specialists work to
align all the divergences and find the points of convergence to promote unity within the new
entity. Besides, if the HR specialists stay ignorant of the issue which they may use to boost the
inside communicational atmosphere and cooperation, it may result in a gradual rise of conflicts.
The latter inevitably harms the work process. For instance, when going through the process of
merging, the HR specialists did not work to overcome all the differences of the corporate culture.
In a while, the company starts to lose their profit and most successful professionals. Accordingly,
it is recommended to consider the culture compatibility survey when implementing an
organizational transformation strategy.
Part 2
As a rule, if the company culture is not flexible and prefers to stay the same despite the
tech progress, it might result in unexpected big-scale losses. For example, an industrial
production enterprise remains stable and do not care about changes and advancement of its
working process and almost absent initiative of the workers; in this case, when some unexpected
production line accident happens, the specialist may not be up to deal with it because of the
absent ability to cope with unpredicted occurrences2. It results in the slowing down of the
production and consecutive financial problems.

1
​“Engaging Whole Systems in Transformation.” ​Nick Kemp YouTube Channel,
00:37-00:43.
2
​ Aguirre, DeAnne, and Micah Alpern. “10 Principles of Leading Change Management.”
Student’s Materials,​ 2020, p.3.
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Accordingly, as the company experiences decline (or growth), the organization’s culture
gets altered as well. If it is a decline, the inadequate culture “ignites” more previously hidden
problems; if it is positive evolvement, the appropriately constructed and supported (by HR
managers) organizational culture serves for further progress. In fact, HR specialists should check
all alterations imposed on the expected behavior of the workers in the context of the corporate
culture systematically and rigorously to guarantee the consistent advancement of the workers’
skills3. Under these changes, the culture either gains new forms aligned with the circumstances
or slowly deteriorates and even contributes to inside chaos.
The HR functions can be most efficient in contributing to the thriving of the
organizational culture as a fundamental of positive transformation in the following way. The HR
specialist can propose a superior strategy to work known as due diligence. In fact, due diligence
critically requires assessments of corporate culture despite the difficulties. The major points of
assessing the possibility of integrating corporate cultures comprise: integration of the factor of
corporate culture in the process of discussing the problem of mergers or acquisitions; formation
and preparation of a “verification team” taking into account the corporate culture factor; a
collection of information considering “cultural aspects”; the use of formal tools (techniques) to
assess the possibility of integrating corporate cultures.
Part 3
To contribute to the successful achieving and functioning of an aspired corporate cultural
change, the HR initiatives should have proactive, synergistic, and individualized subsequent
forms. The conceptual position in relation to cultural transformation should proceed from the
following formula: the organizational culture of a subsidiary company, being included in the
corporate formation, is subjected to the introduction of corporate information into it, which acts
as a kind of “genetic code” that leads to the emergence (strengthening) of culture-recipient of
traits characteristic of the donor’s corporate culture. Accordingly, HR managers should perceive
transformation as a process of reinforcing attributes and properties in a culture that are in an
implicit state, under the influence of the forces of the corporate cultural space. This process does
not eliminate the identity of culture, but aims to strengthen its cultural elements, which will
ensure the synergy of cultures in space. The process of cultural transformation is based on the
principles:
● Consistency: the impact of corporate culture on the cultural subsystems of space;
● Historicity: cultural dynamics in the space of a corporation, depending on the level of its
development and transformations in the external environment; creativity - the use of
innovative technologies for the transfer of corporate information to other elements of
space;
● Value orientation: increasing cultural integration within space;

3
​ Ashkenas, R. “Change Management Needs to Change.” ​Student’s Materials,​ 2013, p.3.
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● Denial of cultural expansion: in relation to the organizational culture of the object in the
space of the corporation when transferring value guidelines;
● The complexity of ideas: the formation of responsibility for overall corporate results in
any object of the cultural space;
● Identity: the formation of a sense of unity with the corporation in subsidiaries;
● Dynamic balance: creating conditions for the harmonious development of the entire
cultural space and its elements;
● Fractality: dynamic stability of the center of space (corporate culture);
● Similarities: the interrelation and interdependence of the processes taking place in the
cultural space of the corporation;
● Timeliness: an indication of the temporal aspect of the transfer of “genetic information,”
since the delay in this process can lead to consequences that adversely affect the viability
of the entire corporation;
● The uniqueness of the “genetic code” of the corporation.
Hence, the basis of any process implies a sequence of actions; therefore, HR should focus
on their allocation for the phenomenon under consideration. For example, when Facebook
“absorbed” Instagram, they have managed to take the best features of both and use them for
forming positive culture perceptions around their corporate unity. These changes demanded new
“lines of force” to establish communication and create conditions for cultural integration with a
new element4. If this process is ignored, there occurs a rejection of cultural information
transferred to the organizational culture; in a while, there begins a period of cultural
confrontation, which leads to a decrease in the unity of the cultural space. Ways to overcome the
conflict are unique for each specific situation, up to the separation of a new company into the
external environment in the case of a threat to the viability of the corporation.

4
​Salvatore, Sergio, Jaan Valsiner, and Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri. “The Theoretical and
Methodological Framework. Semiotic Cultural Psychology, Symbolic Universes and Lines of
Semiotic Forces.” In ​Symbolic Universes in Time of (Post) Crisis​. Springer, Cham, 2019, p.36.
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Bibliography
Aguirre, DeAnne, and Micah Alpern. “​10 Principles of Leading Change Management.”​ ​Student’s
Materials,​ 2020.
Ashkenas, R. “Change Management Needs to Change.” ​Student’s Materials,​ 2013.
“Engaging Whole Systems in Transformation.” ​Nick Kemp YouTube Channel.
Salvatore, Sergio, Jaan Valsiner, and Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri. “The Theoretical and
Methodological Framework. Semiotic Cultural Psychology, Symbolic Universes and Lines
of Semiotic Forces.” In ​Symbolic Universes in Time of (post) Crisis​. Springer, Cham, 2019.