Emphasis on Organizational Culture
At Nestell & Associates, as highly experienced ERP practitioners, ERP researchers, and organizational change researchers, the significant value and impact of organizational culture on the success, or failure, of ERP organizational change projects is well understood. This is why we not only place emphasis on organizational culture within our implementation methodology, we also measure culture.
There is some great work that presents, suggests, and demonstrates the value of organizational culture specifically in the context of ERP organizational change success which would include: Al-Mashari, 2018; Yongyi & Ying, 2005; Shao, Feng, & Hu, 2017; Ifinedo, 2016; Altamony, Tarhini, Al-Salti, Gharaibeh,& Elyas, 2016; and Stanciu & Tinca, 2013.
In a previous post, that kicked off this series, we provided a brief typology of corporate culture because not being able to distinguish the influences and perceptions associated with ACTUAL culture could lead to project errors and possible failure.
So, what can we do to better ensure ERP project success? Just like we do for assessing and evaluating legacy and new ERP systems, we can also assess the legacy culture [ACTUAL] and the new culture [VISION] culture. When assessing any firm’s culture, the assessment begins just prior to high-level project planning. The reason for this priority is that several “alignment” issues can be addressed BEFORE a project plan is conceived.
- Alignment Pulse Issue 1 – Actual level of project urgency [priority]:
- Alignment Pulse Issue 2 – History of change projects [learning]
- Alignment Pulse Issue 3 – Executive level of authenticity [leading]
- Alignment Pulse Issue 4 – Behavioral-based Roadmap [charting]
- Alignment Pulse Issue 5 – Vision Culture Translations [navigating]
Understanding Organizational History of Project-based Change [learning]
Every formal change initiative has its own contribution to a company’s history. The way a firm goes about enacting large-scale change can seriously influence the actual culture. If a change initiative is a dismal failure, there is no sense of urgency, or if the expectations set forth are not fully met, a culture can carry those negative effects into the ERP change initiative.
Culture-Based Challenges with ERP Change
So, it is our suggestion that the history of change and efforts used to build an adaptive culture with respect to ERP change is warranted. The conventional wisdom often relies on a “gap analysis” type method which presents one rationale, however, it may not include the possible distortions and other culture-based challenges necessary to achieve broad-level success. There are certainly challenges to implementing a new ERP system…it is another thing to successfully implement and fully adapt to a new work reality.
Contact us to find out more about how we actually measure organizational readiness to ensure the success of your ERP organizational change project.
By Matthew V. Brown, Ph.D. & Jack G. Nestell, Ph.D