Definition

The term cultural change refers to a change or reconstruction of the cultural concept of a society that is brought by innovation, discovery, or influence of other societies. Culture is an evolving process. New objects or things are added to the aspects of culture every day. Cultures are bound to change when new ways of living are identified or when new ideas are pinned in through traveling or globalization.

The process of cultural change is long-lasting. A lot of effort is required to improve the foundational aspects of a society’s cultural traits. However, the enhancement of economic or political institutions can speed up the change process. Evolution, which is basically the social changes or development, exist and hence the societies and cultures are undergoing change at a continuous and ongoing rate.

Cultural change in workplace

  • Structure and process. Behavior change at top level hierarchies usually results in a cultural change in an organization/environment as the people under those authorities then proceed to cooperate with the changing operations or processes that eventually end up in a changing the company’s culture.
  • People. New people, ideas, or strategies maybe the causes for different and new sorts of behavioral or performance changes that may eventually lead to new ways of thinking, and hence result in cultural change.
  • Incentives. The significance of incentives can be visible in a workplace view in various companies as incentives have an impact on the employees’ behavior and performance. Because of that, there is the establishment of new and diverse resources or capabilities. And we already know that these new capabilities eventually end up in cultural change.
  • Changing control. It’s important for companies to get feedback and check on their performance to take the right actions. It is crucial to learn from this performance and apply the lessons learned, methods applicable or even the processes used, to accumulate goals that are operational or strategic. These will help to derive thinking methods or behaviors that establish the fields of learning and success in any given culture. This altogether contributes to cultural change as well.