Managing Culture Change
September 16, 2009
The public debate about the Auckland Supercity is about governance and efficiency. But to make it work requires an immense effort to align the cultures of different councils and create one unified organisation where the focus is on the residents not on internal issues. Organisational culture is like a brand, the term “employer brand” is gaining currency in HR circles. Like brands, organisational culture includes both tangible and intangible elements with the intangible being the most complex but also the most important. You can design all the right IT systems and workstations but if the organisation’s heart is in the wrong place it wont work. Organisations have personalities the same as brands do. Market researchers have become trained to use different breeds of dogs as representative of different personalities. While this may sound bizarre, have a look at these two dogs and think about which one you would want you children to play with?
 Old English Sheepdog |
 Staffordshire Terrier |
| Calm and accepting. Gets bitten often (but doesn’t realise). | Aggressive and independent. Bites! |
So what kind of cultures do we have at the moment? Here’s a little game you can play at the office:
| Council | Breed? | Interpretation? |
| Auckland City | ||
| North Shore City | ||
| Rodney District | ||
| Waitakere City | ||
| Manukau City | ||
| Papakura District | ||
| Franklin District | ||
| ARC | ||
| IDEAL FOR THE SUPERCITY? |
We had a go but chickened out from publishing it! We did agree that the traditional Sheepdog (the Kiwi kind) would be a good ideal to strive for. It’s hard working but seems to enjoy its work, it is intelligent, learns quickly, follows instructions and doesn’t carry any extra weight.
Now, how do we create this from what we have at the moment? Over to you Laila Harre!
