Changing Your Organizational Culture to Align With Your ERP Project

Time to Read: 3 Min

Transforming Your Organizational Culture to Align With Your ERP Project

Every organization possesses its unique set of values, expectations, and established practices that collectively shape its organizational culture. This prevailing culture, whether consciously acknowledged or not, holds considerable sway and can significantly influence the outcome of your ERP implementation or business transformation. Successfully realizing your project goals may necessitate a cultural shift within your organization—a task easier said than done.

Ideally, your organizational culture should exhibit traits such as:

1. Embracing Change: Encouraging employees to be open to change, welcoming innovation, and embracing new ways of working.

2. Trust in Leadership: Fostering trust and confidence in company leadership, ensuring that employees believe in the vision set forth.

3. Collaboration: Creating an environment that promotes collaboration and teamwork among team members.

However, reshaping deeply ingrained beliefs and practices to align with these ideals can be a formidable challenge. To aid in this endeavor, we present a set of essential tips that can facilitate the process.

The Perils of a Misaligned Culture: 

When your organizational culture doesn't harmonize with your new digital strategy, several issues may arise:

1. Poor Hiring Decisions: Misalignment between your strategy and culture can lead to hiring external resources who may possess the required technical skills but differ in values and priorities. Consequently, assembling a cohesive project team comprising both internal and external resources becomes challenging.

2. Ineffective Performance Management: Constructive feedback from managers is vital for addressing issues, overcoming challenges, and resolving pain points. However, when cultural misalignment exists, employees may disregard this feedback, leading to a disconnect between their efforts and project goals.

3. Lack of Employee Recognition: Studies show that frequent positive recognition can enhance employee engagement. Yet, a misalignment between culture and digital strategy can hinder effective recognition efforts. When both culture and strategy work in harmony, it becomes easier to identify and reward employees contributing positively to the project, motivating others to follow suit.

The Interplay Between Culture and Change Management: 

Both culture and Organizational Change Management (OCM) hold the potential to drive your project forward, and the key is ensuring that one informs the other. 

Here are steps to coordinate your efforts effectively:

1. Understand Your Current Culture: Various cultural dimensions can impact your organization's Change Management endeavors. Cultural dimensions encompass factors like employee assertiveness, emotional expressiveness, individual vs. collective thought, power distance, performance orientation, and fear of uncertainty. Understanding where your organization falls on these dimensions is crucial, as it helps identify cultural barriers that need addressing.

2. Clarify Cultural Objectives: Define your company's mission, vision, and values in alignment with the desired culture. Keep these objectives accessible and subject to periodic review and revision whenever strategic directions change.

3. Communicate With Mid-Level and Senior Managers: Communicate these cultural objectives to mid-level and senior managers in person rather than through mass emails. Encourage open dialogue, invite feedback, and address questions. Discuss topics such as process improvements, customer expectations, employee training, trust in management, and performance measurement.

4. Communicate With Front-Line Managers: Equip front-line managers with a deep understanding of strategic objectives and tactical priorities. Empower them to track employee performance using key performance indicators (KPIs) and report findings to upper management. Ensure clear communication channels to minimize distortion of messages.

Transform Your Company Culture Effectively: 

Changing organizational culture is a complex and time-consuming process, but it may be imperative to propel your ERP software implementation forward. Ensuring that your culture aligns with your project goals is an essential step toward achieving meaningful progress.

Our Change Management consultants can conduct comprehensive assessments to help you understand your organizational culture and guide you on this transformative journey.