Skip to content

ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Enabling success: organising

Dunmore Bank is trying to move from a cautious, rule-bound culture to an innovative one. Staff still repeatedly recount how a manager was dismissed ten years ago after a failed product launch. In cultural web terms, what does this most strongly imply for the change programme?

The retold dismissal story reinforces the risk-averse paradigm, so the change programme must replace it with new stories that celebrate sensible risk-taking. Stories are one element of a self-reinforcing web, so changing one element, such as rewards alone, is unlikely to shift the culture.

  1. AStories reinforce the old risk-averse paradigm, so leaders must create and publicise new stories that reward sensible risk-takingCorrect
  2. BThe power structure is already aligned, so change needs no further action
  3. CControl systems are the only element that matters, so changing the reward scheme alone will suffice
  4. DThe symbols are irrelevant because they are only visible outside the organisation

Explanation

Stories embed and perpetuate the paradigm by showing what is valued and punished. The failure story signals that risk-taking is dangerous, so it supports the existing paradigm. Changing a single element such as rewards is unlikely to succeed because the web elements reinforce one another.

Did you get it right without looking?

One question tells you little. A timed set on Enabling success: organising shows your real accuracy, how long you take and where you lose marks.

Practise Enabling success: organisingFree diagnostic mock

More Enabling success: organising questions