Why is it so difficult to change the culture of an organization?

Organization culture refers to the organization’s way of doing things which include communication, and how people relate with each other in an organization. It refers to behaviors and values which contribute to the unique psychological and social surrounding of an organization. It also describes the practices, philosophies, beliefs, and attitudes which define an organization. It is considerably hard to change the organization culture. One reason for this is that organization culture is embedded deeply in the system. Organization culture contains a set of interlocking goals, assumptions, roles, attitudes, processes, communication practices, and values. It is embedded in the whole organizational system and thus every small change impacts every system’s layer.

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It is deep rooted in an organization such that it appears as part of individuals’ character which is hard to drain out of a person. To change an organization culture, one has to break a lot of deep routed barrier some of which are none consciously created in the organization through habitual nature of people or simple routines. In this regard, more energy is needed to break the old culture and also to introduce a new culture to individuals who were fully absorbed in the old culture. The major challenge of changing the organization’s culture is resistance from those that are highly absorbed in the old culture. Changing people’s beliefs and making them adopt a new belief can only be easy if the followers are willing to change. However, when the change is not welcome, this can be the most challenging task. This is what makes the change of the organization culture to be among the most complex things to attain in an organization (Muscalu, 2014).