Cultural Assimilation in Large Organizations: Levers of Change (part 1 of 2)

Large organizations can experience incredible growth either organically or through M&As. Organic growth means that internal pressures can build until there’s an acknowledgement that new buildings and departments are needed, more FTE’s are needed, and processes need to be formalized. On the other hand, organizations that acquire this company and then that company tend to focus overwhelmingly on the mechanics of the assimilation. Looking for economies of scale by centralizing functions or eliminating duplicate departments is a tasty treat for executives in charge of the operational and financial changes. 

After a few years, people are left to wonder why the culture didn’t integrate along with the organizational changes. There’s a dangerous assumption that in time, acquired group A and acquired group B will ‘come around’ and feel like they are a part of the fold. There is a giant leap of faith that an employee of an acquired group will identity with the legacy (or acquiring) group. 

Unfortunately, all too often cultural integration gets lost in the noise of organization life. Even organizations that have the best intentions and acknowledge that their consortium of cultures need to start feeling connected as one, the ideals of organic assimilation simply don’t come to fruition. The newly formed organization is busy trying to capitalize on their new organizational capacity and power. 

Because little if any sustained attention (and resources) is devoted to cultural assimilation, acquired and merged entities feel as though they are simply separate and distinct cultures functioning under one name, but in name only.

Change theories try to address the mechanics of getting cultures to adapt to new changes. It is huge in healthcare with the frenetic pace of change that seems to hit this industry. So you have Kotter, Prosci, or McKinsey 7-S to name a few. Each requires a concerted effort to get into the minds of the employees that may be weary from so much change. How do we marshal employee excitement and energy to embrace the new thing?

The second part of change however, and this is right in the OD practitioner’s wheelhouse, is the often overlooked levers of change within the system. Think about a large organization that has grown quickly over the last 5-7 years. The mother ship has cobbled together an impressive quilt of businesses, but each merged or acquired entity hangs onto its legacy systems and processes. So you end up with these guys over here do it this way, and those guys over there have their own system…we just let them do their thing.

Cultural assimilation can pull from numerous levers of change. None of these levers alone are sufficient to move the needle very much. It is not a linear proposition, where you can implement one change for a few years, then when you feel like it is safe to poke your head up, implement the second change. You will very simply put, never get there with this strategy. 

What are the levers of change then? In the next blog article, I have identified 16 levers of change. There are probably organizational dynamics and systems that could be added to this list, but the main point is to draw out the vast arsenal of systems that the organization can draw from or coordinate in concert to affect cultural assimilation. The challenge might be more about a lack of knowledge and vision rather than tools and systems.