Changing A Culture

Galileo stood at the top of the church tower and told the people that the earth traveled around the sun, not the other way around. It seemed from the moment he mentioned his idea to the people, they just couldn't resist the opportunity to say he was crazy. The idea that something was different than the way it had always been, seemed impossible. It was contrary to what was always taught and up to that time, believed. A paradigm shift was needed from within the culture. He later proved that his hypothesis was correct.

For organizations to be successful, a paradigm shift or changes in management styles can be the answer. In an article from the Journal of Management Development, Burnes writes:

In an age where effective leaders are at a premium and where continuous change appears to be the order of the day, organizations need to align organizational change and management development strategically and operationally in order to maintain and increase their competitiveness. (Burnes, 2003, p. 627)

Companies in today's business environment are experiencing changes that are needed to stay competitive in the ever changing global market. We are seeing in the US, many companies outsource their manufacturing to other countries such as China and Taiwan. Business managers and leaders must be able to adapt to different cultures and management styles if they want to continue their success. Hinkelman writes: "US businesspeople, especially those who have had little exposure to international operations, can be narrow-minded and nationalistic." (Hinkelman, 1995, p. 10) While many US businesses have improved the perception abroad, other cultures still operate very different. It is the open minded American companies that have been able to implement the paradigm shift. The idea of following, not leading is the downfall of many US companies.

Toyota is the leader in lean manufacturing and many companies have tried to mirror their success. Toyota was successful changing the culture in the organization. The company has changed its processes, the way material flows through plants, methods and principles of production line manufacturing and visual management. Toyota sits at the top of the quality chart today because of the culture it created. It was not always this way; a paradigm shift was inevitable to reach the status the company holds today.

After World War II, Taiichi Ohno the current Vice President of Toyota was convinced that a cultural change within his organization was the right thing to do. At the time, the big American automobile manufacturers like GM and Ford were dominating the market place. The little Japanese company called Toyota was on the brink of bankruptcy and had already starting closing plants. Taiichi knew they had to do something different. Implementing the Toyota Production System and changing the culture from within has set Toyota on top of list when it comes to quality built automobiles today. This was not an overnight change. Changing the culture took many years of trial and error, cause and effect and studying human behavior. Taiichi Ohno said it best in his book on the Toyota Production System:

A business organization is like the human body. The human body contains autonomic nerves that work without regard to human wishes and motor nerves that react to human command to control muscles. In the human body, the autonomic nerve causes us to salivate when we see tasty food. It accelerates our heart rate during exercise so that circulation is enhanced. It performs other similar functions that respond automatically to changes in the body. These functions are performed unconsciously without and directive from the brain. At Toyota, we began to think about how to install an