Organizational change can be considered a genuine moment of evolution and development of the entire organization and decision of change is closely related to the company's mission, the objectives that wish to achieve in order to ensure their competitive advantage. At the same time, information and communication technologies as well as growing competition, changes in both production methods and organizational structures of companies. New forms of organization and management models based on different concepts and skills involving clear needs of employees with new skills, new roles, behaviors and values. It appears, therefore, a new culture of the organizationorganization, organizational culture, communications technologies

Daniel Boldureanu

Gabriela Boldureanu

Nicoleta Niculescu

Teodor Paduraru

English

Research Papers in Economics

GABRIELA BOLDUREANU 
DANIEL BOLDUREANU 
TEODOR PĂDURARU 
NICOLETA NICULESCU
  
Points of view 
 
An. Inst.Cerc.Ec.„Gh. Zane”, t. 20, i. I, Iaşi, 2011, p. 79-90 
 
 
CHANGING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN TERMS OF 
INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGIES 
GABRIELA BOLDUREANU
1, DANIEL BOLDUREANU
2, TEODOR PĂDURARU
3, NICOLETA NICULESCU
4 
 
Abstract 
Organizational change can be considered a genuine moment of evolution and development of the entire 
organization and decision of change is closely related to the company's mission, the objectives that wish  to 
achieve  in  order  to  ensure  their  competitive  advantage. At  the  same  time,  information  and  communication 
technologies as well as growing competition, changes in both production methods and organizational structures 
of  companies.  New  forms  of  organization  and  management  models  based  on  different  concepts  and  skills 
involving clear needs of employees with new skills, new roles, behaviors and values. It appears, therefore, a new 
culture of the organization. 
Key Words: organization, organizational culture, communications technologies 
 
 
1. Introduction 
The actual period is characterized by large transformations of social, political, economic 
and technological intelligence [7; p. 133]. The socio-political organization, the new relation 
between  economy  and  institutions,  the  process  of  globalization,  on  the  one  hand,  and 
scientific-technological progress, major attention given to the problems and requirements of 
individuals but also the growing competition between companies and nations, on the other 
hand, have made “the fall” of dominant paradigms, causing a deep crisis. 
Also,  the  climate  of  uncertainty  and  confusion  led  inevitably  to  the  managerial  and 
organizational  theory  to  a  rethink  of  the  relationship  between  the  organization  and  the 
environment, as well as the need for a complex redesign of the company through change. 
 
2. Organizational changing - organizational culture changing 
Organizational  changing  can  be  considered  a  genuine  moment  of  evolution  and 
development  of  the  entire  organization,  the  decision  of  change  is  closely  related  to  the 
company's  mission,  the  objectives  that  wish  to  be  achieved  in  order  to  ensure  their 
competitive advantage. Assuming the premise that, in order to have a real chance of success, 
changes in the organization must be planned, it can be identified three distinct phases [3, p. 
165]: 
-  initiation,  conceptualization,  planning  -  in  this  phase  it  plays  an  essential  role  the 
changing  strategy  and  their  supporters.  Visionary  leaders  have  a  clear  vision  of 
inconsistencies between the organization and the environment and are able to develop and to 
initiate  the  implementation  of  strategic  directions  for  increasing  the  performance  of  the 
system; 
-  implementation  –  agents  and  proponents  of  change  are  responsible  for  the 
implementation of creative plans designed in the first phase;  
                                                 
1 Petre Andrei University of Iaşi, Faculty of Economics, 13 Grigore Ghica Vodă Street, 700469, Iasi, Romania 
gabrivaleanu@yahoo.com 
2 Gr.T. Popa  University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Management-
Marketing, 16 Universitatii Street, 700115, Iasi, Romania 
 boldureanu@yahoo.com 
3 Gh. Zane Institute of Economic and Social Researches, 2 Codrescu Street , 700479, Iasi , Romania  
tpaduraru2005@yahoo.com 
4 “POLITEHNICA” University of Bucharest, Splaiul Independentei nr. 313, Sector 5, Bucuresti, Romania   
nicoleta@ndcontexpert.ro 88  Gabriela Boldureanu, Daniel Boldureanu, Teodor Păduraru, Nicoleta Niculescu 
 
 
- acceptance - the affected group by the change is not involved in the conception and 
implementation  of  change,  and  their  reactions  and  actions  determine  the  success  of  the 
change. 
If negative reactions - resistance to change - are not anticipated, recognized and resolved, 
the change will be painful and unsuccessful.  
Regarding  the  resistance  to  change  the  study  „L  '  apport  de  la  technologie  des 
informations dans le changement organisationnel” [4, p. 865], reveals major differences in 
the  transformation  of  the  Romanian  organizations  analyzed  under  the  impact  of  ICT,  in 
relation to the enterprises in the EU and the USA.  
The differences reflect the national cultural context, resistance to change of policy makers 
and  social  upheaval  fear  could  be  driven  by  substantial  reduction  of  socio-professional 
categories, by the introduction of these elements of modernity. 
Exploiting  the  opportunities  offered  by  ICT  can  induce  profound  transformations  in 
business  strategy  and  organizational  structure.  This  is  supported  by  the  statement  that  in 
recent  years,  there  have  been  significant  changes  in  defining  the  role  of  information 
technology in organization management [1, p.40]: the direct impact of ICT on organizational 
culture, organizational structure and process redesign, redefinition of markets borders and 
their structural characteristics, changing the bases of competition, as well as providing a new 
set of weapons in competitive struggle. 
To be able to  evaluate the impact of ITC on the organization, we must consider the 
organization  as  a  socio-technical  system  [2,  p.45]  whose  components  are:  employees, 
businesses,  culture  and  structure,  information  and  technology.  All  this  is  reflected  in: 
objectives, strategy, organizational forms of business, types of management systems, systems 
of  work  organization  and  production,  intra  and  inter-professional  training,  emergence  of 
enterprises in the tertiary sector and changing cost structures, control and power within the 
company. 
  Transformation  of  the  whole  organization,  in  terms  of  ICT  is  conditioned,  in  the 
opinion of many experts, by the existence of a set of preconditions, namely [6]: 
- the company management must be committed to changes caused by ICT; 
- each employee must be able to view what are the benefits of ICT and on which values 
are based; 
- existing of the exogenous conditions that issues facing not can be addressed and solved 
using the previous methods; 
-  the  upper  management  people  in  organization  to  support  the  achievement  of 
organizational change; 
-  managers  and  professionals  who  carried  out  the  change  generated  by  ICT  must  be 
prepared and committed to a long-term process;  
- all staff must be aware from the beginning that will be faced with the "opposition" to the 
implementation of ICT; 
- during ICT implementation there must be the availability of a large number of people to 
learn; 
-  most  of  the  staff  organization  to  be  convinced  of  the  need  to  make  any  changes 
expected;  
- organization is ready to call on any assistance and / or useful contribution within and 
outside the company; 
- ensuring access to information that is involved in all phases organizational change. 
Consequently, information and communication technologies and increasing competition, 
changes both production methods and organizational structures of companies. New forms of 
organization and management models based on different concepts and skills involving clear 
need for new employees, new roles, behaviors and values.  It appears, therefore, a new 
culture of the organization. Changing organizational culture in terms of information and communications technologies  89 
 
To capture how to reshape the organizational culture as a result of the introduction of 
information technology we use Lundberg's model of organization culture change, shown in 
Figure 1. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Figure 1. Organizational culture changing model 
Source: Lundberg, C., On the Fesability of Cultural Interventions in Organization, Newbury Park, 1985, 
p.182 
 
According to this model: 
- the category of external factors include information technology and communications; 
-  the  internal  forces  that  generate  change  through  ICT  includes:  the  existence  of  a 
leadership focused on change, good level of collaboration between employees, the availability 
of staff to accept changes; 
- internal and external tensions incentives to changes or, in other words, what led to the 
ICT  implementation  refer  to  the  specific  requirements  expressed  by  the  market  or  the 
community to the company, obtaining competitive advantage, improving internal and external 
communication,  the  need  for  transmission  of  information  in  a  shorter  time,  improving 
working conditions, reduction of costs, introducing radical changes to improve processes in 
the organization, etc. 
The events that trigger the switch to making change in organizational culture include 
opportunities or major disruptions in the context of the company, changing leadership. 
Among the conditions that facilitate cultural change we can mention: size or length of 
organization – if the organization is smaller or younger, the more easily initiated a cultural 
change, type of organization - a week culture is less conservative than a strong culture. 
The other elements  of the model, in  fact,  the logical  phases  for achieving change in 
organizational culture have common content, such as: 
- to determine the target configuration culture - cultural change announcement;  
- to identify specific behaviors that constitute the target of culture manifestations;  
- inclusion of practices in the assessment of the performance-measuring the use of new 
behaviors; 
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE 
Changing organizational 
culture 
 
Making changes according 
to the action programs 
Transition to the operational 
action programs 
Development strategy for 
changing (if any) the 
organizational vision 
External factors that make 
possible organizational 
changing 
 
Internal forces that support 
change 
Modification of internal and 
external tensions incentives 
to change 
Generation, sometimes, of 
the availability to view a 
new organizational culture 90  Gabriela Boldureanu, Daniel Boldureanu, Teodor Păduraru, Nicoleta Niculescu 
 
 
- inclusion of a performance reward system to encourage desired behaviors. 
The  degree  of  difficulty  of  change  decreases  from  values  to  attitudes  and  behaviors 
towards [6]. Values and norms have attached beliefs and attitudes. Therefore, any cultural 
change may not start with changing them but with the change of behavior. So, first determine 
the employees to act in the direction desired, after that attaches a series of values of these 
behaviors. For target behaviors, employees receive rewards and begins to believe (so beliefs) 
that this is the new path, the correct action. If they think this is good, then the new values are 
incorporated in the system, and the value, in part, means culture. 
 
Conclusions  
Regardless  of  the  type  of  change,  organizational  transformation  is  an  inevitable 
phenomenon, especially for modern enterprise and the corporate managers role is particularly 
important.  
Concluding, we can say that it is necessary to reflect on an important aspect related to the 
process  of  organizational  change:  for  the  successful  transformation  of  the  organization 
requires  a  higher  intellectual  effort,  innovation,  in  a  word,  of  knowledge,  because 
transformations from the environment, and which obliges businesses, are increasingly faster. 
This involves changing the organizational culture. 
 
 
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Changing organizational culture in terms of information and communications technologies

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