Critical Thinking Activity: Opinions

Running head: CRITICAL THINKING ACTIVITY: OPINIONS
CRITICAL THINKING ACTIVITY: OPINIONS
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

1CRITICAL THINKING ACTIVITY: OPINIONS
Question 1
Introduction
The culture of an organization is deep rooted to its system. The cultural dynamics of an
organization is deeply embedded in the system of the organization, including its infrastructural
design. Therefore, it is extremely difficult to bring even a trivial change in the organizational
cultural climate. The respective question deals with the reasons why culture change in
organizations is difficult.
Discussion
An organization’s culture comprises of interlocking sets of goals, roles, processes, values,
communications practices, attitudes and assumptions. In order to foster a long term growth in the
business, the leaders and managers should change the organizational culture very often because,
as it is universally known and acknowledged that culture is volatile and demands change
according to the spatial and dimensional change in the society. Changing culture is not easy and
it requires time and effort. What is overtly needed in case of changing the culture of the
organization is a commendable reason for such change, a perfect mechanism for change,
patience and perseverance (Schneider, Ehrhart& Macey, 2013). Even after such efforts, it has
been found out through researches that only one on three organizational changes actually get
implemented and work. Even though there has been a plethora of arguments and approaches
made for facilitating and accelerating organizational cultural change, very few of them have
actually turned up. While dissecting the fact as to why organizational culture is difficult to
change, three arguments can be placed in my opinion. Firstly, the lack of commitment of the
leaders can be considered as an important factor in the process of changing the culture of the

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companies. Changing the organizational culture needs serious effort that can even last for more
than five or six years. Even the most diligent and perseverant leaders/ managers have lost their
patience and commitment throughout the process. On the other hand, employees also believe that
cultural initiative is only a “phase to endure” and lose the importance or insight of the whole
process. Such attitude instills callousness in the psychology of the leaders and makes them lose
their focus and commitment. Researchers have found that organizations tend towards inertia in
part because people are subsequently biased towards perceiving the status quo in a positive way.
The leaders make it even worse by posing cultural change as an emergency response to company
crisis. When the employees are psychologically threatened to accept certain norms rather than
adopting them by his/her own, he/she is compelled to do so which results in subtle resistance for
change that sometimes take a bigger picture. However, it has to be remembered that
psychological coercion towards a particular way of thought leads to distress and resistance
towards such thoughts. Culture of an organization often strengthen when the CEO is passionate
and consistent. However, the new CEOs want the work to be done differently with the help of
different, unconventional path and not follow the prior one. However, such actions can make the
“culture” of the organization unproductively volatile which can lead to chaotic situation and
unproductivity respectively. Therefore, cultural changes are always not effective due to the non-
effective and unproductive leadership as well. Secondly, cultural change never translates to
performance. For people to embrace different organizational change, they need to understand
that how the company and society would benefit. Too often, the leaders place cultural change as
some aspect that would go a “greater good” but it seldom develops as a measured goal. Without
such things, it is harder for many people to see the “benefit statement” of cultural change.
Cultural change is vital in an organization if it is strategically relevant and aligned. The job of a

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leader is to develop the ability to make good decisions, judgment calls and trade- offs, the ones
that leaders would make, which are aligned with strategy. The cultural changes in an
organization which does not have any strategic goal is a change which is technically and
generically futile. A cultural change that is fueled with a greater goal of the organization and the
business has always helped the cultural change to be implemented and executed successfully.
Thirdly, cultural changes lack distinction and flexibility. Cultural change is not always welcome
with awe and warmth by most of the organizations. Along with cultural change, one has to bring
in the “respect and regards” that the cultural change actually deserves. Nevertheless, there have
been instances of cultural changes that have been rigid and inflexible, leading to loss of
productivity to a certain extent. A great organizational culture should always meet three
criterion, which are, true, valued and different (Bortolotti, Boscari&Danese, 2015).
Conclusion
Cultural changes should be so flexible that it would be volatile and fluid in nature.
Cultural changes can flourish with sustained commitment, an effort to understand what motivates
employees along with the careful planning of such cultural changes according to the strategic
goals of the organization (Forbes.com., 2017). However, such issues might arise and therefore, it
becomes difficult for the CEO/ managers/ leaders to cope with the situation.
Question 2
Introduction
Paradoxically, the “loyalty” of the customers change according to the changing face of
the market. Therefore, it is hard to say whether the customers of a particular product are loyal or

4CRITICAL THINKING ACTIVITY: OPINIONS
not and for how long they would remain loyal towards the product. The respective question tries
to find out why customer loyalty is temporal and cannot be determined easily.
Discussion
Customer loyalty is still looked down upon as a holy grail in the area of customer
relationship management and marketing (Watson et al., 2015). The word loyalty, as far as
customers are concerned for a particular product, means a sense of faithfulness, dedication,
passion, adherence, trust and commitment towards that particular product. However, the loyalty
of the customers does not stick to one place, it is volatile and changes accordingly. Nevertheless,
the area of customer loyalty is often highly misinterpreted. Sometimes, people tend to confuse
between brand advocacy and customer loyalty (Forbes.com., 2019). However, a loyal customer
is not necessarily an advocate of that product or vice versa. Too much is expected from
customers unnecessarily. Customer loyalty is also not as same as brand affinity. A customer who
has affinity towards a particular product is not necessarily a loyal customer. Customer loyalty is
also confused for customer retention. Customer retention has no connection with customer
loyalty. Customers who are loyal to a particular brand might stay loyal and also change his/her
preference any time, therefore, it is difficult for the marketeers to keep the customers adhered
towards a particular brand because of the infidel nature of the customers (both functional and
prospective). Another bigger point that has to be remembered in this case is that customer loyalty
cannot be confused with customer satisfaction. Indeed, customers tend to be loyal towards a
brand if he/she is satisfied with the brand. However, customer satisfaction is just a small
indicator of customer behavior and cannot be taken as a green flag of customer loyalty. As it has
to be remembered that wants, desires and satisfaction in a human being is very complex and
cannot be understood without in depth study and also, it is difficult for companies to satiate

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human wants and needs. Therefore, customer satisfaction is also a complicated matter that
cannot be taken as a bold statement regarding customer loyalty. Even after a good end customer
experience, customer loyalty cannot be measured on such grounds as they are not legitimate
enough. Nevertheless, it is true that all brands want loyal customers who would adhere to the
brand and increase the profitability of the firm. But it has been observed in the twenty first
century market that customers are tending to become less loyal towards any brand they select.
Even though there are not much differences between the young customers and the old customers,
the streaks of loyalty differ a little bit according to the generation. It has been found out that the
digital media freak millennial tries to advocate for a particular brand through social media but
the advocacy tends to be short lived. The new customers of today’s generation are tech savvy
and always talking about brands and matters through digital media and social media portals.
Nevertheless, as social media is also temporary and not permanent, therefore, such customer
loyalty has also been observed to be temporary (Nguyen, Leclerc& LeBlanc,2013). There are
certain reasons for the customers to switch their brands. Some of the most customary reasons are
poor operational service, poor customer service, poor customer retention service and low in-
person support. The customers of today’s generation are not only conscious, but also egoist.
Brands and companies should understand their psychology in order to retain them and “make
them loyal”.
Conclusion
Marketing is a herculean task that deals with a plethora of psychological connotations. To
understand customer loyalty, one has to understand the psychology of the customers and
consumer behavior in depth. Customer loyalty is a debatable term and need more attention in
management.

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References:
Bortolotti, T., Boscari, S., &Danese, P. (2015). Successful lean implementation: Organizational
culture and soft lean practices. International Journal of Production Economics, 160, 182-
201.
Forbes.com.(2017). Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/richlyons/2017/09/27/three-
reasons-why-culture-efforts-fail/#5dbb5597e077
Forbes.com.(2019). Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/shephyken/2019/10/13/customer-
loyalty-and-retention-are-in-decline/#769fb31e4329
Nguyen, N., Leclerc, A., & LeBlanc, G. (2013). The mediating role of customer trust on
customer loyalty.
Schneider, B., Ehrhart, M. G., & Macey, W. H. (2013). Organizational climate and
culture. Annual review of psychology, 64, 361-388.
Watson, G. F., Beck, J. T., Henderson, C. M., &Palmatier, R. W. (2015). Building, measuring,
and profiting from customer loyalty. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science, 43(6), 790-825.