ABSTRACT
In the North-Central geo-political zone of Nigeria, it is a common belief that failures of most organisations
are largely attributed to the inability of their leaders to efficiently and effectively analyse and evaluate the
prevailing organisational and traditional cultures in the zone. This study on “Effect of Culture on Change
Management in North-Central Geo-political Zone of Nigeria” sought to ascertain the degree of influence of
organizational and traditional cultures in managing change in organizations. It also aimed at investigating the
extent to which the failure of organisations in the North-Central geo- political zone of Nigeria within the
period 1996 – 2008 was due to sustained employee resistance to change. Furthermore, the study sought to
ascertain the degree to which lower management employees were involved in initiating and implementing
change policies in the selected organizations. Lastly, the study aimed at determining the relationship between
the selected organizations’ financial resource base and their having efficient and effective change
management programme.
Chi Square Distribution tool was employed to test the hypotheses that
organisational and traditional cultures had significant impact on introducing change in organizations. It was
also used in testing the hypothesis that sustained employee resistance to change contributed significantly to
the failure of organisations in the North-Central geo-political zone of Nigeria within the period 1996 – 2008.
Lastly it was employed in testing the hypothesis that there was relationship between the selected
organizations’ financial resource base and their having efficient and effective change management
programme. In the test of the hypothesis on the degree to which lower management employees were
involved in initiating and implementing change policies in the selected organisations, Z-test of difference
between proportions was employed. The findings of the study show that organisational and traditional
cultures had significant impact on implementing change in organisations. The study equally found that
sustained employee resistance to change contributed to the failure of organisations in the North-Central geopolitical
zone of Nigeria within the period 1996 – 2008, and that lower management employees were not
deeply involved in initiating and implementing change policies.
Lastly, the study revealed that there was
significant relationship between organisations’ financial resource base and their having efficient and effective
change management programme. Among others, the researcher recommended the need for a more
comprehensive approach for managing organizational change such that all the components or constituents of
the organizations are actively involved in the change process amidst cultural traits. There is the need for
organization planning for change to carry out needs assessment across the board to be able to identify and
understand the current organizational culture as a guide for future change management. Lastly, in the
likelihood of negative outcomes from change implementation such as downsizing, Management should be
vigilant about finding ways to ameliorate them for individual employees. For future research, further studies
with similar objectives on this subject area are encouraged for other geo-political zones of Nigeria as well as
on effect of ageing on change acceptance by employees in organisations.
