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Case

A UK NHS ambulance service: unintended consequences of a culture change programme

A 2014 case study in the International Journal of Public Sector Management analyses the culture change programme of an English NHS ambulance trust formed in 2006 by merging four organisations, drawing on 72 interviews and about 100 hours of non-participant observation (January 2007 to June 2008). The authors document unintended consequences such as a hijacked change process, cultural erosion, inattention to symbolism and behavioural compliance; the findings come from one trust only (Wankhade and Brinkman).

Industry
Emergency ambulance services (UK)
Frameworks applied
Schein's three levels of culture
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Frameworks applied

This case is read through the frameworks below.

  • Schein's three levels of cultureWhen a CEO sets out to change company culture, which level must they reach (artefacts, espoused values or basic assumptions) for staff behaviour to really change?

Sources

References

Listed A–Z by author surname, Harvard style. A source with a DOI links to https://doi.org/…; one without links to its page or says plainly that it has no DOI.

  1. Wankhade, P. and Brinkman, J. (2014) ‘The negative consequences of culture change management: evidence from a UK NHS ambulance service’, International Journal of Public Sector Management, 27(1), pp. 2–25.doi:10.1108/IJPSM-05-2012-0058Source page