Where does meaning come from? Exploring how people rely on culture to express meaning in mergers

1. Where does meaning come from? Exploring how people rely on culture to express meaning in mergers Karen Golden-Biddle May Meaning Meeting University of Illinois 2006

2. Today • Context of health care in Alberta, Canada • 5-year study of organizational change • My (re)emerging interest in culture • Examine meetings as cultural object to see stories and meanings they express

4. Health care organization in Canada • Publicly funded; provincial responsibility • “RHAs” in Alberta since 1994 • All medically necessary services delivered through “RHAs” (except physician services) • In Alberta, 9 RHAs serving 3 million people

6. Some emerging ideas about culture • Where does meaning come from? • Not from ‘founder’ or individual genius or passive transmission through history. • But from collective creation of individuals in everyday interaction • Culture as fundamentally an expressive aspect of our human lives • Significance (not practicality – function) • Individuals rely on culture to express meaning in their lives; here in merging experience.

7. Meetings as cultural object in merging • Cultural object • Shared meaning embodied in some form (audible, visible, etc)… • Tells a story – what does object express? • In merger, for region entering larger entity, loss of cultural objects related to explicit identity (logo, headquarters location, name) associated with strong community basis. • On everyday basis, saw people expressing meaning in mergers via cultural object of meetings. • Meetings as central forum for discussing merging; interacting with unfamiliar as well as familiar people forming new organization

8. Meetings as cultural object in merging Getting to know, understand and trust one another in meetings • I think it’s the trust you have to establish. You have to establish that trust with people and you also have to let people know what skills you have….Everyone feels a little protective of their role and whether they’re going to be needed or wanted… I remember back when we did merge that first time, we had to make sure that everyone knew each other and everyone understood each other, and respected people for their skills and not isolated themselves in their old stovepipes…We had lots of meetings where we could feedback and communicate, get to know one another…

9. Meetings as cultural object in merging Getting to know, understand and trust one another in meetings • Everything had to be a meeting, it had to be … you know, if we wanted to develop that trust. And it went quicker than you know after we trusted one another, we went to just sharing and …. • If we were going to make a change in policy that affected the hospital and us, we met together. We sat down together at a meeting … I’d be sitting down with every manager in the Region, not just those in your sectors. You know, everybody was sitting there so you could address issues.

10. Meetings as cultural object in merging No longer being ‘at the table’ • …but to sit around with a group of leaders and talk about the political climate, strategizing for the future, that kind of think, I miss that a great deal.

11. Meetings as cultural object in merging The table is no longer where it’s at • The directors group could be a pretty key group. I haven’t been able to get to enough meetings to see how key it could be, but you know, if it was allowed to be, it could be a very strong group. Like our former Crossroads management team was, where you could bring issues forward and discuss them. But you really need to have somebody from the corporate level there because otherwise all they do is just redirect you to your VP, you see. So, if you bring forward like staff wellness… they just … nobody will commit to anything. They just redirect you to your VP. Even before the merger I get the feeling that they never did have a management team set up like we had where you had your CEO and your VPs and then managers and directors all meeting together on a monthly basis to talk about issues.

12. Meetings as cultural object in merging The table is no longer where it’s at • There isn’t that kind of participatory meetings and so consequently, what I see is that people at staff level of middle management level narrowing focus. • Here, there are a few instances of meetings where there might be some cross networking going on, but it feels exceedingly undirected…like nobody’s really sure about what they should be doing…

13. Meetings as cultural object in merging Re-creating meetings as participatory • The way I’ve been trying to do it is, since I am operating a new area, we had to develop new roles and responsibilities and procedures. I met with every Program Manager and Director across the region. I had meetings with them, looking at what they chould see our area doing. Then when I developed the roles and structre, I again sent it out to all of them. I presented it at one, two three, four committees,… If I would have just tried to writ ethe policies myself, without interacting with all of those people and trying to get their feedback on what this area could do for htem, I don’t think it would have been approved. So I think that ‘s part of the challenges in merging – it’s trying to develop that trust and then get people to accept innovation and change. There isn’t that kind of participatory meetings and so consequently, what I see is that people at staff level of middle management level narrowing focus.

14. Meetings as cultural object in merging Re-creating meetings as participatory • Before we had office meetings on a monthly basis with one of the Managers always there, and it was all of the staff in the office. It was not to talk program issues, but who’s cleaning out the kitchen and you know, what needs to be repaired. And just to let you know our program is putting this on in case you want to be involved…all kinds of issues like that. After the merger, we were told not to have those meetings anymore. We have, finally, gotten permission to re-institute these meetings. They make a big difference and at those meetings now, we are spending some time doing what we used to do – those type things which is talking about naming the losses in merging, talking about change, how do you feel now, are there things that we could be doing differently to help you through this process…

15. Discussion • Your ideas, reactions …..