Mechanisms linking individual and organizational culture change through action research: Creating change agents for organizational and food safety culture development

Abstract

This article proposes a more individualized approach to organizational and food safety culture development through the creation of culture change agents. The study used action research with individual therapeutic training of sensory and emotional skills as the action intervention to reveal underlying mechanisms of the culture and create long-term culture change. The study was conducted with a group of voluntary employees over a 3-year period at a department under Food Safety and Veterinary Issues in Danish Agriculture and Food Council. Data was collected using individual in-depth qualitative interviews with a novel questionnaire technique that facilitated participants to bring otherwise unconscious underlying assumptions to awareness. The study found that working intensely and therapeutically on an individual and group level, had a significant impact on the surrounding culture and social capital. Five underlying mechanisms were revealed linking individual culture change to changes in the social capital and culture of the department. Going through the five underlying mechanisms may enable individuals to get to the root causes of issues, facilitate more sharing and collaboration to learn from near-misses and failures, and take action despite facing uncomfortable situations, all important abilities to develop FSC. Based on the underlying mechanisms a ‘Change Agent Model’ was developed. The model illustrates the important underlying mechanisms that any individual or group can work through to become culture change agents and drivers for organizational culture and FSC development. This is the first of two articles.