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Keywords Change management, Organizational development, Organizational behaviour
Abstract This paper examines the concept of memetic engineering as a means of facilitating organisational diagnosis and development. It draws lessons for managers and organisational development specialists from current and topical examples of powerful organisational memes. Using a process of memetic mapping through the three elements of meme fidelity, host susceptibility, and level of resonance, managers may develop a heuristic for diagnosis of memes and their impact upon organisational culture and execution of the mission. Potentially, using this dual memetic engineering framework, managers may be able to calculate both the fitness and effect of the meme against existing and desired organisational culture and mission. It is argued that memetic engineering is a practical process for protecting the organisation from toxic memes and as a means of heightening awareness of potential threats in the cultural environment or the mindscape of the organisation.
Introduction
The modem business and public sector manager may view the organisational construct as existing for the purpose of work-related goal achievement, as a vehicle for surviving on a competitive landscape, and/or as a vehicle for achieving personal aspirations that may bear no relation to the goals of the organisation. Numerous management approaches, systems, policies, and procedures are developed and implemented to facilitate effective and efficient goal achievement within these and a variety of other mental constructs that may be held by the stakeholders who have inputs into the achievement of the greater organisational goals. However, there lurks a hidden and complex phenomenon within the organisational machinery that has the power to influence goal design and achievement, competitive behaviour, personal aspirations, and numerous organisational idiosyncrasies - without the authorisation, consent, and sometimes even knowledge of management. This phenomenon can be identified through staff attitudes, their level and quality of work effort, their demeanour, the individual and collective morale, and a variety of other symptoms. These symptoms are often reflections of employee mindsets and these mindsets are sometimes conveyed in messages or packets of information that can be termed memes. Selected memes, or cultural replicators, may guide the organisation. Yet some memes are also toxic, reflecting undesirable mindsets that could be responsible for lowering morale, increasing operating costs, or inhibiting performance in some other way. Toxic memes...