Organizational Sacred Cows

Organizational Sacred Cows

The future effectiveness of organizations is contingent upon organizational change. Organizations need to bring about and adapt to external and internal change factors now and then or even continuously if they wish to keep their doors open.
There are many factors such as downsizing , new leadership, innovation, productivity concerns or new competitors that can urge organizations to change. According to Kriegel and Brandt (1996), the very first step to organizational change involves the sacred cow hunt.

Organizational Sacred Cow - Introduction

Organizational sacred cows refer to practices or behaviour patterns that have been in organizations for a long time. The term 'sacred' is subjective and different for every organization. A practice or a policy that is "sacred" for one might not be considered sacred for another organization. Sacred cows are used despite being ineffective in the longer run. Their continued use can reduce productivity, creativity and innovation, ultimately becoming costly to individuals and organizations. The term is an organizational metaphor. Sacred cows could be seen as a form of organizational status quo bias.

Transformation requires the organization to challenge everything, consider new facts, data and engage in innovative thinking. If the organization refrains from leaving past behaviour patterns and developing a future orientation, organizational change may become very challenging. It might no longer be necessary for organizations to avoid bumping into those sacred cows in the current times, which was once considered a top priority in the past. Hence, there is a need to engage in a sacred cow hunt as an organization-wide attempt to eliminate those practices that do not serve any useful purpose.

Three Types of Sacred Cows in Organizations

Kriegel and Brandt (1997) focused on 3 types of sacred cows commonly found in organizations:

1. The Paper Cow refers to those forms and reports that constitute unnecessary paperwork and cost the organizations time, money and effort to prepare and distribute them regularly. To determine what types of paper-work constitute a paper cow, organizations should consider how it increases the productivity and efficiency of their employees. Another practice would be to review all forms and reports that are printed annually and to determine whether they are truly needed and, if yes, then whether they are needed in the paper format. For instance, in 2018, the Bank of America started making efforts to recycle their used papers and tried ways of eliminating paper cows by cutting back on every day in-house paper use, and thus reduced their paper consumption by 32 per cent. see also: Transition to a Paperless Office: Best Practices
2. The Meeting Cow refers to the length and number of meetings that are held. Often the question arises on whether the extensive hours, energy and money that employees spent on planning, preparing and attending meetings is really necessary. Excessive meetings result in reduced productivity, information overload and increase inefficiency. To eliminate the meeting cow, companies can force individuals planning a meeting to consider the benefits of each meeting against its cost and necessity.
3. The Speed Cow refers to unnecessary deadlines that employees are often forced to meet. Sometimes, it becomes a priority to complete given assignments within some particular, limited time. However, unnecessary deadlines cause employees to work faster, decrease the quality of their output, keep them from other - perhaps more important - work, and result in increased stress and strains. See also: Time Management

For organizations to implement change effectively, it is necessary to get rid of such organizational sacred cows. This can be accomplished by initiating organization-wide sacred cow hunts to eliminate them to ensure smooth functioning.
Apart from the 3 organizational sacred cows described above, several others hamper organizational progress in different ways.

⇒ Can you think of any other organizational sacred cows that you have come across? Do mention them in the comments below.

Sources
Aamodt, M. G. (2016). I/O applications workbook: Industrial/organizational psychology: an applied approach. (pp. 504-505) Cengage Learning
Kriegel R.J. and Brandt D. (1997), "Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers: Developing Change-Driving People and Organizations", Warner Books, Inc.
Challenging Sacred Cows that Inhibit Successful Transformation. Social, Agile, and Transformation. (2016, May 16)
Robbins, S. P. (1983). Organization theory: the structure and design of organizations. Prentice-Hall.

		Comments Sort by date Sort by rating Rating
		4 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Sacred Cow is a Metaphor What I like in particular about this term ("Sacred Cow") is first of all that it's a good metaphor f... Sign up

		6 wicks were Student (MBA), Kenya
	Indispensable Cows Given a chance I would add another type of sacred cow and tag them as the 4. Indispensable Cow. Thi... Sign up

		4 Sashi Rao Management Consultant, India
	A Further Sacred Cow! Let me add one more, which I call the 5. Procedural Cow. What I mean is continuing the way things h... Sign up

		1 Timothy Hamooya Student (MBA), Zambia
	Indispensable Cows @Wicks were: Yes I agree some long term employees can be a problem. Especially when they know that t... Sign up

		1 Chris
	Shoot the Cow? Maybe a new term 'Shoot the Cow' should be introduced? This refers to the leadership mismanagement i... Sign up

		1 Anonymous
	En Español:La Vaca de Papel y la Vaca de la Reunion La Vaca de Papel: no beneficia al patrocinador, mucho menos al empleado, roba tiempo y eficacia en e... Sign up

		2 Miguel Fernandes Manager
	Be Careful with Shooting the Cow! The term "Shoot the cow" may be strongly rejected by the organization itself. This is not based on t... Sign up

		1 Zoltan Zentai Director, Hungary
	6. Personal Cows A sacred cow could also be a person or several persons in the organisation. For example we may have ... Sign up

		2 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Avoid the Term 'Shooting Cows' I agree with Miguel Fernandes that there is always a personal risk involved when trying to get sacre... Sign up

		2 Vasant Pawar Director, India
	Loyal Cow: 'Loyalty' - the Credential of a Sacred Cow A major variant of the people cow is the 7. Loyal Cow. For business owners, loyalty from employees ... Sign up

		1 Helen Strong Business Consultant, South Africa
	Renaming the Ones Who Cannot be Reached @Wicks were: Perhaps, in line with the origin of 'sacred cows' Indispensable cows are 'Untouchables?... Sign up

		2 Ekechi Festus Management Consultant, Nigeria
	Sacred Cows in Government in Developing Countries Sacred Cows within the context of the conversation abound in the public sector in some developing co... Sign up

		1 Santhosh Hegde Consultant, India
	Procedural Sacred Cow @Sashi Rao: Yes I agree to your procedural sacred cow - many organizations continue to resist change... Sign up

		1 Osman Abdel-Rahman CEO, Ghana
	Organizational Space Cow Yes, and I will like to add: 8. Space Cow. Some spaces in organizations can be "reserved" for some ... Sign up

		2 Srinivas Vedula Business Consultant, India
	Sacred Cows - Why they Exist? Before we comment on what procedure/process/review mechanism/employees group needs to be changed, we... Sign up

		2 NYAMEKA MAKITSHI Manager, South Africa
	Sacred Cows' Influence to the Culture of Any Organisation The culture of an organisation will remain no matter how negative it is, as long as the sacred cows ... Sign up

		1 Guruvayurappan CxO / Board, India
	Sacred Cow Form the Culture of the Organization and Need to be Addressed Carefully Very interesting topic, the author has brought up here for discussion. Extremely pleased to see firs... Sign up

		2 Jan Leys Senior executive, Belgium
	9. External Stamp-of-Approval Cows With External Dtamp-of-approval Cows I mean that (Top) management is seeking approval of external co... Sign up

		2 Javier Elenes Business Consultant, Mexico
	Updating, Reenigineering Procedures Underlying Sacred Cows @Jaap de Jonge: Indeed, we should not shoot procedural sacred cows; it's better just to "UPDATE" the... Sign up

		1 RW Business Consultant
	The 10. Cash Cow - the Most Sacred One In this cash cow, retained profits are not used for company growth. Instead, companies with this cow... Sign up

		0 Driscole, Malaysia
	Sacred Cows in Developing Countries @Ekechi Festus: I highly agree with you. You nicely summarized this disastrous cow-situation in deve... Sign up

		1 VENKATESWARAN Teacher, India
	The Hybrid Organizational Cow A good thought could perhaps be that ordinary cows can be transformed into a more modern "Hybrid Cow... Sign up

		2 Helen Strong Business Consultant, South Africa
	11. Origin or Source Cows Often one will find that organisations are reluctant to accept a new idea or innovation that comes f... Sign up

		1 Gibson M. Mwawasi Business Consultant, Kenya
	Origins or Source Cows @Helen Strong: I concur with this argument. Conventional institutional structures put emphasis on th... Sign up

		1 Justina Princess Ezeuzoh Nigeria
	SAME SACRED COWS IN NIGREIA @Jaap de Jonge: This metaphor "Sacred Cows" is so pungent as it takes my mind to the Sacred Cows syn... Sign up

		1 Garth Nowland-Foreman Partner, New Zealand
	Put the Cow 'out to Pasture' Instead @Miguel Fernandes: Yes, much better to put the 'sacred cow' 'out to pasture' - a restful and easy re... Sign up

		1 Isaiah Maisiba Manager, Kenya
	Involve Drivers of Sacred Cows in Change Management A useful leadership technique is called "co-opting". Whenever the need to upgrade the sacred cow is ... Sign up

		1 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	12. Status Quo Cow This time you truly wowed me... Thank you all members that contributed to this discussion for your a... Sign up