Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
Chapter Title
Corporate Culture
and Leadership
13-5
Defining Characteristics
of Corporate Culture
Core values, beliefs, and business principles
Ethical standards
Operating practices and behaviors defining
“how we do things around here”
Approach to people management
“Chemistry” and “personality” permeating
work environment
Oft-told stories illustrating
Company’s values
Business practices
Traditions
13-6
Features of the Corporate
Culture at Wal-Mart
Dedication to customer satisfaction
Zealous pursuit of low costs
Frugal operating practices
Strong work ethic
Ritualistic Saturday morning meetings
Executive commitment to
Visit stores
Listen to customers
Solicit employees’ suggestions
13-7
Features of the Corporate
Culture at General Electric
Hard-driving, results-oriented atmosphere prevails
All businesses are held to a standard
of being #1 or #2 in their industries as
well as achieving good business results
Extensive cross-business sharing of ideas, best
practices, and learning
Reliance on “workout sessions” to identify, debate,
and resolve “burning issues”
Commitment to Six Sigma Quality
Globalization of the company
13-8
Features of the Corporate
Culture at Occidental Petroleum
Entrepreneurship of employees
Empowered employees are encouraged to
Be innovative
Excel in their fields of specialization
Respond quickly to strategic opportunities
Creatively apply state-of-the-art technology in a manner
to promote operating excellence
13-9
Features of the Corporate
Culture at Nordstrom’s
Deliver exceptional customer service to customers
Company motto
“Respond to Unreasonable
Customer Requests”
Out-of-the-ordinary
customer requests
viewed as opportunities for “heroic” acts
Unhealthy Cultures
High-Performance Cultures
Adaptive Cultures
13-17
Characteristics of
Strong Culture Companies
Conduct business according to a clear, widely-
understood philosophy
Considerabletime spent by management
communicating and reinforcing values
Values are widely shared and deeply rooted
Have a well-defined corporate character,
reinforced by a creed or values statement
Careful
screening/selection of new
employees to be sure they will “fit in”
13-18
How Does a Culture Come to Be Strong?
13-24
Culture: Ally or Obstacle
to Strategy Execution?
A company’s culture can contribute to – or hinder
– successful strategy execution
Conflictsbetween culturally-approved
behaviors and behaviors needed for good
strategy execution send mixed signals
Should employees by loyal to the culture and company
traditions and resist actions and behaviors promoting
better strategy execution?
Or should they support the strategy by engaging in
behaviors that run counter to the culture?
13-30
Menu of Culture-Changing Actions
13-38
Test Your Knowledge
13-39
Fig. 13.2: The Two Culture-Building Roles of a
Company’s Core Values and Ethical Standards
13-40
Techniques to Transform Core Values and
Ethical Standards into Cultural Norms
Screen out applicants who do not exhibit compatible
character traits
Incorporate values statement and ethics code in
employee training programs
Strong endorsement by senior executives of the
importance of core values and ethical principles at
company events and in internal communications
Use values statements and codes of ethics as
benchmarks to judge appropriateness of company
policies and operating practices
Make the display of core values and ethical principles a
big factor in evaluating employee performance
13-41
Techniques to Transform Core Values and Ethical
Standards into Cultural Norms (continued)
13-43
Establishing a Strategy-Culture Fit in
Multinational and Global Companies
Institute training programs to
Communicate the meaning of core values and
Explain the case for common operating
principles and practices
Create a cultural climate where the norm is to
Adopt best practices
Use common work procedures
Pursue operating excellence
Give local managers
Flexibility to modify people management
approaches or operating styles
Discretion to use different motivational and compensation
incentives to induce personnel to practice desired behaviors
13-44
For Discussion: Your Opinion
13-45
STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP
13-46
Numerous Roles of Strategic Leaders
Culture
Taskmaster Mentor
Visionary Builder
13-47
Leadership Activities of Chief
Strategy Implementer
1. Stay on top of what’s happening
Declare
support of company’s ethics code
and expect all employees to conduct
themselves in an ethical fashion
Encourage
compliance and establish tough
consequences for unethical behavior
13-53
Roles of a Manager in
Enforcing Ethical Behavior
Set an excellent ethical example
Providetraining to employees
about what is ethical and what isn’t
13-58
Actions Demonstrating Commitment
to a Strategy of Social Responsibility
Craft a strategy that positively improves well-being of
employees, environment, communities, and society
Use social and environmental metrics to evaluate
company performance
Tie social and environmental performance to executive
compensation
Take special pains to protect environment
Take an active role in community affairs
Generously support charitable causes
and projects benefiting society
Support workforce diversity and commit
to overall well-being of employees
13-59
Role #5: Lead the Process of
Making Corrective Adjustments
Requires deciding
When adjustments are needed
What adjustments to make
Involves
Adjusting long-term direction, objectives, and strategy on
an as-needed basis in response to unfolding events and
changing circumstances
Promoting fresh initiatives to bring internal activities and
behavior into better alignment with strategy
Making changes to pick up the pace when results fall
short of performance targets
13-60