Change the Culture of an Organisation Essay Example for Free

Change the Culture of an Organisation Essay The culture of an organization can be defined by the ‘way they do things’, this means the way they make decisions, operate and how they choose and achieve their objectives. As culture is a set of values and practices, changing it may be difficult and a long process, especially if the change is organized by a new chief executive. Changing the culture of an organization may not be easy especially if the new chief executive does not fully understand the previous culture and therefore does not embrace it in the change. This lack of knowledge may result in an inappropriate culture being chosen that could limit the company’s performance as productivity reduces. An example of a badly imposed culture can been seen with the Chrysler and Damier-Benz merge in 1998. Damier-Benz imposed their traditional and structured German culture on the free-spirited American car company Chrysler. The extremely different cultures created tension that later affected their efficiency as decision-making took longer and the workforce were not happy. The inappropriate culture resulted in a loss of $1.5 billon by 2006. In 2011, the new chief executive of Tesco, Phillip Clarke, also made a cultural change which proved unsuccessful. He proposed a strategy to change Tesco’s brand image to be known for â€Å"highly valued brands† as opposed to their cheaper â€Å"Value† products. The decrease in popular promotion deals such as vouchers and meal deals reduced their sales revenue and share value which fell by 15% by the end of 2011. This suggests that Clarke failed to identify Tesco’s main source of competitively. Therefore, both examples show that cultural changes may be difficult as the new chief executives lack knowledge and experience in the company. Culture change also takes a long time, especially as traditions and values are set. A prime example of this is with Sony. Sony is a Japan-based company who prides themselves in adopting a traditional Japanese business culture. Examples of their culture can be seen with their clear line of authority and their strong belief in respect. However, Sony’s reducing performance and the fast changing world alarmed the new chief executive, Howard Stringer, to change the culture to one that embraces change. Although proposals to change the culture were made in 2007, Sony’s culture has still not fully transformed which is reflected in their still low competitively. Therefore, it may still take some time for Sony to fully embrace an innovative culture as their Japanese culture has largely influenced the organization. It also took a long time for Marks & Spencer to introduce higher levels of technology, such as a stock control system, as they are said to have a ‘backward culture’. This is because they don’t embrace change and are led by system and procedures. These examples provide evidence that change in a business’s culture may not be done quickly as the organization is accustomed to the previous culture. However, changing a company’s culture can be easy if the new chief executive conducts the change in an appropriate manner. As culture change will have a direct impact on stakeholders, it is important for the new chief executive to inform all stakeholders of the changes and to also encourage feedback. The loss of the innovative leader of Apple, Steve Jobbs created much anxiety about the new CEO Tim Cook. Stakeholders feared Cook would change the company and reject all Jobbs practices especially as the two leaders have different personalities. The media worsened the situation with continuous negative press coverage which resulted in a decrease in consumer confidence as well as Apple’s share price. Although Jobbs had planned to make some strategic changes to the company’s practices, he reassured stakeholders by stating that â€Å"Apple will not change†. He also identified these new strategies and their benefits in a press release which justified his decisions and satisfied stakeholders. The newfound trust of stakeholders will enable Apple’s cultural change to be easier and happen more quickly. In view of the above, I believe that it is not easy to change the culture of a business, as the current practices are custom to the organization; this also suggests that the change will be quite a process and therefore won’t be done quickly. This situation is worsened as the chief executive is new and won’t have the necessary knowledge and understanding of the business to enable a smooth and quick transition. However, the ability for the new chief executive to change the business’s culture quickly and easily is highly dependant upon the reaction of the stakeholders. For example, BP’s customers may react positively as the new culture will increase the company’s responsiveness to customers. Shareholders may also react positively as the increase of innovation should increase BP’s competitive advantage which could increase the company’s value and share price. However, the increase in innovation may pose a threat the employees as management will expect higher quality and the need for more qualified personnel may be necessary. Therefore, support from stakeholders will encourage an easier and quickly transformation whereas negativity will not. The skills of the workforce is also important as if they are innovative the cultural change will happen faster. However, Sony is in a creative industry and their strategy to increase innovation still took a long time. This suggests that attitudes and beliefs of the workforce are also important. An easy change is also depend upon the new executives approach, is it forceful or flexible? Damier-Benz’s forceful approach result in a large amount of tension that slowed the change and resulted in a financial loss. Change the Culture of an Organisation. (2017, Feb 04).

Cultural impact of globalization Research Paper

Cultural impact of globalization - Research Paper Example This has caused significant impact on people’s economic, social, technological, political and cultural aspects. This paper focuses on the cultural effect that globalization has had in the modern world appreciating culture as way humans exist in a community expressed through different forms of their lives. The focus would be on how globalization has caused the emergence of new global professions, pop culture and global village. It would also discuss the effect of globalization on political culture and enhancing cultural liberty, giving the challenges that have limited the influence of globalization. The paper borrows from various secondary sources including articles from scholarly journals and books supported by evidence from newspaper articles. Introduction Globalization is a term that has been widely used in the modern business community worldwide and among governments, scholars and non-governmental organizations among other organizations. In many forums, participants have sought to demystify the gains and disadvantages involved in globalization. Globalization is deemed to have begun before the 1960s with the word being coined by Roland Robertson to describe the expansion of the policy of European colonies to subjugate parts of Africa and Asia and other underdeveloped countries globally (Razak 61). With the expansion of these colonial powers came the influence through language, customs, administration system, culture, law and order with the Europeans justifying their action as an act of bringing civilization to the uncivilized. Other than this historical explanation of globalization, the modern world has attached various meanings to this phenomenon. Also referred to as internalization, it describes the international exchange growth and the global interdependence of countries through adoption of liberalized economies where capital movement restrictions among countries have been withdrawn. It encompasses the free flow of news, information, people and capital from a country to another without subjection to restriction by the respective governments. The term Westernization has also been used by various scholars interchangeably with globalization to describe the replacement of pre-existing cultures in the underdeveloped countries with the Western culture. The impact of globalization is far reaching and encompasses various aspects of human social, economic, technological, environmental, health and cultural endeavors. Studies on culture largely depend on what and how definitions come about and the reasons for having these definitions, which could be used, modified or at times fall into disuse. According to Lieber and Weisberg (275), culture could be said to be the common form of life in a national community where there is a homogeneous lifestyle and value system and national identity forged through modernization or industrialization. It refers to the way of existence among humans expressed through the varied forms of life specific to communities. Just like other resources, culture is subject to the environment which dictates what should be done and what should not. As such, different people would have different cultures with different meanings; it includes belief, art, knowledge, customs, laws and morals. However, the physical environment has no effect on culture; it is the people who come up with cultural resources and control how they would be accessed. From the viewpoint of religion, ideology, history and tradition, culture would have a social function where the culture would exist as a whole in a society. Globalization has always been associated with the notion of cultural difference. With the increased appreciation of globaliza

Three Different Type of Family Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Three Different Type of Family - Essay Example I was supposed to be at the Saudi Embassy by 11:00 o’ clock. I was in West Los Angeles. My heart was beating fast and I was immersed in perspiration beads. I feared that I might miss the opportunity to apply for the passport in time. It had taken a lot of effort to get the date for application and I could not afford missing that opportunity. I managed to reach the Saudi Embassy in ten minutes. I was pleased I was not quite late, but the staff did not cooperate with me the much I expected them to. They referred me to one another which frustrated me. Anyway, I managed to apply for the passport. I had not done the breakfast to my full and was feeling really hungry. Since morning, I had been moving here and there in frustration. I was overwhelmed with anxiety and wanted a good lunch to energize myself. I was feeling very low and was red in the face. It felt like I was having a very high blood pressure. On my way to Santa Monica, I drove across my girlfriend’s favorite pizza restaurant. Suddenly, I felt a cool breeze filling me. I wondered if love was powerful enough to make me happy at this point in my life when I was feeling very low. My blood pressure started to regulate. I decided to have the lunch, so I parked my car aside the restaurant. Even before I had entered the restaurant, I knew where I was going to sit or what I was going to order. I planned to occupy the same table where my girlfriend and I had sat the last time and order the same meal we had had then. But unfortunately, that table was already occupied by a family. There were a total of three families in the restaurant. The family occupying my table had four members in it; a father, a mother and two sons. This was the first family. It felt very much like a projection of my dream family, wherein I would have two sons from my girlfriend. The family sitting on the left of that table had two members in it. There was a man a child. The man seemed like the father and the child seemed like his son. This was the second family. To the right was another family with six people in it. There was a man and a woman that seemed like a husband and a wife. To the left of the husband were two sons. In between the husband and the wife was a one year old child, and to the right of the wife was a daughter. This was the third family. The first family was a dual parent family. The sons had their biological children with them. The second family represented single parent family. The mother had left the child’s father and had married her lover. The child had no sibling but had his biological father with him. The third family was a merging family. In between the husband and the wife was their biological child. To the right of the wife was the daughter from her previous husband. To the left of the husband were the two sons from his previous wife. The first family was a biracial family. The wife was African American whereas the husband was Caucasian American. The sons had tanned skin whi le the color of one son was darker than the other. The second and third families were uniracial in that all members belonged to the same race. In the second family, both the father and the son were Asian Americans. They seemed like Indians that had immigrated to the US. The third family was of Caucasian Americans. All family members were white. It seemed like the girl’