Corporate Culture and Leadership

Description
The PPT about Corporate culture and leadership focuses cultures influence on strategies, corporate culture, cultural web at Walmart, Nordstrom, GE, MIcrosoft etc .

Corporate Culture and Leadership

“An organization’s capacity
to execute its strategy depends

on its “hard” infrastructure – its
organization structure and systems –

and on its “soft” infrastructure – its
culture and norms.”
Amar Bhide

Culture’s Influence on Strategy Development

BUILD A STRATEGYSUPPORTIVE CORPORATE

CULTURE

The Cultural Web

The Cultural Web: Some Useful Questions

The Cultural Web: Some Useful Questions (con’t)

Characterising Culture

Characterising Culture

The Defining Characteristics of a Company’s Culture
? Its core values, beliefs, and business principles ? Patterns of ?how we do things around here?—its style of

operating and ingrained behaviors of company personnel
? Oft-told stories illustrating company’s values ? Its approach to people management ? Ethical standards ? Internal politics ? Traditions

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 to customers employees’ suggestions

? Listen ? Solicit

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
? Promotions based on outstanding service

? Salaries based entirely on commission

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

? 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

Features of the Corporate Culture at Microsoft
? Long work hours of programmers ? Emotional peaks and valleys in

encountering and overcoming coding problems
? Exhilaration of completing a complex program on schedule ? Satisfaction of working on cutting-edge projects ? Rewards of being part of a team responsible

for a popular new software program
? Tradition of competing aggressively

What to Look for in Identifying Corporate Culture
A company’s culture is manifested in . . .
? Values, beliefs, and business principles management preaches and

?
? ?

?
? ?

?
?

practices Official policies and procedures Its revered traditions and oft-repeated stories Attitudes and behaviors of employees Peer pressures that exist to display core values Its politics Approaches to people management and problem solving Its relationships with external stakeholders ?Chemistry? and ?personality? permeating work environment

Where Does Corporate Culture Come From?
? Founder or early leader ? Influential individual or work group ? Policies, vision, or strategies ? Traditions, supervisory practices,

employee attitudes
? The peer pressures that exist
? Organizational politics ? Relationships with stakeholders ? Company’s approach to people management

How Is a Company’s Culture Perpetuated?
? Selecting new employees who will ?fit? in ? Systematic indoctrination of new employees

? Senior management efforts to reinforce core values, beliefs,

principles, key operating practices
? Story-telling of company legends ? Ceremonies honoring employees who display cultural ideals ? Visibly rewarding those who follow cultural norms

Forces and Factors Causing Culture to Evolve
? New challenges in marketplace ? Revolutionary technologies ? Shifting internal conditions
? Internal

crisis of top executives

? Turnover

? Arrival of a new CEO ? Diversification into new businesses ? Expansion into foreign countries ? Rapid growth involving adding new employees ? Merger with or acquisition of another company

Culture: Ally or Obstacle to Strategy Execution?
? A company’s culture can contribute to – or hinder –

successful strategy execution
? A culture that promotes attitudes and behaviors that are well-

suited to first-rate strategy execution is a valuable ally in the strategy execution process
? A culture that embraces attitudes and

behaviors which impede good strategy execution is a huge obstacle to be overcome

Why Culture Matters: Benefits of a Tight Culture-Strategy Fit
? A culture that encourages actions and behaviors supportive of

good strategy execution
? Provides

employees with clear guidance regarding what behaviors and results constitute good job performance ? Creates significant peer pressure among coworkers to conform to culturally acceptable norms
? A culture imbedded with values and behaviors that facilitate

strategy execution promotes strong employee commitment to the company’s
? Vision

? Performance
? Strategy

targets

Optimal Outcome of a Tight Culture-Strategy Fit
? A good job of culture-building by managers
? Promotes

can-do attitudes acceptance of change

? Encourages ? Instills ? Enlists

strong peer pressure for strategy-supportive behaviors

enthusiasm and dedicated effort to achieve company objectives

Closely aligning corporate culture with the requirements for proficient strategy execution merits the full attention of senior executives!

The Perils of Strategy-Culture Conflict
? Conflicts between 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?

When a company’s culture is out of sync with what is needed for strategic success, the culture has to be changed as rapidly as can be managed!

Types of Corporate Cultures

Strong vs. Weak Cultures Unhealthy Cultures

Adaptive Cultures

Characteristics of Strong Culture Companies
? Conduct business according to a clear, widely-understood

philosophy
? Considerable time 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?

How Does a Culture Come to Be Strong?
? Leader who establishes values and behaviors

consistent with
? Customer

needs ? Competitive conditions ? Strategic requirements
? A deep, abiding commitment to espoused

values, beliefs, and business philosophy
? Practicing ? Customers

what is preached!

? Genuine concern for well-being of
? Employees
? Shareholders

Characteristics of Weak Culture Companies
? Lack of a widely-shared core set of values ? Few behavioral norms evident in operating practices

? Few strong traditions
? No strong sense of company identity ? Little cohesion among departments ? Weak employee allegiance to company’s vision and strategy

Characteristics of Unhealthy Cultures
? Highly politicized internal environment
? Issues ? Avoid

resolved on basis of political clout

? Hostility to change

risks and don’t screw up ? Experimentation and efforts to alter status quo discouraged
? ?Not-invented-here? mindset – company

personnel discount need to look outside for
? Best

practices ? New or better managerial approaches ? Innovative ideas

Hallmarks of Adaptive Cultures
? Willingness to accept change and embrace challenge of

introducing new strategies ? Risk-taking, experimentation, and innovation to satisfy stakeholders ? Entrepreneurship is encouraged and rewarded ? Funds provided for new products ? New ideas openly evaluated ? Genuine interest in well-being of all key constituencies ? Proactive approaches to implement workable solutions

Dominant Traits of Adaptive Cultures
? Any changes in operating practices and behaviors
? Must

not compromise core values and long-standing business principles satisfy legitimate interests of key stakeholders

? Must

? Customers

? Employees
? Shareholders ? Suppliers ? Communities

Creating a Strong Fit Between Strategy and Culture
Responsibility of Strategy Maker –
Select a strategy compatible with the sacred or unchangeable parts of organization’s prevailing corporate culture

Responsibility of Strategy Implementer –
Once strategy is chosen, change whatever facets of the corporate culture hinder effective execution

Changing a Problem Culture

Menu of CultureChanging Actions
? Make a compelling case why a new cultural atmosphere is in

best interests of both company and employees
? Challenge ? Create

status quo

events where employees must listen to angry key stakeholders

? Continuously repeat messages of why

cultural change is good for stakeholders
? Visibly praise and reward people

who display new cultural norms

Menu of CultureChanging Actions (continued)
? Alter incentive compensation to

reward desired cultural behavior
? Hire new managers and employees who have

desired cultural traits and can serve as role models
? Replace key executives strongly

associated with old culture
? Revise policies and procedures

to help drive cultural change

Symbolic CultureChanging Actions
? Emphasize frugality ? Eliminate executive perks

? Require executives to spend time talking with customers
? Ceremonial events to praise people and teams who ?get with

the program?
? Alter practices identified as cultural hindrances ? Visible awards to honor heroes

Substantive CultureChanging Actions
? Engineer quick successes to highlight benefits of proposed

cultural changes
? Bring in new blood, replacing traditional managers ? Change dysfunctional policies ? Change reward structure ? Reallocate budget, downsizing and upsizing ? Reinforce culture through both word and deed ? Enlist support of cultural norms from frontline supervisors and

employee opinion leaders

Establishing a Strategy-Culture Fit in Multinational and Global Companies
? Institute training programs to
? Communicate ? Explain

the meaning of core values and

the case for common operating principles and practices

? Draw on full range of motivational and compensation

incentives to induce personnel to adopt and practice desired behaviors
? Allow some leeway for certain core values and principles to be

interpreted and applied somewhat differently, if necessary, to accommodate local customs and traditions



doc_914166738.ppt
 

Attachments

Back
Top