AQA BUSS 4 - Corporate Culture Discussion
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Original post by Abe Thunderwolff
I've just tried a question on how leadership is the greatest influence on corporate culture, to what extent do you agree? I could answer if I knew what else influences corporate culture.
here are some other examples of what can influence culture:
-Skills of workforce
-Industry
-Size of the company (multi-national or local)
-Sector the business operates (e.g. manufacturing)
-Organisational structure
Original post by monika_s
if i had twice the amount of time we get and all my research information i think it could go alright .. but right now, with the way i know my research, not so much 
you ?
you ?
You know...people siting this exam next year will have been able to research their topic from SEPTEMBER!! The research theme will be getting released early as of this September
Original post by Infamous12
here are some other examples of what can influence culture:
-Skills of workforce
-Industry
-Size of the company (multi-national or local)
-Sector the business operates (e.g. manufacturing)
-Organisational structure
-Skills of workforce
-Industry
-Size of the company (multi-national or local)
-Sector the business operates (e.g. manufacturing)
-Organisational structure
Cheers, couldn't find this anywhere!
Original post by laurenculver24
My notes aren't fab, I have only had a few days to research and what not, I've tried sticking to key facts per business, but how I will remember them all is beyond me...
but, feel free to inbox me your address
but, feel free to inbox me your address
[email protected] please send me any notes you have doesnt matter how small so scared i am going to fail this exam
Ok have done my research now. I've done Starbucks, John Lewis Partnership, Sony, Apple, Barclay's, Nokia, Google, Royal Mail, RBS, Amazon/Zappos and Ikea. Will just have to remember them now and hope they become relevant in the exam.
Original post by MrBobb
Royal Mail: appointed Moya Greene as the new CEO to modernise, had 4 years of negative cash flow in a row, Royal Mail is undertaking the largest transformation in the UK, employees are at the forefront of this transformation, Royal Mail increased its investment in training and equipment, spending on safety, increase in operating profit from £152 million to £440 million due to increase in parcel business (external factor technological: increased in sales from online shopping)and cost control, 13% increase in parcel business.
Barclays: previous CEO Bob Diamond created a greedy and short-term culture, where extreme tax avoidance was at the centre, libor rate fixing scandal, PPI misselling scandal, this culture damaged the interests of stakeholders, high bonuses of £6 billion for staff and £1.4 dividend for shareholders, NEW CEO Anthony Jenkins has a new vision for the company, has five values: stewardship, excellence, service, respect and integrity, removed the commission based system which led to PPI misselling. training more than 1000 employees to spread the new values and sent memo to 140,000 employees that a change is required otherwise sacked/fired. resistant will arise from employees
Google: google has a innovative, risk taking and enterprising culture, power/task culture, employees empowered, responsibility is delegated, freedom, can work own their own project, valued and respected, made $50 billion global revenue, motivated workforce.
Hopes it Helps!
Barclays: previous CEO Bob Diamond created a greedy and short-term culture, where extreme tax avoidance was at the centre, libor rate fixing scandal, PPI misselling scandal, this culture damaged the interests of stakeholders, high bonuses of £6 billion for staff and £1.4 dividend for shareholders, NEW CEO Anthony Jenkins has a new vision for the company, has five values: stewardship, excellence, service, respect and integrity, removed the commission based system which led to PPI misselling. training more than 1000 employees to spread the new values and sent memo to 140,000 employees that a change is required otherwise sacked/fired. resistant will arise from employees
Google: google has a innovative, risk taking and enterprising culture, power/task culture, employees empowered, responsibility is delegated, freedom, can work own their own project, valued and respected, made $50 billion global revenue, motivated workforce.
Hopes it Helps!
Solid info, thank you - I'm curious why you've put Google as a power/task culture, not a person culture? This is one of the thing I'm struggling with, categorising companies into the 4 culture areas.
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by LukeKnights
Solid info, thank you - I'm curious why you've put Google as a power/task culture, not a person culture? This is one of the thing I'm struggling with, categorising companies into the 4 culture areas.
Google and its employees work very much in teams who each have a problem to 'solve' or an idea to work on together. Hence why it is a task culture. A person culture is where there is not as much coercion between skilled professionals within an organisation i.e doctors will do their job without much influence of the rest of the team in terms of decision making ect.
Hope this helps.
i have done the following for section A of this exam. here is an example:
Enron
Leader: Kenneth Lay and Jeffery Skilling
Culture: Toxic, laissez faire, competitive, corrupt
Focus: Larger paycheque
Background info: Enron was a major energy supplier in the US. Their share prices were increasing but to keep them increasing they needed to make sure their debts were not visible to the public so they transferred liability to hide the millions of dollars that was owed to creditors. Once shares had peaked at $90 in 2001, Kenneth Lay and numerous other highly positioned employees sold their shares on the stock market. The shares then started to decrease as the press started to notice they sold the majority of their shares. Kenneth Lay tried to convince the company would rebound from this downfall and told employees to retain their shares and buy more. The press then started stories to find the true value of Enron and figured there was a lot of debt that was off the books. From this the share price crashed down from $90 a share to pennies a share in less than 18 months.
Summary: Corrupt firm that only had profit and high wages in mind. The culture was mirrored throughout the organisation and encouraged employees to do whatever it takes for the firm to record a profit. Anyone who did otherwise was seen as abnormal. Very competitive nature.
Why did this happen: The leader (Lay) was very demanding and wanted the profits to improve every year. He did this by setting the bar higher and higher. Lay set the example of doing whatever is necessary for profit. This led to the corruption of Enron. Employees were almost forced to follow in his footsteps due to the pressure from the leaders.
Good quote: Tried to rob Peter (shareholders) to pay Paul (Creditors).
is it enough? have i covered enough to answer a culture question if i do this for a few more businesses?
Enron
Leader: Kenneth Lay and Jeffery Skilling
Culture: Toxic, laissez faire, competitive, corrupt
Focus: Larger paycheque
Background info: Enron was a major energy supplier in the US. Their share prices were increasing but to keep them increasing they needed to make sure their debts were not visible to the public so they transferred liability to hide the millions of dollars that was owed to creditors. Once shares had peaked at $90 in 2001, Kenneth Lay and numerous other highly positioned employees sold their shares on the stock market. The shares then started to decrease as the press started to notice they sold the majority of their shares. Kenneth Lay tried to convince the company would rebound from this downfall and told employees to retain their shares and buy more. The press then started stories to find the true value of Enron and figured there was a lot of debt that was off the books. From this the share price crashed down from $90 a share to pennies a share in less than 18 months.
Summary: Corrupt firm that only had profit and high wages in mind. The culture was mirrored throughout the organisation and encouraged employees to do whatever it takes for the firm to record a profit. Anyone who did otherwise was seen as abnormal. Very competitive nature.
Why did this happen: The leader (Lay) was very demanding and wanted the profits to improve every year. He did this by setting the bar higher and higher. Lay set the example of doing whatever is necessary for profit. This led to the corruption of Enron. Employees were almost forced to follow in his footsteps due to the pressure from the leaders.
Good quote: Tried to rob Peter (shareholders) to pay Paul (Creditors).
is it enough? have i covered enough to answer a culture question if i do this for a few more businesses?
(edited 10 years ago)
Okay thanks for people's help with Section A. I have researched four businesses and feel I am pretty much done for now (will do a bit more but want to focus on Section B now)
What things should be researched for section B, 'cause there is a lot of potential topics and a LOT of research that could be done, weeks worth, so what's the best way to go about this?
What things should be researched for section B, 'cause there is a lot of potential topics and a LOT of research that could be done, weeks worth, so what's the best way to go about this?
Original post by air6199
i have done the following for section A of this exam. here is an example:
Enron
Leader: Kenneth Lay and Jeffery Skilling
Culture: Toxic, laissez faire, competitive, corrupt
Focus: Larger paycheque
Background info: Enron was a major energy supplier in the US. Their share prices were increasing but to keep them increasing they needed to make sure their debts were not visible to the public so they transferred liability to hide the millions of dollars that was owed to creditors. Once shares had peaked at $90 in 2001, Kenneth Lay and numerous other highly positioned employees sold their shares on the stock market. The shares then started to decrease as the press started to notice they sold the majority of their shares. Kenneth Lay tried to convince the company would rebound from this downfall and told employees to retain their shares and buy more. The press then started stories to find the true value of Enron and figured there was a lot of debt that was off the books. From this the share price crashed down from $90 a share to pennies a share in less than 18 months.
Summary: Corrupt firm that only had profit and high wages in mind. The culture was mirrored throughout the organisation and encouraged employees to do whatever it takes for the firm to record a profit. Anyone who did otherwise was seen as abnormal. Very competitive nature.
Why did this happen: The leader (Lay) was very demanding and wanted the profits to improve every year. He did this by setting the bar higher and higher. Lay set the example of doing whatever is necessary for profit. This led to the corruption of Enron. Employees were almost forced to follow in his footsteps due to the pressure from the leaders.
Good quote: Tried to rob Peter (shareholders) to pay Paul (Creditors).
is it enough? have i covered enough to answer a culture question if i do this for a few more businesses?
Enron
Leader: Kenneth Lay and Jeffery Skilling
Culture: Toxic, laissez faire, competitive, corrupt
Focus: Larger paycheque
Background info: Enron was a major energy supplier in the US. Their share prices were increasing but to keep them increasing they needed to make sure their debts were not visible to the public so they transferred liability to hide the millions of dollars that was owed to creditors. Once shares had peaked at $90 in 2001, Kenneth Lay and numerous other highly positioned employees sold their shares on the stock market. The shares then started to decrease as the press started to notice they sold the majority of their shares. Kenneth Lay tried to convince the company would rebound from this downfall and told employees to retain their shares and buy more. The press then started stories to find the true value of Enron and figured there was a lot of debt that was off the books. From this the share price crashed down from $90 a share to pennies a share in less than 18 months.
Summary: Corrupt firm that only had profit and high wages in mind. The culture was mirrored throughout the organisation and encouraged employees to do whatever it takes for the firm to record a profit. Anyone who did otherwise was seen as abnormal. Very competitive nature.
Why did this happen: The leader (Lay) was very demanding and wanted the profits to improve every year. He did this by setting the bar higher and higher. Lay set the example of doing whatever is necessary for profit. This led to the corruption of Enron. Employees were almost forced to follow in his footsteps due to the pressure from the leaders.
Good quote: Tried to rob Peter (shareholders) to pay Paul (Creditors).
is it enough? have i covered enough to answer a culture question if i do this for a few more businesses?
Lassez-faire? Don't think so. More like autocratic, one sub-culture within the business dictating the rules of the game for the rest of the company.
Original post by CubePL
Lassez-faire? Don't think so. More like autocratic, one sub-culture within the business dictating the rules of the game for the rest of the company.
decision making was centralised but i thought the employees were let to do what they want which is why it was a toxic culture with no rules or direction?
Hi guys just been reading over the thread in prep for Thursday just wanted to get some help with regard to conclusions. Could somebody give me an idea of concluding the essays? I'm using the buss4 ultimate writing pack but seeing a real life alternative helps.. Thank you!
Posted from TSR Mobile
Posted from TSR Mobile
Okay, I'd just like to point out that Charles Handy's four definitions of culture (Power, Task, Role & People) are NOT DEFINITIVE. There's no need to try and force fit a company's culture to his definitions. For example, Unilever has a self proclaimed 'performance' culture which consists of several features from all four of Handy's definitions along with others. Don't worry about having to fit a company's culture with Handy's definitions
Original post by air6199
decision making was centralised but i thought the employees were let to do what they want which is why it was a toxic culture with no rules or direction?
Yes, that's true, sorry mate.
I found online that the company lacked "directions, standards and expectations. When there is an absence of effective leadership, each department, in fact, each individual does whatever they want."
So you were right that the people at the top only cared for their own personal rewards but didn't bother about the employees.
here is another one
Zappos/Amazon
Leader: Tony Hsieh (CEO)
Culture: Company is built upon core values, innovative, customer orientated
Focus: To provide the highest level of customer service possible
Background info: Founded in 1999 when the founder, Nick was browsing a mall for shoes but couldn’t seem to find the pair he was after. Realised there was not a shoe specialist so created Zappos.com. Their vision is for 30% of all transactions in the US to be online; for customers to only purchase their goods from firms that provide the best service and for Zappos.com to be that firm. To ensure the customer is not messed around and mislead, Zappos only lists items as available if they have the stock on hand. This was a USP as other retailers sold items before they even had it which led to disappointed customers. The firm is based upon 10 core values which everyone in the firm has to strongly believe otherwise they are dismissed. They also ensured their takeover by amazon did not compromise the core values Zappos.com was built upon. They did this by overseeing the changes Amazon wanted to make and cooperated with the employees and made sure they understood the need for change and expansion to reach their long term goals. They also stressed that profit was not the sole reason that the deal took place. They made sure all their stakeholders were happy with this change from customers to employees.
Summary: A firm with a strong positive culture that is customer obsessed. All layers throughout the hierarchy believe in these values strongly. Their honest and great customer service as well as fast delivery times is what differentiates themselves from the competition which allowed them to expand into other items such as apparel.
Why did this happen: the leader echoes his beliefs throughout the firm. Anyone who is not a believer is dismissed. For the firm to be successful, employees from every level need to agree with the culture. The recruitment is the most important stage in this firm; every employee is offered $1000 to quit. Those who quit show they were not up to the job and would not suit this culture. Those who stayed showed they truly do believe in the values at Zappos.com. This also allows Zappos to cut recruitment costs in the long run. They also ensured their takeover by amazon did not compromise the core values Zappos.com was built upon. They did this by overseeing the changes Amazon wanted to make and cooperated with the employees and made sure they understood the need for change and expansion to reach their long term goals. They also stressed that profit was not the sole reason that the deal took place.
i think its detailed enough, any pointers on what to add?
Zappos/Amazon
Leader: Tony Hsieh (CEO)
Culture: Company is built upon core values, innovative, customer orientated
Focus: To provide the highest level of customer service possible
Background info: Founded in 1999 when the founder, Nick was browsing a mall for shoes but couldn’t seem to find the pair he was after. Realised there was not a shoe specialist so created Zappos.com. Their vision is for 30% of all transactions in the US to be online; for customers to only purchase their goods from firms that provide the best service and for Zappos.com to be that firm. To ensure the customer is not messed around and mislead, Zappos only lists items as available if they have the stock on hand. This was a USP as other retailers sold items before they even had it which led to disappointed customers. The firm is based upon 10 core values which everyone in the firm has to strongly believe otherwise they are dismissed. They also ensured their takeover by amazon did not compromise the core values Zappos.com was built upon. They did this by overseeing the changes Amazon wanted to make and cooperated with the employees and made sure they understood the need for change and expansion to reach their long term goals. They also stressed that profit was not the sole reason that the deal took place. They made sure all their stakeholders were happy with this change from customers to employees.
Summary: A firm with a strong positive culture that is customer obsessed. All layers throughout the hierarchy believe in these values strongly. Their honest and great customer service as well as fast delivery times is what differentiates themselves from the competition which allowed them to expand into other items such as apparel.
Why did this happen: the leader echoes his beliefs throughout the firm. Anyone who is not a believer is dismissed. For the firm to be successful, employees from every level need to agree with the culture. The recruitment is the most important stage in this firm; every employee is offered $1000 to quit. Those who quit show they were not up to the job and would not suit this culture. Those who stayed showed they truly do believe in the values at Zappos.com. This also allows Zappos to cut recruitment costs in the long run. They also ensured their takeover by amazon did not compromise the core values Zappos.com was built upon. They did this by overseeing the changes Amazon wanted to make and cooperated with the employees and made sure they understood the need for change and expansion to reach their long term goals. They also stressed that profit was not the sole reason that the deal took place.
i think its detailed enough, any pointers on what to add?
ok Guys! I just want to say thanks for all your posts but I got this questions in my mind and I need someone to help me with it plss
thanks in advance
what businesses can I used for strategic planning and why?
what businesses used scientific or hunch decision making and why?
how does culture influence choice of strategy?
how does culture implement strategy?
how does question influence performance?
how does key stakeholders influence the business culture?
what innovation culture as lead to failure?
I want businesses example to each question as well plssss!
God bless u! and thanks in ADVANCE
thanks in advance
what businesses can I used for strategic planning and why?
what businesses used scientific or hunch decision making and why?
how does culture influence choice of strategy?
how does culture implement strategy?
how does question influence performance?
how does key stakeholders influence the business culture?
what innovation culture as lead to failure?
I want businesses example to each question as well plssss!
God bless u! and thanks in ADVANCE
Original post by PR11NCE
Hi guys just been reading over the thread in prep for Thursday just wanted to get some help with regard to conclusions. Could somebody give me an idea of concluding the essays? I'm using the buss4 ultimate writing pack but seeing a real life alternative helps.. Thank you!
Posted from TSR Mobile
Posted from TSR Mobile
I think the Ultimate Guide got the tips on the conclusion spot on. Just use the AIM method, expanding on your 'it depends' points and explaining why you chose 'the most important' factor.
Original post by CGEEZ_95
Does anyone have any good notes (or anything really!) on Starbucks. All I've got is their tax avoidance being ethically wrong but in terms of culture what kind do they have?
Posted it earlier hope it helps
Could somebody say if this is ok for starbucks
Starbucks are a multinational coffee company and coffehouse chain based in the united states, with over 20,000 stores in 62 countries. Starrbucks place a huge value on culture and in itself is a reason for starbucks success.
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz believes starbucks growth is unconvential, arising not form marketing but through a strong culture and shared values. Howard schultz states whether you are a CEO or a lower level employee the most important thing at work is you communicate your values to others.
Starbucks believe its neccessary to be driven by culture and values rather than rules, which i espescially important in the service sector.
This has allowed starbucks to create a unique community around starbucks with it becoming a lifestyle brand. Starbucks employees are told to follow a set a guide of principles that starbucks culture is based around. One of thes is to create enthusiastically satisfied customers and so employees need to do whatever neccessary to please the customer, this wouldnt be possible at all times by following rules.
This also gives a sense of empowerment to employees.
This suggest to an extent that starbucks operate a power culture, with a relative degree of power given to all employees in the company.
Original post by iggyDash
Can you post the essays pleeeaaase 
i just tried but ihave no idea how i upload a document on here! HELPP
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