AQA BUSS 4 - Corporate Culture Discussion

What would your 4 points be to the question:
'A strong organisational culture is one that encourages risk-taking' do you agree?

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Reply 661

nadster

12

Original post by andyjack94

That is fantastic stuff. If it isn't any inconvenience could you do why leadership is an important influence too, not sure if my analysis on that is up to scratch either!

With leadership, Enron would be a great example.
You could talk about how the leaders of enron (in particular Skilling) had little involvement with the employees at the company. The culture may be classed as "power culture" under Handy's theory.
In terms of analysis, you could talk about how "a fish rots from the head down" or the aquarium analogy of culture. The leaders of Enron were very profit driven. This was made clear by the rank and yank system they put in place (are you aware of this?). As a result of this, employees found themselves competing against one another in order to impress the leaders. This led to the formation of a toxic culture. Employees were not a team. They were rivals. As a result of the style of leadership, employees did not care about the objectives of the firm as a whole, they simply cared about their own performance. as long as they "brought home the bacon" so to speak, they were safe. The focus of the leaders on profit meant that an unsustainable negative culture formed within the organisation.
Not sure whether this is what you wanted...bit brief, but hope it helps

Reply 662

air6199

1

really stuck on Nokia. was the takeover and change to the business by Elop a negative one? he removed their OS and employed Windows OS. He also stopped the release of the Meego N9 to the UK although it was doing really well. he also discontinued the operating system that ran it on. this led to the share price decreasing which is apparently known as the elop effect? is this correct?

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 663

iggyDash

2

Original post by snowster

That's my thinking, too. Been working pretty much solidly all day since about 8am... So much progress made today :biggrin:

Same , tommorow is going to be one crazy shift

Reply 664

rubix1

1

Any research on Southwest Airlines? Are they similar to Primarks low cost strategy?

Reply 665

MrChuckNorris

2

Original post by iAhmedd

Ive researched Amazon, Ikea, SouthWest Airlines, RBS/Barclays, Nokia, Google and John Lewis. Is this enough? I havnt reasearched much on section B and I am fully dependent on Section A I need atleast a D :/

I'm doing the same businesses, would be be able to email me your notes/research please? I've got some notes on Section B if you want them?

Reply 666

andyjack94

Original post by nadster

With leadership, Enron would be a great example.
You could talk about how the leaders of enron (in particular Skilling) had little involvement with the employees at the company. The culture may be classed as "power culture" under Handy's theory.
In terms of analysis, you could talk about how "a fish rots from the head down" or the aquarium analogy of culture. The leaders of Enron were very profit driven. This was made clear by the rank and yank system they put in place (are you aware of this?). As a result of this, employees found themselves competing against one another in order to impress the leaders. This led to the formation of a toxic culture. Employees were not a team. They were rivals. As a result of the style of leadership, employees did not care about the objectives of the firm as a whole, they simply cared about their own performance. as long as they "brought home the bacon" so to speak, they were safe. The focus of the leaders on profit meant that an unsustainable negative culture formed within the organisation.
Not sure whether this is what you wanted...bit brief, but hope it helps

This definitely help as I know alot more about Enron, but doesn't quite explain why leadership is a important influence on culture. My thoughts are that the CEO places his personality therefore culture and core values on the business but not really sure on that

Reply 667

nadster

12

Original post by andyjack94

This definitely help as I know alot more about Enron, but doesn't quite explain why leadership is a important influence on culture. My thoughts are that the CEO places his personality therefore culture and core values on the business but not really sure on that

yeah i'd agree with you there... I guess what I was trying to say with Enron is that the leaders were very money motivated, influencing the corporate objective of Enron to focus on profits subsequently impacting culture. I'm not entirely sure

Reply 668

laurenculver24

Original post by linabina94

What would your 4 points be to the question:
'A strong organisational culture is one that encourages risk-taking' do you agree?

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Doing this one right now.

YES - Apple. They were innovative and took a lot of risks, such as the release of the iPhone in 2007 which dropped Nokia's market share from 50.8% to 30.8%.

NO - John Lewis has a strong culture, but this isn't due to risk-taking, it's more due down to the "togetherness" culture and shares they provide to employees, making them more motivated.

NO - Royal Mail. They didn't exactly risk-task to become successful, Moya Green focused on the well-being of her employees and used technology to improve efficiency (could be seen as risk-taking, but other operators were using technology so therefore it was already successful and wasn't necessarily a risk to Moya).

Not sure what the other point for yes could be...

Reply 669

rubix1

1

Original post by air6199

really stuck on Nokia. was the takeover and change to the business by Elop a negative one? he removed their OS and employed Windows OS. He also stopped the release of the Meego N9 to the UK although it was doing really well. he also discontinued the operating system that ran it on. this led to the share price decreasing which is apparently known as the elop effect? is this correct?

Retrenchement by getting rid of Symbian.
Focused product development and new Nokia Lumia allowed Nokia to gain profits for the forst time in years (q4 2012)

Reply 670

MrChuckNorris

2

Original post by laurenculver24

I have used these companies for A and B:

Barclays, John Lewis, RBS Bank, Apple, Zappos, Amazon (although I haven't found much on culture - just how they are successful), Nokia, Cadbury/Kraft, BP, Royal Mail and Google.

Any other companies I could use? Are these okay for both?

Need to start practice essays now.. :eek:

I'm doing similar businesses, could you please email me your notes and I'll email you mine? I've also got some model answers but they're for Mergers/Takeovers

Reply 671

linabina94

1

Original post by linabina94

What would your 4 points be to the question:
'A strong organisational culture is one that encourages risk-taking' do you agree?

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So far I have one point for: yes- apple launched innovative products such as the iPhone back in 2007 before touch screen phones were popular when Nokia were too slow, although engineers made a similar prototype of the iPhone which was turned away because it could be a costly flop (therefore taking risks are necessary as they are years behind)
My point against - RBS with subprime lending to those who couldn't afford paying back making them lose money

Can't think of anything else

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Reply 672

laurenculver24

Original post by andyjack94

This definitely help as I know alot more about Enron, but doesn't quite explain why leadership is a important influence on culture. My thoughts are that the CEO places his personality therefore culture and core values on the business but not really sure on that

Leadership can be seen as an influence since the culture of Barclays with Bob Diamond used to have a "culture set by management" - the employees saw the attitude and behaviour of Bob Diamond and his personality which resulted in them following his footsteps.

Reply 673

linabina94

1

Original post by laurenculver24

Doing this one right now.

YES - Apple. They were innovative and took a lot of risks, such as the release of the iPhone in 2007 which dropped Nokia's market share from 50.8% to 30.8%.

NO - John Lewis has a strong culture, but this isn't due to risk-taking, it's more due down to the "togetherness" culture and shares they provide to employees, making them more motivated.

NO - Royal Mail. They didn't exactly risk-task to become successful, Moya Green focused on the well-being of her employees and used technology to improve efficiency (could be seen as risk-taking, but other operators were using technology so therefore it was already successful and wasn't necessarily a risk to Moya).

Not sure what the other point for yes could be...

Ah thank you! Yeah I thought of the same point for yes!

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Reply 674

iggyDash

2

bullter point 4 - ways of changing organisational culture?

Reply 675

shannonsnelling

so worried about this exam!!! i spent so much time revising for maths and psychology that i've hardly done any business revision! :frown:

can anyone think of a business which has changed its culture but not had a new leader? :s-smilie:

Reply 676

nadster

12

Original post by shannonsnelling

so worried about this exam!!! i spent so much time revising for maths and psychology that i've hardly done any business revision! :frown:

can anyone think of a business which has changed its culture but not had a new leader? :s-smilie:

I'm not entirely sure....maybe Tesco? I really don't know....anyone else have any ideas?

Reply 677

laurenculver24

Original post by iggyDash

bullter point 4 - ways of changing organisational culture?

Royal Mail - "Modernisation" - Moya Green used technology to improve productivity (such as operating systems to sort out letters). Not sure HOW this changed culture though, although I know she focused on her employees and communication more.

Reply 678

username1136783

1

Original post by andyjack94

can anyone help me... I can't really think of a valid reason why employee and management reward structure is an important influence on culture?
My example is John Lewis which is an obvious one. But don't know how to get the analysis marks :frown:

employee and management reward structure is an important influence on the John Lewis Partnership culture, because it makes employees feel motivated to perform well as a group, by recognising all members of staff, no matter what position they are in the heirarchy, as a partner. Consequently, this means all staff members embrace a collective culture of performing well, in order to achieve higher rewards. In turn, this makes negative sub-cultures which could undermine the business performance unlikely to arise. Similarly, teamwork is easier, as all members of staff are motivated towards the same goal of the reward structure. If members are motivated, they perform well, which is why John Lewis has been able to withstand high profits, despite the negative economic climate as a result of the recession, indeed last year all John Lewis employees received 17% of the percentage payout. In order to maintain this employees are likely to continue to work hard, which will not only benefit employees but also customers, as motivated staff will give better customer service. Therefore employee reward structure is an important influence on culture, because it makes employees work towards the same goals, thus creating a collective culture. However, it cannot be disregarded that in the example of the John Lewis partnership, it is not a PLC. If the company was to turn into a PLC, it's likely that this would undermine the collective culture created by the employee reward system, because employees would be working to achieve high dividends for shareholders, rather than themselves, and this may actually lead to lower productivity.

i'm not really sure if this is useful but, hopefully it'll help :smile: