CASE APPLICATION

Pg 87 Mississippi power

1) Using Exhibit 3-2, describe the culture at Mississippi Power.

Why do you think this type this type of culture might be important to an
electric power company? On the other hand, what might be the
drawbacks of such a culture?

ANSWER: The culture at Mississippi power is best described as follows:

- Innovative and risk taking: The Mississippi Company is high on

innovation and risk taking. Company encourages employees to be more
innovative. In our case, an example of innovative ideas was when one
crew stripped a generator off an ice machine to get a substation
working. The company’s decentralized decision-making approach has
contributed to the way employees deal with ad hoc and panic situation.

- Aggressive: in our case, it’s the degree to which employees where

aggressive to restore the power to their customers as hundred percent
of customers were out of power and sixty five percent of distribution
facilities were destroyed. It was only because of there hard work and
commitment they were able to complete their job in good time.

- Team Oriented: 1,250 employees at the Mississippi power have

combined all their efforts to complete the job and have succeeded.

- People oriented: in our case, the main target of the company was to
restore electric power to their customers; and that happened through
the manager’s plans and employees efforts.
- Outcome oriented: managers at Mississippi Power Company
focused on the outcome; in our case restoring the electric power was
the most important issue. The Mississippi power employees had one
mission is to get the power back on.

- Attention to details: I think Mississippi Power Company is low on

attention to detail. The decision making is decentralized. Here
managers and employees are expected to respond and react quickly,
efficiently, and effectively to any fault or natural disaster.

The drawbacks of such culture could be as the decision making is

decentralize any wrong decision taken by any of the managers or
employees can be costly to company. This might result in loss of
company reputation and also incur financial loss for company. Some
time decentralization also result duplication of work.

2) Describe how you think new employees at Mississippi Power “learn”

the culture.

ANSWER: The culture of organization is shared values, principle,

tradition and ways of doing things. In this case culture of Mississippi
Power, it culture encourages innovation and risk taking. I think new
employees at Mississippi Power Company learn the culture by:

First, when new employees are recruited managers have to judge

whether these candidates fit into the organization.
Second by training new employees.

Third, through stories, for instance, our case could be a good example
to introduce the company’s culture to new employees.

Fourth, through company’s right and ritual ceremonies. This includes

motivating successful employees and risk takers by awarding them.

Fifth, managers are role model for new employees. There action can be
good example of steeped culture of Mississippi Power.

3) What stakeholders might be important to Mississippi Power? What

concerns might each of these stakeholders have? Would these
stakeholders change if there was a disaster to which the company had
to respond?

ANSWER: As a provider of one of the most important services, almost

all stakeholders are important to the Mississippi power company such
as (employees, customers, trade and industry associations,
governments, shareholders)

As for the concerns that each stakeholder might have:

Employees: Employees are their main concern is to restore the power
network as soon as possible. They might also be concerns that their
efforts should be encourage and reward must be given to boost their
motivation level.

Customers: their concern will be about being reconnected with power.

Governments: Government can also be stakeholder as government

can earn tax revenue from company and it’s also the responsibility of
government to provide electricity to citizen of state.

Shareholders: Shareholders are also key stakeholder in company as

they have invested in company. They mainly concerns with the
profitability of company.

In case of a disaster, stakeholders will not change; however, the

company’s priorities will change, in our case, restoring the power
network; i.e., employees are the most important stakeholders

4) What could other organization learn from Mississippi Power about

the importance of organizational culture?
Other organization could learn from the Mississippi power company
their values, principles, and traditions and how they influence their
employees and allow them to take risks and innovate in order to
complete their tasks.

Other organizations could also learn that in strong and dynamic

cultures almost all goals could be achieved through delegation of
authority, decentralization, motivation of employees. And after all,
rewarding and recognizing successful employees, also conveying the
company’s culture to new employees.