Siño, Ferl Diane S.

BSA31

Guide questions on this real-life case.

1. Do you think it is fair for Ms. Barra to be held responsible for mistakes under prior
CEO? If not, then how do we hold the organizations responsible once a leader
departs?

In my opinion, it is not fair for Mary Barra to get unfair treatment or held her
responsible for mistakes done by ex-CEO because the errors are made based on the
wrong decision made by ex-CEO of the company. However, she is now the CEO, and
the issues against the company are still there, then she should step in by finding and
implementing a corrective action plan for the mistakes of the past administration. Now
we can hold the organization responsible for its current CEOs act. Since Mary Barra is
the current CEO, then her recent decision regarding the business, either good or bad,
would make her responsible. If she had made the decision in General Motors, which can
cause the death of customers of GM, then she would have been held accountable.

2. Barra was criticized for spending a significant portion of her congressional testimony
responding that she "didn't know". From what you read hear and saw in the videos,
do you think she made effective decisions on her arrival at GM to address the
problem?

Mary Barra said "whatever mistakes were made in the past; we will not shirk from our
responsibilities now and in the future. Today's GM will do the right thing." It is evident
that she did not neglect the responsibilities and took the courage to do what is rightful.
That is why I think she did the right thing to address the problem in which she took the
right decision to apologize to the victims' family and other customers for the incident.
She also hired compensation consultant so that victims' families can get fair and
appropriate compensation. She also did the right thing to make new policy to make the
 company from cost culture to customer culture in which customers would be of the
priority in future. All these initiatives were ethical regarding such an incident. She
learned from the past and is not pretending to be infallible. While she states that she first
learned of the decade-old problem, she was quick to issue apologies and publicly take
responsibility. Her behaviour shows that leaders are not perfect, and they should not
pretend to be. In fact, by handling their mistakes well, leaders can be an example to
everyone in the organization.

3. Do you see any additional ways to respond to issues facing Barra? If you were Barra,
what else you might do at GM to respond to a particular issue and modify the
culture?

I think Barra should respond to the issue more transparently – specifying the responsible
parties at GM or detailing the reasons for the company's safety failures and subsequent
cover-up. In that way, the victims, their families and friends, the hundreds of thousands
of other customers and those sharing the road would feel more assured. Other than that,
the way Barra responded to the issues was good enough for me. What is important is
how she handled the situation and the aftermath of the bad decisions of the past
administration. She did a good job embracing all the cases against the company and
acting without hesitation, showing the type of leader she is. Her inclusive leadership
style is a great help to produce highly effective work teams and to improve their business
operations. In terms of modifying the culture, it is a good thing that she showed a
willingness to change the company from "cost cultured" to a "customer cultured" one, as
it will benefit the company since they will now be focusing more on satisfying customer
needs. Her efforts to transform GM's famously large and clumsy bureaucracy, her push
to encourage diversity of thought, as well as her innovative ways of dealing with
problems, and working more closely with GM's many stakeholders is a great help for the
company's success. And if I were in Barra's shoes, I would do the same thing as she did.

4. What would you suggest might be Barra's most effective ethical strategy for decision
making at present?
 I think the essential ethical strategy for decision making at present is considering all the
factors of a situation, asking for others' insights, evaluate it and most importantly is to
take responsibility for every decision made – whether the decision turned out good or
bad.
Case Details:
Guide Questions:
1. Analyze the company culture using cultural dimension.

Power Distance - It refers to how much of a gap is there between employees and
administration. The more significant the gap, the higher the preference is for a clear
distinction between the boss and the staff. The smaller the gap, the lesser emphasis is
placed on the leader's power compared with the subordinate. At this point, Zappos
has a relatively low power distance as they already ditched the old corporate culture
hierarchy and reorganized it into a modern corporate democracy, which has a more
inclusive and equal type of environment. Wherein the employees could easily and
comfortably approach each other, even their CEO – Tony Hsieh. He even changed
the workspace's physical layout, where there are no offices, only cubicles (which he
also works from). Also, every employee is treated fairly. They have to undergo
training on talking with their customers on the phone; even the executives whose
jobs do not usually require talking to customers have to go through this. Zappos
wants every employee to hear the same message and learn the same values and
behavior expected to live the values every day at work. That is why they were able to
build an inclusive environment wherein every member of the organization is
encouraged to voice out ideas, opinions, and points of view because Zappos believe
that when employees are heard and appreciated, they become more engaged.

Individualism vs Collectivism – It talks to the degree to which people look out for
themselves or gear to a more community type of environment. Zappos is team-
oriented as one of their core values states to build an enthusiastic team and family
spirit, making them lean toward the collectivism approach. Through this approach,
employees receive equal opportunities, which may help prevent conflicts while
bringing more stability and consistency to the team. Employees share equal rights
and responsibilities, brainstorm ideas together, and make collective decisions. They
encourage emotional connection between their employees; they encourage close
relationships between their team members and push for more diverse ones. Zappos
embrace a collectivist culture to focus on the greater good of the whole team,
emphasize cooperation, and expect workers to act as members of a cohesive group.
They strive to eliminate any cynicism and negative interactions and create harmony
with whoever they interact with within the organization. They are more than just a
team at Zappos – they are a family.

Uncertainty avoidance – It deals with a society's tolerance for uncertainty and

ambiguity. It measures the extent to which people in an organization prefer
structured routines (predictability) over flexible structures (uncertainty). Uncertainty
avoiding cultures try to minimize the possibility of such situations by having strong
customs and habits. They tend to prefer formal structures and implement strict laws,
rules, safety, and security measures. But as to Zappos, they are more likely to have
low levels of uncertainty avoidance. Employees are trained to accept and feel
comfortable in unstructured situations or changeable environments. And since
innovation is strongly encouraged at Zappos, it seems only natural that employees
are okay with not receiving specific steps to follow. Also, employees receive very
little formal authority from the management, and everyone in the company is
empowered to make decisions. Zappos fosters the organization's creative culture by
letting the employees have the freedom to come up with new ideas and the like.

Time and order orientation - It is the extent to which an organization and its
employees’ values making sacrifices today for benefits to be gained in the future.
Cultures with long-term orientation will invest in the future, have a high degree of
perseverance, and are patient with the results. I think Zappos has a high long-term
orientation because they take a long-term view and focus on building the business
rather than maximizing their short-term profits. The company believes that they have
to develop first the Zappos brand and be about the very best customer service and
customer experience. They continue to grow and strive to ensure that their culture
 remains alive and well. They do not focus only on selling shoes, but they try to
expand into new product categories to help the company to prosper. With that, they
would be able to enjoy the pay-offs of their practices someday.

Masculinity vs Femininity – It refers to the degree to which culture is driven by

competitiveness, assertiveness, material gain (masculine), or the quality of life and
relationship building (feminine). We could clearly say that Zappos is run under the
femininity cultural dimension as they focus more on equality, healthy maintenance
of warm personal relationships, and solidarity. The company value strong
relationships in all areas: with employees, customers (internal and external),
community, vendors, shareholders, and co-workers. Strong, positive relationships
that are open and honest are a big part of what differentiates Zappos from most other
companies. They do not dwell much on competition; they even recommend
customers to other rival companies when they do not have what their customers
want. Through this, they were able to build a strong relationship with customers.
They set out to build relationships amongst colleagues and company fun events that
encourage socialization of the group.

Indulgent vs Restrained – It talks about the extent to which people try to control
their desires and impulses. Zappos inclined to a more indulgent cultural dimension
as they freely let their employees enjoy life and have fun while working. It is in their
corporate core values, which is to create fun and a little weirdness. Zappos celebrate
and embrace diversity and each employees' individuality. They let their employees
express their personality in their work, and they do not suppress the gratification of
their people's needs and do not regulate it through strict social norms.

2. What is/are the culture styles used by the company?

After watching the video, I think the culture styles used by Zappos are Caring,
Enjoyment, Purpose, and Learning.

First, it is Caring because Zappos' culture focuses on relationships and mutual trust.
The work environments are warm, collaborative, and welcoming, wherein the people
 help and support one another. Zappos was able to create a working place where all
employees feel incredibly comfortable. It became possible because the company
invests in happy hours and team building that makes employees a lot more effective
and creative because they trust each other.

Next is, Enjoyment. Zappos' work environments are lighthearted places where
people tend to do what makes them happy - allowing them to respect and celebrate
each other's individuality. The company takes specific actions every day that
reinforces its culture of a fun workplace. They created a work environment that
provides employees with a sense of fun, a sense of meaningful work, and incentives
to do away with monotony.

Another culture style present in the company is Purpose. Zappos' work environments
are tolerant, compassionate places where people try to do good for the world's long-
term future. They focus more on treating employees and customers well because they
believe that these initiatives would pay off someday and do good for the company.

Lastly, the "Learning" culture style is evident at Zappos because its work
environments are inventive and open-minded places where people spark new ideas
and explore alternatives. The company provides a safe space for employees to share
and explore their creativity. Also, they pursue growth and learning because the CEO
wants the employees to feel valued as the latter becomes more involved, enthusiastic,
and engaged.

3. How does the company culture impact performance?

Company culture is how a set of shared values among its employees influences their
behavior and work style. It is the combination of values, vision, mission, and the
day-to-day aspects of communication, interaction, and operational goals that create
the organizational atmosphere that pervades the way people work. Company culture
can impact sales, profits, innovation, and even employee performance and retention,
whether positively or negatively.
 On the positive note, a company culture where employees are considered an
indispensable part of the organization's growth process cultivates employee
commitment. Employees align their goals and objectives to the company and feel
responsible for the group's overall well-being. As their efforts are, in turn, recognized
by the management and pleasantly rewarded, they have immense job satisfaction.
The employees are committed to achieving their goals, thus positively affecting the
organization's overall performance. For example, in Zappos, the culture there is to
have a collaborative environment wherein every employee's sentiment will be heard.
That is why employees feel that they matter, and they feel more encouraged to share
their insights and creativity. So, in return, they perform very well, which helps the
company provide a wonderful experience to customers and achieve success.

On the negative note, in companies where the environment is not inclusive, and the
management is not facilitators but taskmasters, employees live with fear and distrust,
and work is nothing but a dreary chore. Since the employees are not involved in the
overall organizational goals, they do not appreciate their tasks' implications, hence
may not be committed to achieving them. A company where there is no
collaboration between different departments ends up having employees working in
silos or working towards undermining the other departments' efforts, which is
detrimental to the organization's overall health.

4. What culture-ethics dynamics is/are present in the company?

The culture of Zappos is one of a kind given the customer base that it has since its
foundation. It has a culture that promotes doing the right thing. They defined their
culture with its ten core values, namely: (1) Deliver WOW Through Service, (2)
Embrace and Drive Change, (3) Create Fun and A Little Weirdness, (4) Be
Adventurous, Creative, and Open-Minded, (5) Pursue Growth and Learning, (6)
Build Open and Honest Relationships With Communication, (7) Build a Positive
Team and Family Spirit, (8) Do More With Less, (9) Be Passionate and Determined
and (10) Be Humble. It is important to note that Zappos' leadership did not lead with
a statement of core values. They have created and reinforced a culture that held these
values and let employees themselves declare it. In this way, Zappos' leadership made
a list of values that employees believed in and leveraged the power of social proof to
ensure that employees acted on what they believe. Based on the company's CEO, "if
you get the culture right, most of the other stuff—like great customer service, or,
building a great long-term brand, or passionate employees and customers—will
happen naturally on its own." Through these initiatives, they created the right
working environment where employees are helpful and happy.