AN EVALUATION ON THE CORPORATE CULTURE OF

THE ALIBABA GROUP

Ryan Rukundo Shane

Business Administration
University of International Business and Economics

Fall, 2021
Beijing, People’s Republic of China
Introduction

In recent years, the Alibaba Group in China has attracted the attention of the world. In the
evaluation of the corporate culture of Alibaba we will go through different facts, aspects and
structure of the company and this will be shown in the submission given below.

First of all, it gives a brief overview of the Alibaba Group, including the company's revenue and
profit, ethics, employee relationship policies, and product services. Next, it discusses Alibaba's
organizational culture and social practice. The third part is used to discuss Alibaba's cultural
impact on employees. Furthermore, it introduces any specific practices and plans Alibaba uses
to promote socialization, productivity, team development, etc. 

Alibaba Group, headed by Ma Yun, a former English teacher, was founded in 1999 in Hangzhou,
China. As of June 30, 2019, Ali had 103,699 full-time employees. According to the financial
report data released by Alibaba Group on May 15, 2019, Alibaba's revenue in the fourth quarter
of the fiscal year 2019 was 93.498 billion yuan, up 51% year on year. The revenue in 2019 was
376.844 billion yuan, up 51% year on year. Alibaba said that in 2019, it brought 909.6 billion
yuan of incremental business to merchants, 721 million mobile monthly active users and 104
million new users. Annual active consumers reached 654 million, up 102 million from the same
period last year. In 2018, Alibaba paid 51.6 billion yuan of taxes, driving the tax payment to
exceed 250 billion yuan. In 2018, the Alibaba platform created 40.82 million jobs (Alibaba,
2019.)

Alibaba Group is devoted to following the best requirements of commercial enterprise behavior
in its business relations with customers, commercial enterprise partners, shareholders, and
different applicable parties. To hold those commitments, Alibaba complies with all applicable
legal guidelines and rules in addition to the necessities of Alibaba group business code of
conduct in its commercial activities. They require employees to expose the value of integrity of
their commercial dealings with outside companions and by no means tolerate any unethical or
unlawful behavior. Alibaba must set up a high-quality worker relationship. Good worker
relationships can appeal to and keep first rate personnel, enhance worker productivity, boom
worker loyalty to the enterprise, enhance work morale, enhance corporation performance, and
decrease absenteeism rate.

Alibaba's founders established the company to support the interests of small businesses. They
believe that the Internet can create a fair environment. Small enterprises can participate in
domestic and international market competition more effectively through innovation and
technology expansion. Alibaba Group's businesses include core business, cloud computing,
digital media, and entertainment, as well as innovative businesses.

Organization’s Culture and Socialization Practices

Values are a vital part of corporate culture. Alibaba Group's values play a necessary role in how
the Group operates its business, recruits its talents, assesses personnel and determines their
remuneration. Customers first, personnel second, shareholders third. This is Alibaba's choice. In
different words, that is Alibaba's priority. Only through constantly creating value for clients can
personnel grow, and shareholders gain through long-time period benefits. Another factor is
valuing belief and trust. The most valuable thing in the world is trust. The history of Alibaba's
rise is the use of each other, constructing and cherishing trust and belief. All human beings are
actual and trust each other. To the point in which there aren't such a lot of worries and
suspicions, the trouble is simple, and matters are efficient. Continuing at the vital factors,
valuing the most effective constant: adjustments also are essential. The modern society is
changing, clients are changing, and the aggressive surroundings are changing. Alibaba Group
personnel embody change with awe and humility. An extra component to value is the concept
that the best overall performance these days is the lowest requirement tomorrow. In Alibaba's
hardest time, it became this spirit that helped them survive. In adversity, they understood the
way to inspire themselves. In right times, they dare to set transcendental goals. Facing the
future, in the event that they do not advance, they may retreat. Another instance of the basics
of price might be to stay critically and paintings fortunately. Work as thankfully as one might
enjoy existence and stay as critically as one might work. Everyone has their work and lifestyles.
Alibaba Group respects everyone's choice.

Additionally, there may be every other thrilling phenomenon in Alibaba. Just like Ma Yun,
Alibaba's personnel will provide themselves aliases. Most of them select the characters in
martial arts novels as their aliases, that is, their labels. For example, Zhang Yong, the present-
day CEO of Alibaba, is nicknamed "Xiaoyaozi". Zhang Jian Feng, the present-day CTO, is likewise
recognized as "Xingdian". These names commonly refer to people with familiar images and
characteristics. Alibaba personnel use aliases at work and their names in their day-to-day life.
Even the conference room in Alibaba building is named after the well-known location in martial
arts novels. This martial arts way of life permeates the company's every day existence and gives
a superb detail for the company's way of life.

 Impact of the Corporate Culture

Alibaba encourages personnel to turn out to be dream makers, not people stimulated by
dreams. Alibaba encourages its personnel to be destiny creators, in preference to self-biking
machines. Also, Alibaba encourages its personnel to turn out to be higher learners. Alibaba
personnel are under excellent business pressure. In this case, the salesperson has to stand
endless rejections and misunderstandings each day. As quickly as personnel enter the company,
many of the training will cognizance on how to turn out to be a qualified Alibaba employee. In
crew gatherings, the manager may also weaken Alibaba's power level by means of telling jokes,
performing shows, and different methods to create a time and area for personnel to relax.
Every year's annual assembly is a carnival of sorts, entirely for Alibaba personnel. This is not
only a party but also a focused show of Alibaba culture. Many of the personnel involved
reportedly sense become happy and proud hence taking the joy in participating in it annually. It
is really well worth bringing up that Alibaba firmly believes that social responsibility isn't only
for society however additionally for the enterprise as well. Only when organizations take solving
social and ecological issues as their mission, can they coexist with society. Alibaba proposes
corporate public welfare culture. They do not suppose that today's public welfare is for the
recipients. The actual beneficiaries of public welfare ought to be the personnel themselves, that
is the most important return to the enterprise and each employee. With this culture,
understanding how to be thankful to society will warm the hearts of personnel and make the
team warm. Because they recognize a way to be thankful, the personnel will think more about
converting positions.

General Practices and Schedules

Alibaba has been constructing its talent echelon and succession system primarily based totally
at the partnership mechanism for ten years. According to Ma Yun's open letter in 2019, Alibaba
now has a skilled group and a succession system of "good generals". A new institution of
leaders represented through Zhang Yong has emerged as the mainstay of Alibaba. In this open
letter, Ma Yun also defined Zhang Yong as a "high-quality enterprise leader" in the expertise
section under the "partnership system". At the same time, Alibaba has a diverse, younger
control and expertise echelon. Among Alibaba's partners, there are two "post-80s." Among the
core managers above Ali senior director, "post-80s" accounted for 14%. Among Alibaba's
management cadres and technical backbones, 80% of the "post-80s" era has already been
taken up. The variety of post-90s managers has passed 1400, accounting for 5% of the full
variety of managers. Women make up a third of the 36 partners.

In the recent years, Alibaba has additionally finished numerous power transfers and accrued
experience from them. The partnership system is referred to as Alibaba's inner force
mechanism by Ma Yun. Its composition is neither the founding group nor the main
shareholders, however a few personnel who exceptionally identify with the company's culture
and make crucial contributions to its business. This form of organizational shape isn't always
formed or added in a day. Alibaba adjusts its organizational shape at an average rate of 2-3
instances a year, followed by the rotation of Alibaba executives.

Peter Drucker, a renowned consultant, educator, as well as author, advised organizations that
they must open the skylight of establishments every 365 days to look at the outside world
(1955). It sounds easy; however, it is difficult to practice, particularly for the platform and giant
companies. This structural adjustment has introduced loads of discomfort to the Alibaba
people. But in the end, Alibaba personnel needed to adapt.

Methods of Organization

For Alibaba, the place to begin for all regulations and policies was to "mobilize everyone's
enthusiasm and creativity, in order that the personnel would maximize their energy." However,
issues usually arose. Management couldn't be imagined as a form of control, that is taking into
account the commercial civilization era. Because in the case of standardized processes,
management performance is emphasized. But in the Internet age, technological innovation is
rising in an infinite stream. At this time, it's far important to maximize the autonomy of
employees. “In the modern-day business environment, human management should absolutely
change its thinking, to shape the collective expertise of all personnel.

Alibaba has fully satisfied the personnel space and innovation impulse. Horse racing is a great
example. As lengthy as personnel have accurate and innovative ideas, they are able to put them
through to Alibaba's project committee. After approval, personnel can continue to run with
those thoughts boldly. The organization could be staffed, funded and actually have options.
Many good initiatives of Alibaba are set up based on "horse racing". In Alibaba's history, tasks
submitted with the aid of using personnel who have simply recently been employed stand out,
and then extend to a team of fifty or sixty people, breaking into the first echelon of the country
in this field.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Alibaba group is an enterprise that attaches great importance to the
development of corporate culture. Its famous representative culture includes smiling face
culture, martial arts culture and so on. Alibaba's management is also fully aware of the
importance of corporate culture in employee management and enterprise stability. The strong
organizational culture makes Alibaba group have extraordinary cohesion. This is also reflected
in the efficiency of its enterprises. Alibaba's corporate culture is not superficial, it is
remembered by every Alibaba employee.     

References

 Alibaba. (2019) Alibaba Group's upgraded values: an in-depth analysis of the struggle
history of "new six pulse swords". https://www.alibabanews.com
 Alibaba. (2019) Culture and Value. https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/about/culture
 Alibaba. (2019) Performance Report.  https://www.alibabagroup.com/en/ir/earnings
 Drucker, P. (1955) The Practice of Management. Heinemann, London. pp. 114-116.
 Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. (2013). Organizational Behavior 10th edition. McGraw-Hill Irwin,
United States of America. pp. 63-84.
 Lu, Y. (2017, February 22) Alibaba Corporate Culture Management. China Business Daily
(Beijing). p. 4.
 Ma, J. (2018). Alibaba will fulfill its mission.
http://www.ebrun.com/20181030/304169.shtml
 Ma, J. (2019). Innovation dominates the global economy. https://www.alibabanews.com