MASTERS IN MANAGEMENT

BICOL UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT

MM 210: STRUCTURE AND PROCESS IN ORGANIZATIONS

Topic : Challenges to Developing a Positive Cohesive Culture

Challenges to developing a positive, cohesive organizational culture:

1. Mergers or acquisitions
2. Developing a global organizational culture
3. Developing an ethical organizational culture
4. Developing a culture of empowerment and quality

1. Mergers or acquisitions
- Blending of two distinct organizational cultures may prove difficult despite good-faith efforts
- Over 30% of mergers fail because of simple culture incompatibility
- Pointers to consider in a merger or acquisition:
▪ Emphasize your core values
▪ Stop the brain drain
▪ Find your biggest influencers and encourage their buy-in
▪ Facilitate communication across groups and divisions

2. Developing a global organizational culture

- Global corporations suffer from conflicting pressures of centralization and decentralization
- An overarching corporate culture that integrates the decentralized subsidiaries in locations around
the world can be an asset in an increasingly competitive global marketplace
- Some guidelines to creating a global culture:
▪ Create a clear and simple mission statement
▪ Create systems that ensure an effective flow of information
▪ Broaden managers’ minds to allow them to think globally
▪ Develop global career paths
▪ Use cultural differences as a major asset
▪ Implement worldwide management education and team development programs
3. Developing an ethical organizational culture
- The culture of an organization can have profound effects on the ethical behavior of organization
members
- Factors that influence the development of an ethical culture:
▪ Management modeling
▪ Promoting ethical norms
▪ Trust
- Efficacy of Code of Ethics

4. Developing a culture of empowerment and quality

- Successful organizations promote cultures that empower employees and excel in product service
and quality
- Empowerment serves to unleash employees’ creativity and productivity; companies that value
empowerment and continuous improvement have cultures that promote high product and service
quality
- Factors that influence the development of a culture of empowerment and quality:
▪ Involving employees in decision making
▪ Removing obstacles to performance
▪ Reinforcing the value of product and service

References:
Nelson, Debra & Quick, James. (2014). Organizational behavior student edition 4. Cengage Learning.
Jacobsen, Darcy. (2012). 6 big mergers that were killed by culture. Globoforce. Retrieved from
http://www.globoforce.com/gfblog/2012/6-big-mergers-that-were-killed-by-culture/