Home Depot - Case Study

In chapter 3, they discuss Home Depot and how its management style created problems amongst the organization. A former CEO of Home Depot fostered a hierarchy culture which stripped managers of their ability to efficiently manage. They saved money but the effects where damaging. The financial records where in decent shape but the culture deteriorated. The individual stores lacked the ability to modify their inventory to what was fitting to the climate. As a result, the stores where stocked with goods for the wrong season.
This example indicates the impact of management on the organization. Had the top executives respected the decisions of management, Home Depot would have been able to provide a better experience for their customers.

Ch 3

In chapter 3 it talked about organization culture and how important it and how it can impact the employees motivation, satisfaction, and turnover. Southwest is also able to maintain low employee turnover and high job satisfaction by creating a positive, employee focused culture. I think that it’s true that if you feel that your organization is taking care of you, you feel that your also obligation to take care of the company and making sure your setting good and positive examples to customers and other people as well. There are also different types of organizational culture such as clan culture which has an internal focus and values flexibility rather than stability and control. One company that is considered a clan company would be Zappos’s a company that sells shoes. They encourage their employees to be free and fun, while still maintaining a productive work environment.
Kreitner, Robert. Organizational Behavior. 9th ed. Vol. 1. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2010.

Hierarchy Culture in France

France is a country where the sense of hierarchy is very important. every decision is taken at a specific hierarchical level must be validated by the higher levels and applied without question by the lower levels. it is very important to understand that in such a hierarchical organization, the final decision rests with the person who is the highest ranking. The French hierarchy manifests itself in the process of decision making but also in the life of the company. so it is very difficult to contact a manager who is more than two levels of hierarchy above without going through intermediate levels. thus at an important meeting, the floor is assigned in the hierarchical sense. so when you send an email to the recipients must be in hierarchical order, starting with the highest person.
Such an organization enables individuals to know where he stands, what he has to do, to whom he is accountable but it is not without flaws. information are much more time to run and urgent decisions are taken at the last moment. more if the decision of the CEO or someone highly placed is not good, it will be applied.

CH. 3

In Chapter three it covers what organizational culture is and how it benefits a company’s identity. In this chapter I was very interested in the three-phase model of organizational socialization. This model was created by Feldman, he developed this to judge how well an individual has been socialized. The first phase, anticipatory socialization, is described as information people have learned about different professions before they actually join an organization. The second phase, encounter, is described as an employee’s learning stage of what the organization is really like. The third phase, change and acquisition, is when the employee masters important tasks and roles in their work environment. In this phase employees feel confident in themselves and their roles. This model presents specific behavioral outcomes. These phases make this socialization process achieve employee expectation and satisfaction

Communication and Differences

After reading the chapter I remembered I had some notes on the guest speaker who came in to talk to us and whom also had us do some team building activities in order to help us further understand what the business world was like. He also spoke about the differences not necessarily in the cultures but rather in the mannerisms and the words we used when people were in a different setting or place. The differences could extend as far as countries or as close as county to county. Where one mannerism was understood as a sign of positive encouragement that same mannerism could be understood as looked upon as a sign of offense in another setting due to the many different cultures worldwide, and of course according to the upbringing each individual had. The guest speaker also said that body language is important and can say a lot more than a million words. By simply observing someone's body gesture you can tell a lot about a person and what they are thinking about or how they feel without that person having to tell you through verbal communication. Therefore you must be well versed not just in speaking to someone in their native tongue but also by learning mannerisms that may be offensive to someone in a particular part of the world. You must also be able to control your body language because you don't want to send off the wrong message, or lose a great client due to one mistake you made.

Communication

This week I learned an interesting and important lesson from our guest speaker. He was talking about how when he would do business with foreign people, the deals would not always go according to plan, even if all of the "right words" were used. Different cultures interpret body language and various gestures in several different ways. What may be intended as flattering or passive in one culture could be very insulting to those in another culture. Also, just because your client has a translater, does not mean that they do not speak English. What you may think you are saying to your co-workers under your breath may actually be heard by all. Some people use translators as a tactic to try and make the others think they are fully trusting them, however they can actually gain more information from the things that may not be translated, therefore they have an upper hand. Communication skills are very important in business deals, but moreso in foreign deals because a lot of communication is made up of things that are not acutally said. It is always best to walk into the room prepared. Know your client and know their culture. By not being prepared, you could make a move or gesture that may ruin business with that client forever.

Chpt 3

Feldman's model of organizational socialization can be very representative of a person's experiences upon entering an organization or company. In any job application, there are expectations that we have of what it will be like to work at the company we are applying to, which is precisely what Feldman calls Phase 1: "anticipatory socialization." Phase 2: "encounter," occurs when employees get an idea of what it is really like to work in an organization, and when they change their expectations based upon their experience. I personally remember learning new about new policies that I didn't think were true immediately after getting hired at Bestbuy, an example of the encounter phase. Phase 3: "Change and acquisition," defines the experiences which show that an employee or member of an organization has come to understand the policies and organizational culture. Getting a raise could be a good example of this because it displays that there is a level of mastery in your present position. It is beneficial for companies and organizations to have some kind of program which helps socialize members/employees into the organizational culture. One example is having an in depth hiring process, in which employees undertake official training sessions learning about the company where they work. Organizational socialization is the third part of the hiring process (Pearson, 2003), and it is arguably the most important. Bringing employees into the organization and associating them with fellow employees will boost employee morale and employees will hopefully enjoy their work more if they feel connected to a community within an organization rather than just part of the muddle. Socialization is thus of great importance to organizational leaders.

"Recruiting, selecting, and socializing employees." Pearson Education. Date Accessed: 6 Feb 2010. http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/abstract.aspx?docid=82293. Jan 2003.

Kreitner, Robert. Organizational Behavior. 9th ed. Vol. 1. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2010.

chapter 3

Organizational culture is made up of three main types, clan culture, adhocracy culture, market culture and hierarchy culture. Clan and hierarchy culture are both internal factors in the company. The involvement and interaction of employees is what clan culture is directly focused on. Teamwork and collaboration as well as proper decision making all tie into this category. Hierarchy is shown in the effectiveness of a company through efficiency, timeliness and reliability. Adhocracy and market are external factors. Being able to adapt your company's strategy with the always changing market is extremely important for growth. With new technologies rapid development is more available then ever but being able to adapt to these changes is what makes or breaks a company. Stability and control are important values in the market. This is the part of the business you usually see take place through customer satisfaction, productively and profits. The four components affect or are affected by internal and external components through flexibility/discretion and stability/control which in the right balance can lead to success and efficiency of a company.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is really important in any organization because it describes “the physiology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values of an organization.” Organizational culture is the values and norms that are shared by people within an organization, and is how the organization controls and directs its employees. An example of this concept is when a person signs a contract with an organization and the manager makes the new employee read the terms and conditions of the company as well as the company’s values. This is part of organizational culture because by those terms, conditions, and values the company is making sure that the employee agrees with them and will work for the common goals of the company.
According to Henry J. Schumacher, writer for the Business World online newspaper, “the culture determines the extent to which members of the organization will exert themselves to fulfill tasks; essential when we are all trying to achieve more with less. Culture helps define its members’ attitudes and actions regarding tasks, roles, people, power, and change; how internal problems are resolved and external challenges met.” I agree with Mr. Schumacher because culture is a key in organizations because it will make work easier and more efficient if the organizational culture is understood and practiced.

Schumacher, Henry. “Business Culture.” Businessworldonline.com (2005)

Chapter 3

Four functions of Organizational Culture
Chapter 3 discussed the four functions that an organization's fulfills. They are the following: organizational identity, collective commitment, social system stability, and sense-making device. These four functions will allow for an organization's culture to work at its highest potential. The book talks aboyt Southwest as an example of a company with a good organizational culture. Southwest has achieved 37 years of profitability and was ranked by Fortune in the top five of the Best Companies to work for in America from 1997 to 2000. Southwest gives its members an organizational identity by making the workplace a fun place to be, providing a fund based on voluntary contributions for distribution to employees who are experiencing serious personal difficulties, provides great opportunities for women and Hispanics, and practices good business ethics. It provides a collective commitment by staying true to its mission statement and has been ranked number one in fewest customer complaints since 1987. Another function of organizational culture is promoting social system stability and Southwest achieves this function by having fun, having parties and celebrating, and giving performance based awards to motivate its employees. Organizations help shape behavior by helping its members make sense of their surroundings and Southwest does this great. It lets its employees know exactly why they are doing what they are doing and why, and motivate their employees to be the best which in turn produces profit.
I found an article that discussed the importance of culture within a company especially during this time of economic downfall. It talked about a the use of group work in a community-based outpatient children's mental health agency to respond to this downfall in the economy. It discusses three specific threats that were troubling the company and how the group work helped to organize, educate, and activate its employees to respond and counter the threats and build a culture of advocacy.

MALEKOFF, ANDREW. "The Use of Group Work to Fight Acute External Threats to a Community-Based Organization During Harsh Economic Times." Social Work with Groups 33.1 (2010): 4-22. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 Feb. 2010.

Chapter 3

Chapter three focused on espoused and enacted values in an organization or business. Espoused values are values or ideas that a company or organization believe and enact or enforce, while enacted values are more what the employees of these companies believe. One example of this is Best Buy's "angels/devils" tactic.

"Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson says he wants to separate "angel" customers from the "devils" The angels, according to Best Buy, are customers who boost profits at the consumer-electronics giant by snapping up HDTVs, portable electronics, and newly released DVDs without waiting for markdowns or rebates." Devils, obviously are bargain hunters who wait for sales or take advantage of rebates, etc. This would be an espoused value of Best Buy. The company believes this is an efficient way to boost income and profit, so they enact this idea. The employees may not necessarily agree with it, however, they are required to carry it out.

This means that Best Buy turns this espoused value into and enacted value by forcing the behavior on its employees. I personally find this method of belief to be offensive to customers. After all, would you want to be ignored and referred to as a "devil" when you planned on spending your money at their store? Me neither.

Sources:

McWilliams, Gary. "The Customer Isn't Always Right." Wall Street Journal January 2005: n. pag. Web. 30 Jan 2010.

Sustainablity and Business

In chapter 3, the dynamics of organizational culture is explained, and a specific look into values is examined. One of the kinds of values discussed is espoused values; espoused values are the stated values and norms that are preferred by an organization.

An example of a company that fulfills a sustainable environment would be TOMS Shoes. The company believes in "one for one," which means for every shoe bought, another pair is given to a child in need. The shoe uses little leather compared to other sneakers like Nike and Adidas. Also, the company isn't just for profit; helping out children in developing companies is one of their main missions and reasons TOMS created their company. TOMS Shoes is partnered with non- profit organizations as well for example Friends with TOMS.

Many companies would not give free items for every product purchased, and by doing so, TOMS is set apart from all types of apparel retailers. Because of TOMS belief towards donating, his company is built from that and has sprouted. It is very risky in doing what TOMS Shoes does for profitable reasons, but it is very important to give back to the community especially when many consumers have purchasing power.

www.tomsshoes.com

Chapter 3: Espoused Values-Sustainability

Chapter four talks about the three fundamental layers of organizational culture, which include observable artifacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions. The layer that is most motivating is the espoused values, the norms that are preferred by an organization. This layer is also influencing more companies to espouse the value of sustainability. Sustainability is illustrated in the book as, “A company’s ability to make a profit without sacrificing the resources of its people, the community, and the planet”. This semester I am enrolled in a sustainable development course and we are also speaking about this idea. The value of sustainability impacted me because in my other class we learned that some generations today still don’t care about the negative consequences their business can bring. The only thing they are worried most about is making profit.

On the other hand, we should be worrying about the profit we make as well as helping our community and our planet. In his article Marc Gunther focuses on consumer electronics retailer Best Buy and how the company has come to endorse corporate responsibility and recycling (Gunther 96). He explains how Brian Dunn, chief executive officer of the firm, discusses the implementation of a huge recycling program and his belief that sustainability is both a rising social value and a business opportunity. The company’s benefits focus on service which is a new way to get customers into stores, and a reputation of being green. Best Buy is an example of a company that is using the value sustainability in order to increase their profits.

Source: Gunther, Marc. "Best Buy Wants Your Junk." Fortune 160.11 (2009): 96-100. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 Feb. 2010.

Employees First

"Who comes first? The employees, customers, or shareholders? That's never been an issue to me. The employees come first. If they're happy, satisfied, dedicated, and energetic, then they'll take real good care of the customers. When the customers are happy, they come back. And that makes the shareholders happy." - Herb Kelleher, former CEO of Southwest Airlines (Kreitner 70).

This approach to running a business surprised me. For as long as I can remember, the media and marketers have taught us to believe that the "customer is always right." It never occurred to me to think outside the box and dig deeper for a more permanent solution to keep the customers happy.

In the article, "Southwest Airlines: Lessons in Loyalty," D'Aurizio focuses on the uniqueness that separates the airline company from its competitors. A key piece to their success is te company's former Chairman, Herb Kelleher, who built a culture based on the old saying, "Take care of your staff, and they will take care of the patients" (D'Aurizio). Kelleher created a culture that could be adopted by future leaders of the airline. Today, Southwest Airline proudly boasts that it has had the fewest customer complaints in 18 years in a row, 31 consecutive profitable years, and an average of less than 10% employee turnover rate (D'Aurizio). To make a lasting difference, you have to change the structure to change the behavior.

Source: D'Aurizio, Patricia. "Southwest Airlines: Lessons in Loyalty." Nursing Economic$ Nov. 2008: 389+. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 1 Feb. 2010.

Chapter 3

In chapter three, Daniel Feldman proposed a three-phase model of organizational socialization. The purpose of this is to promote a deeper understanding of the importance in a situation of complex organization. The Three phases are anticipatory socialization, encounter, and change and acquisition. Anticipatory socialization occurs when people learn about a certain organization before actually joining. In this first phase, due to unrealistic expectations forming, organizations are urged to use realistic job previews (RJP). With the RJP, they offer insight to recruits giving them a realistic idea of what their job entails, including both the negative and positive aspects. The second phase, encounter begins once the recruit signs the employee contract with the company. There are different opportunities from orientation to training programs where employees have the opportunity to socialize. During this time the recruit discovers what the organization is truly like and develops different values, skills, and attitudes. The last phase is change and acquisition which is where the new recruit masters all the new tasks and roles that his job entails. Organizations help employees through this phase by presenting a list of socialization tactics.

In the article, “Toward a Theory of Organizational Socialization” it stresses the importance of this concept in the workplace. John Van Maanen and Edgar H. Schein believe that organizational socialization is a phrase used to describe the process that an individual is taught and learns “the ropes” of a particular organizational role or job. The book and the article state that this process could be relatively quick, self-guided, trial-and-error process to a more elaborate one requiring a lengthy preparation period of education and training. This article is interesting because they say that, “if one takes seriously the notion that learning itself is a continuous and life-long process, the entire organizational career of an individual can be characterized as a socialization process.” Another aspect that was important from the article is that they said that socialization involves learning on a cultural level that is brought to the commonplace and unusual matters going on the work place. I think that the information from the chapter and in the article stresses the importance of becoming socialized in the place you work at. From being socialized, an individual will have behavioral and affective outcomes in the workplace.

Sources
Toward a Theory of Organizational Socialization 1 (1978). IDEAS. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Web. 28 Jan. 2010. .

Google. They're doing it right.

Google is an ideal example of a company that has unique organizational culture and socialization; perhaps that is why they are deemed one of the greatest companies to work for. After reading the excerpt located at the end of chapter three, I can conclude that Google is pretty much full of win.

The reason that Google is so successful in today's day and age is because they have a very different viewpoint on their employees compared to the conventional company. They take risks and invest heavily into their own, and it pays off. According to the article by BusinessWeek, Google provides employees with free food (11 gourmet cafeterias), massages, laundry services, $5000 credit towards a purchase of a hybrid car and even heated toilets. The list goes on, but my envy stops me from listing every single benefit. Now, you might ask how all these unnecessary benefits help drive the company towards profit. The answer is because Google thinks all these expenses are worth it if it makes their employees happy in the long run; the money also never breaks out of the administrative costs which helps.

Google created a very successful organizational culture in both theory and practice. Employees are the foundation and building blocks of a company and Google acknowledges this.



Google's Culture is Truly Unique. Business Week, Oct. & nov. 2008. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .

Chapter 3 and 4

Chapter 3:
One of the most interesting information I found from Chapter 3 was the idea of mentoring. Mentoring is the process of forming and maintaining developmental relationships between a mentor and a junior person. For me, the one factor about mentoring that I always wondered about was the dynamics between the mentor and the mentee. How did they make a relationship that could actually benefit one another?

For one thing, I learned that mentoring was a great way for companies to build trust between its workers. One article from Inc. Magazine even talked about how a mentor can benefit a worker and how to make that relationship work. “They had us think in ways we had never thought before, about the big questions, such as how big do you want to be?” He also said, “The trust factor is all-important. Our mentors showed us from the start that they wanted to make a commitment to our business.” (Macht) When the mentors were asked, on the other hand, their replies matched with what the mentees said. They also emphasized the idea of being open to new situations and the fact that having a good relationship with their mentees has helped them work harder. (Macht)

The one thing that I have learned from all this is the importance of give and take. When I thought of the word mentoring, I thought of the mentees just depending on the mentors for everything. After reading that article, though, I realized that a mentor-mentee relationship is more that just dependence, but a partnership.

Chapter 4:

One thing that I truly found interesting in Chapter 4 was the idea of the Globe Project. From a standpoint of a person who is very interested in the distinctions between the different of cultures of other countries, I really wanted to find out more about it. The aim of this project was to define the term “leadership” worldwide. It was said that the objective of the project was “To determine the extent to which the practices and values of business leadership are universal (i.e., are similar globally), and the extent to which they are specific to just a few societies.” (Grovewell) Also, the definition given of the word leadership was "...the ability of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members". (Grovewell)

The Globe project studied 62 different countries across the world. From these 62 countries, a CLT was formed. CLT, also known as “Culturally Endorsed Leadership Theory Dimensions”, was represented “the ultimate result of the team’s statistical grouping of leadership attributes into common dimensions.” (Grovewell) These six included: Charismatic/value based, team oriented, participative, humane oriented, self-protective, and autonomous. The results that came up were fascinating. There were some that really made me think about how businesses function in those specific regions. It also made me think about the different interactions between people living in those countries. Here are some interesting results that I found:

Team oriented: “At the level of the 10 societal clusters, the Latin America cluster most positively associated the team oriented CLT with outstanding leadership.” (Grovewell)
Self protective: “Incidentally, the Middle East cluster also rated the self-protective CLT in an almost neutral manner. Nordic Europe, with a mean of 2.72, associated this CLT with the inhibition of good leadership.” (Grovewell)

Sources:

Grovewell, C. Grove. Dare to Be WorldWise: Overviews of the GLOBE Research Project Worldwide. 2007. 30 January 2010 .

Macht, Joshua D. Inc. . 2 June 2001. 30 January 2010 .

Consensus

In the second week of class, we all worked together to form a "new syllabus". In this document, we came up with a bunch of different standards and rules that we set for ourselves and for our classmates. This was another example of how working in small groups can be very successful. The class was broken into several small groups of about 4 people. In these groups, we were assigned a subject on which to base a new policy. The one that my group was assigned was "Timeliness of Homework". After discussing a few different options as to what the best yet most fair way to approach the issue was, we came together on a conslusion rather quickly. Within our group, no one person dominated or demanded they have their way. We were all very agreeable and politely pointed out flaws in certain plans.

After we proposed our idea to the class, the students were able to tell us if they thought our criteria was fair or if there was some kind of alteration to it that they would suggest. When all comments were heard, the policy was voted on by thumbs up/middle/down. Although some students may not have necessarily loved the policy we came up with, they were not so opposed to it that they refuted it. I think that taught an important lesson in the class, as well. Even though you may not wholly agree with a decision being made, it is important to form a consensus in the group. That is, being able to let it pass without trying to stop it. I was glad to see that even though we did not receive all thumbs up, we reached consensus and nobody tried to stop the policy from going through. Consensus is a bit of a sacrifice being made, but if it is for the good of the group/company, I think people are often much more accepting of it than they would be if they felt like they were personally losing something.

Chap 3

The Model of Organizational Socialization stood out the most to me when I read chapter three. The anticipatory socialization stage reminds me a lot of the recruitment process that happens when high school seniors are choosing colleges. They only learn about the potential schools through counselors, teachers, parents, and friends, but what they’ve learned from those sources aren’t always true about the colleges. This is the anticipatory socialization stage. The students then carry this knowledge or expectation with them when they attending the schools. They then reach the encounter stage of the model where the students learn first-hand about what the schools really are, eliminating, redefining, or strengthening their previous expectations and knowledge, which leads to the third stage in the model, change and acquisition. In this stage, the students adapt to the surrounding by mastering the task of fitting in with other students and the environment that they’re in.

According to the article by Hahn (2007), when a worker is completely socialized into the company, then they will be committed to the company. However, he doesn’t take into account that a worker could change their mind if a company changes their organization in a way that affects the worker negatively. Hahn states that if a worker responds positively, they receive more socialization from the company, but if they respond negatively, they are either eliminated or given less attention. The author also adds that the notion of continuous learning means that our whole careers could be characterized by socialization. This statement interested me because it made me realize that socialization not only applies to careers, but it also applies to life. Whether it’s about our careers or finding the right college, socialization is a big part of our lives.

Sources:
Hahn, Martin. "Organizational Socialization." ArticlesGratuits.com (2007).
http://www.en.articlesgratuits.com/organizational-socialization-id1525.php