Chapter 02 Assignment: The Environment and Corporate Culture

Zappos.com, an online shoe retailer, is well known for its quirky and fun work culture. Employees are encouraged to have fun at work because that fun and pure enjoyment of their job will shine through to the customer. A few of its corporate values are: "Deliver WOW Through Service" and "Create Fun and A Little Weirdness." CEO, Tony Hsieh, has played a large role in shaping the unique culture at Zappos. Recently, however, Zappos has experienced a culture change. Tony Hsieh decided to shift the company from a traditional hierarchy to an organizational design model called Holacracy. In Holacracy, authority and decision-making are distributed across self-managed teams. Employees no longer report to a manager, but they do have mentors that can help on a more personal level. Employees are encouraged to join teams, or circles, based on job roles or social activities that they are interested in. The transition has not been easy. It has taken some Zappos employees a little time to find their best fit and around 18% of employees have left the company. Tony Hsieh remains committed to Holacracy and what he believes it can do for Zappos. One of Tony Hsieh's most important roles now is to act as a cultural leader for Zappos. Using your knowledge of cultural leaders, which of the following would be the best ways for Hsieh to guide the culture at Zappos in light of the switch to Holacracy? Check all that apply.

-Communicate directly to employees about the changes and expectations. -Relinquish his title as CEO in response to the change to a bossless organization.

At Walmart, a cultural shift is underway. The company is becoming greener, using wind and solar power, selling organic lettuce, and cutting down on packaging. How can managers support this shift? Check all that apply.

-Establish a vision for the company -Over-communicate company values -Reward employees when they act in accordance with the company's vision

?business perfomance

-Low performance -Low cultural values -managers don't meet performance goals or uphold cultural values

Which of the following statements are true about organizational culture? Check all that apply.

-The actions managers take can change a company's culture. -Employees may be unaware of the underlying assumptions that guide an organization's culture. -Culture can create a competitive advantage for a company.

Values

-high Performance -High cultural values -managers achieve performance goals and uphold desired cultural values

Business Performance

-high Performance -Low cultural values -Managers meet performance goals but fail to uphold cultural values

?Values

-low performance -high cultural values -Managers don't meet performance goals but do uphold cultural values

Employees are competitive and aggressive, display personal initiative, and are willing to work long and hard to attain results.

Achievement

Employees have autonomy to make decisions and act freely to meet new needs.

Adaptability

Employees in engineering or research and development look outside the organization for new technological developments, innovations, and raw materials.

Boundary-spanning roles

Visible

Culture that can be seen at the surface level Artifacts, such as dress, office layout, symbols, slogans, ceremonies

invisible

Deeper values and shared understanding held by organization members Expressed values, such as "the penney Idea," "The HP way" Underlying assumptions and deep beliefs, such as "people here care about one another like a family"

Employees value cooperation and equality, are caring and considerate of others.

Involvement

Based on previous research regarding the impact of values on business performance, you would expect that xxx managers would have higher-performing companies.

Japanese

Delaco Steel, a U.S. steelmaker, and ArcelorMittal, a Luxembourg steelmaker, work together to run two new laser welding plants.

Joint ventures

"Like a Good Neighbor, State Farm is There" serves as a tagline for the insurance company's commercials, but also enforces the company's philosophy of being a good neighbor.

Slogan

In your company, people talk about making deliveries, even when the weather was so bad that the post office didn't deliver mail, as a way of emphasizing the value of customer service.

Story

Your manager has a bigger office than you do to show that your company values rank and position within the organization.

Symbol

Doeringer's research suggests that American managers pay little attention to values and xxx attention to business performance.

a lot of

In an example of xxx, many companies lobby the U.S. federal government through the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an interorganizational partnership.

boundary spanning

Firefighters have a tradition of holding xxx for many events, including the graduation of a new firefighter and the acquisition of a new rig. In the latter case, the tradition is to push it into the firehouse and take a picture of it with all the firefighters to post on the wall.

ceremonies

Employees follow the rules and are thrifty

consistency

Heidi talks in the video about her determination to protect the brand and ensure the safety of the animals in Camp Bow Wow's care, and at the same time, the business has grown from her original $80,000 investment to many franchises. You would advise Heidi that her company is characterized by xxx

high cultural values and high performance .

A manager who allows employees to make the decisions necessary to face a rapidly changing environment promotes an xxx culture, which emphasizes an internal focus on the participation of employees to adapt rapidly to change.

involvement

To be effective, an organization's culture must xxx the external environment.

match

Jarden, which owns brands such as Mr. Coffee and Oster, announced a xxx with Waddington Group, a maker of disposable plastic ware, which it would acquire for $1.3 billion.

merger

United Airlines buys Continental Airlines to create one airline company with more than 87,000 employees.

mergers