Changes In Corporate Culture Research Articles

Changing corporate culture over time in South Korea

Corporate culture change is an interesting topic, not least since cultures are often seen as deeply ingrained and slow moving. Here we look at the example of the large, diversified conglomerates in South Korea – the chaebol. This is partly because of their strong corporate cultures, importance in the country's economic development and growth and growing public and political backlash against what are seen as overly powerful institutions. We find that over the decade from one crisis, the 1997 Asian financial crisis, to the next, the 2008 global financial crisis, there has indeed been change between and within chaebol corporate cultures. However, this is not as straightforward as it seems and the situation in and after 2011 has become even more complex, mainly due to changes in the global environment.

Internalities and the Foundations of Corporate Governance

This paper considers the potential contained in an ‘internalities’ approach to corporate governance. Rather than viewing the company as a ‘black box’ that can only be regulated through state action, we argue that corporate governance holds in tension the relationship between investors, managers and the corporate board. It is from that tension that a change in corporate culture will emerge. We argue that a state focus on promoting and managing the dialogical character of corporate governance will limit the negative effects of corporate power.

CORPORATE CULTURE IN DEVELOPING PROFESSIONALISM OF HUMAN RESOURCES IN LEMHANNAS RI

Based on a case study by Lemhannas RI, this work attempts to discuss the relation of professionalism of human resources and corporate culture. The change and growth of corporate culture in an organization requires strong commitment from those involved in it. Corporate culture should be continually developed through a persistent socialization, partnership and supervision programs. The right management of human resources, which follows the basis of management, will give a great contribution when applied well. In addition, policy evaluation on corporate culture should include structural and cultural aspects and be conducted in several steps, including identification of goals and ways of completing them, measurement of relevant information activities, analysis of data for a conclusion and recommendation. The recommendation is a crucial step that needs a special attention for the restructurization of culture for better results. This study concludes that interaction between structure and culture is a key and pre-condition for the growth of a better and conducive corporate culture for accomplishing the goals of organization.

PentIngnya Safety Culture DI Rumah Sakit Upaya Meminimalkan Adverse Events

Adverse Events (AEs), which are also known as the unexpected events, can happen in any hospital, and can cause dangerous impacts on patients’ life. In Indonesia, empirical research on AEs is still limited in number therefore there are a lot of AEs which are not identifed and analyzed. In fact, a great number of AEs can be prevented through the implementation of safety culture, safety system and information technology. It is now the time for hospitals and health centres to apply patient-safety culture more efectively. This article discusses the role and essence of patient-safety culture in minimizing the total number of AEs. Hospitals and health centres are encouraged to manage their corporate culture change into the direction of applying the safety culture appropriately in order to provide a positive impact on the patient life and hospitals’ image. Eventually, an integrative model which links the patient safety culture with the hospital performance is provided. Keywords: Adverse Events (AEs), patient safety-culture, RCA (Root Cause Analysis)

Patterns of sustainability values among subsidiaries

The increasing trend of globalisation and environmental challenges makes the understanding of sustainability issues in international business a growing topic throughout the world. This study illustrates the challenge of an organisation as it becomes larger and more diverse to keep the core values alive. We focused on a multinational corporation with more than 30 years’ experience with sustainability issues. It is one of the world’s top manufacturers of renewable energy equipment. We found a very high diversity in sustainability perceptions. This exploratory study is based on a broad sample within one company, and it created new empirical insights enhancing the understanding of the sustainability theme in international business by creating a framework for describing patterns of sustainability understandings among international business units. This framework is useable by management to describe, explore and trigger new ways of thinking and to facilitate corporate culture change through coordination and configuration of the system of values and beliefs regarding sustainability among employees in the company.

Corporate change on a shoestring budget

The author’s company cannot afford expensive initiatives to change corporate culture. The author decided instead to give appreciation to a knowledgeable employee with words of praise and an inexpensive gift. He also began taking fellow employees out for..

Intimacy at work: Playback theatre and corporate cultural change in Mercedes Benz, Brazil

On the back of a faltering economic year in 2007 and a major merger of motor car and truck dealerships, international motor car giant Mercedes Benz adopted a radical approach to re-aligning the company vision for their Brazilian business. Adopting a people-centred approach to change, they integrated participatory theatre and personal stories into a nationwide cultural development programme producing twelve performances in twelve cities. The central content of the performances came from employees who told personal stories that were then performed onstage. Each event acted as a unique expression of workplace values that would be led by employee attitudes and behaviour. Through the dialogic process, the company established a new code of conduct for customer care for the next phase of company activity. This article critiques various aspects of the programme and considers the value and limitations in the person-centred approach facilitated through theatre.

Merger dynamics

PurposeMergers and acquisitions (M&As) have drawn the attention of researchers for several decades. Many studies have investigated the factors apparently influencing the success of an M&A deal, leading to an extensive, yet extremely fragmented body of knowledge. Although the logical quest for integration has been expressed by several authors, in most cases investigations focus only on details of M&As. The aim of this paper is to offer a different way of synthesis that allows testing well‐established theories of post‐merger integration processes.Design/methodology/approachWith the help of a literature‐based system dynamics (SD) model, the paper opens up a new perspective on the organizational processes occurring during post‐merger integration. Particular emphasis is put on the investigation of capability transfer, the change of corporate culture, and the employees' perception of the integration process.FindingsThe model‐based analysis delivers explanations for the contradicting results of many empirical studies, based on the structural integration of a broad body of knowledge and the analysis of simulation runs. The paper suggests that SD models may be used as a means to achieve a more consistent conceptual integration than usual “theoretical frameworks” can provide.Research limitations/implicationsSince the model is primarily based on theoretical ideas, an empirical validation of results seems most critical. Additionally, the linkage to organizational performance measures may need additional modelling effort.Practical implicationsThe paper demonstrates the various interrelationships between organizational capabilities, culture, and employee commitment of two merging companies.Originality/valueThe paper is one of the few that strives for an integrated perspective on post‐merger phenomena.

The art and science of experiential leadership: culture at the core of process change success

PurposeTo show that: as leaders refine business performance, they are increasingly focusing on human capital performance – how leaders and teams deliver outstanding performance and productivity. Leaders who are paying practical attention to the inner aspects of behavior are often reporting strong cultural shifts in individual engagement and collaborative teamwork affecting all aspects of company performance. These personal aspects of performance can be effectively addressed using the experiential techniques and approaches common to the arts and performing arts.Design/methodology/approachThis article describes the case of Harcourt Assessment, a large education testing and publishing business, which underwent a dramatic business turnaround in 2006‐07. This article is based on analysis of the change methodology adopted by Harcourt Assessment and its consulting firm, The TAI Group, in 2006‐2007, extensive interviews of key executive participants in the engagement, and analysis of the firm's employee survey in 2007.FindingsParticipants in the turnaround of Harcourt Assessment were consistent in their assessment that the deliberate adoption of a change strategy focusing on individual motivators and collaborative group alignment using a creative, performing arts‐based approach was critical to the project's success. These evaluations were also consistent with the attitudinal changes reported in the 2007 employee satisfaction survey of views on senior team performance, teamwork and collaboration, strategy and trust.Originality/valueThe case study and findings demonstrate the measurable value of adopting a practical, disciplined approach to profound corporate culture change based on the experiential principles of the performing arts. This approach, with individual motivations and behavior at the core, can be critical to creating an aligned culture capable of delivering sustained high performance.

The Effect of Corporate Culture on Capital Structure Policy

We empirically investigate the effect of corporate culture on capital structure policy. This paper uses CEO replacement to identify change in corporate culture. We focus on firms that change their debt policy from zero leverage to positive leverage or from positive leverage to zero leverage at least once during their history. We find that the cultural change brought by new CEOs has a significant impact on the continuity of the firm’s existing debt policy. Evidence shows that firms with recent CEO replacement tend to switch their debt policy. Moreover, the magnitude and significance of the association between CEO turnovers and the subsequent debt policy changes are much stronger for cases with external CEO replacement. This documented cultural effect is not driven by firm fundamentals, endogeneity of CEO turnover, strength of corporate governance, merger and acquisition activities, or marginal tax benefits, and is not driven by the subset of firms with multiple policy changes. Furthermore, firms that never change their debt policy over their history have significantly fewer CEO turnovers than firms with policy changes, consistent with new CEOs inducing capital structure changes. Our results suggest that corporate culture exerts an important impact on capital structure policy.

설치미술의 배경과 전시디자인에 관한연구 - 국제교류 환경포스터 디자인전을 중심으로 -

경제적 생활수준 향상에 따른 예술과 디자인에 대한 사회적 욕구상승은 예술의 경제적 가치를 인식한 산업계의 경영전략과 합류하여 새로운 물길을 만들고 있다. 그 결과 사회적 수요와 공급자의 인식의 변화에 힘입은 각종 예술 및 디자인전시는 그 양적 증가와 더불어 전시방법에 있어서도 많은 변화를 보였다. 특히 최근의 전시경향은 전통적 의미의 전시관에서 뿐 만 아니라 현대 건축물이 제공하는 다양한 공간에서도 빈번하게 기획된다. 이렇게 최근의 전시는 전시 목적이외의 환경에서 열리는 까닭에 각 전시공간의 독특한 환경에 적합한 맞춤형 전시기획이 요구된다. 현대의 다양한 건축물의 내 외부 공간에서 이루어지는 최근의 전시 중에서 한 사례를 분석함으로써 전시기획에 대한 새로운 방법론을 모색하고자 한다. 연구의 이론적 근거로써 현대 상업적, 비상업적 전시의 원류가 된다고 판단되는 20세기 설치미술에 관한 역사적 배경과 이론적 근거를 고찰한 후 최근의 전시기획과 어떤 맥락에서 접점을 찾을 수 있는지를 밝혀 보았다. 본론에 예시된 사례는 2009.06.10부터 06.19까지 서울예술대학의 종합 강의동인 마동 1층 로비에서 개최 되었던 포스터디자인 전시회이다. 서울예술대학과 미국 캘리포니아 주립 노스리지대학교(California State University, Northridge)와 공동개최한 국제교류 환경포스터 디자인전은 불특정공간에서의 전시기획의 한예로 적정하다고 판단되었다. 이 전시회의 전시기획과 그 전개방법은 다양한 전시환경에서의 전시가 당면하는 문제점과 그에 대한 대안을 도출하는 과정을 보여준다. 또한 전시기획자에게는 주어진 공간에서의 전시의 기획에 있어 유연한 태도와 창의적 사고를 가지고 접근해야 한다는 점을 주지시키고 있다. Increased appetite for art and design due to improving the economic standard of living and industrial community recognized the value of art in the profitable aspect currently demands various exhibitions in various environments. These social needs and changes in corporate culture to meet the rapidly expanding opportunities for artistic exhibitions, and this modern exhibition outside of the conventional gallery requires more for designers to work with various exhibition spaces, and the opportunities are increasing further. Various types of exhibition space in the exhibition planning an unspecified environment best suited to each exhibit space has been designed to require. This comprehensive study of an environmental poster exhibition held in the Seoul Institute of the Arts, MA-block lobby during 2009.06.10-06.19 was a part of the international exchange projects between Seoul Institute of the Arts and California State University, Northridge. Planning and designing throughout the exhibition in an unspecified space for exhibition requires more creativity and flexible approaches than in the general exhibition gallery.

Corporate crime and the dysfunction of value networks

PurposeThe concept of “value network” makes clear that the mission of business corporations cannot be isolated from three basic elements: making profits, responding to customers' needs, reacting to competitors. Too often, value networks are seen as neutral factors in the way corporate crimes are committed. Value networks are usually considered as morally neutral conditioning factors, while it is not the case. The purpose of this paper is to explain how value networks should be closely linked to any crime prevention system.Design/methodology/approachChristensen's notion of value networks will be used in order to see if corporate crimes constitute a dysfunction of value networks. The most important “traditional” antecedents of corporate crime will be analyzed.FindingsBoth financial performance and growth rate are reflecting a deep concern for profitability. The level of market concentration not only reveals the structure of the market itself but also the way competitors react one to each other (particularly, through mergers and acquisitions). In both cases, what is unveiled is the capacity of value networks to enhance ethical as well as unethical practices. The way competitors react one to another, as component of the industry concentration, actually reveals how value networks are morally unsettled when such reaction could influence organizations to commit corporate crimes.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper is to reveal how changing corporate culture could redefine the moral boundaries of value networks within the organization.

Creating a culture of innovation at Portugal Telecom

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe an implementation process that can aid companies in improving organizational innovation.Design/methodology/approachThe case describes an approach to boost the problem solving and innovation culture beyond the confines of the new product development group.FindingsThe paper provides an application of the organizational development to innovation. The process may not be applicable to all businesses but Portugal Telecom (PT) accomplished an extensive change in corporate culture. By carefully designing an innovation program with valuable incentives made more valuable by peer pressure, PT was able to harness the “wisdom of the crowds,” the knowledge that resides in employees.Their results can be valuable to other companies.Research limitations/implicationsAs in all case studies, the specific conditions found in one organization may not be found more generally in others. Readers are cautioned that the conclusions drawn in the case may have limited applicability.Practical implicationsThe case depicts the process that a firm can use to increase the level of innovation.Originality/valueThe paper describes how an organizational development strategy, focusing on harnessing the efforts of employees can transform a company and its products.

Team-Based Incentive Compensation is Vital to Successful Operating Turnarounds

In recent months, greedy executives have given pay-based bonuses a bad rap. That’s unfortunate, because incentive compensation is a vital, essential, and frequently overlooked tool when it comes to turning around a poorly performing company. This is especially true when the focus is on employee incentive compensation. If substantial improvement is to be made to a struggling company’s EBITDA, a seismic change in the entire corporate culture must take place, starting at the grassroots level where employees work. A turnaround plan that incorporates team-based performance and results-based incentive bonuses for managers and employees can create amazing results in a financially challenged company. <b>TOPICS:</b>Private equity, manager selection, financial crises and financial market history, technical analysis

Communication and Human Resource Management and its Compliance with Culture

According to the conception of personnel management, human resource management requires efficient use of human resources. This is ensured by various activities directed towards the area of management. Among these activities there are for example the recruitment of employees, development, strengthening of relations, mutual inspiring, implementation of correct working processes and systems used by individuals or groups. Keywords—Communication, company, customers, employees, human resource management, manager, organizational structure, personnel management, strategic management. I. INTRODUCTION ERSONNEL management deals with the development of human resources and performs the role of a multiplier of one of the inputs that the company needs to meet its goals. The main purpose of human resource management therefore lies in the preparation of job descriptions and the establishment of working conditions suitable for the development of human resource potential. This is a kind of support which takes into consideration changes in corporate culture and philosophy and encourages colleagues to be more committed to company goals and strategies and to identify with company philosophy. Moreover, strong corporate culture and correctly defined strategy significantly contribute to integration, co-ordination and motivation of individual employees, their initiative and improvement of quality of work. It strengthens their loyalty and responsibility with respect to their company. It is not an easy task to set visions and goals that would match the goals and expectations of employees and meet the expectations of customers. Personnel management respects an approach in which market orientation starts and ends with people and employees can listen to market signals identify trends, wishes of customers as well as their dissatisfaction and complaints. For the information to reach the company management, it must be communicated. At the same time, the management must be willing and competent to listen to the information and requested changes and to interpret them. This requires a qualified employee accepting the corporate culture, i.e. correct decisions of personnel management.

Quality management in logistics services: A comparison of practices between manufacturing companies and logistics firms in Australia

This study investigates the status of quality management practices in logistics and compares the extent of quality practices between manufacturing and logistics companies in Australia. Using a sample drawn from two published databases, Australia's Top 500 companies and firms enlisted as members of Logistics Association Australia, the study examines the extent to which quality management practices are adopted, the impediments to implementation of quality improvement processes, the quality management tools employed, and the methods used to measure customer expectations in manufacturing companies and logistics firms. The results show that the most important component that identifies quality in logistics is ‘on-time delivery’. The primary obstacles for not implementing quality programs in logistics firms are ‘changing corporate culture’ and ‘training and education of employees’, whereas, ‘establishing employee ownership of the quality process’ and ‘changing the corporate culture’ are the two most significant impediments for the manufacturing companies. Overall, the findings indicate that the application of quality practices in manufacturing companies is more extensive than the logistics firms. The Pearson chi-square test is conducted to find the significant differences between the two categories of organisations.

Corporate Governance Reforms in Malaysia: the key leading players' perspectives

This paper focuses on the corporate governance reforms in Malaysia since the 1997/1998 Asian financial crisis. Drawing upon ten in‐depth semi‐structured interviews conducted with leading players who were highly involved in Malaysia's corporate governance development, together with a review of the literature in this area, the paper offers evidence on the meaning of corporate governance in the Malaysian context, the factors behind the recent reforms and views on the appropriate corporate governance system for Malaysia. While it is shown that Malaysia's corporate governance reforms has modelled on the Anglo‐American systems to a large extent, the majority of the interviewees placed greater emphasis on the social aspect of corporate governance in contrast to the traditional notion of shareholder accountability. The main concern raised in the paper is that without changes in the previous problematic corporate culture, the intended purpose of the recent corporate governance reforms will unlikely to be achieved.

Fantasies of Leadership: Identity Work

This article explores middle managerial talk and practice connected to expectations of leadership in a planned corporate cultural change programme. Here we explore how a middle manager positions him or herself in relation to contemporary discourse on leadership. We discuss how managerial claims of leadership in practice seem inconsistent with the actual practice. Based on these findings we suggest that leadership ideas could be seen as a kind of fantasy related to identity work, rather than actual practice. We investigate this fantasy in terms of its various sources and relate the fantasy construction to management education and to the planned cultural change in particular.

The impact of a management training program for university administrators

PurposeManagement training is perceived as one of the most effective ways to improve management skill, increase productivity and change corporate culture. To reap these perceived benefits, the University of Ottawa has delivered, since 2001, a Management Leadership Program (MLP) to better hone the core competencies of senior directors of administrative units at the University. The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of this program on the participants in terms of learning, behavioural change and achievement of core competencies.Design/methodology/approachSemi‐structured in‐depth interviews.FindingsThe study found that informal learning strategies are the primary means by which University directors develop core competencies. However, the MLP provides a forum for informal learning through greater self‐awareness, the establishment and maintenance of social networks or social capital, for discussion and problem solving by senior managers and for the development and reinforcement of skills.Research limitations/implicationsGiven the time that has passed since the first training modules were completed, it is likely that internal validity will be affected by maturation. Further, because the number of subjects is small, semi‐structured interviews were used to elicit rich, highly informative data. Using multiple coders enhanced reliability.Originality/valueThis article provides insights into the particular development needs of university administrators and emphasizes the role of informal learning in management development and the importance of formal training as a forum for learning to occur. Also, the article highlights the critical role of social capital in management effectiveness

Management Control Practice and Culture at Enron: The Untold Story

At the time of its demise in 2001, the Enron Corporation could boast of its comprehensive, state-of-the-art management control and governance systems. Yet these controls were rendered ineffective in the company's last few years. This paper identifies the radical change in Enron's corporate culture that took place from the Lay-Kinder era (1986-1996) to the Lay-Skilling era (1997-2001). It argues that this was a major cause of neutralizing these controls, which in turn proved to be a major factor in Enron's fall into bankruptcy. The paper draws on Schein's (1993; 1996; 2004) framework of cultural practice to develop our analysis. Thus, it supports Simon's (1990; 1995) urging to more meaningfully include corporate culture in management control research studies. The paper contributes to the literature by drawing attention to the rich but untold story of Enron's governance and control and also extends the research linking corporate culture and control systems.