Differences In Corporate Culture Research Articles

Value creation and challenges of an international transaction The DaimlerChrysler merger

Globalization is a buzzword in international finance and economics. On May 6, 1998, in London, Daimler-Benz of Germany signed a merger agreement with Chrysler Corporation of the United States. Using the DaimlerChrysler merger as a case study, this paper focuses on value creation and analysis of various issues in an international transaction. The market responded very favorably to this merger, and we review the potential sources of value creation in the merger as well as outline the steps undertaken to consummate the merger. We also consider an interesting question: Can a company truly be “global”? Differences in corporate culture, compensation policies, ownership structure, and the legal environment pose significant challenges to all mergers but especially international business combinations. Important post-merger events, such as the Standard & Poor's decision not to include DaimlerChrysler in the S&P500 Index and the clash of corporate cultures and compensation schemes, have presented major roadblocks to it becoming a truly global company.

Communication patterns in distributed work groups: a network analysis

Many of today's telecommuters are knowledge workers who require substantial communications to perform their jobs. The research presented investigates the nature of communication links between individuals in two work groups comprised of both telecommuters and nontelecommuters. Communication network analysis is used to map the communications in the groups and identify blocks of individuals. Blocks are groups of individuals with high levels of communication linkages among them. Work setting, gender, job type, tenure, and number of telecommuting days are investigated as potential factors in determining individuals' membership in blocks. There appears to be a tendency for telecommuters to communicate more with other telecommuters as well as for females to communicate more with one another. However, only job type was statistically related to block membership. These results indicate that there is a limited impact of telecommuting on the communication structure of work groups, which should reduce potential concerns of telecommuters about being left out of the office network. They should also reduce managers' concerns about having knowledge transfer and assimilation of corporate culture differences between telecommuting and nontelecommuting employees.

Measures of Performance in UK International Alliances

This study examines measures of performance for a sample of UK international alliances. The paper builds on previous studies in comparing objective and subjective measures of performance and examining the influence of national culture on performance evaluation, but it goes beyond them by examining in detail the ways in which measures of performance are affected by differences in perception arising from the parent companies. Corporate culture is also included with national culture as a key determinant in the evaluation of performance. The paper also reports on new work on the differences in subjective performance evaluation between organizational modes of alliances and develops this in the context of alliance termination, and perceptions of differences in national culture and corporate culture.

Managing cooperative research and development: partner selection and contract design

AbstractThis paper explores the influence of partner selection and the design of contracts and agreements on the chances for a collaborative R&D venture to ‘succeed’. It is based on questionnaire data regarding 49 such ventures undertaken by companies based in four Nordic countries. The age distribution of the sample is taken into account through use of statistical event history analysis, testing hypotheses regarding the determinants of the hazard rate. The results show that prior contacts with prospective partners improve the chances that a cooperation will succeed. Such contacts help prevent difficulties due to differences in corporate culture, inadequate technical capabilities, incongruous strategic intentions, etc. The analysis also suggests that contracts and agreements should avoid detailed specifications of the procedures to be followed during implementation. Such stipulations create problems by reducing the flexibility required in inherently uncertain R&D collaborations. Granting relative resource self‐sufficiency and managerial autonomy to the venture organisation improves its chances of success.

The Evolution of Workplace Family Policy Research

This article integrates and analyzes research on workplace family policy and suggests areas for further inquiry. It highlights salient themes such as corporate culture, gender and class differences regarding support for policies, and the role of government. A theoretical framework for understanding barriers to progressive family policies in the workplace is articulated that identifies competing social, cultural, and psychological forces. Thus the article delineates factors that support and circumvent creation and successful implementation of workfamily policies. In so doing, it specifies reasons for employer and employee resistance to progressive gender roles. Although future research might elaborate more systematically the relative tenacity of and intersections between various barriers to progressive policy, it also needs to evaluate on a larger scale and with greater precision the costs and benefits of traditional versus progressive programs. These and other issues figure prominently in a research agenda for the 1990s.

Differences in Corporate Cultures and their Relationship to Organisational Effectiveness

Numerous examples exist of business strategies that succeeded or failed as a function of corporate culture, making this an increasingly important dimension in the management of organisations. What corporate culture really consists of is not immediately obvious, so the concept is, first, defined and how the cultures are created is then discussed. The concept is, next, viewed with respect to a variety of dimensions, in order to identify and classify the cultures that develop in a corporation, followed by a description of how they contribute to organisational effectiveness. Finally, culture classification and cultural effectiveness are integrated.