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Corporate Culture (corporate + culture)
Selected AbstractsOrganizational power and culture shift at Ducati motorcyclesGLOBAL BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE, Issue 1 2007Maktoba Omar In this research into corporate culture at Ducati Motorcycles, Spa., the qualitative approach was used based on Johnson's theory of corporate culture, relying on structured and unstructured interviews followed up by participant observation. Corporate culture was used as a strategic tool in changing the Ducati corporate mindset. The results show that the recognition and alteration of corporate culture played a large role in the successful implementation of a new corporate strategy. The Ducati strategic initiative focused on repositioning Ducati from a traditional Italian motorcycle manufacturer to a global marketing company. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Bureaucratization of environmental management and corporate greening: an empirical analysis of large manufacturing firms in JapanCORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2005Takuya Takahashi Abstract We have used qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to empirically investigate relationships between the organizational structure of environmental management within large Japanese manufacturing firms and their corporate greening processes. Three dimensions of bureaucratization (i.e., formalization, centralization and professionalization) were chosen as the independent variables. Measures of corporate greening, such as integration of environmental responses into general management, introduction of green technologies and transformation of corporate culture, were chosen as the dependent variables. Our sample consists of 193 firms obtained in a survey conducted in 1997. We find that bureaucratization of environmental management generally has a positive relationship with corporate greening and that the presence of one or two of the three dimensions of bureaucratization may be sufficient for corporate greening to implement certain greening measures. The relationship between bureaucratization and ISO 14001 environmental management systems (ISO 14001 EMSs) and limitations of EMSs are also discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Organizational power and culture shift at Ducati motorcyclesGLOBAL BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE, Issue 1 2007Maktoba Omar In this research into corporate culture at Ducati Motorcycles, Spa., the qualitative approach was used based on Johnson's theory of corporate culture, relying on structured and unstructured interviews followed up by participant observation. Corporate culture was used as a strategic tool in changing the Ducati corporate mindset. The results show that the recognition and alteration of corporate culture played a large role in the successful implementation of a new corporate strategy. The Ducati strategic initiative focused on repositioning Ducati from a traditional Italian motorcycle manufacturer to a global marketing company. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] A cultural revolution transforms ACUITY as an employer and a business partnerGLOBAL BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE, Issue 2 2005John Signer It became clear by the late 1990s that ACUITY's approach to relationships with its employees and agents, a product of the insurance company's 70-year history, was untenable going forward. ACUITY committed to a complete change of its corporate culture. The five-year effort led to many improvements that have had positive, tangible results for both employee and agency relationships, as well as for overall operations, culminating in ACUITY's selection as best mid-sized employer in America and the best company for agents to do business with. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] The Relationship between Internal Audit and Senior Management: A Qualitative Analysis of Expectations and PerceptionsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AUDITING, Issue 3 2006Gerrit Sarens This study, based upon Belgian case studies, provides a qualitative assessment of the relationship between internal audit and senior management, analysing the expectations and perceptions of both parties. We found that senior management's expectations have a significant influence on internal audit and that internal audit, generally, is able to meet most of these expectations. Senior management wants internal audit to compensate for the loss of control they experience resulting from increased organisational complexity. Senior management expects internal audit to fulfil a supporting role in the monitoring and improvement of risk management and internal control, and wants them to monitor the corporate culture. Furthermore, they expect internal audit to be a training ground for future managers. On the other hand, internal audit expects senior management to take the first steps in the formalisation of the risk management system. They are looking for senior management support, as this benefits their overall acceptance. [source] A review of the Chinese cultural influences on Chinese enterprise managementINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 4 2000Kit-Fai Pun In order to create and sustain competitive advantage, a company should not only develop technologies to create products and processes that meet customer needs, but also stimulate a corporate culture that commits to continuous performance improvement. Managing corporate culture is one of a number of important factors that make for organizational change and business success. This paper reviews the cultural roots and identifies the characteristics of Chinese cultural values and management. A comparative analysis of the differences between Anglo-American and Chinese cultures is made. The cultural influences on Chinese management systems are then elaborated with reference to enterprise management in Mainland China and Hong Kong. With unique cultural heritage, collective orientation has a pervasive influence on the mode of Chinese management and organization. The prevailing Chinese culture values stress largely the paternalistic approach to management, acceptance of hierarchy and the importance of relationships. Today's Chinese enterprises need to determine changes in practice or value or both aspects of corporate culture in order to facilitate organizational change and maintain a competitive edge over their rivals. The paper also discusses the links of cultural values to employee involvement (EI) and total quality management (TQM), and initiates a need to manage cultural influences on EI/TQM practices to improve organizational performance in Chinese enterprises. [source] Neosecularization and Craft Versus Professional Religious Authority in a Nonreligious OrganizationJOURNAL FOR THE SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION, Issue 3 2003Don Grant At the same time many religious organizations are apparently becoming more internally secularized, other nonreligious organizations appear to be going through a countervailing process of "sacralization" (Demerath). This study explores this development through a case study of a state university hospital that attempted to created a more "holistic" corporate culture. Extending research on the declining scope of religious authority (Chaves) and professional systems (Abbott), this study suggests that secular settings may be fertile ground for craft versions of religious authority to develop. Implications of the latter during an age when authority structures and caring tasks in general are being downsized and devolved are discussed. [source] Is there a ,New Managerial Work'?JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 7 2006A Comparison with Henry Mintzberg's Classic Study 30 Years Later abstract This comparative study of top executives' work aimed at examining the stability of top managerial behaviour reveals a relatively different pattern of behaviour compared with the study by Henry Mintzberg. The main differences are a much larger workload, a contact pattern to a larger degree oriented towards subordinates in group-settings, a greater emphasis on giving information, and less preoccupation with administrative work. One important finding is that fragmentation of time , in previous studies highlighted as a central tenet of managerial work , was not as prevalent in the new study. The different results can be attributed (with caution) to the impact of the management discourse about leadership and corporate culture, and to factors such as organizational structure and geographical dispersion of companies. However, there are also significant similarities between the two studies which indicate that claims of the emergence of a radically different managerial work are much exaggerated. Instead the empirical data shows that new work-practices are combined with older practices, both in a complex and context-specific ways. Therefore, there is a need for better integration between theoretical development and empirical investigations in this field of inquiry. [source] Co-evolution of user and organizational interfaces: A longitudinal case study of WWW dissemination of national statisticsJOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 14 2002Gary Marchionini The data systems, policies and procedures, corporate culture, and public face of an agency or institution make up its organizational interface. This case study describes how user interfaces for the Bureau of Labor Statistics web site evolved over a 5-year period along with the larger organizational interface and how this co-evolution has influenced the institution itself. Interviews with BLS staff and transaction log analysis are the foci in this analysis that also included user information-seeking studies and user interface prototyping and testing. The results are organized into a model of organizational interface change and related to the information life cycle. [source] Disciplining Investment Bankers, Disciplining the Economy: Wall Street's Institutional Culture of Crisis and the Downsizing of "Corporate America"AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST, Issue 2 2009Karen Ho ABSTRACT Countering the "mystique" of finance as abstract and disembedding, in this article I approach the financial market from the site of investment banking corporate culture to concretize large-scale processes and access its effects in the world. By investigating Wall Street investment banks' role in two pivotal socioeconomic phenomena,rampant downsizings throughout "corporate America" and the financial bubble and bust of 2001,I explore whether financial crises and corporate downsizing can be better understood via Wall Street's quotidian practices. I draw theoretical inspiration from the figure of the downsized investment banker, who embodies and connects Wall Street's rationales for downsizing as well as "the effects." Although shareholder value and externalized market justifications are Wall Street's models for understanding downsizing, I move beyond these dominant assumptions, demonstrating that bankers' own work experiences, market temporalities, and organizational culture serve as an incisive model to explain Wall Street's role in downsizing and financial crisis. [Keywords: Wall Street, corporate downsizing, financial markets, shareholder value, organizational culture] [source] Skills and selves in the new workplaceAMERICAN ETHNOLOGIST, Issue 2 2008BONNIE URCIUOLI ABSTRACT In the neoliberal imaginary of contemporary capitalism, workers' employment value depends on their skills. Skills terms, especially communication, team, and leadership, formulate aspects of personhood and modes of sociality as productive labor. The key semiotic properties of skills terms are strategic indexicality (expressing alignment with corporate values) and denotational indeterminacy (knowledge and practices referred to as skills are quite disparate). Yet all skills are assumed to be commensurable and readily available for inculcation into workers. Drawing from Internet sites marketing skills-related services, I explore the semiotic properties of discourses that facilitate skills' commensurability and commodification. [neoliberalism, discourse analysis, corporate culture, labor history, communication, commodification] [source] Innovative versus incremental new business services: Different keys for achieving successTHE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2001Ulrike de Brentani In companies where new product development plays an important strategic role, managers necessarily contend with a portfolio of projects that range from high technology, new-to-the-world, innovations to relatively simple improvements, adaptations, line extensions, or imitations of competitive offerings. Recent studies indicate that achieving successful outcomes for projects that differ radically in terms of innovativeness requires that firms adjust their NPD practices in line with the type of new product project they are developing. Based on a large-scale survey of managers knowledgeable about new product development in their firm, this study focuses on new business-to-business service projects in an attempt to gain insights about the influence of product innovativeness on the factors that are linked to new service success and failure. The research results indicate that there are a small number of "global" success factors which appear to govern the outcome of new service ventures, regardless of their degree of newness. These include: ensuring an excellent customer/need fit, involving expert front line personnel in creating the new service and in helping customers appreciate its distinctiveness and benefits, and implementing a formal and planned launch program for the new service offering. Several other factors, however, were found to play a more distinctive role in the outcome of new service ventures, depending on how really new or innovative the new service was. For low innovativeness new business services, the results suggest that managers can enhance performance by: leveraging the firm's unique competencies, experiences and reputation through the introduction of new services that have a strong corporate fit; installing a formal "stage-gate" new service development system, particularly at the front-end and during the design stage of the development process; and ensuring that efforts to differentiate services from competitive or past offerings do not lead to high cost or unnecessarily complex service offerings. For new-to-the-world business services, the primary distinguishing feature impacting performance is the corporate culture of the firm: one that encourages entrepreneurship and creativity, and that actively involves senior managers in the role of visionary and mentor for new service development. In addition, good market potential and marketing tactics that offset the intangibility of "really new" service concepts appear to have a positive performance effect. [source] Mutual, non-profit or public interest company?ANNALS OF PUBLIC AND COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS, Issue 2 2002An evaluation of options for the ownership, control of water utilities The purpose of this paper is to evaluate various organizational models for the ownership and control of natural monopolies , specifically the infrastructure of water and sewage provision in England and Wales. First, it summarizes recent discussion of who should own water assets in Britain. The paper notes the opportunity that has arisen for increased consumer involvement, and examines the relative merits of three models that have been suggested as alternatives: a non-profit trust or company, a public interest company, and a consumer mutual. Five criteria are suggested for evaluating the merits of each type: its ability to safeguard the interests of the most important stakeholder, the consumer; avoid the necessity for a heavy regulatory regime; incentivize management to manage efficiently but without ,producer capture'; raise capital relatively cheaply; and resist pressures to demutualize. The paper agrees with the recent paper in this Journal by Morse (2000) that, in theory, the consumer mutual has advantages. It draws on Hansmann's work that suggests consumer ownership of water would be less costly than investor-ownership, providing there are no large conflicts of interest between different types of consumer. Hansmann's thesis is expanded to consider the likely benefits from wider member participation, and the hidden costs of not taking members into account. It then tests out whether customers would be motivated in practice to be active members, introducing a theoretical model of what motivates members of co-operatives and mutuals to participate. The conclusions are that provided managers and board members are committed to encouraging member participation, the consumer mutual model would work well. It would need only light regulation, would avoid producer capture, and would be able to raise capital fairly easily, both from money markets and from members. It would need legislation to prevent it from being demutualized at some time in the future. However, if a participatory corporate culture cannot be guaranteed, or if there is a risk of decline of participation over time, other options such as a non-profit trust or a public interest company would be less risky. [source] Trust in life assuranceECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2001David Simpson Pervasive regulation has diminished the importance of trust within corporate cultures by making every company appear equally trustworthy in the eyes of the uninformed consumer. In an unregulated global market corporate trustworthiness may once again become a critical competitive asset. [source] Human Resource Management Practices at Subsidiaries of Multinational Corporations and Local Firms in TaiwanINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SELECTION AND ASSESSMENT, Issue 1 2000Tung-Chun Huang Global competition has forced corporations to invest overseas in order to gain or maintain competitive advantage. International investment entails not only the movement of capital, machinery, and products but also the spread of corporate cultures to host countries. This is so because, to maintain managerial consistency among its branches, a multinational corporation (MNC) will attempt to transplant its management system to any country in which it invests.However, it is also recognized that cultural contexts differ markedly among nations, and that multinational firms must adjust their management practices to accommodate specific conditions in host-country environments. [source] Increasing Learning and Time Efficiency in Interorganizational New Product Development Teams,THE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 4 2010Ludwig Bstieler Despite the growing popularity of new product development across organizational boundaries, the processes, mechanisms, or dynamics that leverage performance in interorganizational (I-O) product development teams are not well understood. Such teams are staffed with individuals drawn from the partnering firms and are relied on to develop successful new products while at the same time enhancing mutual learning and reducing development time. However, these collaborations can encounter difficulties when partners from different corporate cultures and thought worlds must coordinate and depend on one another and often lead to disappointing performance. To facilitate collaboration, the creation of a safe, supportive, challenging, and engaging environment is particularly important for enabling productive collaborative I-O teamwork and is essential for learning and time efficient product development. This research develops and tests a model of proposed factors to increase both learning and time efficiency on I-O new product teams. It is argued that specific behaviors (caring), beliefs (psychological safety), task-related processes (shared problem solving), and governance mechanisms (clear management direction) create a positive climate that increases learning and time efficiency on I-O teams. Results of an empirical study of 50 collaborative new product development projects indicate that (1) shared problem solving and caring behavior support both learning and time efficiency on I-O teams, (2) team psychological safety is positively related to learning, (3) management direction is positively associated with time efficiency, and (4) shared problem solving is more strongly related to both performance dimensions than are the other factors. The factors supporting time efficiency are slightly different from those that foster learning. The relative importance of these factors also differs considerably for both performance aspects. Overall, this study contributes to a better understanding of the factors that facilitate a favorable environment for productive collaboration on I-O teams, which go beyond contracts or top-management supervision. Establishing such an environment can help to balance management concerns and promote the success of I-O teams. The significance of the results is elevated by the fragility of collaborative ventures and their potential for failure, when firms with different organizational cultures, thought worlds, objectives, and intentions increasingly decide to work across organizational boundaries for the development of new products. [source] The role of business ethics: where next?BUSINESS ETHICS: A EUROPEAN REVIEW, Issue 4 2001Is there a role for academics? In his address to the conference Norman Bowie contrasted the business ethics climate in the US with that of the UK. He highlighted the adversarial nature of US corporate cultures and the heavy emphasis on compliance-based programs, and contrasted this with the more collaborative relationships in the UK , and in Europe generally , which lead to partnerships with NGOs as a way to resolve ethical issues. However, the growing insistence that business ethics should pay is common to both business environments. Professor Bowie raised two further issues of concern. One was the increasing professionalisation of the business ethics ,business', and the other was the reluctance of students to opt for business ethics courses. Taking these factors together suggests that the role of academics in business ethics is shrinking fast. [source] City Tour Guides: Urban Alchemists at WorkCITY & COMMUNITY, Issue 2 2010Jonathan R. Wynn Urban sociology, often and quite reasonably, emphasizes the effects of large-scale and corporate cultures of cities and yet, at the smaller scale, there is a diverse and complex set of practices that reinvigorate the urban landscape. By pairing ethnographic fieldnotes with interviews, this paper offers a limited rejoinder to these narratives, evincing the lived interactions of one set of characters that reenchants cities. For the purposes of this article, walking tour guides serve as examples of "urban alchemists," and three of their practices are advanced for discussion: their use of myths and revelatory stories to uproot banal visions of the city; their aim to incorporate chance and serendipity into their interactions; and their attempts to transform their participants into "better" urban dwellers. Los Guías Turísticos en las Ciudades: "alquimistas urbanos" trabajando ( Jonathan R. Wynn) Resumen En sociología urbana a menudo se enfatizan (y con razón), los efectos de la cultura corporativa y a gran escala en las ciudades. Sin embargo, hay un conjunto diverso y complejo de prácticas a pequeña escala que también contribuye a revitalizar el entorno urbano. Combinando notas etnográficas y entrevistas realizadas en el área del turismo urbano, este ensayo ofrece una breve respuesta a estas narrativas, mostrando las interacciones de un grupo de personajes que re-encanta las ciudades. Para los fines de este artículo, las y los guías de visitas turísticas de a pie constituyen ejemplos de los llamados "alquimistas urbanos" y se presentan tres de sus prácticas para la discusión: su uso de los mitos y de las historias que revelan el verdadero carácter de la ciudad para eliminar las visiones banales de la misma, su meta de incorporar el azar y los descubrimientos casuales en sus interacciones y sus esfuerzos para transformar a sus participantes en "mejores" habitantes de la ciudad. [source] | |||||||||||||