Organizations must manage several components in their attempts to be effective and profitable. One such component is that of organizational culture. Culture, in terms of businesses, consists of the values and accepted norms that dictate employees’ behavior and interactions with one another and other stakeholders, both internal and external (Jones, 2012, p. 179). The culture of an organization consists of two types of values, terminal and instrumental (p. 179). Terminal values are those outcomes that an organization strives to achieve (p. 179), such as excellent customer service or innovative product offerings. Instrumental values are those behaviors an organization wishes to cultivate in order to reach their terminal values (p. 180). For example,
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While Southwest Airlines culture reinforced values that led to creativity, innovation, and collaboration between employees, True Value’s culture only ostracized employees and bred contempt. Southwest has enjoyed increasing profits and market share in the airline industry (p. 205), brought on by the dedication of its employees. True Value has suffered from customer disapproval caused by the high turnover rate of employees fleeing the destructive company culture (p. 205). While Southwest kept a flat and decentralized organization, True Value centralized authority with the CEO. Southwest Airlines allowed employees to be creative in solving customer issues, as they embraced a customer-centric culture (Kokemuller, n.d.). True Value required that employees follow strict protocols centered on frugality above all else, leading to employee unrest and detachment from the organization, the CEO, and its values. Southwest airlines used incentives, both monetary and non-monetary, to help incentivize employees’ commitment to excellent customer service. True Value chose to keep these incentives as small as possible, if not completely absent, in its attempts to be economical. Incentives play a significant role in the shaping of organizational culture, as the “best predictor of what people will do is what they are incentivized to do” (Watkins, …show more content…
may wish to replicate the successful culture of Southwest Airlines, it would be impossible to do so completely; a large component of organization culture rests on the personal characteristics of the individuals in the workforce. It would be impossible for Value Line Inc. to create an identical workforce, and therefore an identical corporate culture, to that of Southwest Airlines. However, Value Line can take several steps to manage and change its organizational culture, to include bringing in new leaders, changing its core values and the rules/procedures that dictate appropriate workplace behavior, and altering the property rights it uses to incentivize workforce alignment with these new values. While the process of changing organizational culture is not rapid or easy, by making these changes and committing the process of cultural change, Value Line will be on the right path to creating a corporate culture more similar to that of Southwest
While Southwest Airlines culture reinforced values that led to creativity, innovation, and collaboration between employees, True Value’s culture only ostracized employees and bred contempt. Southwest has enjoyed increasing profits and market share in the airline industry (p. 205), brought on by the dedication of its employees. True Value has suffered from customer disapproval caused by the high turnover rate of employees fleeing the destructive company culture (p. 205). While Southwest kept a flat and decentralized organization, True Value centralized authority with the CEO. Southwest Airlines allowed employees to be creative in solving customer issues, as they embraced a customer-centric culture (Kokemuller, n.d.). True Value required that employees follow strict protocols centered on frugality above all else, leading to employee unrest and detachment from the organization, the CEO, and its values. Southwest airlines used incentives, both monetary and non-monetary, to help incentivize employees’ commitment to excellent customer service. True Value chose to keep these incentives as small as possible, if not completely absent, in its attempts to be economical. Incentives play a significant role in the shaping of organizational culture, as the “best predictor of what people will do is what they are incentivized to do” (Watkins, …show more content…
may wish to replicate the successful culture of Southwest Airlines, it would be impossible to do so completely; a large component of organization culture rests on the personal characteristics of the individuals in the workforce. It would be impossible for Value Line Inc. to create an identical workforce, and therefore an identical corporate culture, to that of Southwest Airlines. However, Value Line can take several steps to manage and change its organizational culture, to include bringing in new leaders, changing its core values and the rules/procedures that dictate appropriate workplace behavior, and altering the property rights it uses to incentivize workforce alignment with these new values. While the process of changing organizational culture is not rapid or easy, by making these changes and committing the process of cultural change, Value Line will be on the right path to creating a corporate culture more similar to that of Southwest