1. From the case study I believe that Verizon's current culture combines elements of three different culture types. There are examples of the clan, hierarchical, and adhocracy culture types.
The first cultural type, clan, has a heavy emphasis on employee development. According to the text, clan organizations “Clan organizations devote considerable resources to hiring and developing their employees” (Kinicki, 2013, p. 230). Although the case study states that Verizon's training budget remained relatively flat are multiple examples in the case study that show Verizon placing heavy emphasis on employee development in order to reach their organizations goals. The first example of this is the Leading for Shareholder Value (LSV) training program. LSV is a 1.5 day training seminar that teaches senior leadership the tools to increase shareholder value (Kinicki, 2013, p. 258). The second example is the Verizon Leadership Development Program (VLDP). This program was developed to attract and retain high level talent as they graduate from college (Kinicki, 2013, p. 258). The VLDP involves recruiting from Verizon college internships for a 2-3 year job rotation training program.
These two training programs lead into the second cultural element that I observed. The hierarchical culture …show more content…
believe that Verizon is operating as a mechanistic organization. Kinicki (2013) defines this as an organization in which “authority is centralized, tasks and rules are clearly specified, and employees are closely supervised” (p. 253). A mechanistic organization would be more bureaucratic. I feel this is an apt description of Verizon based on this case study. Much of Verizon's culture is based on measuring and controlling their performance through the use of reviews, performance agreements, and KPI's. The different methods that have been described to increase shareholder value seems to lend itself to an organization that engages in top down communication and more centralized
The first cultural type, clan, has a heavy emphasis on employee development. According to the text, clan organizations “Clan organizations devote considerable resources to hiring and developing their employees” (Kinicki, 2013, p. 230). Although the case study states that Verizon's training budget remained relatively flat are multiple examples in the case study that show Verizon placing heavy emphasis on employee development in order to reach their organizations goals. The first example of this is the Leading for Shareholder Value (LSV) training program. LSV is a 1.5 day training seminar that teaches senior leadership the tools to increase shareholder value (Kinicki, 2013, p. 258). The second example is the Verizon Leadership Development Program (VLDP). This program was developed to attract and retain high level talent as they graduate from college (Kinicki, 2013, p. 258). The VLDP involves recruiting from Verizon college internships for a 2-3 year job rotation training program.
These two training programs lead into the second cultural element that I observed. The hierarchical culture …show more content…
believe that Verizon is operating as a mechanistic organization. Kinicki (2013) defines this as an organization in which “authority is centralized, tasks and rules are clearly specified, and employees are closely supervised” (p. 253). A mechanistic organization would be more bureaucratic. I feel this is an apt description of Verizon based on this case study. Much of Verizon's culture is based on measuring and controlling their performance through the use of reviews, performance agreements, and KPI's. The different methods that have been described to increase shareholder value seems to lend itself to an organization that engages in top down communication and more centralized