Tech Organizational Development and Management of Samsung - Research Paper Example

 Tech Organizational Development and Management of Samsung Chapter 4 1. Discuss the role of culture in the organization development of (Samsung company) Recognize the important of corporate culture in organization development. Corporate culture is a term that has been gaining importance since the last years as it greatly contributes towards the organizational development of an organization if managed properly. Corporate culture ‘includes the shared values, beliefs, and behaviors formed by the members of an organization over time’ (Brown, 2006). This includes both the attitude of the managers as well as the outside controls such as organizational structure, role of the employees etc. The corporate culture of Samsung is one that is creative given the fast developing world of technology. The electronics industry is a rapidly developing industry and within this industry, new products are constantly making older products obsolete. For example, the 12.1 mega pixel camera replaces that 14.2 mega pixel camera in just a few months, Since Samsung belongs to the category of electronics, it needs an organizational culture that quickly adapts to change. Therefore in order to keep up with the changing external environment, Samsung Electronics has developed a flexible organizational culture where employees have the power to choose their own work place. Employees are required to positively contribute to the organization and it does not matter from where they operate or when they operate. It is on account of this culture that Samsung Electronics is considered to the leading company within the electronics industry. It has been able to launch innovative products such as ‘eyeCan’ in 2012 for disabled people. The company has also been able to successfully implement its Greenhouse Gas (GHG) program that has made its product more environmentally sustainable (Samsung Electronics, 2012). Identify key assessing culture. There are different approaches to identify the culture within an organization. One of the most widely used cultural analytical tools is the OCAI. The OCAI assesses the culture of the organization through six dimensions namely, the dominant characters in the organization; the leadership approach within the organization; the management of the employees; the organizational cohesiveness; clear vision and reward program (Cameron and Quinn, 2011). The OCAI here would be used to analyze the culture of Samsung Electronics. The dominant characteristic of the organization is constant innovation. The company takes challenges very seriously and always comes up with innovative products that put the competition on the edge. The leadership approach within the organization, however, is still autocratic to a great extent. While designers and engineers within the organization are allowed to create products at their own liberty, they still have to answer to a higher figure. This figure is responsible to taking the major decisions; the management decides which product to keep and which to trash. The creators in this case have little or no say. The employees have been given quite a lot of freedom. They can decide their own work-life balance; choose their own timing, their own projects etc. The management in this case, has allowed power in the hands of the employees. Decisions, however, are still taken by the upper management. Cohesiveness within the organization is low. This is because employees do not form bonds as they have their own projects to look after and the company does not promote a culture of knowledge sharing and communication. The organization has a clear vision. It wants to lead the electronic market with innovative and customer oriented products. In this regard, the company is doing quite well. Describe the type of culture that would lead to effective organization development. The culture that would lead to effective organizational development is one where there is a knowledge sharing. Knowledge sharing refers to the organization ensures effective communication within the employees and employees are willing to share information to improve effectiveness within the organization. Often times, the employees are not willing to share information as they fear loss of power or fear it as a threat to their job security. The management in such cases should take steps to ensure that the employees do not feel threatened. Effective communication is yet another factor that leads to effective organizational development. In most vertically structured organization, the flow of communication is often hampered since it moves from the top to bottom or bottom to top which takes too much time and also distorts the original message. In this way, timely decisions are difficult to make which can be life threatening for a company like Samsung Electronics since a new product is launched almost every day. Therefore, Samsung should focus on developing a horizontally structured organization to aid the flow of communication and to allow more power in the hands of the employees. Since it is the employees who are developing new products, they should be allowed more control in their hands. The decisions taken by the company should take into account the suggestions of these employees. Chapter 5 2. Discuss how the organization(Samsung company) managed the change process, conflict and power during the implementation of the organization development program? (3 pages) Discussed how the change was managed The change process at Samsung began when the CEO of the company, Lee Kun-Hee came into operation. Lee Kun-Hee assumed power after his father, the founder handed over operations to him. Lee understood the need for change when he personally conducted a market survey of Samsung and its competitors. He found that Samsung products, while being perfectly engineered lacked quality and design elements. He found that Samsung products appeared unappealing. Lee, in order to evaluate the need for change, contacted Arthur D. Little to assess the situation. The findings of D. Little were that the company needed to bring about a needed change where the focus should be consumers and technology (Chung and Gustafon, n.d). Once the need for change was assessed, the next part was to decide on the appropriate change for the organization. For this, he proposed a crisis culture where the organization took risks to innovate within its existing categories as well as new categories. For this, the organization had to change the mindset of the employees as well as the managers. Since the power distance in the organizational culture of Korea is quite high, the change had to be implemented from the top to the bottom. The managers in this case had to be trained on the need and importance of change. The change in this case was quite effective since it was able to reposition itself as a provider of innovative products. Samsung constantly upgrades its products and a new product is launched almost every week. It has developed itself as a strong competitor for Apple Inc. Identified the various types of conflict and how these were dealt with. The biggest source of the conflict that the company faced while managing change was the fact that the new culture proposed by Lee was in complete contradiction with the Korean culture. Within the Korean culture, young have to listen to the older generations. They cannot oppose the older generation and do not openly challenge their elders. This is reflected in the organizational culture in Korea where the employees do not consider it appropriate to challenge their superiors or provide room for improvement. When the management at Samsung encouraged a culture that openly took risks and gave its employee more authority to handle their work life, it initially was a source of conflict. For this the change agents trained the employees to focus on their creativity and individuality. They ensured that a little bureaucracy was maintained in the organization which only served to guide and monitor the employees. The organizational structure was not made vertical and employees still had to report to the upper management. Another conflict that the change agents faced was from the side of the management. The management since belonged to the same culture, it expected more authority and control in their hands being the superiors in the organization. This conflict was managed primarily by providing training to the managers and mentoring them to take on a less authoritarian management style. Yet another conflict that the change agents faced was the sense of pride that the people of the company had with the organization. The focus of the organization previously had been to be very cautious and thus to introduce the best engineered products in the market. This was a source of pride for the management as well as the employees. For this the change agents communicated the need for change to the management. They appreciated the past efforts of the people but at the same time proposed a change model. The type of power used to implement the organization development program. In order to bring about the required change, the organization has to decide on the power that would be used to implement the change. Pugh (2007) discusses three type of power used by organizations which are legitimate, expert and influential power. Legitimate power involves focusing on rules and regulations; expert power involves using relevant experts for the job while influential power focuses on collaboration and communication between different members of the organization. In the case of Samsung, expert power was used as the organization deferred to D. Little to bring about the change. The experts, in the case of Samsung, were responsible for making the required change within the organization. They first analyzed the situation for the organization and later provided recommendations for improvement to the CEO, Lee (Chung and Gustafon, n.d.). The expert power was also used in providing training to the managers in order to conform to the needs of the organization. Training allowed the manager to make the transition smoothly. Thus expert power was the type of power used and was most successful in this case since the change required not just the employees but also the managers to change their perceptions. References Brown, D. (2006), An Experiential Approach To Organization Development, 7 Edition, USA:Pearson Education Cameron, K. and Quinn, R. (2011) Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework, USA: John Wiley & Sons Chung, H. and Gustafon, G. (n.d.), A Conversation: Driving Culture Change at Samsung Semiconductor, Retrieved from http://www.adlittle.com/uploads/tx_extprism/1997_q2_23-25.pdf, [Accessed 14 March 2013] Pugh, L. (2007) Change Management in Information Services, USA: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. Samsung Electronics (2012) Sustainability Report, Retrieved from http://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/sustainability/sustainabilityreports/download/2012/2012_sustainability_rpt.pdf [Accessed 14 March 2013] Read More