Home Depot: Organization Culture - Essay Example

Store managers did pretty much what they wanted to do and there was very little in the way of consequences to pay. Most of these managers did not know whether they were doing well or not. This is the atmosphere and culture that Robert Nardelli walked into. He seemed to be the direct opposite of the culture that was present within this corporation. He used techniques from his leadership style that very much mimic what Schein would say would work. He decided to go to the core of Home Deport management's beliefs. This according to Shien is where the overall assumptions that employees and management have about their organization are.

In this case, Home Depot thought they were successful and that that success was built upon the casual attitude they had, including how their stores were run. However, its share price was dropping and the competition was doing well. Mr. Nordelli also wanted to extend services which Home Depot had seen themselves as a big box business that mostly men visited. Mr. Nordelli had to tackle the other two layers to make this happen. The values of this company have been that the management team made all their own decisions regardless of what the corporation thought, sometimes sabotaging deals they did not agree with.

They had previously been very autonomous. He changed this by giving them information that blatantly showed what their production looked like and how successful they were. He then held them accountable for their performance with the expectation that it would improve and the values of those who stayed began to change. They became a very cohesive group. Those things that Shein (2009) would call artifacts included those things such as a messy story with little signage and heaped product.

One visit to Lowe's gave them new insight as to where their artifact was headed. Women were shopping at Lowe's as well as men and they were talking about the new big box everywhere. This had to change and the only way the new leadership would see that is to be confronted and they were. However, Nordelli was just the beginning for Home Depot. When Nordelli left, Donovan arrived. He found that though some things had been tightened up there was a long way to go. He found that managers were not as accountable as they seemed and they were getting excellent reviews even when their stores were failing.

He also saw that there were different standards according to where the store was. He put into place a culture change toolbox which many corporations have picked up to use at this stage. The culture toolbox (Charon, 2006), included new artifacts such as data templates, reviews, and conference calls, new values which were driven through those artifacts and strategic and operating planning and Monday morning conference calls, and new assumptions at the core brought on through all of the change that occurred through these changes.  

In conclusion, Home Depot was successful from the beginning but they have remained successful not because they kept the same culture and nourished it but because they were brave enough to step out of the box and put into place a culture that worked in the here and now and then again when the world around them changed, they again did the same. Home Depot has now become an icon for culture change and remains a very successful organization.