Maintaining the Single Samsung Spirit - Case Study Example

Name Course Instructor Date Maintaining the ‘Single Samsung’ Spirit 1.0 Introduction The world economy experienced a massive blow during the 2009 financial crisis that occurred in the United States. Movers and shakers of the economy including major players in real-estate, automotive and financial industries were overwhelmingly affected by this crisis. The electronic industry was not left out with major companies such as Sony being pushed to downsizing strategies in order to reduce pronounced losses that were being registered steadily. Amidst this downturn, Samsung demonstrated a contradicting and astonishing phenomenon through its tremendous financial breakthrough. Strong commitment and investment on employees was attributed to the superior performance of the company. Even so, the Samsung was doomed for major tasks following its newly invented policies in the Human Resource department. Socializing employees who were recruited from diverse professional and cultural backgrounds were the first challenge the company had to deal with. Another depressing challenge was the generational gap between young employees who seemed rather individualistic and the older ones who were more submissive. These challenges threatened the long-standing spirit of the company which was dubbed ‘Single Samsung’. This report aims to comprehensively analyse the situation facing Samsung and provide viable recommendations that could be applied to solve the problems. Prior to stating the recommendations, the report will review the current situation of the company with regard to its philosophy, culture, values and HR policies. In light of this, the report will assess the kind of paradigm the company utilizes and will further identify the two pressing challenges facing the company in order to give relevant recommendations. 2.0 Company analysis 2.1 Philosophy, culture, values and HR policies Samsung’s philosophy, values and culture were highly intertwined. The company developed a philosophy which was consistent with the nation’s philosophy and aimed at wholesomely developing the nation’s human resource. Based on the philosophy the companies had three core values: “top priority to the people,” “economic contribution to the economy” and “pursuit of rationality.” These three values were the building blocks to the organization’s culture. Knowledge and technology, being the domineering forces in today’s business world, were the focus Samsung philosophy which read “We will devote our human resources and technology to create superior products and services, thereby contributing to better global society.” Through its concrete philosophy, the organization developed a workforce that was not only devoted to accomplishment of the organization’s strategic goals but one that was confident in catalysing the company to a competitive edge in the global arena. Innovativeness, sharing and transfer of knowledge, networking and aggressive recruiting formed the cultural portfolio of Samsung. In order to reinforce prevailing knowledge, Samsung engaged into intense research and development from foreign countries. A culture of collaboration, cooperation and engagement was predominant within Samsung. Involving technical managers as well as other employees in the decision making process of the company and coupling them with technological responsibilities was the most appropriate strategy in ensuring upstream growth of the company. This consequently led to a culture that was performance-oriented, flexible, dynamic and fast providing an emulate standard for other companies such as Sony and Nokia. Samsung core principles and values were founded on five factors: people, co-prosperity, integrity, change and excellence. As such, Samsung a strong affiliation for human resources thus endeavoured to empower its employees by exposing them to opportunities that would revive their fullest potential. By realising that change is inevitable, Samsung committed itself to keeping in pace with changing environment and executing the change aware of the risks involved and in the most passionate manner. Besides that, Samsung was committed to being a good corporate citizen by not only being ethical towards its stakeholders but also acting in the best interest of the community at large for instance being environmentally sensitive. The Human Resource at Samsung had a philosophical belief that “a company is its people.” This implies that the company had deep-rooted interest in its employees. Moving away from the traditional recruiting policies which involved referrals and connections, Samsung became the first company to use formal, open recruiting procedures that were based on earnest. Another notable HRM policy within Samsung was developing a highly talented and competent workforce. As such, the company embarked on foraging for experienced and professional personnel from within South Korea and beyond the borders. In 1995, a new HR policy came into play a gave birth to new HRM functions including performance appraisal, compensation and promotion strategies. 2.2 Samsung philosophical perspective Samsung applies an interpretive philosophical perspective in designing its philosophy, values, culture and policies. According to interpretivists, objects that a research ascribes to are socially constructed, that is, they are simply products or results of the living world. This opposes the positivists view points who believe that objects under investigation are completely independent from each other (William 419). Samsung philosophical statement underscores an interpretivists perspective by depicting a sense of an inherent relationship between the actions of the company and the end results of the actions. Similar to the interpretive researcher’s perspectives, Samsung believes that in devoting its resources in employees it will ultimately influence the quality of its products and services and thereby contribute to enhancing the global community. This is a clear illustration of sense-making character of the interpretivism philosophical perspective which emphasizes that actions and outcomes are interdependent hence the researcher requires careful coordination in his processes in order to produce positive results. Interpretivism unlike positivism is founded on the belief that the truth is socially agreed upon and not absolutely discovered through some sort of quantitative methods. Samsung ascribes to this by demonstrated by its rational ideas in designing its values, philosophy and culture. For instance the philosophy “a company is its people” was constructed from a mere statement made by Blyung-Chull Lee. This shows that the company does not holly depend on a collection of data from quantitative research methodologies but rather bases its core principals in real life events. In addition, Samsung is founded upon the nation’s philosophy which is to develop human resources. This again concurs with the interpretivism philosophy that the truth is socially upon and not quantitatively determined. Clearly, Samsung values and culture have been installed on the nation’s philosophy as they are all geared towards developing and reinforcing human resources. Samsung move to roll out the Single Samsung initiative was philosophically interpretive. Need for claimable, defensible and plausible conclusions are basic characteristics of interpretivists (William 410). The main purpose Single Samsung initiative was to unite Samsung employees across the globe in order to arm the company against expected crisis as the business world continually changed. Introduction of the initiative is therefore justified on the basis of expected future in eventualities. Besides that, this is evidence of an interpretivist’s viewpoint of reality. Samsung agrees to the reality of changing market forces, of which it is subject to, and therefore puts in place measures to be on the safe side. 3.0 Challenges and recommendations 3.1 Challenges facing Samsung The New Employee Orientation (NEO) strategy developed by Samsung HRM was indeed a success story for the company. Underpinning the philosophy, values and culture of the organization, NEO was aimed at developing a workforce that would propel the company onto a competitive edge by remaining relevant in the world that was being constantly changed by technology and globalization. Despite this, the program faced two major shortcomings that greatly threatened its survival. The first challenge was regarding the generational gap that existed between the employees. Generational changes that were being experienced in other parts of the world did not leave out Korea with significant differences being noticed between value orientation between older and younger employees. Younger employees who are also referred to as the ‘digital natives’ are less oriented to their traditions due to their early exposure to market reforms, the internet and globalization. This contradicts the older employees who are more conservative and respond quite slowly to reforms presented by globalization. In that case, younger people are more liberal and prefer open and communicative environments where they are allowed to make contribution to the day-to-day running of the organization. Older employees however, perceive this as defiant considering that they were fully devoted to the core values of the company and strictly followed rules. In an effort to recruit more experienced employees, Samsung fished for non-Koreans who worked in highly reputable companies outside the country or Koreans who had left the country for greener pastures. Socializing these people with the company’s philosophy, culture, values and HR policies was a big challenge since the NEO program had been designed for fresh college graduates that Samsung initially targeted. Of concern was whether there was need to train these overly experienced persons based on the fact they received enough training through the various platforms they had undergone before joining the organization. If deemed unnecessary to train them, would they really feel a sense of belongingness in the company? If they were trained through the NEO program, wouldn’t their personal values or those carried from their original countries conflict with those of Korea thus hinder effective learning? These were major concerns bestowed upon Samsung NEO program. 3.2 Recommendations/ plans of actions 3.2.1 Reconciling generational gap in Samsung Evidently, Samsung requires new HRM standards in order to successfully bond the multi-generational workforce and to ultimately achieve the Single Samsung spirit. Samsung is indeed a good example of a bureaucratic and top-down kind of management that often does not favour young employees. In that case therefore, leadership approaches and policies need to be reviewed in order to address matters such as work-life balance, alignment of generational values, recognition and inclusiveness. Key to bridging the gap is to create a supportive environment for all kinds of generations in the workplace which primarily made up of the Boomers and the X-generations. Samsung exemplifies the conflicting characteristics of boomers generations and the Y generations whereby the boomers are continually seeking for recognition and respect while the X-ers are searching for role models. Essentially, Samsung should provide opportunities for the older employees to gain their much desired respect through training and helping others. Gursoy et al (466) suggests that mentoring programs where older employees are coupled with younger ones will significantly reduce workplace conflict. A mutual relationship will be established in thus providing a work place that is favourable for everyone. Unlike the younger generation, older employees have greater interest in acknowledgement and rewarding for their contribution. One way that Samsung can ensure that these employees are adequately rewarded and acknowledged is by appointing them to represent the company during trade shows or alternatively involving them during corporate decision making processes. A notable characteristic of young employees is value for work-life balance. As such top management of Samsung which basically comprises of older employees should not expect these kind of employees to make large sacrifices for the company like working for long hours as this will otherwise send them on job hunting. In addition, they crave for autonomy and resent authority. As a way of motivating these young employees, management at Samsung should ensure that objectives are sufficiently communicated to these employees and resources are adequately supplied in order to get them going. Research indicates that younger generation workers are good multitasking and therefore, boomer managers should provide them with multiple tasks and allow them to take care of prioritization. Investing in high technology will also serve as a major booster in retaining them since they are highly tech savvy and interested in upcoming technologies (Lawsson 248). As Samsung employee profile changes from the traditional one basically dominated by older to one that is now dominated by younger employees, it should strive to train younger employees taking up managerial positions. The training should address techniques of handling multigenerational problems and supervisory skills. It should particularly train the young managers on how to show respect to the older employees under their authority. A helpful strategy would be to hire experienced employees and involving them in strategic decision making processes so that they can feel important. By following these recommendations, Samsung will not only enhance the spirit of Single Samsung, but will also register marked productivity through a highly motivated, collaborative and empowered workforce (Gursoy et al 459). 3.2.2 Socializing new employees In the ingoing NEO program, socializing newly recruited employees with the company’s philosophy, culture, values and HR policies has been a major concern since program lacks fundamental factors to incorporate such employees. In that case therefore, Samsung should redesign the NEO program to make it relevant to all employees. Preferably, the HR adopt Onboarding: a recently devised HRM tool that now commonly used among companies. Onboarding basically refers to a support process that is supposed to manage the requirements and tasks involved when a new employee is recruited and has accepted to take up the job (Bauer 668). Incorporating onboarding into NEO program will significantly increase the probability of retaining new employees. This is because the process has the ability to positively influence the decision of the employee to remain in the company. In order to ensure a successful onboarding process, Samsung should clearly define the process as well as make it proactive. This will not only bestow a sense of engagement but will also acclimatize the employee into the company’s culture and values. Inasmuch as the NEO program teaches learners on the organization’s policies, culture and values, introducing it to new employees will be a waste of time as they carry enough of these from their previous workplaces. So as to ensure these employees are conversant with the company, Samsung through its onboarding procedures should introduce less formal learning procedures. This includes use of automated methods where it could send copies of the company’s values, cultures and policies through their emails or simply providing them with hard copies of these materials. Bauer (671) maintains that employing highly experienced employees is not the ultimate solution to gaining a competitive edge. This is because of the issues of adaptability and cultural fit that is now characteristic of the increasingly mobile workforce. Adaptability is shown to have detrimental effects to productivity. Research indicates that adaptability of an individual is actually not reflected by prior experiences but rather on his exposure to the company. As such, Samsung should cut down on recruitment of employees from other companies and embark on its traditional approach of recruiting fresh graduates. It is worth noting that people rarely shed their attitudes and they might not necessarily possess experience that is relevant to the organization (Bos 3). Therefore, Samsung should ensure incorporate mentorship programs into NEO for its new employees so as to enable the new employees to readjust to the culture and values of the company. 4.0 Conclusion Samsung is indeed a splendid example of successful HRM practices. This is articulated in its philosophy, values, culture and HR policies which emphasize on the importance of human resources. In addition to investing heavily in its employees through aggressive recruiting procedures, training and development, the company sufficiently engages in employees in the day-to-day running of the organization by through decision making processes. This has ultimately resulted to competent, talented, motivated and innovative workforce that actually propelled the company to distinctive position during the 2009 financial crisis when the company remarkably profits while other companies suffered severe meltdown. Samsung philosophy, values, culture and policies portray an interpretivism philosophical perspective. Socialization of new employees a to the company’s culture, values and philosophy and generational gaps amongst employees were the major challenges facing the companies training program, NEO. In order to create an environment that embraces all members of the multi-generation company, Samsung needs to introduce mentorship programs where older employees will act as role model to younger employees. In so doing, a mutual relationship will be established and will reduce tension between the two groups of employees. Since young employees are competent in multitasking and uphold value for work-life balance they should be assigned multiple based on objectives they should follow. Older employees on the other should be given managerial responsibilities so as to satisfy their desire for recognition and respect. To effectively socialize new employees into Samsung, NEO should incorporate onboarding strategies which as systematic assimilation into the company. Although it is recommendable for the company to mentor its new onboard employees, it should cut down on recruiting them as their prior experience do not always comply with the needs of the company. Work cited; Bauer, Talya. Onboarding new employees: maximizing success. Alexandria: SHRM Foundation. (2010). Print. Bos, Peter. How to build an onboarding plan for a new hire. Retrieved on 6th June 2012 from http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/04/building-an-onboarding-plan.html. Gursoy, Dogan, Maier, Thomas and Chi, Christina. Generational differences: An examination of work values and generational gaps in the hospitality workforce. International journal of hospitality management, 27.1(2008): 448-458. Print. Khilji, Shaista, Oh, Chang and Manikoth, Nisha. Maintaining the “single Samsung” spirit: new challenges in a changing environment. London: Richard Ivey School of business foundation. (2011). Lawsson, Robert. Identifying and managing diversity of workforce. Business intelligence journal, 2.1 (2009): 215-253. Print. William, Malcom. Interpretivism and generalization. Sociology, 34.2(2000):209-224. Read More