North America

In this ocassion we are going to study the American culture regarding its attitute towards work and money . Our guide book is The Culture Code by Clotaire Rypaille and the chapter that we are going to focus on is “Working for a living, the codes for work and money”.

Americans have a particular perspective to see work, for them work is not just a way to get money to live, work is closely related with the way they define themselves, this means work contributes to forge their identities because they believe that “they are what they do in their jobs”, that`s why Americans show such strong work commitment. Working hard to improve his/her professional positions means that this individual is working to become a better person.

This perception of work is oriented to the freely movement of individuals into the diferent profesional paths, it means that is generally acepted that workers are constantly looking for a better job oportnunity because this is the only right way to progress in life. Most Americans don`t expect to do the same activities during all their lifes, they want new challenges, new responsabilities that require from them bigger professional efforts.

All the implicit statements that compose the cultural code of work should be taken into account by the employers when they design strategies to keep employees motivated, the maanger should involve employees in the company`s planning processes in order they feel useful contributing with the company`s performance.

The money is an important factor related to the work code, for Americans money isn`t considered a goal in and of itself, money is a proof to demostrtate the professional success or the goodness of a person . Americans admire those people who became rich thanks to their hard work and perseverance, they are model to immitate, Americans don`t show a high respect for those people who have inherited their wealth because they didn`t earn it themselves. Americans encourage hard work and money when the latter one is a proof of good individual performance. Americans see in their economic progress a duty to share and help those people who have bigger needs, this fact explains why America is one of the most charitable society.

Questions proposed to the HP research case.

1. List and explain 3 strategies used by HP in order to develop a sustain a strong organizational culture “The HP Way”

In order to develop a sustainable organizational culture HP undertook a corporate initiative known as “HP Way” and this states the main values and practices which company drives its operations. Some of the shared values fostered by company are trust, participation, flexibility, adaptabiity and personal autonomy. The actions that company used to communicate this initiative were:

- Telling company`s historic moments to employees with the purpose they know the values and attitudes that are important for the company and standing out those indivuduals who were important role models in the company`s development.

- Also its recruitment process is well directed because the human resource area emphasizes that new employees should share or easily adapt to the company`s values. Once employees are elected, they participate in a week long course where they learn about the company`s history , principles, operations and strategies and once they know all this information , employess are free to determine the actions to pursue these goals.

- HP encourages the career development of their employees and it fosters the cross- functional or cross- dimensional moves because managers consider that this is an effective way to create innovation and coordination of design, this circulation of employees allows the communication of the “HP Way” values and reinforce employees`commitment to the company. This program avoids the consolidation of subcultures inside company that eventually could deviate from company`s strategic objectives.

2. By 2001, Carly Fiorina was facing a huge dilemma in terms of organizational culture. “Should Fiorina try to revitalize the HP way or attempt to replace it with a better culture than one established by Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett in the 1940s?. Explain your answer.

Despite company has to face all the changing requirements that market presents and in order to accomplish those new challenges HP needs to undertake flexibilitation processes within all its operational fields, I consider that the current CEO shouldn`t abandon the entire structure of values that company practiced in the past, she should improve, give an effective direction or even change only those ones that no longer contribute in the good company`s performance because the foundation values generate cohesion among employees and ease the consolidation process of a sustainable culture.

Images taken from:
http://www.todoarquitectura.com/
www.news-libraries.mit.edu