Organizational Culture – Case Analysis

Organizational Culture
Case Analysis
 
 
Learning Goals:
This assignment will allow you apply your knowledge of organizational culture and cultural change to analyze an organization that experienced radical change from above.
 
Procedures:
For this assignment you will analyze the case of Semco, which is available here:
 
https://hbsp.harvard.edu/import/719433
 
If purchasing the case is prohibitive, please let me know and I’ll arrange for the department to purchase it for you.
 
As you will see, the leader of Semco decided that the organization would adopt a very unusual culture that takes the idea of self-management to the extreme.  As we have read, there is no guarantee that the employees will buy into organizational change or that it will be successful, but in this case, the change was a resounding success.  The question is why?  Why was this dramatic change in organizational culture embraced by employees? And why was this change in culture successful for the bottom line of the organization?
 
Of course, there is no way to know with certainty what accounts for the success of Semco, but you are in a position to make some educated guesses.
 
For this assignment, you will draw on the following authors to answer these questions:
 

• Hofstede
• Cardador & Rupp
• Driskill & Brenton
• Any additional academic reading of your choice (i.e. not a newspaper article).

 
Write Up:

• The paper should be no longer than 1,100 words, not including direct quotations.
• The essay should have a very brief introduction that includes a thesis statement.
• Direct quotations should be avoided. If you must use one, it should be in quotations marks and include a citation with a page number.  Otherwise, it constitutes plagiarism.

 
Formatting:

• The paper should be 1.5 spaced.
• The paper must include in-text citations in either APA or ASA format, but does not need to include a bibliography. If you refer to a specific aspect of an author’s theory (i.e. not a broad idea like “cultural tools” or “social control”), you must include a page reference. Failure to do so may constitute plagiarism.
• Remember that changing a few words from a passage in a published document does not transform the text into your own words. You must completely rephrase for it to no longer be a direct quotation.  Even once you rephrase, you must include a page number citation to the original source.
• The exam must be uploaded as either a Word or .pdf file and should be 1.5 spaced.

 
Submission:
The paper must be uploaded to Canvas by 11:00 a.m. on April 23.
 
Assessment:
Essays will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

1. Effective use of relevant elements from each reading to construct a persuasive argument.
2. Writing/organization/citation.