North America: Proof me who you are!

This post is about the biggest economy in the world; the United States of America. The people of this country have a long standing tradition of hard work and individualism, being internationally recognized because of this as workaholics and greedy. But this is an unfair recognition because this behavior has a clear explanation when the culture is considered.

To develop the topic of this post I will recur to the book “the culture code” written by Clotaire Rapaille, specifically chapter six which discuss the codes for work and money.

On its book Rapaille argues that the Americans are passionate about their jobs since they link their jobs to their personal realization meaning that the job one person has is their way of relating to the world getting to know new people and, in general, socializing.

The conclusion to which the author arrives is “the American culture code for work is: WHO YOU ARE” (Rapaille, 2006), this means that the “Americans strongly believe that they are what they do in their jobs” (Rapaille, 2006). In other words the “workaholic” reputation that the Americans have is not entirely fair, even more so, given the fact that the judgment comes from a different culture which has a different code for work.

Similarly Rapaille evaluates the code for money, he finds that the money, is not actually the end itself but the demonstration that you have a job, and therefore that “you are”. Of course a bigger paycheck means you have moved forward, this is important because another part of the code for work is the fact that Americans “believe that if [they] work hard and improve their social standing they become better people.” (Rapaille, 2006).

Reflecting the previous Rapaille expreses that “the American culture code for money is: PROOF” (Rapaille, 2006). This reflects the intricate relation that exists between money and work; money is the proof of your work, therefore the proof of what you are. In consequence American people highly value the people that got rich only by hard work.

But what is the relevance of these codes in the company? Here is example that reflect the situation:

The employer can decide to give to the employees of the company to give a promotion or the assignation of new responsibilities without a raise, this won’t work for the employee since the money is proof that they are working, when they move forward in their job positions they expect this movement to be recognized, meaning to be paid, and ultimately given them the proof that they have moved forward in their careers. So to motivate an employee effectively is important to asses correctly what is going to make him more motivated.

Now the questions for this topic are two, let’s answer the first one: List and explain 3 strategies used by HP in order to develop and sustain a strong organizational culture - "The HP Way".

From the perspective of the company the one of the strategies implemented to spread the values embedded in the corporate culture, it used the famous way of thinking of their founders, particularly, a short story of what they did, amongst the employees of the company, is a mouth to mouth form of communication which is directed to let the employees know are the expected to behave in HP.

Another strategy is the use of the lateral rotation which allows the employees from different departments share experience of a different department, therefore avoiding the creation of subcultures within the company that could undermine the “HP way”

The use of a management system based on objectives gives the employees the sense that they have to perform at their job, because the independence that has been granted to them has the part that they have to be responsible for the fulfillment of their specific objectives. This independence is the key element of the HP way.

Now the second question: 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 the one established by Dave Packard and Bill Hewlett in the 1940’s?". Explain your answer.

Let’s check the following video found in You Tube on the HPLiveIT2 Channel:



The video shows really good working environment where the employees can relax. The dressing code one can see is casual. Such a culture cannot be changed that fast, as Mrs. Fiorina pretends to do.

As stated in previous post cultural changes can’t happen that fast and it is better if the current culture is used as a support to introduce the new changes, this would, perhaps, avoided the resignation of various executives that left the company when Mrs. Fiorina announced all the changes.

The previous affirmation is confirmed when we also consider the strength of the “old culture” since HP had very effective methods to strengthen it, so what the manager should do, instead of a wave of rapid changes, is to build upon the already existing culture, showing that it is possible to have different setting than the one that was originally conceived by the founders.

For further readings check:

Forster, N. (2002, May). Managing excellence through corporate culture: "The HP way". The Management Case Study Journal , pp. 13-25.

Rapaille, C. (2006). Chapter 6: working for a living. In The cultural code (pp. 112-129). New York: Broadway.

You Tube. (2009, February 24). HP Culture. Retrieved from HPLiveIT2 Channel at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_bLcjc7p5U