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Organizational Culture at Chrysler

Decent Essays

Organizational culture
Organizational culture can loosely be defined as the shared assumptions, beliefs, and "normal behaviors" (norms) of a group. These are powerful influences on the way people live and act, and they define what is "normal" and how to sanction those who are not "normal." To a large degree, what we do is determined by our culture.
Organizational culture is similar to, say, regional culture. The same person in different organizations (or parts of the same organization) would act in different ways.
Culture is very powerful. (One example is the cultural change effort at British Airways, which transformed an unprofitable airline with a poor reputation into a paragon of politeness and profit).
An example: Cultural change at …show more content…

Rather than have a small number of people control new products, Jeep/Truck product manager Jeff Trimmer said planners were "speaking out for customer wants and needs in the initial stages...and working along with each of the various functional groups...The role becomes more advisory." Everyone who would be involved participated to "harness the best ideas and creativity."
Even the assembly line workers were included; with the new Ram trucks, they were working with engineers six months before production started. Mechanics were consulted early, to help prepare the cars and trucks for real-life maintenance.
Product teams followed vehicles through their development to identify systems and process issues. "Today, we feel we have a lot more facts, and more of a groundswell of information that comes from groups of people who know exactly what we're trying to do," reported Robert Johnson of Dodge Trucks.
Agreeing on Objectives
One change which helps to keep projects pure is setting down objectives clearly, at the beginning. Core objectives were agreed on at the beginning by all parties; because "Everybody agrees up front and we stick to the plan," (Bernard Robertson, Jeep/Truck team), there were no last-minute changes in focus, which can result in expensive disasters (such as the Corvair, Vega, and Fiero). Because everyone was involved in setting goals, they took responsibility for living up to them.
Learning
Changes in the way cars were made began

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