A Cultural Mismatch Essay

Culture is an observable, powerful force in any organization. “Made up of its members’ shared values, beliefs, symbols, and behaviors, culture guides individual decisions and actions at the unconscious level. As a result, it can have a potent effect on a company’s well-being and success” (One Page, n.d.).

My skin should not define me… but it does. My proficiency should not determine my intelligence but it does. Judith Cofer once said, “The way our teachers and classmates looked at us that day in school was just a taste of the culture clash that awaited us in the real world.” Not only does culture clash affect people on a personal level but the effects of education can be affected on an academic and personal level. Culture clash causes a chain of events to occur such as racism and discrimination based on skin color and proficiency. This discrimination affects people's academics, education, and overall knowledge which causes financial disadvantages and lifestyle struggles. Education and Lifestyle knowledge has become essential to success not just to foreigners but everyone. School is not necessary but it is possible to learn things every day.. Whether it was caused by an action resorting to learning something or reading on any topic you desire. A variety of obstacles can occur from preventing you to thrive intellectually. Racism is an issue that has been going on for centuries which often leads to segregation and discrimination. People get judged by their skin color, overall knowledge, and prowess (proficiency).

We all see the events and objects surrounding us in a cultural lens in which tints, alters, and shapes our perceptions. In a broader aspect, culture shapes how people experience their world. Though a culture is generally understood and thought of as the foods, clothing, holidays, and music a group of people engage in, culture dives deeper than just a group’s visible traditions.

All Organisations posses a distinct form of culture with some having more than a single culture. This culture is usually very difficult to measure, change and most especially change.

There is no “one size fits all” when it comes to structure and culture within an organization since industries and situations can vary. Furthermore, if an organization wants to improve its effectiveness and performance, their organizational culture needs to be strong and provide a strategic competitive advantage when it comes to its beliefs, and values. Organizations can differentiate itself from one another by those that do not have structure and culture. It is important to know that employees in all organizations want to work in an environment of trust and respect where they

Globalization brought upon many changes to the American Automotive Industry in 1975. Increasing demand for import automobiles and the Energy Policy and Conservation Act served to be a real threat to the Ford Motor Company, American Motors, Chrysler Corporation, and General Motors. Out of these four manufacturers Chrysler was affected the worst by the industrial change, as they required a federal aid and required brand /management changes to revive themselves. Globalization formed a more competitive market in the United States during the 1970’s due to the changing emissions standards. The American Automotive Industry had to adjust to the new emissions standards from the Clean Air Act of 1970, and the fuel economy requirements of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, all while building cars that attracted to American consumers.

A strong culture is important to today’s organizations in a fast pace environment affected by a diverse internal workforce (Baker, 2002 p. 4). Schein (as cited in Baker, 2002) defined organizational culture as an arrangement of shared beliefs that the group learned through problem solving, and adapting to internal and external environments (p.4). Culture is not only a means of bettering internal coordination, but is important in facilitating environmental adaptation (Baker, 2002 p. 4).

Cultural Differences and CommunicationMrs. Gemma Nowakis a 73-year-old widower, with a 41-year-old sonwho hasbeen trying to care for her mother since her husband had died. She lives in Louisville, Kentucky, with her son. Shespeaks English enough to understand a little, she spent herlife working as a seamstress since she was a 12-year-old girl. She has developed some hearing issuesandis wearing a hearing aid on her left ear. Her dominant language is Polish, so her sontends to translate for his motherwhen it is needed. Mrs. Nowakcame into the clinic today at the request of her son, who came in with her. Shetends to be stubborn and old fashioned when it comes to medical treatment. She believes that she can treat illness withonly natural herbs and teas, but not medicines, only Tylenol to alleviate some discomfort or pain but none other,and this medication of course is sold over the counter.

Prior to Sergio Marchionne’s arrival, it appeared Chrysler Group LLC, organizational culture consisted of reacting “to falling sales by slashing prices” (Kreitner and Kinicki, 2013). Due to reduced sales volume, Chrysler had experienced major financial issues, including bankruptcy reorganization. The observable artifacts that I would suspect prior to Marchionne’s arrival would be massive advertisements endorsing Chrysler rebates, vehicle discounts, and slashed prices. After Marchionne got upset about the sales team “giving away margin”, he had to shake up the organization culture and transform the company’s way of thinking. Chrysler had to do something if it was ever going to get back to a profitable state.

In the research paper Immigrants and The Economy, the authors analyze the changing composition of American labor. The service industry grew 13% from 1970 to 2000 according to the paper. The service industry ranges from high skilled labor to low skilled labor, immigrants participate in both ends, but tend to take the low skilled jobs much more frequently. The slowing of manufacturing in the US has hurt unions, causing manufacturing jobs to be less appealing to US born workers who are looking for stable jobs. The old wave of immigrants came to work in factories. Now, low-skill immigrants take jobs that are considered too menial for native-born Americans to desire. These types of jobs are in the agricultural, meat-packing, chicken-processing,

Cultural organization is unique and configures their norms, beliefs, values, and behavioral characteristics into the individual and groups that unite to get things accomplished. Patterns begin to evolve and become a rule of basic assumption; whether it is a new idea, one recently discovered or under development by a certain group as they learn to cope with internal integration and external adaptation problems. Cultural characteristics are hard to define because culture is multi-dimensional with integrated components that intertwine at different levels and ever-changing which takes time to establish and therefore time to change it also. Culture becomes the fabric or social glue that unites its participants, this will counteract any processes that are different becomes an unavoidable side-effect of life in an organization. Mutual understandings and a shared system of meanings becomes the basis of communication in a cultural organization. Functions of a society need to be fulfilled with a certain amount of satisfaction or culture can impede the efficiency of that organization. Problems with this concept arise when trying to categorize culture or when, why, or how corporate culture should be changed or finding the best, healthiest or most desirable one.

What comes up on mind when someone think about two cultures colliding? Sure they get a lot of negative thoughts about it. Well, culture collisions are not always something that can ruin your life. It can also give out some positive effects. Some people get destroyed from it while others learn or find something new from it.

The organizational culture can encourage or discourage effectiveness, depending on the nature of the values, beliefs, and norms” (Ivancevich, Konopaske, & Matteson, 2011). Organizational culture can be very friendly, very task oriented, competitive or driven to be highly productive or it can be disorganized and unproductive. The culture is based on the history of the company and the atmosphere that is created and nurtured over time. This culture guides the language the employees use their loyalty and many more areas. Organizational culture is an important social characteristic that influences organizations, group, and individual behavior with in a company (Hartnell, Ou, & Kinicki, 2011). The Culture of an organization affects the way people behave, how they address customers, the atmosphere, perception, values, and beliefs. Employee’s performance and effectiveness can also be determined by an organization’s culture. Every organization has its own culture based on shared expectations, values and attitudes and its influence on individuals and groups (Ivancevich et al., 2011). People inside of an organization have a big effect on the culture because of their values, beliefs, and ideology. Companies try to hire people who have the same values as the company so that they will fit into the organization. People stay with organizations that have a

No political or legal forces really affected Chrysler expect for all of the different changes in president, or mergers that it had, where each brought new ideas and aspects to the company. International forces that affected Chrysler was definitely being bought by Mercedes-Benz, this created animosity towards the “German” way of how the company was run initially; along with recent competition of other dealerships out sourcing to different countries to cut costs.While Chrysler eventually got over their initial animosity to the “German” way, this then went on to help increase sales later on, using their new adopted methods.

This paper details each change undertaken by the organization by highlighting the different pressures identifying the problems the organization met and ultimately detailing the solutions that General Motors implemented.