The Culture and Moral Compasses
Assignment Overview
In the Module 4 SLP, we will explore your target organization’s culture (General Dynamics), and determine the extent to which culture relates to the success of your organization’s strategic choices.
Write a 3- to 4-page paper in which you address the following:
After completing some research concerning the culture of your selected organization, discuss assess the extent to which your organization’s stated values and culture do – or do not – support the grand strategy you selected in the Module 3 SLP.
Keys to the Assignment
The key aspects of this assignment that should be covered in your 3- to 4-page paper include the following:
- Perform some research in the library and at your target organization’s website, and learn as much as you can about the organization’s culture.
- Describe the organization’s culture (its artifacts, symbols, stories, and other characteristics).
- Identify three (3) stated values of your chosen organization, and discuss how well these values support the organization’s strategies.
- Briefly restate the strategy you selected in the Module 3 SLP, and state why this strategy was selected (e.g., overcome weaknesses, maximize strengths, etc.).
- Critically assess the extent to which the organization’s culture and values support – or do not support – the strategy or strategies that you identified in the Module 3 SLP.
Part 1: The Culture Compass
As the “personality” of an organization, organizational culture has been variously defined. Culture has been a topic of great interest to organizational researchers and practitioners alike, given its apparent influence on such matters as organizational change, performance, and effectiveness. An abstract concept, organizational culture is not all that easily defined – although most of us do know it when we “see” it, or when we experience its characteristics. Much of organizational culture is tacit – it lies below the level of our awareness, as certain agreed-upon assumptions are not made explicit. Culture includes artifacts, symbols, stories, beliefs, habits, value systems, and shared assumptions (“the way we do things around here”). Of course, an organization’s culture can be made more highly complex by virtue of the many sub-cultures that make up the overall culture. Whatever culture is, its elements become most readily apparent to us during the merger of two organizations, particularly so when the culture of the two merging organizations are vastly dissimilar.
The Culture and Moral Compasses
Organizational culture describes the values that create the psychological and unique social environment of an organization. This essay aims to analyze the culture of General Dynamics Corporation by stating the values that support its strategies. The essay also restates the strategy selected in Module 3 SLP.
Background of the Organization’s Culture
General Dynamics is a company that values its culture as the key to success. The employees commit themselves to the values and morals of the company. Such allows the company to portray good stewardship of the company’s investments, customers, shareholders, communities, and employees. The company is characterized by five values: humanity, alignment, trust, honesty, and value creation. In other words, the company incorporates its culture in every day’s activities to actualize the missions set to serve and the communities. Further, the company fosters an inclusive and diverse workplace, which exhibits its commitment to integrity and ethics.
The Organization’s Culture
The culture at General Dynamics is characterized by various symbols and artifacts that shape its overall configuration. Firstly, the company promotes diversity and inclusion. General Dynamics values innovation, which enables to the creation of new products that suit the market demands. The employees collaborate their skills to develop solutions to complex situations hence building a greater future. On this note, the company values assert that people from diverse backgrounds have different skills and hence working together allows collaboration of these talents for better outcomes. With diverse teams, the company maintains a creative and innovative spirit for better competitiveness.
Moreover, General Dynamics promotes a culture to impact the lives of other people. The company believes in the importance of positively impacting the communities around them. As such, employees are encouraged to donate to the needy in society to help enhance their lives. The company also values its citizenship responsibility. Such is evidenced by the GDIT Cares Program, which describes its commitment to give back to society. The program affects its activities by contributing to education, health, and military enforcement community’s initiatives. For instance, Academies of Loudoun is a program by the company that promotes education in the community, hence bettering the lives of others. In support of the community, the company also proactively strives to minimize environmental pollution through the efficient utilization of natural resources. For instance, the company has a greenhouse gas inventory, which facilitates the reduction of environmental impacts.
Further, the culture at General Dynamics is customer-centric. The company believes in developing products and services that best suit the needs of the users efficiently. As such, every piece of technology is set to ease its usability and enhance the customer experience. The company’s culture is focused on unleashing the future by helping the customers perceive the new interaction trends and shape solutions for the future’s evolving expectations.
Stated values
General Dynamics operates under critical values: honesty, humanity, and trust, which define the company’s strategies of doing business and interaction with each other. Humanity is an important value in the company and describes how the employees interact with the management, partners, customers, and suppliers. The way the company treats its employees dictates the commitment and efforts they would be willing to invest in return. As such, the company strives to treat employees with respect and dignity by providing equal employment opportunities and fair compensation. Besides, it supports universal human rights to ensure all the stakeholders receive fair treatment based on humanity standards. Humanity is important in supporting the growth strategy. Fair treatment of the stakeholders activates the motivation to support the company’s mission and goals at all costs (Goldman, 2012). For instance, employees will rejoice in associating with an organization that values humanity, hence commit their efforts to grow the company.
The company also upholds honesty as a critical value through clinging to high business ethics and standards. Clear communication and formal business conduct are key concepts in the company that promote open interaction between employees and management, building on trust. Besides, employees’ fair interaction and contribution are allowed without the fear of intimidation by the senior management. Such minimizes cases of unethical behaviors in the company that could ruin its brand image. Resultantly, this promotes the innovation strategy since the employees enjoy the freedom to express their ideas (Ford, Wilderom & Caparella, 2008). The collaboration of such ideas from different talented employees plays a crucial role in the aspect of innovation.
Restating the Strategy
The strategy selected in the previous module is innovation. Innovation describes the combination of new skills and ideas to develop products, and it is a crucial aspect of the continuous success of an organization. General Dynamics operates under a highly competitive industry and requires high technical skills to develop products and services. As such, innovation is a credible tool to help overcome such a weakness by developing products that suit the consumers’ evolving nature of needs. More companies have majored effectively in the technology industry, and hence investing in the innovation strategy by General Dynamics would help thrive competitively.
Further, innovation is a vital tool to acquire extensive market share against competitors. The evolving requisites of customers invite the necessity for diverse products and services in the technology industry. Such diversity in production requires high capability and motivation for creativity and innovation to align with the customers’ requirements, hence acquiring new markets (Ford, Wilderom & Caparella, 2008). Flexibility is vital in product development to enhance products and services’ efficiency and effectiveness in serving customer needs. In this regard, innovation was deemed vital as a strategy that would help to address the high competition in the technology industry.
The Extent to Which the Organization’s Culture and Values Support the Strategy
The culture at General Dynamics is significantly supportive of its strategies and values. For instance, humanity’s value guides the company in minimizing the risks it could pose to people through its operation (Okantey, 2013). Such is vital in enhancing the growth strategy. If a government considers a company’s operations to poise health and environmental hazards, it would order for its termination. However, with the human culture, General Dynamics strives to minimize such risks, enhancing its chances for long term operations through continuous growth.
Further, this value enhances the company’s culture of caring for people. Supporting the community provokes the spirit of innovation to develop new methods to impact people. The innovation strategy is developed through the company’s efforts to promote a sustainable business environment. Therefore, the culture to care for people and the value of humanity collaborate to enhance its growth and innovation strategies.
In retrospect, General Dynamics adopts effective culture and values that promote its success in the technology industry. The essay discussed humanity, trust, and honesty as the important values upheld by the company. Customer-focus and care for the people form an important part of the company that promotes its culture. Such plays an important role in addressing the high competition in the industry by the company.
References
General Dynamics Corporation – Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History,
Background Information on General Dynamics https://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/48/General-Dynamics-Corporation.html
Ford, R. C., Wilderom, C. P., & Caparella, J. (2008). Strategically crafting a customer‐focused culture: an inductive case study. Journal of Strategy and Management. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/17554250810926348/full/html
Goldman, E. F. (2012). Leadership practices that encourage strategic thinking. Journal of Strategy and Management. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/17554251211200437/full/html
Okantey, P. C. (2013). When values and ethics lead the way in organizations. Strategic Leadership Review, 3(2). https://submissions.scholasticahq.com/api/v1/attachments/318/download