MGT Case wk 5: Organizational culture

A good place to start are these interactive tutorials:

Organizational culture. Pearson Learning Solutions. New York, NY.

After reviewing the tutorial, dig deeper into this topic with the following readings:

Rao, P. (2010). Organisational culture and effectiveness.Organisational Behaviour. Global Media, Mumbai. [Ebrary]

Piccolo, R. & Bardes, M. (2011). Chapter 13: Cultural due diligence. In Baker, H. (Ed.) Art of Corporate Restructuring, John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, N.J [Ebrary]

De Vries, M. (2011). Chapter 4: The question of organizational culture. Reflections on Organizations : On the Couch with Manfred Kets de Vries. Jossey-Bass, Hoboken, NJ [Ebrary]

Required Case Assignment Reading

Klein, D. (2011). Creating cultures that lead to success: Lincoln Electric, Southwest Airlines, and SAS Institute.Organizational Dynamics 41(1), 35-39 [Available in Science Direct. Note: you only have to read the middle portion of the article concerning Southwest Airlines and not the whole article]

Bird, A. (Mar. 13, 2011). Southwest: Corporate culture combines work, play. The Post and Courier. [ProQuest]

Whatley, H. (2013). Principles and dimensions of market-based management. Independent Journal of Management & Production, 4(1), 126-135. [ProQuest]

Dissecting the Kochtopus. (Jun. 7, 2014). The Economist, 411, 76. [ProQuest] 

Optional Material

Torrington, D. (2013). Chapter 5: Organization: The culture you work in. Managing to Manage : The Essential Guide to People Management. Kogan Page Ltd., London [Ebrary]

Kumar, V., & Gopinadhan, S. (2009). Organisational culture.Organisational Behaviour and Mass Media. Global Media, Mumbai [Ebrary]

Perkins, S., & Arvinen-Muondo, R. (2013). Chapter 8: Organizational culture. Organizational Behaviour : People, Process, Work and Human Resource Management. Kogan Page Ltd., London. [Available in Ebrary]​

Schein, E. (2010). Chapter 1: The concept of organizational culture: why bother? Organizational Culture and Leadership (Fourth Edition). Jossey Bass, Hoboken, NJ, USA [Ebrary]

    Case Assignment

Southwest Airlines and Koch Industries are both known for their distinctive organizational cultures, and both have been highly successful and profitable companies. Southwest Airlines is known as a “fun” place to work where socialization and humor in the workplace are strongly encouraged. Koch Industries, on the other hand, has a culture defined by the principles of “market-based management” where performance and revenue growth is emphasized.

Do some background reading on the cultures behind Southwest Airlines and Koch Industries. While doing your research, keep strongly in mind the characteristics of organizational cultures discussed in the background materials such as team-oriented, people-oriented, outcome-oriented, etc. Here are some articles to get you started on your research that will give you some background about the cultures at these two organizations: 

Klein, D. (2011). Creating cultures that lead to success: Lincoln Electric, Southwest Airlines, and SAS Institute. Organizational Dynamics 41(1), 35-39 [Available in Science Direct. Note: you only have to read the middle portion of the article concerning Southwest Airlines and not the whole article]

Bird, A. (Mar. 13, 2011). Southwest: Corporate culture combines work, play. The Post and Courier. [ProQuest]

Whatley, H. (2013). Principles and dimensions of market-based management.Independent Journal of Management & Production, 4(1), 126-135. [ProQuest]

Dissecting the Kochtopus. (Jun. 7, 2014). The Economist, 411, 76. [ProQuest]

When you are finished with your research, write a 3-page paper addressing the following issues:

1. Describe the organizational culture of Southwest Airlines the best you can using the characteristics of organizational culture discussed in the background materials. These include: but are not limited to detail-oriented, team-oriented, innovative, aggressive, outcome-oriented, and people-oriented. Be specific as you can regarding which characteristics of organizational culture that you read about in the background materials apply to Southwest and which ones do not.
2. Describe the organizational culture of Koch Industries using the criteria as in Question 1 above.
3. Now suppose Koch Industries decided to purchase Southwest Airlines. Compare and contrast the two cultures, and explain what kind of challenges you think they would face in merging the two cultures. Also, explain what steps you think would need to be taken in order to prevent culture clashes between the two organizations.

Assignment Expectations

• Answer the assignment questions directly. Stay focused on the precise assignment questions; don’t go off on tangents or devote a lot of space to general background materials.
• Make use of both the required Case Assignment articles as well as the required general background materials in your paper. Apply concepts that you learned in the background materials in your answers to the assignment questions.
• Review our “Writing Style Guide” for more detail on referencing and writing expectations. This guide is found under “My Resources” in the TLC portal.