Culture

Introduction

For companies to survive the current global economic fluctuations, they are crossing the national borders as part of growth their growth strategy. The impact of culture is however felt when the two companies try to adjust themselves into the new international business environments. I have been working with the Johnson controls company which has recently merged with Honeywell Computer Company with an aim of utilizing the merging advantages for long term plans in the electronic equipment industry (Lundby, & Jolton, 2010).

Overview of your fictitious company

To start with, Johnson Controls was providing services and solutions of all the electronic equipment such as the automotive batteries, system automobiles, hybrid as well as the electric vehicles in the United States. Additional services such as installation of ventilations and air conditioning control systems, as well as the installation of fire safety equipment measures in various buildings and industries is were also in line with the dealings of the Johnson Company.  There are few power solution services which were yet to be fully established because the company was still in its initial stages of an organizational life cycle. They include the system engineering services, and the development of the lead-ion batteries used in vehicles.

The company has grown tremendously over the past decade with much more expansion being incorporated in the company’s strategic plan. With this regard, the company has recently merged with the Honeywell computer company and its description is detailed below.

Overview of the fictitious company merged with

 Honeywell is a company that deals with a variety of products in the line of engineering systems and aerospace services. Among the services it offers, installation of computer software is the major or the main service the company provides. Other subsidiary products sold include thermostats, security alarm systems and sensors. The company was seeking to merge with a similar company in order to expand its potential and its total sales.  Other advantageous factors that result from merging were also the driving force to merge. In response, the two companies, Johnson controls company and the Honeywell computer company has merged to boost their competitive advantage over the adjacent companies across the globe. Honeywell Company is situated in china with several branches distributed in some parts of Japan as well as Taiwan. The emergent company has been named as AlliedSignal Corporation which is headquartered in the United States.  

Point checklist of steps you would take to unify company culture

Since culture is a critical foundational tool in any two or more companies that have merged, a thorough step-by-step unification analysis should be done. The AlliedSignal Corporation is therefore not an exemption and therefore as a cultural manager, I have prepared a checklist of steps that the emergent company will embrace in order to unify the two cultures and business environments presented below (Lundby, & Jolton, 2010).

1. Merge the two companies’ visions, values goals and missions into one common statement. The two companies should establish a common ground in various aspects such as the targets and goals of the company. Considering the potential strength of the AlliedSignal Corporation, the core vision should be getting into the Fortune 500 in the world’s company ranking. The rationale for choosing common goals, visions and values is to restart the attitudes of the workers, the staff and the customers towards the new operations of the company (Lundby, & Jolton, 2010).
2. Change of employee hiring practices so as to reflect on the newly designed values of the company. This is a revolution of the hiring trends and customs that were previously used in recruiting new employees. Since this is a new company, the old values from either sides of the merge shall not be applied. This shall be a very important unifying step because cases of biasness in the job recruiting strategies will not emerge at any time.
3. Pen down the company’s standards of management and operation: It is evident that the Johnson Controls and the Honeywell Computer had their own standards which were designed according to the nature and the quality of the production. However, the AlliedSignal Corporation aims are too high to be accomplished using the individual standards and therefore the best step is to set the new standards. The rationale for this step is to familiarize the employees on the new quality and quantity expectations expected at the end result (Gurchiek, 2015).
4. Launching of the merging program and survey of the employees: The management should conduct a survey on the employees that aims at assessing the levels of job satisfaction and their engagements. The survey shall allow the management to estimate the potential impacts on the change in culture and the overall leadership that comes along with the merging entities (Gurchiek, 2015). Once the pre-determined critical issues are surveyed, the launching step should follow. This is where all the employees are introduced officially to the new culture through recognition and being taught to understand the values of the merged organization. The employees are also supposed to be invited in the overall strategic plan that identifies the goals, visions and mission of the new company.
5. Coming up with a reinforcement plan that is sustainable and potentially fruitful: This is a very important step of uniting the two companies because laying out a reinforcement plan is very crucial. This can be effectively done through the Ritz-Carlton daily lineup approach. The management usually sets aside a few minutes daily to communicate their plans, standards and the levels of productions that are expected by the company. The employees eventually adapt to the new system. For the plan to be fruitful, the set standards should meet the market demands for target customers. At this stage, it is very important to clarify the reasons for the set standards so that every worker is informed on the goal of the company (Gurchiek, 2015).
6. Training the entire staff: A thorough training to the company’s technicians, the front office staff as well as the subordinate staff is very crucial. A sufficient training ensures consistency and high quality products and services are resulted. For the AlliedSignal Corporation, a one-on-one coaching of the various staff members would work best in unifying the two cultures.
7. Implementing the outlined procedures of operations: Every employee should perfectly understand his or her roles as well as those of the colleagues. This enhances the employees’ knowledge of the organizational structure and culture. As a result, the implementation of the various tasks in the production stages will end up becoming a self driven system culture. The management should also try to address the various expectations at individual levels for proper guidance to the employees (Gurchiek, 2015).
8. Measure and analyze: The progress of the culture needs to be assessed at different intervals to estimate the net promoter score. Through the use of spreadsheets package, the efficiency of the individual technicians can be assessed. The results can be compared against the goals of the company at individual level to get the summation of the overall progress of the culture unification (Gurchiek, 2015).

 

 

References

Gurchiek, K. (2015). Culture KEEPERS. HR Magazine, 60(6), 40-44.

 

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Lundby, K. M., & Jolton, J. (2010). Going global: Practical applications and recommendations for HR and OD professionals in the global workplace. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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