Preview

Caterpillar's Culture

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1157 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Caterpillar's Culture
Within any given organization, a set of norms, values, and behaviors are established to create one of many factors that drives the company’s performance. These underlying assumptions are known to be what is defined as the organizations culture. An abundance of research has been conducted to truly define what the definition of culture really is. One can conclude that the organizations culture determines how things are executed within the company and sets a perception of its environment. Consequently, the behaviors within the organization can have a drastic impact whether the company is successful or not. Seeming that culture is one of the hardest aspects to change, leaders within organizations tend to fall into an adaptive leadership style to …show more content…
This is evident as this is part of their mission and vision statement. To help facilitate their dedicated work, the organization has enlisted a common set of values. These values are in scripted in their Code of Conduct and define what Caterpillar stands for and how they conduct business with their customers (Caterpillar, 2017). The first of three values we will discuss is teamwork. At Caterpillar, they value and respect people with different opinions, experiences, and backgrounds. When put into action, teamwork helps foster a climate that treats everyone with dignity and respect. Teamwork also fosters an inclusive environment embracing diversity and inclusion. Understanding that the company operates in many parts of the world, strong relationships based off teamwork are needed to help sustain commitment. Caterpillar makes a commitment to each other and in addition to those who they work and serve for. The company has as obligation to preserve the heritage of the name they have established. That is why they responsible for the needs of their customers, safety of the employees, and environment all the while managing the company ethically and morally. Both teamwork and commitment breads excellence. According to Caterpillar, this reflects through the quality of their products and services in which they take pride in (Caterpillar, 2017). Compassion is what simplifies the determination to continue to serve customers and is done through innovation and continuous improvement. Caterpillar suggest that excellence is not only a value, but a discipline making everything they do an acute focus to deliver

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    “Culture is made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes, and behaviors shared by a group of people. Culture is the behavior that results when a group arrives at a set of - generally unspoken and unwritten - rules for working together. An organization’s culture is made up of all of the life experiences each employee brings to the organization. Culture is especially influenced by the organization’s founder, executives, and other managerial staff because of their role in decision making and strategic direction.” (1)…

    • 1720 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    West Jest vs Air Canada

    • 1204 Words
    • 5 Pages

    References: Barney,J.B, 1986, Organizational Culture: Can it be a source of Sustained Competitive Advantage? Academy of Management Review, 11, 656-665…

    • 1204 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Hobby Lobby

    • 1123 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Organizational culture is the summation of the underlying organizational values manifesting as collective assumptions, attitudes, beliefs, expectations and norms. Grounded in the customs and values of the organizational construct as well as in the experiences and interactions of the people within its walls, culture is the personality of an organization. In order to unravel the complex dynamics of culture within an organization, Edgar Schein offers a theory which categorizes culture into three basic elements, artifacts, espoused values and basic assumptions (Nelson & Quick, 2011).…

    • 1123 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Every organisation has a culture; they are structured according to the way they operate and according to their culture. The structure of an organisation and its culture can affect the way it works and performs. Deal and Kennedy (1982) argue that culture is the single most important factor accounting for success or failure in organizations. They identified four keydimensions of culture:…

    • 1188 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    When an organizational culture is already established, people must unlearn the old values, assumptions, and behaviors before they can learn the new ones. Executives must lead the change by changing their own behaviors. It is extremely important for executives to consistently support the change. Culture change depends on behavior change. Members of the organization must clearly understand what is expected of them, and must know how to actually do the new behaviors, once they have been defined. The culture of the change is that the sales have plummeted significantly, employee layoffs, and the departure of the president (Townsend, 2013). The role culture played in the change is that the economy changes and so do people and what they desire. What might have worked in the retail business one year might not work the…

    • 2138 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A unique corporate culture is hard to duplicate or imitate and thus helps to sustain a firm’s competitive advantage. Organizational cultures vary widely in the extent to which they are woven into the fabric of the organization’s practices and behavioral norms. The strength of any culture depends on the degree to which these norms and practices are widely shared and strongly held throughout the organization.…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    A manager needs to understand the interdependency of departments, internal partnerships, and the influence of power and politics to effectively manage across the organization. Effective managers use various political tactics to increase their power within the organization to coordinate and support the work of their peers and subordinates to meet company objectives. Managers regularly acquire and use power. Power-oriented behavior has an impact on managerial career progress, on job performance, on organizational effectiveness, and on the personal lives of employees (Obholzer, 1995). It involves the combined topics of power, influence, authority, and organizational politics. When running an organization, all these factors should be taken into consideration.…

    • 767 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Organizational culture is not a new concept in the world of organizational behavior. Yet despite its age, it still has many varied definitions as well as philosophies on its importance and impact to the success of a company. One definition is that organizational culture is a cognitive framework consisting of attitudes, values, behavioral norms, and expectations shared by members of an organization (Greenberg, 2013, p. 368). Greenberg (2013) further explains organizational culture through an analogy of a tree. Organizational culture are similar to the roots of a tree. Roots provide stability and nourishment for a tree in the same manner that culture provides these things for their organization. Another way to think about organizational culture is that it is the unseen and unobservable force that is always behind the tangible activities of an organization which can be observed and measured. (Gundykunst & Ting-Toomey, 1988). “Culture is to the organization what personality is to the individual – a hidden yet unifying theme that provides meaning, direction, and mobilization” (Kilman, Saxton, & Serpa, 1985).…

    • 3262 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    holland code

    • 6026 Words
    • 24 Pages

    Culture: The Missing Concept in Organization Studies Edgar H. Schein Massachusetts Institute of Technology Inattention to social systems in organizations has led researchers to underestimate the importance of culture—shared norms, values, and assumptions—in how organizations function. Concepts for understanding culture in organizations have value only when they derive from observation of real behavior in organizations, when they make sense of organizational data, and when they are definable enough to generate further study.…

    • 6026 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    My organization has found that the culture within the organization is very important and plays a large role in setting the tone for a work environment that employees consider happy and healthy. When employees feel empowered and appreciated they will make a greater contribution to team collaboration, communication and organizational outcomes, thereby enhancing job satisfaction. Organizational culture and behavior are quite interrelated, as organizational culture influences behavior and vice-versa. This example also shows that once an organization is established, it is possible they will need to revisit the organizational structure, design and culture to meet changing business needs. I believe we will only keep improving on our culture, as long as our leaders are willing to invest in leadership training on communicating and modeling our new set organizational drivers and embracing changes that increase the healthy and happy environment for…

    • 493 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Northouse, P. G. (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Posner, B. Z. (2010). Another look at the impact of personal and organizational values congruency. Journal of Business Ethics, 97(4), 535–541. doi:10.1007/s10551-010-0530-1.…

    • 3387 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Best Essays

    Conflict and Culture

    • 4220 Words
    • 17 Pages

    An organization’s psychological and social climate forms its culture. The culture represents the values, beliefs, assumptions and symbols that define the way in which the organization conducts its business. It tells the employees how things are done, what is important and what kind of behavior is rewarded. It impacts on employee behavior, productivity and expectations. Finally, it distinguishes the organization from other organizations. Although there is no one ‘best’ culture, there is a clear linkage between organization culture and organization effectiveness. Organizations with strong positive cultures, for example, have a much better chance of success than those with weak and negative cultures. It is important therefore for management to foster a culture that promotes the achievement of the organizations objectives.…

    • 4220 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Best Essays

    The above mentioned figure explains that in the first level "artefacts" there are more visible values that are easily noticeable like dress code, workplace related patterns etc. In second layer there are espoused values that explains the norms and philosophy of organisational working…

    • 3239 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Caterpillar presentation

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Julie talked about how Caterpillar employs about 125,000 workers. They have a code of conduct that they started back in 1925 which is a value based system. They motto in this area is be present, seek, share, listen and champion. She said it is important to listen to the group to build a culture where people understand the value and act in an ethical manor. The next key point was Rock Solid which is potential, position, plan, people, and performance. At Caterpillar they strive to build reliable, tough and durable. In 2012, Caterpillar spent over two billion dollars on research and development. They felt that this would not only help them today but in the future as well. When they say they are rock solid they focus on efficiency and effectiveness process in their team, trade, tax and infrastructure.…

    • 494 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Like all social mechanisms, an organization 's culture performs certain social functions, some or them intended and some of them unintended. Like organizational structure, culture is difficult to observe measure or map. In some cases, culture supports or reinforces structure, in others it conflicts with structure. In yet other situations, cultures acts as a functional alternative to reducing behavioral variability in organizations. These are the most commonly discussed functions of organizational culture…

    • 1561 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays