Culture Transplant-Nummi Case

A Great Experiment Of Culture Transplant Cross-culture management, Prof. Alfred Kieser XiaoJun Ma Culture is a set of basic assumptions, which shared solutions to universal problems of external adaptations and internal integration—which have evolved over time and are handed from one generation to the next. This is a general definition of culture. Actually there are many definitions exist, some concentrated on values, others on shared patterns of behaviors and meaning. And what we are going to talk about is the problems of transplanting practices, from one culture into another. There are different types of corporate culture just like there are different types of personality. According to the theory of a business master, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, different types of cultures can be generalized to these four types: academic culture, in which the employees tend to stay in that stable environment, and exercise and develop their skills, and they work mainly for reputations and ranks. Baseball team culture, where the employees are highly skilled, and can get a job some where else easily. This type of industries is usually very fast paced, with high risk, high revenues, like investment banking, stock, futures dealer. Club culture, the most important issue for the employees in this culture is to fit in this culture. Like in most Japanese companies, employees stay in the companies from low position, and later promoted to higher position, usually they work in the companies for their whole career. Fortress culture, in which the companies often undergo massive reorganization, thus the employees will have the opportunities to be promoted or laid off. Corporate culture can be further divided into various types, these four are basic forms. Basically, we can say that organizational culture is the character of an organization. And culture is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs

References: Cross Culture Management binder content, NUMMI case by Florida and Kenny. Internet article: Culture, Prof. Jeffrey Sonnenfeld NUMMI case study, HR management course by Prof. Martin Conyon, ESSEC