Models of Culture

Organizational culture and national culture: The case of multinational companies: ZARA (outline)

Defining concepts: What is organizational culture?

* A system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations. (Organizational Behavior, p.546)

Do organizations have uniform cultures? (Ibid, p.548)

* Dominant culture and subculture

How the culture of a country influences the culture of a business?

Geert Hofstede identifies four cultural dimensions that can have a profound impact on the business environment:

* Individual level: individualism/collectivism

* Organizational level: power distance

* Occupational level: uncertainty avoidance

* Gender level: masculinity/femininity (Hofstede, Geert, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, 3rd ed, New York, McGraw-Hill, 2010, p. 25).

Organizational culture National culture

* Values communication –

social media and social sharing

* Norms

* Behaviour

* The individual values of a country predict organizational culture and consumer behaviour (Hofstede)

* National culture cannot necessarily be used to predict organizational culture and consumer behaviour

The case of multinational company: ZARA

Found by Inditex – ZARA present in 86 countries, a network of 1,770 stores (Inditex, http://www.inditex.com/en/who_we_are/concepts/zara)

High standards – company culture is highly decentralized and flexible

High standards – company culture is highly decentralized and flexible

Workers organized in teams – positive results

Competitions among teams

Continuous feedback ( ZARA: Culture, http://fashionworldwide.wikispaces.com/Culture)

Innovation and flexibility

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