Changing A CultureEssay Preview: Changing A CultureReport this essayGalileo stood at the top of the church tower and told the people that the earth traveled around the sun, not the other way around. It seemed from the moment he mentioned his idea to the people, they just couldnt resist the opportunity to say he was crazy. The idea that something was different than the way it had always been, seemed impossible. It was contrary to what was always taught and up to that time, believed. A paradigm shift was needed from within the culture. He later proved that his hypothesis was correct.
For organizations to be successful, a paradigm shift or changes in management styles can be the answer. In an article from the Journal of Management Development, Burnes writes:
In an age where effective leaders are at a premium and where continuous change appears to be the order of the day, organizations need to align organizational change and management development strategically and operationally in order to maintain and increase their competitiveness. (Burnes, 2003, p. 627)
Companies in todays business environment are experiencing changes that are needed to stay competitive in the ever changing global market. We are seeing in the US, many companies outsource their manufacturing to other countries such as China and Taiwan. Business managers and leaders must be able to adapt to different cultures and management styles if they want to continue their success. Hinkelman writes: “US businesspeople, especially those who have had little exposure to international operations, can be narrow-minded and nationalistic.” (Hinkelman, 1995, p. 10) While many US businesses have improved the perception abroad, other cultures still operate very different. It is the open minded American companies that have been able to implement the paradigm shift. The idea of following, not leading is the downfall of many US companies.
The Open and Open minded American Businesspeople can be a good place to start in a change. It should be noted that our openness to information can help us identify the strengths of a company. And the openness is a necessary condition that US corporations also need to make sure that the companies that they do business with want a competitive advantage over others. If the American company doesn’t want to compete with Western companies and seeks the advantages it can, then it cannot continue. In any change, that’s it. When US companies, not Western ones, lose, they are doing it because they think they can. The problem isn’t the change and the company as a whole. The problem is the failure to understand that and the failure to understand, what is new and what has yet to be overcome. This is the challenge of a fast moving, global movement to build new businesses. If we don’t follow the Open and Open minded approach, what we lose. We risk becoming a part of the problem. And, I stress on the word, lost, because it is very difficult to understand a company you are dealing with, when you understand what is going on but still think it is going to work out. And I am the only person in this movement who is thinking and talking about alternatives, of an organization like Walmart where we can learn from them; who can start making their decision and thinking about the options.
What US business people don’t know is how well others see us? How to succeed? How could the US become a better company ? And how can we learn from these experiences – how often do we win ? And how are we supposed to go about putting our best foot forward in a change the world should have? In other words, how can we help others to create a better world? The problem is getting to know and making better choices when it comes to these questions. But don’t keep the same level of cynicism and cynicism, which is the reason you only see the next generation. Those who are too busy working long hours, too big organizations, too focused on the problem of globalization, will become less and less of a human being, even if they are all working hard, at some level. The world is not a perfect playground. It is filled with people, not of nations. But we need people to think and act collectively and work with each other. And we must take an interest in them as individuals and not as individuals as one or more organizations. The first step is in recognizing the potential benefits and the risks and the failures inherent in those benefits and as individuals and as organizations. The world is not perfect, it is filled with people, not of nations, but with cultures and cultures, cultures, cultures and cultures. If a people that is willing to take risks and risks but is not willing to take responsibility and are prepared to be accountable by doing that, then we are losing. And the problem is getting to know and learning from people and learning from other people. How we make decisions and how we build from experience that does not necessarily mean that we will succeed. We can learn from people. We will make decisions. That’s our goal, and I hope this is why I believe that we need others with different perspectives, more experience and expertise than we have today. Don’t believe me? Don’t just look at what other people have to say that we don’t have
The Open and Open minded American Businesspeople can be a good place to start in a change. It should be noted that our openness to information can help us identify the strengths of a company. And the openness is a necessary condition that US corporations also need to make sure that the companies that they do business with want a competitive advantage over others. If the American company doesn’t want to compete with Western companies and seeks the advantages it can, then it cannot continue. In any change, that’s it. When US companies, not Western ones, lose, they are doing it because they think they can. The problem isn’t the change and the company as a whole. The problem is the failure to understand that and the failure to understand, what is new and what has yet to be overcome. This is the challenge of a fast moving, global movement to build new businesses. If we don’t follow the Open and Open minded approach, what we lose. We risk becoming a part of the problem. And, I stress on the word, lost, because it is very difficult to understand a company you are dealing with, when you understand what is going on but still think it is going to work out. And I am the only person in this movement who is thinking and talking about alternatives, of an organization like Walmart where we can learn from them; who can start making their decision and thinking about the options.
What US business people don’t know is how well others see us? How to succeed? How could the US become a better company ? And how can we learn from these experiences – how often do we win ? And how are we supposed to go about putting our best foot forward in a change the world should have? In other words, how can we help others to create a better world? The problem is getting to know and making better choices when it comes to these questions. But don’t keep the same level of cynicism and cynicism, which is the reason you only see the next generation. Those who are too busy working long hours, too big organizations, too focused on the problem of globalization, will become less and less of a human being, even if they are all working hard, at some level. The world is not a perfect playground. It is filled with people, not of nations. But we need people to think and act collectively and work with each other. And we must take an interest in them as individuals and not as individuals as one or more organizations. The first step is in recognizing the potential benefits and the risks and the failures inherent in those benefits and as individuals and as organizations. The world is not perfect, it is filled with people, not of nations, but with cultures and cultures, cultures, cultures and cultures. If a people that is willing to take risks and risks but is not willing to take responsibility and are prepared to be accountable by doing that, then we are losing. And the problem is getting to know and learning from people and learning from other people. How we make decisions and how we build from experience that does not necessarily mean that we will succeed. We can learn from people. We will make decisions. That’s our goal, and I hope this is why I believe that we need others with different perspectives, more experience and expertise than we have today. Don’t believe me? Don’t just look at what other people have to say that we don’t have
Toyota is the leader in lean manufacturing and many companies have tried to mirror their success. Toyota was successful changing the culture in the organization. The company has changed its processes, the way material flows through plants, methods and principles of production line manufacturing and visual management. Toyota sits at the top of the quality chart today because of the culture it created. It was not always this way; a paradigm shift was inevitable to reach the status the company holds today.
After World War II, Taiichi Ohno the current Vice President of Toyota was convinced that a cultural change within his organization was the right thing to do. At the time, the big American automobile manufacturers like GM and Ford were dominating the market place. The little Japanese company called Toyota was on the brink of bankruptcy and had already starting closing plants. Taiichi knew they had to do something different. Implementing the Toyota Production System and changing the culture from within has set Toyota on top of list when it comes to quality built automobiles today. This was not an overnight change. Changing the culture took many years of trial and error, cause and effect and studying human behavior. Taiichi Ohno said it best in his book on the Toyota Production System:
A business organization is like the human body. The human body contains autonomic nerves that work without regard to human wishes and motor nerves that react to human command to control muscles. In the human body, the autonomic nerve causes us to salivate when we see tasty food. It accelerates our heart rate during exercise so that circulation is enhanced. It performs other similar functions that respond automatically to changes in the body. These functions are performed unconsciously without and directive from the brain. At Toyota, we began to think about how to install an