I.
THE BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM
A small group of managers
at Falcon Computer met regularly on Wednesday morning to develop statement
capturing what they considered to be the Falcon culture. Their discussions were
wide-ranging, covering what they thought their firms culture was, what it
should be, and how to create it. They were probably influenced by other
firms in their environment, since they were located in the Silicon Valley area
of California.
Falcon Computer was a new firm, having been
created just eight months earlier. Since the corporation was still in the
start-up phase, managers decided that it would be timely to create and instill
the type of culture they thought would be most appropriate for their
organization. After several weeks of brainstorming, writing, debating,
and rewriting, the management group eventually produced a document called
Falcon Value, which described the culture of the company as they saw it. The
organizational culture statement covered such topics as treatment of
customers, relations among work colleagues, preferred style of social
communication, the decision-making process, and the nature of the working
environment.
Peter Richards read over
the Falcon Values statement shortly after he was hired as a software
trainer. After observing managerial and employee behaviors at Falcon for a few
weeks, he was struck by the wide discrepancy between the values expressed in
the document and what he observed as actual practice within the organization.
For example, the Falcon values document contained statements such as this: Quality: Attention to detail is our
trademark; our goal is to do it right the first time. We intend to deliver
defect-free products and services to our customers on the date promised.
However, Richards had already seen shipping reports showing that a number
of defective computers were being shipped to customers. And his
personal experience supported his worst fears. When he borrowed four brand-new
Falcon computers from the shipping room for use in A training class, he
found that only two of them started up correctly without additional technical
work on his part.
Another example of the
difference between the Falcon values document and actual practice concerned
this statement on communication:
Managing by personal communication is part of the Falcon way. We value
and encourage open, direct, person-to-person communication as part of our
daily routine. Executives bragged about how they arranged their chairs in a
circle to show equality and to facilitate open communications whenever they met
to discuss the Falcon values document. Richards had heard the open
communication buzzword a lot since coming to Falcon, but he had seen much
evidence of such communication. As a matter of fact, all other meetings
used a more traditional layout, with top executives at the front of the
room. Richards believed that the real organization culture that was
developing at Falcon was characterized by secrecy and communications that
followed the formal chain of command. Even the Falcon values document,
Richards was told, had been created in secret.
Richards soon became
disillusioned. He confided in a co-worker one afternoon the Falcon values
document was so at variance with what people saw every day that very few of
them took it seriously “. Employees quickly learned what was truly emphasized
in the organization-hierarchy, secrecy, and expediency- and focused on those
realities instead, ignoring many of the concepts incorporated in the values
document. Despite his frustration, Richards stayed with Falcon until it filed
for bankruptcy two years later. ”Next time’, he thought to himself as he
cleaned out his desk, “ I’ll pay more attention to what is actually going on
and less to what top management says is true. Furthermore,” he thought to
himself,” Ai guess you just can’t create values”.
II.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
a)
Falcon Computer was a new
firm in the Silicon Valley area of California.
b)
‘FALCON VALUES’ document
was created by the management of the firm.
c)
Software trainer Peter
Richards noticed the wide discrepancy between the values expressed in the
document and the actual managerial behavior.
---------------------------
III.
THE OBJECTIVES
a)
They wanted to maintain
their supremacy in the organization by virtue of the positions held.
b)
At the
same time
c)
Also wanted
to create and maintain such an organizational culture that every employee
in the organization could identify with.
---------------------------
IV.
THE AREA OF CONSIDERATION
SWOT ANALYSIS:
Ø
TREATMENT
·
Top
management was solely responsible for the bankruptcy of the organization in the
long run.
Ø
OPPORTUNITIES
·
They
took a great effort to formulate the values by putting their time and effort.
Ø
WEAKNESS
·
Lack of initiative from the management
Ø
STRENGTH
·
The
company did well in identifying the crucial values for the organization for
which it invested time and effort of the higher management.
---------------------------
V.
ALTERNATIVE COURSES OF ACTION (ACA)
1) ACA #1: Managers create and instill the
type of culture they thought would be most appropriate for their organization.
Advantage:They failed to identify that any sort of formulation is
not the entire success of it. It needs to be put into practice with a greater
strategy.
Disadvantage:It take more timethe discussion about the creation of
falcon values. They didn't actually believe in the importance of the values
that were stated in the document.
2) ACA #2: All the employees of the company should be
interviewed to confirm the company’s true condition.
Advantage: They failed to identify that any sort of formulation is
not the entire success of it. It needs to be put into practice with a greater
strategy.
Disadvantage:It take more time the discussion about the creation of
falcon values. They didn't actually believe in the importance of the values
that were stated in the document.
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