Title

Changing Corporate Culture at Wingaard Corporation

Author

Steven E. Wiese, Concordia University, St. Paul

Date

1999

Document Type

Capstone

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Chairperson (Advisor 1)

Dr. Kimora Kachelmyer

Reader (Advisor 2)

Dr. Charles Nuckles

Reader (Advisor 3)

Dr. Charlotte Knoche

Abstract

The purpose of the project was to evaluate a typical southern Minnesota manufacturing company, which was to be the basis for developing a broad understanding of corporate cultures. The evaluation process involved assessing how a corporate culture evolves and how it can be successfully altered to promote greater communication, employee career advancement opportunities, and enhancements to the growth and productivity of a corporate environment.

The setting of the problem focuses on the world around us. A business has to be adaptive to the work environment because we are in an age of change. A company's work activities cannot be looked at as the way they used to be done, but how they can be done better in the future. Small changes happen within organizations over time that created change, and alter corporate cultures. These changes can have a positive or negative impact on a company's work ethic and productivity.

The enthusiasm that a newly formed organization had in its entrepreneurial stage can become lost over time, because of changes in management's desires for more power and revenue. This enthusiasm level needs to be reestablished in the cultural environment of a business, if that business is expected to survive in the future. People are our world's greatest resource, and in the business world the benefit of employee's technical knowledge and skills have to be realized in the corporate cultures. People are an asset that most companies do not utilize, and an asset that, if organized, can help a company survive in the future.

The author was not in a position to implement direct changes to the corporate culture that he researched at Wingaard corporation. This approach by the author does allow for the developing of alternative solutions by involving management and the employees within the organization. This is a policy decision paper which involves thoroughly analyzing alternative solutions and finally making recommendations for a course of action, which will solve the problem being studied. Reviewing literature on the subject of changing corporate culture and reasons for resisting change are topics of focus for acquiring secondary data in this project.

The problem of corporations trying to make changes appears to be a nationwide issue, as it relates to the success of the business environment. The business world has also begun to realize that an organization has its own business culture. Culture in the business context involves how employees perform their tasks, and basically how things get done within the overall structure of a company. The objective of the project was:

• to develop a broad understanding of corporate cultures
• to understand how a culture was created
• to determine how a culture evolves or changes over time
• to understand how a culture can be successfully altered to promote greater communication, employee career advancement opportunities, and enhancements to the growth and productivity of the corporate environment

The author analyzed a southern Minnesota manufacturing facility where he is employed. The purpose of the study is to help the manufacturing facility and other similar companies in developing plans for changing their current dysfunctional corporate cultures. The ultimate outcome is to find ways in which organizations can recognize their old bad habits, and ways in which they can improve them.

In order to address the issues of changing a corporate culture, an analysis of the current corporate culture was required. The results of the survey indicated that the consensus of the participants believe that there were problems with the company and its current corporate culture. Hypothesis two was accepted, which indicates that immediate steps should be taken to implement changes and the development of a system for changing the corporate culture. After thorough evaluation of the option, the recommendation of the author was to continue with the intervention and change process that was defined in chapter four.

In conclusion, the proposed intervention will have a positive impact of the future of the southern Minnesota manufacturing company and other companies that suffer from the same symptoms. Changing a current corporate culture to a culture that has the, "Living Company foundation will have a positive impact of the overall life of a company" (Geus, 1997, p.52).

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