Essay on Culture and Objectives

1.1 Impact of models of organizational culture on organization’s objectives

Today, the organizational culture and objectives play an important part in the business development of modern organizations. In this regard, it is possible to refer to the example of Nokia, one of the most successful companies manufacturing mobile phones. In actuality, Nokia faces the problem of the change of the organizational culture because it affects consistently the objectives of the company and its marketing performance. In such a situation, the company needs to change the organizational culture to change its objectives and to enhance its position in the market.

In actuality, models of organizational culture affect organizational objectives. In this regard, it is possible to refer to the experience of Nokia which has developed the organizational culture, which is characterized by the high degree of complacency. In fact, the organizational culture of complacency results from the long-lasting leadership of Nokia in the industry. As a result, employees and managers of the company have accustomed to the company’s leadership and believed that their position is secure and no rival can threaten to the position of Nokia in the global market. In such a situation, objectives of the organization changed. Instead of the objective of global domination, the company became more concerned with saving costs to increase benefits and revenues of its shareholders and other stakeholders. However, such organizational culture and objectives challenged the position of the company in the market.

1.2 Difference between organizational and national culture

At this point, it is important to distinguish the organizational culture from national culture. In fact, national culture is the culture that has been shaped within a nation in the course of its historical development and social interactions. Each nation develops its own culture, which includes a set of values, traditions, socio-cultural norms that define cultural and social life of the nation. In contrast to national culture, the organizational culture is limited to the organizational framework, although it may surpass national boundaries, especially if an organization, such as Nokia, operates internationally. The organizational culture incorporates norms, rules, standards and principles defining interaction between people working within the organization. Each organization has its own set of values, norms and standards and professionals working within the organization should meet these norms and standards. Otherwise, internal conflicts within the organization may occur and employees can just drop out of the organization, if they do not meet its culture.

1.3 The corporate cultural profile

In actuality, the experience of Nokia may be very helpful for understanding the role of organizational culture and effective strategic change management in the contemporary business environment. In this respect, it is important to dwell upon the recent history of the company and forces driving the need for change. In fact, Nokia operates in the high tech industry focusing on manufacturing of mobile phones, whereas the development of smartphones is one of the strategic directions in the development of the company and this direction is particularly prospective. In actuality, Nokia holds the leading position in mobile phones market.

Recent years have revealed the major problem Nokia has faced in its business development – the problem of the growing completion. In fact, the competition grows and Nokia faces the problem of the maintenance of its competitive position in the market. In this regard, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the emergence of the competition was absolutely unexpected for Nokia. The company held the leading position and accustomed to its leadership in the market. However, competitors of Nokia kept progressing and eventually they have started to challenge the position of Nokia in the market.

In this respect, the emergence of new technologies and new rivals, especially iPhone and other smartphones became crucial for the current challenge Nokia has to deal with. Nokia apparently underestimated the significance of the development of new smartphones and attempted to save costs on developing new technologies, benefeting from its dominant position in the market.

However, major rivals of Nokia, such as Apple or a new rival Google, have managed to make a breakthrough in the market. They introduced new technologies, which allowed them to outpace Nokia in certain segments of the market. To put it more precisely, Apple introduced its iPhone, which allowed the company to hold the leading position in the smartphone market, challenging the position of Nokia. At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that Nokia has already developed similar technology and similar smartphone but the company refused from launching the production of new smartphone. As a result, Apple outpaced Nokia with its iPhone.

In this respect, it is possible to refer to Charles Handy’s model or organizational culture, which includes power, role, person and task cultures. In terms of this model, Nokia is inclined to the power culture because the company has accustomed to its leading position in the market and attempts to maintain its leadership. However, in actuality, this model of organizational culture is not effective anymore. Instead, Nokia should shift toward the task culture, in terms of which professionals working in Nokia should be task-oriented and aim at the achievement of strategic goals of the company. What is meant here is the fact that Nokia should develop its task culture focusing employees on the achievement of specific tasks, in a short-run and long-run perspective. In such a way, the company can reach positive outcomes in its performance and improve consistently its organizational culture.

Alternatively, it is possible to refer to Johnson and Scholes cultural web, which implies the development of the organizational culture respectively to needs of the organization, its structure and needs of employees. In this regard, the company should develop organizational change programs oriented on the effectiveness of the organizational and employees’ performance.

1.4 Impact of the organizational culture on its objectives

At this point, it is worth mentioning the fact that Nokia has proved to be one of the most successful companies operating in the mobile phone industry. Nokia was one of the first companies that started the production of mobile phones and, in the course of its history, the company raised to the top position in the industry. Today, its share of the world market has reached 40% (Nelson, 2009). Therefore, Nokia is one of the largest manufacturers in the world mobile phone market. In such a way, the development of the company has been quite successful until recent years, when the company has faced new problems under the impact of changes in the business environment as well as under the impact of changes caused by technological innovations introduced in the market. However, the culture of complacency shifted objectives from the global domination toward the minimization of costs and maximization of benefits of the organization. As a result, Nokia turned out to be in a disadvantageous position compared to its rivals.