Page 119 - MS Year in Review 2020

Carlton, Starbucks, Walmart and many others all have formal statements of their

culture.

THE PROBLEM

In spite of this recognition, several companies with reputedly strong positive

corporate cultures have experienced grave difficulties because of their strong
culture! These include IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and GE.

Why did IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and GE (companies with vaunted corporate
cultures) experience grave difficulties after many decades of success? In brief, the
reason is that they all have cultures articulated by corporate leaders based upon

what their leadership believed the company’s core values ought to be rather
than based upon what actual empirical research has indicated what the key

dimensions of corporate culture should be.

Purpose

The primary purpose of this article is to explain the irony of why these formerly

great companies (all of which were once celebrated for their strong positive
cultures) fell from grace, precisely because of inadequacies in their cultures! A
related purpose is to provide information about what the key dimensions of cultures

are so that other companies can create strong positive, and durable (sustainably
successful) cultures!

Corporate Culture and The Decline of IBM

IBM is one of the most iconic names in business. For many years it was justifiably
renowned for its corporate culture.

I personally learned about IBM in the early 1980s when I was invited along with

about 5 other professors to visit at their expense and learn about IBM and its
human resource management practices. I always have a list of about ten companies
I would like to know more about and IBM was at the top of that list. I made the visit

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