Management Process and Corporate Culture

Video Transcription

Hello, and welcome to this tutorial on management process and corporate culture. So let me ask you a question to begin with, as always. Do you think an organization can have a culture? We know that certain demographic groups have cultures, and all the certain ethnic groups and nations even have a culture. But is it possible for a company or an organization to have a culture all its own?

Well, during this tutorial, we're going to be looking at managers. We're also going to be looking at the management process. And we're going to be looking at this thing we call corporate culture. The key terms for this lesson are going to be management process and corporate culture.

So let's talk a little bit about managers. Now, a manager basically is a person responsible for controlling or administering a part of the organization. Now, why do managers matter? Or do they matter at all?

Managers do. And they could be beneficial to the organization overall. And that includes the ability to make those decisions that need to be made in a timely manner. They also allocate resources and coordinate efforts around their spans of control within the organization. And you're also going to see that managers will all tend to have the same basic skill set, no matter where they work. They could be financial. They could be managing physical, human resources, or even IT resources. They're all going to be looking and relying heavily on a unique and set set of skills.

Well, we said one of our key terms was management process, so let's go ahead and define that. Management process is the practice that managers have of planning and supervising the actions of an organization. And this is one of those skill sets we talked about that all managers are going to need to possess no matter what area they tend to manage. And there are four parts to this process.

The first part is planning. Now, planning has three different components. You're going to be determining goals. You're going to be creating a strategy for that plan. And you're also going to be developing tactical and operational plans, those big picture and kind of short, focused plans in order to get that plan accomplished. Next, you're going to be organizing. And basically, what you're going to be doing here is grouping the resources, activities, and people together in a way that's going to be most efficient in order to carry out that plan.

Next, as a manager, you're going to be leading. You're going to be influencing the employees to work together and to work toward that common goal, which is the plan you came up with and organized around. Now, lastly you're going to be controlling that plan. You're going to be evaluating and regulating what's going on with those different activities. You're going to be making sure those goals are met. And if you're falling short on a particular goal or part of the plan, you're going to be making adjustments in order to get that plan back on track.

Now, corporate culture was one of those things we talked about very early in the lesson. And put simply, corporate culture is the commonly understood and accepted history, ethics, ideals, and attitudes within an organization. Now, corporate culture is one of those things that's going to be part of a manager's life. Managers must reflect that corporate culture in order to keep it alive. If you don't, or if the manager your boss doesn't reflect that corporate culture, then the corporate culture starts to fade away and become less effective and affective on the managers or the employees within that particular business.

And really it's just some shared beliefs, some norms, things that we expect within our organization, and also those shared experiences. Hey, do you remember when boss A did that? Or do you remember that time we all got together and did this thing? Man, that was great. Those shared experiences that help make up that culture that belongs to a particular organization.

Now, corporate culture can improve morale, but it can also be limiting in a way. We can improve morale through direct efforts and activities that help reflect that culture that we all share within that organization. But not everyone tends to agree with everything about a corporate culture. So in those cases, it could be limiting or problematic for some employees. Now, corporate culture can be felt in a number of different ways, positive, negative. We're going to take a look at an example of some great corporate culture.

First of all, let's talk about some positives. Now I know, this is the Marine Corps. How can these guys be positive or positive about the corporate culture? Well, the Marine Corps as an organization is very much about dedication and service to each other within the Marine Corps. It's said that one never stops being a marine. You're never not on active duty.

You're never an ex-marine. You're always just a former marine or one who's not currently serving on active duty. And that culture within the Marine Corps is one that fosters that idea that they're this band of brothers, and they always watch out for their own. That could be a very positive and reassuring thing for the members within that particular organization.

Now, in what ways could corporate culture be negative? Well, at one time, General Electric, their corporate culture was such that they really wanted to focus on performance and increasing the performance of their employees. So the way they did that is the top 10% of their employees, the top 10% of the performers, they lavished rewards on them. They gave them big raises and bonuses, and they really took care each year of the top performers for that year.

The middle 80% got OK rewards. They got a little bonus here and there. And their pay went up, but not as substantially as their top performers. Now, the bottom 10% on the other hand, well they just got fired. So every year, you didn't want to be in that bottom 10% because you were always worrying, hey, if I get below this certain level, I'm not going to be here next year. I'm going to be out of a job.

And you can imagine while that may have increased certain performance in certain areas, that can be really, really stressful for an individual employee because they're constantly worried about where they want to be. And this can also encourage things like backstabbing and sabotage within an organization for certain people who really don't want to be at that very, very bottom, and they're right on that edge. They want to take every advantage they can in order to not be in that bottom 10%.

Now, an example of a company that has great corporate culture is Google, for example. Now, Google, part of the benefit for having this great corporate culture that everybody talks about is they have absolutely no problem attracting people. Folks will line up at the door, sleep overnight, pound on the door, and sing little songs and ditties if they thought that it would get them a chance to get a job at Google because everybody wants to be a part of this great culture, this great creative culture.

As a result, Google has a lot of different people that they can choose from. So they really can pick who they think is best going to reflect and sustain that corporate culture that they have. And they're also going to be able to pick the best employees from among the masses that are out there trying to get these particular jobs at that company. And all of this is a result of having that great corporate culture that's reflected throughout the job market.

So what did we talk about today? Well, we looked at managers and what their role is, and whether they matter. And we find out, you know what, they do matter. Because they're the ones that are controlling the operations of a corporation or organization from day to day. We also looked at that management process. What are those skill sets that every manager is going to have to have to be effective?

And lastly, we looked at corporate culture. How it can affect a company in a very, very positive way, and how it can affect an organization in kind of a negative way. And how having something that is understood to be a great corporate culture can really, really benefit a company in the long run. As always, I want to thank you for spending some time with me. I hope you guys have a great day.