Discuss What are the main features of the corporate culture at Suspenders plc? What impact does this culture have on employees like Susan and Maureen? Does the culture and climate of the company need to be changed and if so how could this be achieved? What benefit might any changes bring to the company?
Case study
Susan Chumley applied for a job at Suspenders plc, a subsidiary of the giant Megatron organization. She was successful and was pleased to accept the job as her friend Maureen also worked there.
On her first day Susan was given an induction by her line manager Dave Sparkel, who also introduced her to the rest of the team. Susan noticed that the offices were very spartan and there were no personal items on desks or pinned to the walls – she was told that this was company policy. At lunchtime the other workers left the offices and returned ten minutes later with sandwiches that they ate at their desks while continuing to work. No one showed Susan where the sandwich shop was.
After several weeks her colleagues became more approachable and she was invited to join a few of them for a drink after work. There she learned that their line manager Dave Sparkel was rumoured to be having an affair with the purchasing manager of their biggest customer, Lofticel, and that he had negotiated some private commission for himself in return for cutting prices to Lofticel.
Susan also spoke to her friend Maureen who worked in a different department. Maureen told her that a supervisor had recently been fired for sending an e-mail critical of manage- ment policy. She also learned that, before she joined, seven members of the finance team had been made redundant and had been replaced with casual workers. The remainder of the finance team was hostile to the company and in order to revenge themselves on the company carried out small acts of sabotage such as deliberately delaying payments to suppliers thus causing supply problems to manufacturing units, and failing to claim discounts, thereby increasing costs.
The staff handbook claimed there was a whistleblowing hotline that was totally confidential but the only person known to have used it was marched off company premises by security and never returned.
Discuss
- What are the main features of the corporate culture at Suspenders plc?
- What impact does this culture have on employees like Susan and Maureen?
- Does the culture and climate of the company need to be changed and if so how could this be achieved?
- What benefit might any changes bring to the company?
Trending now
This is a popular solution!
Step by step
Solved in 3 steps
