Page 408 - Cultures and Organizations
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The Elephant and the Stork: Organizational Cultures 373
FIGURE 10.3 Potential Subdivisions of an Organization’s Culture
Top
management
Middle/lower
management
Professional
employees
Other
employees
Country A Country B Country C Functional area X Functional area Y Functional area Z
Division D Division E Division F Merger partner M Merger partner N Merger partner O
former merger partners. We have met cases in which twenty years
after a merger the cultural traces of the merged parts could still be
found as slightly different moral circles (see Chapter 1). Not all of
these potential divisions will be equally strong, but it is important for
the managers and members of a complex organization to know its cul-
tural map—which, as we found, is not always the case.
■ Testing whether the culture fits the strategies set out for the future.
Cultural constraints determine which strategies are feasible for an
organization and which are not. For example, if a culture is strongly
normative, a strategy for competing on customer service has little
chance of success.
■ In the case of mergers and acquisitions, identifying the potential areas
of culture conflict between the partners. This can be either an input
to the decision on whether to merge, or, if the decision has been made,
