Reference no: EM133333464
Assignment:
Thor Motor Company is a car manufacturer in the highly competitive automobile industry. Unlike other industry incumbents, the company focuses exclusively on the production and sale of fully electric vehicles. Once considered a niche player, the unexpected success of Thor Motor Company has disrupted the auto industry, forcing existing companies to begin restructuring to better meet the shifting customer demand for electric vehicles. Thor Odinson, the CEO of Thor Motor Company, believes his company owes its success to its open and risk-taking culture. His employees are highly participative in all aspects of the organization which has resulted in a personal sense of responsibility and commitment to the company's purpose and vision of sustainable transportation. Thor notes that employee cohesion, morale, and open communication are key pillars of his organization's success.
Thor notes that Thor Motor Company has had extreme difficulty keeping manufacturing costs down. To date, the company has been able to absorb these high costs by focusing on the premium vehicle segment. However, Thor Motor Company's closest competitor, Spider Motors, has recently begun investing in electric car platforms. By virtue of its significantly larger manufacturing operations and vast supply chain Thor believes that Spider Motors will be able to manufacture electric vehicles at a small fraction of the cost of Thor Motor Company. Not only will this allow them to undercut them on price on the premium vehicle segment, it will also allow them to target the significantly larger economy market.
While he believes that it will take at least another 5-10 years before their dominance in the electric vehicle industry is threatened, he believes that the future of his company largely depends on their ability to reduce the costs of manufacturing; however, the manufacturing division's culture seems to actively discourage this. Currently, their culture is the same as the design division. Thor believes that an increased focus on internal efficiency and consistency is needed in the manufacturing division. He expressed a desire to develop a subculture where personal involvement is lower and following established policies and procedures is the norm. He wants employees to value consistency, conformity and efficiency.
Required:
- What kind of culture does Thor Motor Company most likely have currently (ie. in paragraph 1)? Justify your answer.
- Describe 3 cultural artifacts that are likely to be observed at this company currently (ie. in paragraph 1).
- Based on the information in paragraph 2, what kind of culture should Thor Motor Company strive to achieve? Justify your answer.
- Describe how the organization can use cultural artifacts to begin transitioning to this new culture. Give 3 specific examples.