Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning
This is an MIT Sloan Management Review article. Why do so many organizations fail to learn? According to the author, such failures may be caused not by resistance to change, human nature, or poor leadership, but by the lack of communication among three cultures: operating, engineering, and executive. The culture of operators is based on human interaction. Operators may use their learning ability to thwart management's efforts to improve productivity. The engineering culture represents the design elements of the technology underlying the organization and how the technology is to be used. The executive culture revolves around maintaining an organization's financial health and deals with boards, investors, and capital markets. According to the author, when organizations attempt to redesign or reinvent themselves, the cultures collide and failure occurs. Executives and engineers are task focused and assume that people are the problem. Executives band together and depersonalize their employees. Executives and engineers can't agree on how to make organizations work better while keeping costs down. Each culture must learn how to learn and to analyze its own culture. Then enough mutual understanding must be created among the cultures to evolve solutions that all groups can commit to.
Swot Analysis of "Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning" written by Edgar H. Schein includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Cultures Culture facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Innovation, Knowledge management, Leadership, Organizational culture, Organizational structure and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning casestudy better are - – talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , central banks are concerned over increasing inflation,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Cultures Culture, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Cultures Culture operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Cultures Culture
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Cultures Culture
Strengths Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Cultures Culture in Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning Harvard Business Review case study are -
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
High brand equity
– Cultures Culture has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Cultures Culture to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Innovation driven organization
– Cultures Culture is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Diverse revenue streams
– Cultures Culture is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Cultures Culture has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Digital Transformation in Organizational Development segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Cultures Culture digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Cultures Culture has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Learning organization
- Cultures Culture is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Cultures Culture is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Cultures Culture in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Cultures Culture are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Cultures Culture has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Strong track record of project management
– Cultures Culture is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Successful track record of launching new products
– Cultures Culture has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Cultures Culture has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Weaknesses Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning are -
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning, is just above the industry average. Cultures Culture needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Cultures Culture has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Cultures Culture has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Cultures Culture has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning, it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Organizational Development strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
High dependence on existing supply chain
– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Cultures Culture supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Cultures Culture vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.
Employees’ incomplete understanding of strategy
– From the instances in the HBR case study Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning, it seems that the employees of Cultures Culture don’t have comprehensive understanding of the firm’s strategy. This is reflected in number of promotional campaigns over the last few years that had mixed messaging and competing priorities. Some of the strategic activities and services promoted in the promotional campaigns were not consistent with the organization’s strategy.
High cash cycle compare to competitors
Cultures Culture has a high cash cycle compare to other players in the industry. It needs to shorten the cash cycle by 12% to be more competitive in the marketplace, reduce inventory costs, and be more profitable.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning, in the dynamic environment Cultures Culture has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Cultures Culture has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
Slow decision making process
– As mentioned earlier in the report, Cultures Culture has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Cultures Culture even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Cultures Culture 's lucrative customers.
Opportunities Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning are -
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Cultures Culture can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Buying journey improvements
– Cultures Culture can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Cultures Culture in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Cultures Culture has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Cultures Culture to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Cultures Culture to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Cultures Culture to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, Cultures Culture is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Cultures Culture to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Cultures Culture can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Cultures Culture can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Organizational Development segment.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Cultures Culture can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Loyalty marketing
– Cultures Culture has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Cultures Culture can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains
– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Cultures Culture can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.
Threats Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning are -
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Cultures Culture high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Cultures Culture with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Increasing wage structure of Cultures Culture
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Cultures Culture.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Cultures Culture in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Cultures Culture in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Cultures Culture has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Cultures Culture needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Cultures Culture.
Consumer confidence and its impact on Cultures Culture demand
– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Cultures Culture is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning, Cultures Culture may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Organizational Development .
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Cultures Culture can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Cultures Culture can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Three Cultures of Management: The Key to Organizational Learning is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Cultures Culture needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
