Chrysler’s Changing Organizational Culture

Chrysler’s Changing Organizational Culture

Ricky Burks

Excelsior University

In this analysis we will examine the organizational culture of Chrysler Group LLC in order to understand the mission or vision that the company was built on, while taking a look the components of the company’s culture that made it recognizable to others as the Chrysler brand or their known way of functioning. These components would include its observable artifacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions that are related to the specific culture of Chrysler Group. In addition to understanding the company’s past culture we will explore the changes made by their CEO Sergio Marchionne in order to revamp the company’s culture and make Chrysler a more profitable company. This will be done by bringing an understanding to the competing value framework Chrysler has and how Sergio Marchionne has made changes to the company itself. This requires looking at changes made within PE fit and the mechanisms that were used created organizational change for Chrysler.

First, one can tell that Chrysler functions under a market culture; therefore, “a market culture has a strong external focus and values stability and control (Kreitner & Kinicki pg.70).” The market culture did not completely change for the company as they still function under the same culture but previous observable artifact and espoused values have been changed in order to align the culture with the company’s goals. One of the main espoused values that were expressed was that profit margins were very important to the company and quality of the merchandise followed behind that. So with this in mind the observable artifact that could be seen with in this company was that it would use sales tactics such as discounting, rebates, or price slashing in order to create profits for the company. This of course can be seen as a major liability for Chrysler because as Marchionne stated “rarely has heavy discounting in pursuit of high volumes helped auto makers generate profits in the long term…(Kreitner &Kinicki pg.86).” The observation of that situation creates the understanding of why Marchionne felt change to the culture was much needed. Change had to take place in order for the company to regain a fair standing with in its market as the past assumption of the company had become that quality of the product was not as important as its profit margin and anything would be done to meet it in the short term. At this point Marchionne became the leader of the mechanisms that would create change in the company in order to meet the long term goals that it was pushing towards.

Secondly, Marchionne implemented change by his reaction to incidents and organizational crises making it known that he strongly disliked practices set forth to meet margins. He also revamped the company’s vision making it a combination of meeting profit margins by producing quality product and giving exceptional customer service. Then he took control of his staff by interviewing his staff and choosing those people whose skills and attitudes aligned with the vision that he had in mind and releasing those who functioned in a regressive manner by taking care to make sure that there was a PE fit between each new or old executive that was part of his management team. As well he aligned Chrysler to Fiat which would broaden the market for both companies, and last but not least he controlled the environment that strategic planning and monitoring were done in by making sure that these type of meetings were held privately and not discussed in detail outside of the meeting area.

Finally, by creating change in the Chrysler’s organizational culture Marchionne could bring their mission into clear view. Now the mission and vision of and enhanced core of quality, customer service, and proper business relationships can be seen in the push for better customer service and relationship with Chrysler dealerships and its commitment to a higher level of service and quality. Chrysler also is showing promise in extending its business and expanding its market by partnering with the Italian based company Fiat to create new and better product and a better global market for themselves. Therefore, Chrysler is now opening themselves up to more opportunities around the world by enhancing the new business they are cultivating and further extending and investing more into the ones that were already existing. In conclusion, the changes that Marchionne made to Chryslers culture only served to reset the direction of a culture that had been taken for granted, and push the company to meet the bench marks that would make successful and align it with its true mission and vision in the long term future of the company.

Work Cited

Kreitner, Robert & Angelo Kinicki, 2013. Organizational Behavior (10th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.

Chrysler Mission Statement- Cars, Customers, and Returning to Profitability. Retrieved November 2nd from http://retailindustry.about.com/od/retailbestpractices/ig/Company-Mission-Statements/Chrysler-Mission-Statement.htm

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