John Paul Manego
Professor McLaughlin
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Case Study: General Semiconductor
1. The actions I believe that had the greatest impact on changing the culture at
General Semiconductor was when the new manager, Ronald Ostertag, changed
the core values of the company. By changing the goals to eo ensuring ‘quality’,
‘integrity’, ‘good customer service’ and ‘on-time delivery’, the workers
encountered a new light to their worth. It might have given workers a more
incentive desire to appreciate their own value to the employment position.
2. Because culture is a major part of any company, people will go to work with the
right frame of mind; some people even subconsciously knowing what to think and
how to think at the time of work. Furthermore, people are more likely to take on
incentives to follow what they weren’t following before the with the previous
manager. Since I am not positive what the previous manager did the encourage
workers, I am positive that Ostertag designed a better plan to enhance a positive
mindset of the people.
3. Ostertag had the right idea when he knew he had to change the culture. What I
would have done was not replace every member of the senior team, but replace
only the few that completely did not understand what had to be done (have the
major leaders take some form of survey to determine which of them are fit for the
job). Change is definitely a good proposal, but too much change can sometimes
lead to problems in the long run. Ostertag’s changes did not lead to changes good
enough to save the company, but perhaps there could have been other ways he
could have gone about improving the company even greater. I would have started
off with this: I would get American workers overseas, or overseas workerse to
America. I would have the different workers (the few who speak both languages,
or have some form of translator) to educate the other through a huge worker
meeting on what the goal is for the company so that there is a broader view of
what has to be done. Mainly, I want people to socialize so that the working
environment could be friendlier.
4. Outcomes I would want to measure would be the financial gains of each company
for every country, but I would also want to measure the cultural outlook of the
workers by doing a survey. The survey would be based on how she or he sees the
company (and him or herself) socially and financially. The company would be
based on how she or he thinks and therefore, the company GE would have a better
understanding of what the company should look for. GE can develop a plan that
would improve relations with the workers, who in turn, may increase the chances
of the workers improving and changing their outlook of employment.