Organisational Culture Essay Example

Organisational Culture Essay The Intel Corporation produces microprocessors that are used in computers. It has a market share of over 75% and has been praised for its highly innovative culture. Do you think that an innovative culture can be relied on to guarantee the future success of a business? Justify your answer with reference to Intel and/or other organisations you know. (40 marks) An organisation’s culture refers to ‘the way we do things around here’ and is determined by the values, attitudes and beliefs of the people who work within it. As such, culture will undoubtedly influence the success of a business. In particular, it can be argued that an innovative culture can lead to business success because it enables companies to share ideas more freely and thus innovate and develop their business strategy. Furthermore, in light of Handy’s view of â€Å"discontinuous change† being ever more present in the business world, an innovative culture is likely to enable business to be flexible enough to cope with challenges that the future holds. However, it is important to bear in mind that when a business possesses over 75% market share that it benefits from economies of scale which can be an important determinant of success, regardless of culture. Perhaps more importantly, not every success international business possesses an innovative culture. A successful business strategy can be underpinned by other business cultures and thus the type of industry a business is in, and the different challenges it faces may determine what is the most suitable culture for them. We will write a custom essay sample on Organisational Culture specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Organisational Culture specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Organisational Culture specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Innovative cultures are essential in companies who are involved in technological markets, where developing new products and ideas can be key to success. The Intel corporation operate a very innovative culture which has lead to huge dominance of the market, capturing 75% market share after the production of microprocessors used in computers. Another example where innovation has lead to success is at Google, where CEO Eric Schmidt commits to innovation, making sure all employees are comfortable sharing ideas and opinions. The relaxed feel around the company allows employees to be creative, which has allowed Google to be one step ahead of competitors, which is especially important working in a technological industry. BMW use a similar culture where everyone is expected to help find solutions. They have a network of committed associates with few hierarchical barriers, allowing every employee to voice their opinion. This culture has allowed BMW to promote new products and get the product just right through thousands of brainstorming sessions. These examples show how innovation can lead to success in technological industries. Innovative culture can be relied on to guarantee the future success of a business, as the external environment is constantly changing. This can be linked to Charles Handy’s theory of ‘discontinuous change’ which means that in the future change is constant, and therefore an innovative culture would most likely guarantee a business success. Being highly innovative would mean that managers would have to be flexible and react to the constantly changing external environment, therefore adopting an innovative culture would mean businesses would have to come up with ideas and strategies for the future in order for the business to remain competitive and successful. Innovative culture should equip firms with the ability to cope better with change. For example Intel’s strategy of diversification where they use tactics such as job swapping and controlled employee role changes to increase the efficiency of their teams. This is useful as the workforce is flexible to the externally changing environment, and can guarantee future success of a business as they would be able to react to any change within the business. Hence I think that an innovative culture can determine the future success of the business, especially in a technological industry as the external environment is constantly changing meaning a firm has to be flexible and prepared to react and respond if it wishes to remain competitive and profitable. If a business did not react to changes and maintained there current strategies and plans then this could have negative effects on the business such as a declining market share due to competitors coming up with new innovative ideas and hence a lower profit. One way in which we can see that an innovative culture cannot be relied on to guarantee the success of a firm is that there are other organisations that have a different cultural approach that have been very successful. I believe that the culture within Tesco has significantly helped it to become one of the most successful retailers in Britain. Tesco use a person and role culture which I believe have helped to contribute to the success of the firm, there are ‘six levels between the till operator and the CEO’ in Tesco and I would think that this would have helped lead to the success of the firm as employees would feel like an important asset of the firm and are therefore motivated to work harder for the benefit of the business. Also it is evident in Cadburys, the biggest confectionary retailer in England who take a role and task approach to their culture that an innovative culture is not needed to guarantee the success of a firm. I believe that the putting an emphasis on results and giving staff specific roles within the business has led to the success of Cadburys as there is a specific focus on achieving targets and working as a team which I believe can highly motivate employees. So it is evident in a range of businesses that an innovative culture is not the key to success in business, various different cultural approaches such as task and role can have a significant contribution towards the success of an organisation. However, it can be argued that the size of Intel’s organisation provides it with its main competitive edge. Intel has a market share of 75% bringing with it certain benefits that are arguably more influential to its success than its innovative culture. A firm of this size is likely to benefit from economies of scale, propagating lower unit costs that can lead to higher profit margins. Higher profit margins enable greater re-investment into the firm, allowing Intel to continuously expand. Therefore, it seems apparent that even without its innovative culture, the sheer size of the firm would enable it to compete successfully. However, one cannot say that a large firm is guaranteed future success as demonstrated by the IBM monopoly that quickly lost majority market share to Microsoft and today only operate within a business-to-business niche market. Although business â€Å"success† is essentially easy to measure through examining market share, revenue, profit and other such measures, the factors that lead to such success are less easy to see. Factors such as a strong business strategy, good leadership, a favourable competitive environment and culture all contribute to a business’s success but being able to separate out which factor contributes more to success is near impossible. Furthermore, being ble to measure how effective an innovative culture versus a role or person culture is very difficult. Ultimately, the ‘best’ culture will vary according to industry and the nature of the business structure itself. Some industries such as the technology industry has developed its products at an exponential rate, inconceivable just 20 years ago. The nature of such a fast moving industry relies on quick and consistent innovation which is no doubt dependent on an innovative, networked culture like the type we see at Google and BMW. Other industries such as retailing and supermarkets, however do not face such radical and constant need to develop their product offering, and factors such as good quality service and product quality may be more important. As a result, a role and person based culture are more likely to lead to success. However, in light of Handy’s â€Å"discontinuous change†theory, all businesses, regardless of industry will face an ever changing external environment and so although an innovate culture may not be the most suitable per se, having an element of innovation and flexibility is key to any business intending to succeed in the future.

The Large Hadron Collider and the Frontier of Physics

The Large Hadron Collider and the Frontier of Physics The science of particle physics looks at the very building blocks of matter - the atoms and particles that make up much of the material in the cosmos. Its a complex science that requires painstaking measurements of particles moving at high speeds. This science got a huge boost when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) began operations in September 2008. Its name sounds very science-fictiony but the word collider actually explains exactly what it does: send two high-energy particle beams at nearly the speed of light around a 27-kilometer long underground ring. At the right time, the beams are forced to collide. Protons in the beams then smash together and, if all goes well, smaller bits and pieces - called subatomic particles - are created for brief moments in time. Their actions and existence are recorded. From that activity, physicists learn more about the very fundamental constituents of matter. LHC and Particle Physics The LHC was built to answer some incredibly important questions in physics, delving into where mass comes from, why the cosmos is made of matter instead of its opposite stuff called antimatter, and what the mysterious stuff known as dark matter could possibly be. It could also provide important new clues about conditions in the very early  universe when gravity and electromagnetic forces were all combined with the weak and strong forces into one all-encompassing force. That only happened for a short time in the early universe, and physicists want to know why and how it changed.   The science of particle physics is essentially the search for  the very basic building blocks of matter. We know about the atoms and molecules that make up everything we see and feel. The atoms themselves are made up of smaller components: the nucleus and electrons. The nucleus is itself made up of protons and neutrons. Thats not the end of the line, however. The neutrons are made up of subatomic particles called quarks. Are there smaller particles? Thats what particle accelerators are designed to find out. The way they do this is to create conditions similar to what it was like just after the Big Bang - the event that began the universe. At that point, some 13.7 billion years ago, the universe was made only of particles. They were scattered freely through the infant cosmos and roamed constantly. These include mesons, pions, baryons, and hadrons (for which the accelerator is named). Particle physicists (the people who study these particles) suspect that matter is made up of at least twelve kinds of fundamental particles. They are divided into quarks (mentioned above) and leptons. There are six of each type. That only accounts for some of the fundamental particles in nature. The rest are created in super-energetic collisions (either in the Big Bang or in accelerators such as the LHC). Inside those collisions, particle physicists get a very fast glimpse at what conditions were like in the Big Bang, when the fundamental particles were first created. What is the LHC? The LHC is the largest particle accelerator in the world, a big sister to Fermilab in Illinois and other smaller accelerators. LHC is located near Geneva, Switzerland, built and operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, and used by more than 10,000 scientists from around the world. Along its ring, physicists and technicians have installed extremely strong supercooled magnets that guide and shape the beams of particles through a beam pipe). Once the beams are moving fast enough, specialized magnets guide them to the correct positions where the collisions take place. Specialized detectors record the collisions, the particles, the temperatures and other conditions at the time of the collision, and the particle actions in the billionths of a second during which the smash-ups take place. What Has the LHC Discovered? When particle physicists planned and built the LHC, one thing they hoped to find evidence for is the Higgs Boson. Its a particle named after Peter Higgs, who predicted its existence. In 2012, the LHC consortium announced that experiments had revealed the existence of a boson that matched the expected criteria for the Higgs Boson. In addition to the continued search for the Higgs, scientists using the LHC have created whats called a quark-gluon plasma, which is the densest matter thought to exist outside of a black hole. Other particle experiments are helping physicists understand supersymmetry, which is a spacetime symmetry that involves two related types of particles: bosons and fermions. Each group of particles is thought to have an associated superpartner particle in the other. Understanding such supersymmetry would give scientists further insight into whats called the standard model. Its a theory that explains what the world is, what holds its matter together, and the forces and particles involved. The Future of the LHC Operations at the LHC have included two major observing runs. In between each one, the system is refurbished and upgraded to improve its instrumentation and detectors. The next updates (slated for 2018 and beyond) will include an increase in collisional velocities, and a chance to increase the luminosity of the machine. What that means is that LHC will be able to see ever more rare and fast-occurring processes of particle acceleration and collision. The faster the collisions can occur, the more energy will be released as ever-smaller and harder-to-detect particles are involved. This will give particle physicists an even better look at the very building blocks of matter that make up the stars, galaxies, planets, and life.

Introduction to Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Introduction to Leadership - Essay Example I realize much of this course, as well as the text book ( Northouse 2014) suggest that leadership is a phenomenon that resides in the context of the interactions between leaders and followers and makes leadership available to everyone (Northouse , 2014 p.8), but from my personal experiences, especially in a work context, trait theory appears to be the biggest contributor. Despite this it is obvious that one can only be a leader if there are those to be led, those who will interact with him and who share common aims, whether this is something as simple as making a profit , or , on a much grander scale, to improve the living standards of a whole population by acting as its government, or even to have some more negative aim such as the eradication of another people group as happened in Germany in the mid 20th century.   So leadership happens in many different areas of life – in business , in politics, in health care, in families   and in military life , to give just some of m any possible examples. A good leader must, by definition, be able to communicate his ideas to others, but there should also be two way communication , in that he listens to others , gets feedback for instance as to how a project is proceeding, or takes account of suggestions. My goal for my immediate future is not actually to become a leader, but more to understand the concept of leadership and how it can be done at its most effective. I have worked with those I considered to be good and successful leaders, as well as incompetent and ineffective ones.