Dro Boudaghian

ID#95484201

Trying to Change the Corporate Culture of a Multinational Enterprise:

General Semiconductor

1. In your opinion what actions taken by Ostertag stood the most chance

of changing General Semiconductor’s culture?

The actions taken by Ostertag that stood the most chance of changing

General Semiconductor’s culture was when he decided to get rid of the

senior management at the company. It made sense to try to rebuild the top

of the company before he began to work his way to the bottom. To be able

to unite the workers together and make a “team” so to speak was a simple

idea. The problem with teamwork and working together under certain criteria

that was written on a card and suddenly placed in front of the workers wasn’t

such a good idea though. As soon as he tried to develop a culture of mutual

respect is where it didn’t work as well as planned. To try to change such a

diverse company into one that follows a card didn’t work well because the

cultures each had their individual values working together as one with the

rest of the branches. Each culture had their own environmental values and

core principles to try to generalize them into one main one was a lot harder

than planned and failed. Out of the 60,000 workers, only 200 were in the US,

so trying to have the other 59,800 adopt standard American values wasn’t a

feasible idea.
 2. Do you think requiring everyone in a multinational firm to carry around

a card with the firm’s core values on it can change a company’s

culture? Why or why not?

Honestly, I thought it was a little too much. It is hard enough to translate

words into another language, just words alone are difficult. But the meanings

of the words are what are important. What would teamwork mean to the

branch in China? Would it mean the same thing, to work together as one

towards the common goal? I think that just because it is effective in America

with only 200 of the workers doesn’t mean that it would’ve worked overseas

at the other branches. Also, who would want to carry a card around stating

the core values of a company? Before Ostertag even purchased the

company, it was a large company and it was working. Why would these

60,000 workers want to carry a card around and have to watch for the owner

to come around and ask what their core values were? I think that when it

comes to redeveloping a company, one must understand the various cultures

that are present and that make up the company. To just generalize it and

make the values common and understandable to one culture isn’t fair and

honestly unnecessary. Why not attempt to understand where each culture

lies when it comes to values and work from there. Where integrity is

important in the US, it might be a new concept overseas.

 3. In your opinion, is Ostertag managing the cross cultural operations

effectively in the process of trying to change the firm’s culture?

Explain.

Ostertag’s management of cross cultural operations was not effective. The

problem was that his core values were that of his own culture. Those values

were effective in the US if anywhere, but when it came to the other cultures

that he had working at different branches there should’ve been a better

approach. He should’ve at least approached the heads of the other branches

and started to see how different they are from one another and also try to

see where the similarities are and capitalize on them. When it came to the

core values of the company, all of the other branches should have had an

input as well as their own definitions of what the core values were from their

own particular branch. If he had taken a slowly and given each branch time

to find and understand their own core values it wouldn’t have been such a

disaster. Each culture has their own set of values, each culture has their own

way of doing things, and bringing all those different values and ideas

together and making the core values from those from each branch would

have been more understandable and not such a difficult transition.

4. Did Ostertag appear to have a global mindset? Why or why not?

Ostertag did not appear to have a global mindset because he went in with

the values of a company based only and solely in the US. When it comes to

different cultures the values are very different. Each culture, each country
operates in their own way, to step in and try to make it the way that a US

company operates just leads to failure. What he should’ve done was after

letting go of the people in charge and at the top, was appoint members that

were from the other branches some members from China, Japan, France,

Germany, Ireland, and Taiwan. Why try to run a company without knowing

who you are working with and who’s working for you, I don’t think that

makes much sense. I also believe that in order to have a company that works

without flaws, one must know or at least have someone who knows their

branch. Ostertag didn’t have to learn how to speak each language or even

understand each culture, but he needed to have people that did. Those

people should have been the top priority rather than a card that says what

the workers of the company needed to work for. In order for him to have had

a global mindset, he needed people from around the globe around him and

help him see what their values were and work with them to make each

branch a smooth operation that understood the values of the company in

their own terminology and in their own way.