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Unraveling organizational culture in a crisis environment

Dolomati, Niki LU and Liu, Lishan (2012) BUSN49 20121
Department of Business Administration
Abstract
The purpose of this thesis is to explore the concept of the official corporate culture the one promoted from the parent company to its local units, in a company operating in a crisis environment. In particular, we ask to what extent this official culture is challenged by the financial crisis. The study was conducted in an IKEA store in Greece. The financial crisis, which had (and continues to have) a great impact in the Euro Zone, made its most aggressive appearance in Greece in the middle of 2011. Based upon literature that supports the strong corporate culture of IKEA, we explore the ways „mother‟ IKEA tries to implement part of this culture to its subsidiaries. Through loosely structured interviews we investigated to what extent this... (More)
The purpose of this thesis is to explore the concept of the official corporate culture the one promoted from the parent company to its local units, in a company operating in a crisis environment. In particular, we ask to what extent this official culture is challenged by the financial crisis. The study was conducted in an IKEA store in Greece. The financial crisis, which had (and continues to have) a great impact in the Euro Zone, made its most aggressive appearance in Greece in the middle of 2011. Based upon literature that supports the strong corporate culture of IKEA, we explore the ways „mother‟ IKEA tries to implement part of this culture to its subsidiaries. Through loosely structured interviews we investigated to what extent this official culture exists in the specific store. The study is qualitative, and has an interpretive character. The findings of this study suggest that the official culture is threatened by the crisis, but at the same time its employees seem to bear hopes regarding the parent company's reaction towards their store. This threat and faith could trigger further research in the field of national versus organizational culture and environment and organizational culture. Also, our findings could add to the existing literature regarding strong corporate culture. Since we investigate an environmental factor (financial crisis) that affects a whole nation (Greeks), and a company that strives to retain its strong corporate culture (IKEA), we hope that our study could be used as a base for further research into the three fields mentioned. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Dolomati, Niki LU and Liu, Lishan
supervisor
organization
alternative title
A study of IKEA in Greece
course
BUSN49 20121
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
IKEA, culture across borders, financial crisis, organizational culture, subsidiaries, organizational environment
language
English
id
2628630
date added to LUP
2012-06-15 11:09:34
date last changed
2012-06-15 11:09:34
@misc{2628630,
  abstract     = {{The purpose of this thesis is to explore the concept of the official corporate culture the one promoted from the parent company to its local units, in a company operating in a crisis environment. In particular, we ask to what extent this official culture is challenged by the financial crisis. The study was conducted in an IKEA store in Greece. The financial crisis, which had (and continues to have) a great impact in the Euro Zone, made its most aggressive appearance in Greece in the middle of 2011. Based upon literature that supports the strong corporate culture of IKEA, we explore the ways „mother‟ IKEA tries to implement part of this culture to its subsidiaries. Through loosely structured interviews we investigated to what extent this official culture exists in the specific store. The study is qualitative, and has an interpretive character. The findings of this study suggest that the official culture is threatened by the crisis, but at the same time its employees seem to bear hopes regarding the parent company's reaction towards their store. This threat and faith could trigger further research in the field of national versus organizational culture and environment and organizational culture. Also, our findings could add to the existing literature regarding strong corporate culture. Since we investigate an environmental factor (financial crisis) that affects a whole nation (Greeks), and a company that strives to retain its strong corporate culture (IKEA), we hope that our study could be used as a base for further research into the three fields mentioned.}},
  author       = {{Dolomati, Niki and Liu, Lishan}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Unraveling organizational culture in a crisis environment}},
  year         = {{2012}},
}