General Motors (GM) is an international car manufacturer originating from the United States. Despite its previous successes, the company had to file for bankruptcy in the late 2000s, although it was revived and had to be significantly reimagined later (Smerd, 2009). However, without the implementation of cultural change, the firm could not align its employees’ vision with GM’s optimized structure. In this paper, the direction of change in GM will be analyzed.
Both the design and the culture of an organization must support each other in order for change to work. People on all hierarchical levels realize that GM can no longer sustain itself by stagnating through the practices of the past (Smerd, 2009). It was vital for GM to look at the core of its operations and apply its efforts there. A firm’s organizational culture is challenging to adjust and serves as a connection between its structure and systems (Sopow, 2022). Therefore, GM could not achieve the desired impact on its performance by merely optimizing its expenditures. Without a cultural shift, delivering the essential information regarding the necessity of the new design of GM will be impossible (Kislik, 2018). Moreover, its leadership style would differ from the renewed values, as the process would take an authoritative path if new responsibility would not account for employees’ perceptions.
In conclusion, General Motors had to make drastic changes in its organizational culture alongside optimizing its manufacturing processes and factories, as it would not achieve the intended goal of a complete transformation without them. Bankruptcy served as a waking call for GM, which successfully shifted its workers’ views alongside its new, lean internal design. GM’s case clearly highlights the importance of the organizational culture in times of crisis.
References
Kislik, L. (2018). How to tell your team that organizational change is coming. Harvard Business Review. Web.
Smerd, J. (2009). Can a new corporate culture save General Motors?Crain’s Detroit Business. Web.
Sopow, E. (2022). Living change: A guide to understanding and leading change. Canada West University.