strategic controls

Responses Week 1: One strategic control would obviously be the budget. The budget is one of the main strategic controls. The company determines its spending on R&D, new market entry, marketing for different products, and this spending is indicative of what the company\'s priorities are for the coming year. If there is no money for something, it is not a priority. If General Mills sees innovation as a pathway forward, it will spend on R&D.

If it sees an acquisition as a key strategic pathway, it will put itself in a position to absorb a rival. Another major strategic control is the rewards system. The rewards a company sets out for its employees will orient the employees towards the specific activities that are being rewarded. If the rewards are general – say, net profit-based- they will orient employees to perform their duties well in a general sense, but that\'s it, because employees know that they have no particular influence, individually, on profit.

But if rewards are tied to specific job-related activities, then that will change the culture – such rewards guide action, but they also provide everybody with a much stronger sense of their best contributions to organizational objectives. Week 2: I agree with the proposition that culture changes constantly in an organization, but the conclusion that culture cannot be managed does not flow from that proposition.

That management cannot participate in or influence every single interaction that contributes to culture-building is not at all the same thing as management having no influence over culture. The leaders of the organization play an important role in the shaping and development of culture. They are not distinct from the organization, but rather they are part of it Strategic controls can definitely play a role in managing organizational culture.

You can imagine that in a smaller company one or two key individuals can do this, but in a larger organization you need to be able to find levers to influence culture at an aggregate level. This is where the strategic controls come into play.

Think about something like budget – a budget that allows for substantial family-oriented benefits exceeding industry norms can allow a company to foster a family-first culture, by way of encouraging personal investment in family, showcasing organizational support for the family and attracting employees that put family first. Conversely, a company budgets for time set aside for personal projects is a company that will not only encourage creativity but will attract creatives (Sarooghi, Libaers & Burkemper, 2015).

The fact that strategy is constantly evolving does not mean that culture is immutable – it is actually the opposite, strategy can be continually shaped and molded by management. Response to Frederick I am pretty sure that the Supplier Code of Conduct is not the right one – it is for suppliers, who are external to the company. The internal code of conduct would be the one that influences organizational culture, in theory.

The Code of Conduct can definitely contribute to the culture in a sense, because it does provide behavioral guidance for employees, and specifically references \"every action, every day\", indicating that it is a documented that is intended to be applied universally. The problem with claiming that this document supports the company\'s strategy is that, when you actually read the Code of Conduct, it contains the usual statements one expects from a code of conduct.

In other words, nothing about actual strategy, and nothing that contributes to organizational culture beyond surface-level platitudes. Not to be too harsh on General Mills, but the document mostly states the obvious (i.e. no bribes, keep food safe, maintain privacy, etc.). It is generic guidance, not a document that says anything about the company\'s strategy, or supports it. But let\'s unpack the Supplier Code of Conduct versus strategy. We know General Mills\' strategy is to produce and market processed foods for the mass market.

Ensuring that suppliers avoid slave labor, or use ingredients that aren\'t poison, is a pretty low bar to clear, and doesn\'t.