Culture change at texaco -

Answer Texaco was facing huge ethical culture problem due to many reasons like racist behavior of its employees and managers, lack of diversity policy and inequity across workforce in terms of pay scale, job specifications etc. The employees used abusive and racist language while referring or talking to the employees coming from different color, race, gender and culture. At the same time, the organization was paying lower wages to the minority employees, thus displaying blatant biases against the minority employees.
Answer 2
The new CEO of Texaco met the challenge of ethical problems at Texaco by introducing complete culture change that highlighted stringent measures for implementing equity across the workforce at all levels of interaction. Most importantly, cultural dimension was seen as the central element of promoting equity which not only showed firm’s commitment towards diversity but also raised important question of organizational culture and business strategy that played vital role in promoting better work culture within and outside the firm. In the highly competing environment of rapid globalization, pluralistic society had increasingly become a norm. Organizational ethics and ethical consideration to socially relevant issues give significant leverage to the firm in the market as it tend to influence firm’s image amongst the public, impacting their overall performance (Trevino & Nelson, 2014).
Thus, Texaco’s new diversity policy was made intrinsic part of its business strategy and organizational culture. It mainly targeted the behavior of employees and through harsh measures like dismissal from job, ensured that employees treated other employees coming from different color, race, gender and culture with respect. The diversity strategy was integrated within all spheres of firm’s operations including recruitment, promotion, retention, supply chain, customer service etc. The system was distinct in its lack of commitment towards diversity mainly due to low awareness regarding cultural values and cultural competencies. The initial focus of new diversity policy was important facilitator for encouraging better behavior and mode of communication. By introducing drastic changes, the managerial leadership was actually making efforts to develop better organizational culture that relied on building new workplace relationships based on better cross-cultural understanding and mutual respect.
The strategic realignment of its business strategy and business goals would emerge as important catalyst for developing facilitating environment of equity and shared goals that would positively impact productive outcome. The learning environment and regular training of workforce on work culture and changing environment would ensure that culture change was successful on long term basis.
Answer 3
Culture change is a slow process that is primarily defined by shared vision and collective goals of the organization and which is developed through sharing of information or messages and stories amongst workforce (Beardwell & Claydon, 2007). Indeed, developing effective organizational culture is an on-going process that demands a better-informed leader who can help inculcate confidence in his people to move forward. Effective communication promotes better understanding of cross cultural values and cuts across the multi-cultural layer of the organization (Silverthorne, 2005). Consequently, it is key ingredient for higher performance and organizational productivity. By introducing culture of mutual respect, shared responsibility and improved communication, new CEO of Texaco not only provided an intangible stability amongst the employees but also facilitated integration of diverse populace with the system.
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Reference
Beardwell, Julie & Claydon, Tim. (2007). Human Resource Management: A contemporary Approach (5th ed.). NY: Prentice Hall.
Silverthorne, C. P. (2005) Organizational Psychology in Cross-Cultural Perspective. New York: New York University Press.
Trevino, Linda & Nelson, K. (2014) Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right (6th ed.). New York: Wiley and Sons.