Enron & Harley Davidson

I love the flexibility this class allows. My topic is the study of organization culture (I chose Corporate, Religious and Political Cultures), how they change, what barriers exist to change, and how understanding all three can help you effectively introduce change into those organizations.

I get to chose the readings, movies, guest speakers, etc.

For this next week, we are going to talk about the Enron scandel and how the corporate culture encouraged the circumstances that led to it's downfall. Sometimes it just amazes me how all this could happen.

If any of my readers are from Texas or have strong opinions on Enron, please feel free to share.

The other company we are discussing on Tuesday is Harley Davidson. It amazes me how they sucessfully changed from a top down, union vs. management corporate culture. The evolution was not made without resistance and skeptisim, but has stood the test of time.

I wonder sometimes if Ford or GM would introduce some similar changes if they could become more profitable.

One thing I have observed in my almost 20 years of employment is managements inability to trust the opinion of their own employees. They hire them because they are interested in their skills, but then constantly hire outside consultants to review their organizations to become more efficient. Sometimes this is necessary as it's easier to implement decisions that have been recommended by someone without a vested interest, but other times you learn exactly what you have been told by your own employees.

Sometimes I wonder why management is so interested in the outside opinion.