CEO Dick Brown Taking Over

A company’s organizational culture “can be defines as a set of values, norms, and artifacts, including ways of solving problems that members (employees) of an organization share. As time passes, stakeholders view the company and organization as a living organism, with a mind and will of its own”. It can be summarized as “the way we do things around here” (Ferrell 143-181). A company’s organizational culture is learned mostly through its artifacts; stories, rituals, language and symbols. Stories are narratives that contain elements of cultural value and beliefs, often involving its founder(s). Usually stories that anchor what’s happening now into what happened, involving a hero. Rituals are repetitive sequence of events that reinforce key values. Language is the acronyms and jargon used that let others know that you’ve assimilated. And symbols are usually some sort of method of conveying values apart from stories, rituals, and language.

The case “How EDS Got Its Groove Back” written by Bill Breen is about Dick Brown who was recruited by EDS’s board of directors to be its CEO. Before he was recruited, Brown was the CEO of British telecom Cable & Wireless, for two years; making him the first outsider to lead EDS in its history of 36-years, at the time. He arrived with an unequivocal message: “A company’s culture is really the behavior of its people. And leaders get the behavior they tolerate.” When Brown saw, the phone in his office didn’t ring; he summoned a technician to explain the problem, to him. The technician told him, the previous CEO of the company had the phone lines cut; to avoid incoming calls. The company that invented the information technology-services industry had itself disconnected.

After getting his phone line r...

... middle of paper ...

...DS. He knew right away that the flaw with EDS was in its culture.

My analysis of this case was of its organizational culture characteristic, of EDS before and after Dick Brown was recruited as its CEO. The type of leader he was to EDS and how effective his leadership abilities and styles were. I also commented on his effectiveness on changing EDS culture. He made the eagles flock, together.

Works Cited

Ferrell, O.C. "Business Ethics." Ethical Decision Making and Cases. Michele Rhoades, Joanne Dauksewicz. Mason: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.

Bauer, Talya, and Berrin Erdogan. "Characteristics of Organizational Culture." flatworldknowledge. flatworldknowledge, n.d. Web. 10 Sep 2011. .

Breen, Bill. "How EDS Got Its Groove Back." Fast Company. 51 (2001): 106. Print.