BMW Dream Factory and Culture, Case Study Example

BMW Culture

Organization culture may be regarded as the joining glue that integrates different departments across BMW(Gagliardi). Although during the start the organization uses the classical hierarchical organizational structure where most of the authority tends to lie at the top of organization. However the BMW experienced paradigm shift in its basic organization’s culture when the organization starts working on the Assembly Line project where the organization implemented a divisional structure where the decision making rights were spread across the organization and employees particularly working at the lower end of the hierarchy were empowered to use the organization’s resources to accomplish the organization’s long-term goals and objectives. The change management strategy that essentially started through the change of the basic organizational structure not only motivate employees across the organization but also made the organization open to experience and more creative and adaptive to new ideas and concept(Gouillart and Kelley). The transformation process continued at BMW after the acquisition of Rover Factory, where the organization further empowered employees and major shift was experienced as the organization shifted towards the team structure instead of divisional structure. The introduction of total quality management concept and lean manufacturing further transform the organization’s culture in its quest to accomplish the best and serve as a role model across the industry.

Leadership at BMW

From the very beginning the leadership model of BMW was based on the classical leadership model that could be termed as authoritative leadership where most of the decisions are made at the top of the organization without consulting subordinates and followers. However with the passage of time the organization realized that this model seize to serve the basic purpose of the organization and hence the organization implemented a transformation leadership model where  the organization starts empowering subordinate by giving them the needed decision making rights and changing the basic organization structure and reporting relationship of  different members of  the organization in order to better exploit environmental opportunities and threats confronted the business organization(Adler). This has a direct impact over the organization’s culture and organization culture, as the organization is now more open to new ideas and could now accomplish its long-term goals and objectives more effectively and efficiently(George and Jones).

Job Characteristics Model and BMW

As per the guidelines from the job characteristics models, jobs that are highly enjoyable tend to have three essential characteristics that include skills variety, autonomy and feedback that in turn results in high intrinsic and extrinsic motivation that usually have a very positive impact over employee as well as organization’s performance as the jobs satisfaction increases while absenteeism and labor turnover decreases(Robbins and Judge). The same happened with BMW as the organization implemented the new model, the satisfaction of employee increases as they were empowered to use the organization’s resources for the accomplishment of firm’s long-term goals and objectives, due to better motivation and dedication towards the organization(Adler).

Attributes of Creativity

The organization by empowering lower level employee to use the organization’s resources for the accomplishment of firm’s goals and objective in turn foster the creativity and innovativeness across the organization. this is due to the fact that employees, particularly those working at the lower level of organization’s hierarchy are in better position to understand the problems and opportunities confronted the business organization due to their direct contact with the firm’s target market and on the basis of such knowledge could take some steps that resulted in an unbeaten performance across BMW. By taking an open perspective, BMW ensure that it foster new ideas across the organization, and although there were some temporary setbacks, the fact is that the current success that the firm enjoy could be attributed to BMW’s ability to supports and foster creativity and innovativeness across the organization(George and Jones).

Works Cited

Adler, N. International Dimension of Organizational Behavior (4th Edition). USA: Southe Wester Colleg Publishing, 2002.

Gagliardi, P. “The Creation and Change of Organizational Cultures: A conceptual framework .” Journal of Organization’s Studies vol 7(2) (1986): 117-125.

George, Jennifer M. and Gareth R. Jones. Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior. USA: Addison Wisley Publishing Company, 2004.

Gouillart, F. and J.N. Kelley. Transforming the Organization. USA: McGraw Hill Publishing Inc, 1995.

Robbins, Stephen P. and Timmothy A. Judge. Organizational Behavior. USA: Pearson Education Ltd., 2008.