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THOMPSON CRAFTING & EXECUTING STRATEGY

CHAPTER 12 Corporate Culture and Leadership: Keys to Good Strategy Execution

Anthoneal Davis

This Paper will be covering CHAPTER 12 Corporate Culture and Leadership: Keys to Good Strategy Execution, in detail this paper will be going over LO 1 The key features of a company’s corporate culture and the role of a company’s core values and ethical standards in building corporate culture as well as LO 3 The kinds of actions management can take to change a problem corporate culture.

LO 1 The key features of a company’s corporate culture and the role of a company’s core values and ethical standards in building corporate culture

This chapter refers to corporate culture as the shared values, ingrained attitudes, core beliefs, and company traditions that determine norms of behavior, accepted work practices, and styles of operating. And how those core values set the tone for the work environment and how the company operates.

1. The values, business principles, and ethical standards that management preaches and practices are the keys to a company’s culture, but actions speak much louder than words here. According to Culture AMP’s website Cultivating empathy and understanding is part of belonging, and to that end, CEO Brian Chesky of Airbnb likes to say that they started the company as hosts, not as guests, and so he is encouraging all employees to be hosts and helping them where they can to have that experience. This is meant to be the Idea that you should treat others that being employees as well as customers with the same respect that you would if you were the Host of a home on the site or one that is throwing a party.

2. The company’s approach to people management and the official policies, procedures, and operating practices that provide guidelines for the behavior of company personnel. One of the main missions that Airbnb has as far as policies and procedures go is maintaining honest two-way communication. The company holds bi-weekly meetings with shift and management where they have an open dialog about how they feel the company is doing, what improvements can be made on the part of the team as well as the upper management. This is a way to avoid not having employees being overlooked if they feel that themselves or those above them are staying on task with maintaining a healthy workspace.

3. The atmosphere and spirit that pervades the work climate whether the workplace is competitive or cooperative, innovative or resistant to change, collegial or politicized, all business or fun-loving, and the like. Airbnb associates its quick growth and overall success to the fact that they have a work climate that is considered creating partnerships with those that are Host and not just seeing them as assets. The collective nature of the company has contributed to the word of mouth business that they have obtained via Host or guest the want the employees and those who use the platform to be a community that has a common goal.

LO 3 The kinds of actions management can take to change a problem corporate culture.

1. Changing a problem culture is among the toughest management tasks because of the heavy anchor of ingrained behaviors and attitudes. For Airbnb, this is not necessarily an issue with the core team, but discrimination has been a problem off and on the platform. This has not gone unnoticed as the company has made changes to its policies to help for example Airbnb has made tools that help prevent people from making biased decisions. One of these being guests’ profile photos are not displayed to hosts until after a booking is confirmed, which encourages more objective decision making by hosts.

2. The CEO and other top executives need to talk personally to personnel across the company about the reasons for modifying work practices and culture-related behaviors. the CEO personally, as well as top executives within Airbnb, have done this by addressing things like the discrimination on the platform and one way has been to made videos to the Host of what guidelines they should follow to maintain the work culture that is expected when working with Airbnb he has also encouraged those that work with the company to get involved with movements like Black lives matter and color of change.

3. Changing a problem culture is never a short-term exercise; it takes time for a new culture to emerge and take root. And it takes even longer for a new culture to become deeply embedded. Racial bias is hard enough to change in the work culture but due to the nature of how Airbnb operates with the Host being the homeowner you cannot fully influence them outside of a form of punishment (that is enforced if you are caught) it’s hard for them to fully change ones mind in this setting but it is good to try and start the process in trying to be that change.

In conclusion, while a company like Airbnb may have a core company that it can keep track of as far as what may happen in the office and keep the work culture on a tighter leash with the was that the company outsources its real estate it is hard for them to keep a handle on the thing that they value as a whole. The issue of discrimination is a big problem for a company that is saying one thing and it is not being reflected in the experiences for some. The fact that they have been trying to address it by kicking host that violate and by trying to educate is good start but as to not alienate one whole market segment the need to work harder to ensure that the culture and massage can be maintained throughout.

Works cited

“Airbnb Organizational Culture: Communication, Inclusivity and Acceptance - Research-Methodology.” Research, 14 Sept. 2019, research-methodology.net/airbnb-organizational-culture-communication/.

“Airbnb, Luxury Retreats Unite to Provide More Unique Accommodations, Amazing Experiences to Travelers.” Airbnb Newsroom, 13 Apr. 2019, news.airbnb.com/airbnb-luxury-retreats-unite-to-provide-more-unique-accommodations-amazing-experiences-to-travelers/.

CB Insights. “Airbnb Strategy Teardown: Ahead of Potential IPO, Airbnb Looks Beyond The Hotel Industry.” CB Insights Research, CB Insights, 30 Nov. 2017, www.cbinsights.com/research/airbnb-strategy-teardown-expert-intelligence/.