Artifacts

Fortune - 100 best company to work for, 100 best companies for working mothers
Products - Innovative design, creative, Simplicity, cost effective
Language - Coworkers (reflecting the flat hierarchy), flexibility, family oriented, multi-cultural, diversity,
coworker appreciation day, Partners for Growth, paddle your own canoe, Open IKEA, Why Sayers,
freedom of responsibility, Big Thank You event
Physical layout - Open plan offices, everyone wears the same uniform and share the same facility, child
care facility, quite rooms, Lactation rooms, resource rooms

Behavior patterns - Encourage Creativity and independence

Be flexible to employee needs,
Work/life balance is important,
Health and safety of employee is important,
Continuous development of the employee is a shared responsibility,
Promote cultural diversity,
Only while sleeping no one makes mistakes
Waste of resources is a mortal sin

Stories - When Lori Schilling wanted to spend more time home with her newly adapted kid, she could
work out an arrangement with her bosses to work every alternate fortnight.
Heroes: Gillis Lundgren designed the "Tore " range of home storage which went to be IKEA's biggest
success ever

Rites - "I want your job" is a program where the employee works closely with the person whose job they
would like to hold in the future. Employee identifies their career path, discuss with their manager and
identify training programs they need (Paddle your own canoe).

Beliefs, Values & Attitudes

Creativity - is encouraged throughout the organization, in every level.
Independent - Employees are encouraged to be independent and define their own ways of doing things
right. Never gave detailed instructions about job activities and behavior. Instead, gave them general
instructions on what they are expected to achieve, and allowed them to choose their methods in
achieving that, within reasonable limits of cost and ethical behavior.
Openness & Equality - All employees are called coworkers, open communication with flat structure,
employees can express their opinion in open forums and even discuss it directly with the president via
email or post cards, culturally/ ethnically diverse. All training programs are 2 way activity where the
manager with their subordinates.
Innovative - Innovation is highly regarded. In-fact is the cornerstone on which the company is built upon.
Cost Conscious - "Wasting resources is mortal sin", everyone travelled in low cost airlines and stayed in
budget hotels,
Highly competitive - Took competition seriously and competed aggressively but humble to competitors
and respected their proficiency.
Adaptability - Understood that change was the key to continuous success and therefore encouraged
employees to come with new ideas.

Basic Assumptions

Relationship to its environment - IKEA's relationship with the environment reflects in its vision
statement, "To create a better everyday life for the many people". People here mean the customers,
employees as well as the community. IKEA sells all its furniture at least 30-40% cheaper than their
competitors, and provides the best in the industry benefits to its employees. IWAY is IKEA's supplier's
code of conduct. IWAY outlines the ethical standard IKEA expects its suppliers should follow in matters
like child labor, forestation, pollutions, safety, employee welfare etc. The retail industry and customers
look at IKEA as the company that revolutionized home furnishing business throughout the world with
their stylish and innovative furniture designs. This view comes mainly from the packaging of almost all
of their furniture into flat packages and cost effective solutions.
The nature of reality and Truth - IKEA encourages its employees to be independent and creative. The
company encouraged employees to question the decisions of the management and to openly express
their ideas and beliefs. In IKEA, truth and reality is not something perceived in the senior
management’s view, instead it is a collective decision where every employee feels part of it.

The nature of human nature: IKEA believed that employees are highly-self motivated. The company's
responsibility is to provide an environment where every employee can unleash their potential and has
no limit on what they can achieve. It also believed that the people can improve the operations is they
are free to express themselves and encouraged to be creative.

Nature of human activity - IKEA's flexibility policy ensured that employees did not have to sacrifice their
careers due to personal commitments. "If an IKEA co-worker needs to take time off to find a nursing
home for an aging parent, be home to kiss their child before bed, or telecommute to better juggle
caring for a newborn, they can actually do that without feeling guilty are worrying about risking their
career aspirations".

Nature of human relationships - IKEA adopted a paternalistic stance towards its employees and their
needs and promoted employee empowerment. Flexibility was the cornerstone of IKEA HR philosophy.
The company made conscious efforts to accept and accommodate different needs of its people.
HR Practices
Several human resource management practices were adopted, including flexible work design
(condensed work weeks, Job sharing, telecommuting, coordinate schedules with spouses' work hours
etc) , comprehensive benefits (2-5 weeks annual paid vacation, discounts, tuition re-imbursement,
401K plan etc), quality of work life (freedom to chose career path, work/life balance, freedom of
expression and creativity, health, safety and wellness, cultural diversity and tolerance, supporting
family), and employee training and development.

Results (Benefits):
IKEA’s committed workforce has become one of the sources of the company’s innovative concepts.
IKEA North America (IKEA) was in the annual list of the Fortune “100 Best Companies to Work For”.

Cultural Value - reflection in HR Policy

Togetherness and enthusiasm - Flat structure open plan offices, addressing all employees as coworkers
etc ensures mutual respect. Openness helps people to work well in teams. "I want your job" program
and two-way participation of employee & manager and programs like "Paddle your own canoe" helps
employees to be supportive to each other and achieve their goals.

Constant desire for renewal - There are no detailed instructions are rules defined for anything.
Employees are given high level goals and guidelines and are free to be creative and independent on the
way they do their job. Over the years, several innovative ideas from IKEA employees have made into
successful product lines.
Humbleness- IKEA is an aggressive competitor but stayed humble to its competitors and respected their
proficiency.

Cost Consciousness - Cost consciousness is there in every aspect of IKEA's operation. Executives
travelled in economy class and stayed in budget hotels.
Leadership by example - The best example for this is Kampard himself. He lives by every word of what
he preaches and expects from his employees. For example, to set an example to cut costs, he takes
public transport to work.
Diversity is part of this - By 2004, nearly 50% of employees were women while minorities constituted 52
% of the total workforce.