Kelvin Cho

78369553

Management 5

Case Study Assignment #1

1. The actions performed by Ostertag that stood the most chance of changing

General Semiconductor’s culture were the replacement of the senior

management team and building team trust through “culture points.” By

replacing the senior management team, the new top managers will adopt a

new and different global mind-set. The global mind-set comes through with

the “culture points.” By having a global mind-set, this allows Orteg to try to

influence his company through different sociocultural environments. In

addition to trying to have a global mind-set, the company was able to build

trust by sharing values. This way, Orteg prevented the company from

breaking apart due to layoffs. The employees would not view Orteg as

person to be feared, but one that needs to do what’s necessary to prolong

the existence of his company.

2. I do not think that having everyone in a multinational firm carrying a card

with the firm’s core values can change its culture especially in General

Semiconductor. Over 59,800 out of the 60,000 employees are out of the

United States. Everyone cannot possibly agree with the core values because

not everyone is from the same low context culture as the United States.

Sometimes, the workers outside of the United States view different behaviors

as acceptable as opposed to the decided core values. Ostertag failed to

recognize these differences and this may have affected his ability to

communicate and lead his workers. Ostertag should’ve had the individuals
 carry cards that reflected their own values, so these individuals can carry out

these values dependently.

3. Ostertag is not effectively managing the cross-cultural operations by trying to

change the firm’s culture. Ostertag attempted a globally focused approach

by developing and enforcing the firm’s core values globally when most of the

workers worked outside of the United States. This approach attempted to

create economies of scale and help lower costs to increase profits.

Nevertheless, it was inefficient to the region-country focus because

ultimately, the company was taken over. This method was inefficient

because the local markets could not react quickly enough to competitors’

strategic moves. Therefore, this approach ultimately proved to be the

downfall of the company. If I were in Ostertag’s position, I would have taken

the region-country focus because most of the company is broken up. By

using this strategy, it’d enable the firm to be flexible in each local market.

Although employing a region-country focus is costly, it’s cheaper and easier

to perform than a transnational focus.

4. Ostertag did not have a global mind-set. He did implement a set of core

values which allowed him to influence his organization; however, he did not

try to influence the individuals from different cultures and countries. He used

the attributes that were agreed upon in a meeting held within the

headquarters. However, these values cannot be easily transferred to

different cultures. Ostertag had the right idea in mind, but executed it

incorrectly. In my opinion, Ostertag should’ve had a meeting with the head

of every branch of the firm to decide upon these values. Therefore, each
branch can effectively follow through with the certain values to enhance

performance.