StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Changes in the Corporate Culture of Rakuten - Case Study Example

Cite this document
Summary
The paper "Changes in the Corporate Culture of Rakuten" highlights that CEO who is also the founder, Hiroshi Mikitani, should have considered involving the employees in making the decision by giving them a chance to learn about the new policy which was to take effect…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER94.8% of users find it useful
Changes in the Corporate Culture of Rakuten
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Changes in the Corporate Culture of Rakuten"

?Case Analysis INTRODUCTION This is a case study that touches on making sweeping changes to the corporate culture without engaging in proper communication with the stakeholders. The case is based on Rakuten which is the most successful Japanese online retailer. Its CEO who is also the founder, Hiroshi Mikitani, aspires to grow his company to the level of Amazon Inc. One way he feels this can be achieved is by introducing an English only policy in his firm. He therefore goes ahead to make an abrupt announcement to all 7,100 employees that an ‘Englishnization’ program will be rolled out and all employees must learn and become proficient in English within two years. At the present time, over 90 percent of the workforce cannot run official duties in English. The CEO has set some punitive measures for those who will fail to achieve set scores – they will face demotions. As the program is rolled out, employees struggle to learn English. There are many challenges faced including loss of productivity, insufficient time to conduct studies, and internal resistance from managers. It is very clear employees are disgusted with the new policy and are only learning English to avoid being demoted or losing their jobs. Nine months to the deadline, the employees are growing desperate as they are realizing that it is increasingly becoming clear that they are not going to meet the set scores by the deadline. This has created anxiety and generally disrupted the workplace (Tsedal, 2011). In this paper, this case study is critically analyzed by examining the key communication challenges that are evident in the case study, suggesting alternatives to these challenges and showing why the alternatives will work. The challenges which are likely to be encountered in implementing the alternatives will also be highlighted. CASE ANALYSIS Key communication issues in the case study Radical changes in any organization require good preparation. In the case of this case study, the radical change was the change in the official language of the organization. The biggest communication challenge which can be identified here is insufficient of it. The manner in which the change in policy was communicated was clearly not the best. It was clearly going to draw resistance. Employees were never given time to internalize the new changes which were going to take effect. Everything around them was changed overnight including the menu language at the cafeteria. Hiroshi Mikitani relegated communication in this sense to a very naive position. According to Griffin (2003), communication should not be viewed naively as just a transmission of information. He argued that this notion often breeds “managerialism, discursive closure, and corporate colonization” (Griffin, 2003, p. 495). It is clear that Hiroshi Mikitani did not have the patience to engage his employees and collect their opinions on what they thought of the new policy. This challenge was similarly seen in the managers – the managers were clearly complaining and not on the side of their boss. The implication is that they had no prior information about the change in policy. This is a complete communication breakdown from the side of the CEO and such breakdowns often lead to very slow and reluctant adoption of new policies especially when such policies are radical. Alternatives to the challenges There are many alternatives that Hiroshi Mikitani could have used to ensure that his communication was welcomed. 1. There was a need to involve the employees – 2. Hiroshi Mikitani did not involve his employees in deciding on the new policy Their opinions did not seem to matter to him and therefore by assuming this he was indeed communicating other messages such as they really do not matter to him. According to Tsedal (2012), engaging employees in decision making or in change of policies creates a platform to explain the rationale of creating a new policy. 3. The policy should have been implemented at the managerial level first It could set a great precedence if the policy was implemented at the managerial level first. The CEO should have ensured that the managers agreed to adopt the policy first before moving to the general employees. Even in the case where the adoption of the policy was going to be uniformly implemented, the CEO should have started by convincing the managers of the need to adopt an English language policy as their official workplace language. 4. Open expression Lastly, Hiroshi Mikitani should have allowed some form of an open expression to be carried out whereby employees could have aired their experiences and challenges as they progressed in gaining English language proficiency. Why these alternatives The above three alternatives could have worked so well because they could have effectively solved the communication lapse which was witnessed and which actually caused all the challenges that the company employees had to go through. 1. Involving the employees. Involving the employees could have given Hiroshi Mikitani the platform to explain his views and his vision for Rakuten in regard to its global expansion. He could have used this chance to explain to the employees how the competitive advantage of the company was going to be improved. Through such platforms, he could have addressed any fears that the employees aired. In such a manner, the employees could have adopted the policy with a higher level of acceptance and this could have probably reduced their negative attitude towards the policy. 2. Involving the managers first. The managers closely interact with the employees and therefore ensuring that they agree with new policies is a step ahead in ensuring that the general employees will be persuaded to adopt the policy (Tsedal, 2012). If managers complain against the CEO especially against learning where they ought to be better than the other employees, then that is an indication that the general employees will even complain more. Furthermore, implementing the policy with the managers first could have acted as a pilot project such that implementing the same policy with the general employees becomes easier. 3. Open expression Allowing some form of open forum expression of the experiences of the employees could have helped employees to suggest ways in which they would have been assisted to perform better in learning the language (Nielsen, 2008). Through such forums, they could have requested the company to create some time for their classes or even pay part of their tuition fees for the English classes especially for the young employees who had not worked for long. Obstacles and difficulties of implementing the proposals 1. Time Any effective communication requires time. Discussing such a radical policy change with over 7,000 employees will definitely take a lot of time. It will equally take a lot time to convince the employees that indeed the English language is what the company needs. This will be the case because the company has so far expanded and flourished internationally without the English language as an official language. 2. Resistance Due to the fact that some managers complained alongside the general employees against the new policy shows that even the senior management were opposed to the idea. It is therefore clear that giving prior information to such people who seem to be so much polarized against learning the English language could have led to some form of resistance against the introduction of the policy. Taking into consideration that the policy was a good one, such a resistance is a great threat to the policy. The resistance will also put the employees on a collision course with the CEO’s vision for the firm becoming the top world online retailer. This would consequently lead to the CEO overriding the opposing views of the employees against the policy and at the end of the day, it would have defeated logic why he wanted their views in the first place. 3. Frustration There are possibilities that informing the employees of a change in policy which is such radical can discourage them. This may affect the productivity of the firm if they are informed a long way before the policy is implemented. This may make them anxious and those who might feel inadequate enough may plan to switch workplaces. Generally, such a notice may cause a general disruption in the firm as employees will spend considerable time thinking on how they will adopt or circumnavigate the policy. CONCLUSION In the case study, Hiroshi Mikitani introduced a very radical policy in a very abrupt manner which caught every employee unawares including the managers. The policy of using the English language as the official language at the workplace was going to benefit the company but it was not gladly welcomed. In the struggle to achieve set scores, employees were overwhelmed leading to frustrations and reducing their productivity levels. Hiroshi Mikitani should have considered involving the employees in making the decision by giving them a chance to learn about the new policy which was to take effect. Specifically, he should have allowed them to air their views and give suggestions on what they thought about it. He equally could have used this opportunity to explain why the company needed to switch to an English only policy. It could have been worthwhile had the CEO informed his managers first so that on introducing the policy to the general employees, he could have easily counted on their support. References Griffin, EA. (2003). A first look at communication theory. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill. Nielsen, J. (2008). Effective Communication Skills: The Foundations for Change. New York, NY: Prentice Hall. Tsedal, N. (2011). Havard Business School: Language and Globalization: “Englishnization” at Rakuten. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Publishing. Tsedal, N. (2012). Global Business Speaks English: Why You Need a Language Strategy Now. Harvard Business Review 90 (5), 116–124. Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“HBS (Harvard Business Studies) IT WILL BE CASE ANALYSIS Essay”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/business/1475350-hbs-harvard-business-studies-it-will-be-case
(HBS (Harvard Business Studies) IT WILL BE CASE ANALYSIS Essay)
https://studentshare.org/business/1475350-hbs-harvard-business-studies-it-will-be-case.
“HBS (Harvard Business Studies) IT WILL BE CASE ANALYSIS Essay”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/business/1475350-hbs-harvard-business-studies-it-will-be-case.
  • Cited: 0 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Changes in the Corporate Culture of Rakuten

Leadership: Globalization in the World Market

A paper "Leadership: Globalization in the World Market" discusses that Globalization impacts the strategy, culture, and structure and it has developed a crucial need of internationally competent leaders and it is now considered a success factor for multinational companies.... Globalization impacts the strategy, culture, and structure and it has developed a crucial need of internationally competent leaders and it is now considered a success factor for multinational companies....
12 Pages (3000 words) Term Paper

The Integration of European Union

hellip; The question of whether the integration and standardization of EU will bring in some benefits for the businesses in the 21st century is important questions as it outlines the various changes that may take place to completely revamp the way business was done in the region....
10 Pages (2500 words) Essay

Managing Interpersonal Behaviour at Work

Effective management includes understanding the culture of the organization, the workers, their ethnicity and background, diversity management, interpersonal communication and interaction, human behaviour, etc.... Thus, the workplace is not a stable box but a dynamic environment where relationships and interactions enliven it with changes that shift even by the next moment....
9 Pages (2250 words) Coursework

Critically evaluate how the recession has affected Natwest's motivational methods

NatWest has a huge network of almost 1,600 branch offices throughout Great Britain.... It offers 24-hour online banking services along with around 7.... million customers (www.... atwest.... om).... hellip; Motivation could be defined “as the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a desired goal; the reason for the action; that which gives purpose and direction to behavior”. To establish correlations and regressions among and between the variables of Motivation theories such as Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Herzberg's dichotomy of hygiene factors and motivating factors, McGregor's theory ‘X' and theory ‘Y' people, Edgar Schein's assumptions based approach, Tailor's scientific management approach, Elton Mayo's theory, Adams equity theory and Vroom's expectancy theory have been in used for long time....
32 Pages (8000 words) Essay

Behavioral Pain Management for Pediatric Headache in Primary Care

The toolkit would consist of distraction techniques, position changes, and advocacy for early pain management enhancing the emergency department experience for child, while simultaneously improving the satisfaction of the parents.... Just as important, is the cultivation of trust between patients, their families and the healthcare providers....
40 Pages (10000 words) Thesis

Evidence-Based Care versus Opinion-Based and Ritual-Based Care

Evidence in this context refers to researched and documented information whose credibility has been ascertained through a peer review… The nurses consult the most contemporary research information and try to implement the findings that are going to significantly improve the quality of the nursing care....
11 Pages (2750 words) Essay

The Business Environment of Secret Garden Party

In this paper, the strategic analysis of Secret Garden Party (SGP) is conducted, in order to understand the business environment of the company.... Environmental analysis of the company is also studied; environmental analysis is the main theme of this paper.... hellip; The finding of this research study is very important; this is because it can be used in recruiting new visitors, and also in monitoring and including the involvement of interested customers, who are not able to physically attend the festival....
18 Pages (4500 words) Essay

Reasons for Non-Natives to Learn English

Some international businesses, for instance, Japan's rakuten, are declaring their company's official language of business will be English.... … The paper "Reasons for Non-Natives to Learn English" is a perfect example of an essay on education.... English is the most frequently used language in the world of business, and the most common language spoken all over the world....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us