CASE FOR CRITICAL ANALYSIS: Change of Culture at Westcode Semiconductors

Melanie Schmidt, 36 years old; promoted to the position of EMEA Manager for IXYS Semiconductors in charge of R&D was soon moved to West-code Semiconductors in the UK, the company recently taken over by the German counterpart. She was trained to follow the German business practice which values clear frameworks, facts and proof. She also knew full well a company's top executives were largely responsible for determining a firm's corporate culture. But these were early days of the merger. As she got into her office having been greeted by a professional but cold secretary Ms Smith, she wondered what it would be like for her to work here...

The first few months seemed easy, as she took such personal pride in the culture of the UK-based counterpart. From day one she introduced team meetings, brain-storming sessions with her product designers and customers; all the things that worked really well for her in Germany. The company didn't just pay lip service to the values it espoused: integrity, honesty and a respect for each individual employee and customer. Her team set a good example by living those principles. At least that's what she'd believed until the other day.

One of her colleagues from Germany sent Melanie the registration link to the facebook web-site, as he suggested that lots of IXYS employees used this social networking tool for communication. She was quite keen to get in touch with some people she was not in contact with during her last few months in Germany. To her surprise she found a group site called ‘Melanie Schmidt Appreciation Society' created by one of her current UK employees, where he was slating IXYS, the merger and Melanie's approach to management. She could also see which people subscribed to this group, and that all the managers from her team were there, and some had left one or two comments on the page. She at once decided to discuss this issue with the team in the UK and the German office, as her reputation of capable manager was at stake, and she felt she had not done anything wrong. But she needed to have a plan of action.

Questions

1. What environmental factors have helped to create the situation Melanie Schmidt faces? What factors does Melanie need to consider when deciding on her course of action?

2. Analyse Westcode's culture. In addition to the expressed cultural values and beliefs, what other subconscious values and beliefs do you detect? Are conflicting values present? When values are in conflict, how would you decide which ones take precedence?

3. Assume you are Melanie. What are the first two action steps you would take to handle this situa-tion? How would your role as a cultural leader influence your decision? What message will your solution send to the other managers and rankand-file employees?