Part 1

Activity 1: Ford and Taylorism

Questions

1. Would workers in Australia, America or Europe accept the Taylorism in this form today?

2. Consider the design of scripts for use in Call Centres, can you see Taylorism in that? Explain.

3. This ‘clip' is showing history from 100 years ago. Some would say that ‘the world has moved on' and these ideas are out of date. However, could there be parts of the world today for which these ideas might be just what they need? Explain.

Activity 2: Fayolism as the Necessary Complement of Taylorism - Pearson, Norman M. (Feb., 1945) The American Political Science Review, Vol. 39, No. 1 , pp. 68-80

Questions

1. While some would argue that this paper, now 70 years beyond its publication date is ‘out of date', could there still be value in the ideas expressed here in other parts of the world?

Part 2

Activity 1: Thomas Friedman on Globalisation; 3 Eras of Globalisation; World is flat

Questions

1. What would be some of the key drawbacks or risks of living in the flat world of Globalisation 3.0 as Friedman describes it?

2. Do you agree with Friedman's iron rule of the flat world? Explain.

3. Is the level of globalisation uniform across the world? Explain.

Activity 2: Pankaj Ghemawat on Globalisation

Questions

1. Has your view on globalisation changed after listening to Professor Ghemawat? Explain.

2. Consider where you have seen the fears that people have about globalisation. Do you think these fears may subside with some data points that may suggest otherwise?

Activity 3: Online tool to explore different countries' 5 dimensions by Hofstede

Questions

1. How does the Australian culture compare to other world cultures (eg. Your home country or other countries that you have visited)?

2. Do you agree with the survey results for the Australian culture? Why or why not?

Activity 4: 'The myth of national culture' - Counter argument to Hofstede's work by Professor Brendan McSweeney at Royal Holloway, University of London

Questions

1. Do you agree with Professor McSweeney's view on national cultures? Why or why not? After viewing the survey result done by Hofstede on your home country, who do you think offers a more compelling argument on national cultures? Can a single culture be used to determine the actions of entire population?

Activity 5: 'Riding the waves of culture' - Talk given by Fons Trompenaars at TEDxAmsterdam

Questions

1. Consider your experience with cultural conflict or culture shock. What were the different viewpoints that you had to reconcile? And how did you overcome the differences?

2. What would be the benefits of connecting different viewpoints as Trompenaar suggests?

Activity 6: ‘Building a cross-cultural web design for a wider audience' (Christian Arno in Design on 22nd Jun 2010)

Questions

1. Can the concept of High and Low Context cultures be applied to other areas of business? - marketing and advertising, PR, customer and supplier relationship management, etc.

Part 3

Activity 1: Corporate culture and strategy

Questions

1. Can you think of any examples where you experienced various culture types (Market, Clan, Adhocracy and Hierarchy culture) as a consumer to, or employee of, an organisation?

2. If so, what is your evaluation of the aligment between its corporate culture and strategy?

Activity 2: Definition of culture

URL: What is Organizational Culture? And Why Should We Care? http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/05/what-is-organizational-culture/

Questions

3. Why do you think people's definition of culture may vary?

4. Which definition of culture do you agree with most and why?

Activity 3: Corporate culture instilled in HRM practices and customer satisfaction

(1) ‘Why Zappos Pays New Employees to Quit--And You Should Too' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQLTQAv5JQA

(2) ‘Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh talks about building a culture-based company' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdKZapHZL4c

Question

5. What does building a culture-based company entail?

Activity 4: Toyota's corporate culture and the problem of spreading its culture

Question

6. How would you describe Toyota's culture using the seven dimensions of organisational culture and/ or the Cultural Web?

Activity 5:Cultural web and its use in practice (call centre)

Questions

7. Do you agree with the author's view on the effectiveness of cultural web model in changing corporate culture (compared to other models of corporate culture) as presented in the article? Why or why not?

8. What would be the benefits of using typology type instead?

Part 4

Activity 1: Structure and strategy

Questions

9. Yves Morieux claims that structure follows strategy. Is this always the case?

Activity 2: Holacracy

Questions

1. What's your understanding of holacracy? How would you describe it compared to bureaucracy and team-based structure?

2. Discuss how Contingency Factors of Organisational Design are at work in the case of Zappos?

3. In what ways do you think innovative culture is related to (agile) organisational structure?

Part 5

Activity 1: Product Life Cycle

Questions

10. Identify at least one product that fits into each stage of the Product Life Cycle.

Activity 2: THE ANSOFF MATRIX

Questions

1. Can you think of some examples of organisations diversifying the product (service) offerings or diversifying into other markets?

Part 6

Activity 1: Hawthorne Studies

Questions

1. Explain in your own words the main findings of Hawthorne Studies.

2. Based on Hawthorne studies, explain how norms and status exert influence on an individual's behaviour.

Activity 2: Repatriation Integration Program

Questions

1. Identify the challenges that repatriated employees and their employers face upon their return to home country.
2. What should the repatriation integration program entail to address the logistical and psychological concerns of the repatriated employees?

Part 7

Activity 1: Hertzberg's Theory of Motivation

Questions

1. Explain the key concepts of Hertzberg theory of motivation.

2. Explain how would use the finding of the Hertzberg theory of motivation to motivate your workers in a fast food industry?

Activity 2: Employee Motivation: Expectancy Theory

Questions

1. After watching the videos, how do you use this theory to motivate yourself?

2. What are the strengths and weakness of this theory?

Part 8

Activity 1: Igniting creativity to transform corporate culture -

Questions

1. Do you agree with Catherine's view on creative thinking - i.e., it is our birth right and we should learn to be creative drawing on our childhood?

2. How practical are her approaches to bringing creativity to workplace?

Activity 2: Lead and be the change

Questions

1. Have you experienced an emotional rollercoaster when faced with a radical change, as described by Professor Mueller-Eberstein in the video? Discuss how the Theory of Transition may be applied to your experience.

2. Can you relate Kotter's 8-Step Change Model to Professor Mueller-Eberstein tips for successful change management

Part 9

Activity 1: Law of Requisite Variety

Question

1. Discuss the dangers of not applying the Law of Requisite Variety to organisational control systems.

Activity 2: Privacy Rights vs. Employee Tracking

Question

1. What is your view of this issue with protecting privacy rights of individual employees?