Samsung Electronics: Organizational Culture And Strategy

Contents

Introduction 2

Company Overview 2

Application 3

Conclusion 6

References 6

Introduction

Nowadays, companies are facing constantly changing challenges from a highly competitive market. Samsung Electronics should apply various methods to create long-term sustainability. For example, the time pacing approach suggested by Eisenhardt and Brown (1998) is about helping organizations reduce the impact from change, especially in the intensely competitive industries. It creates strategic opportunities while they utilize this approach to develop the competitive advantage in the market.

Samsung Electronics systems and all systems have similar features. Yet, there are aspects of these features that can make systems act differently,

It produces various electronic products such as smartphones, tablet PCs, or televisions, and it has been world’s biggest information technology company by revenue since 2009 (Song & Oliver, 2010). Although it is a multinational company that employees 370,000 people in over 80 countries, its organizational culture and structure is strongly influenced by the South Korean organizational culture, where the company’s managerial decisions take place. Samsung is a giant conglomerate—chaebol—that accounts for 17 percent of South Korea’s GDP, and it has a dominant presence in South Korea not only in its economy but also in people’s life in general. Korean people are born in Samsung Medical Center, are insured by Samsung Life insurance, shop at Shinsegae department store (which is a Samsung subsidiary), check Facebook and Twitter with their newest Samsung Galaxy S6, and watch movies produced and/or distributed by CJ E&M (also a Samsung subsidiary) (Grobart, 2013). Hence, it is not entirely a joke when South Koreans mockingly call themselves as “the Samsung Republic”. Despite its strong position in the global market, Samsung Electronics has been facing some strong external criticism against its lack of innovation. It had been sued by its rival, Apple, for patent infringement in 2011 (Kane & Sherr, 2011), and even after the patent war between the two giant companies was dropped, Samsung

These dimensions describe organizations much the same way that personality and physical traits describe people. Organizational dimensions fall into two types: contextual and structural. Contextual dimensions characterize the whole organization and describe the organizational setting and influences and shapes the structural dimensions. Structural dimensions provide labels to describe the internal characteristics of an organization. They create the basis for measuring and comparing organizations. To understand and evaluate Samsung Electronics, one must examine both structural and contextual dimensions. These dimensions of organizational design interact with one another and can be adjusted to accomplish the purposes of organization (Kane and Sherr,