Organizational Culture of Sony

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Cultural Analysis of Sony

Defining Organizational Culture:

Organizational culture can be defined in several ways. The definitions that apply to this essay are discussed below. Morgan (1986) defined organizational culture as the development patterns as mirrored by the society's ideology, laws, knowledge system, daily rituals and laws. Schein (1985) says that organizational culture has relations with observed norms, behavioral regularities, policies, philosophies or values, the acceptable behavior and the sense of belonging that an individual has by being part of an organization (p.6,9). An organization's culture is essentially a product of the organization's members. The members are driven to achieve the goals of the organization which in turn has an effect on the organization's life. The data used in this essay has been sourced from secondary electronic and print sources.

The Nature of Sony's Business

Sony is a leading brand in a wide range of electronic products like home entertainment video systems and audio, gadgets for communication, professional electronic and broadcasting devices, PCs, robots and digital cameras. The Japanese corporation has undergone an evolution to become a giant in the electronics business with global operations. This essay explores the organizational culture at Sony and how this culture impedes or promotes Sony's effectiveness. The operations of the company are:

Sony Corporation (Sony Electronics located in the United States),

Sony Computer Entertainment,

Sony Pictures Entertainment,

Sony Music Entertainment,

Sony Financial and •

Sony Ericsson

Sony also manufactures semi-conductors and ranks well in the Worldwide Top 20 Semiconductor Sales Leaders.

The company was founded on May 7th, 1946. The present representative corporate executives at the company are Howard Stringer (Chairman, CEO and President), Ryoji Chubachi (Vice Chairman) and Noboyuki Oneda (Executive Deputy President and CFO) This information is provided by Sony Global (2009).

The Sony Corporation, popularly known as just Sony is a conglomerate with multinational operations with headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It is among the world's biggest media conglomerates and records revenues in excess of 7.730 trillion Yen, or $78.88 billion U.S. (FY 2008). Sony's name is derived from a word in Latin that means sound, sonus.

An Introduction to Sony's Culture

Mr. Ibuka envisioned an organization with a very stable environment for work that would encourage visionary engineers possessing great appreciation for the world of technology and technology itself could work to meet their goals and visions and work whole heartedly. To inspire these workers, Mr. Ibuka encouraged them to embrace a spirit of cooperativeness and ensure that they unleashed their technological potential without reserving anything (Sony History). These were the aspirations he had and that he desired to witness in Sony and what set out to create.

Sony's Vision

The culture in this organization lays an emphasis on a spirit of open-mindedness and freedom as well as a burning need for innovation. The founder crafted such a great vision in the initial Prospectus and so this philosophy has stuck throughout the life of the organization and is exemplified by the employees and witnessed throughout the history of Sony.

Sony's Spirit

Since the inception of the corporation in 1946, it has always produced products so innovative that they will inspire fresh lifestyles. Morita and Ibuka, the founders, inculcated a challenging spirit for the production of products not yet produced and a will to afford excitement and happiness to the population that used the products. This philosophy is in the corporation's DNA and is still going strong even after sixty years.

Life at Sony

Sony's aim is to create a working environment that brings inspiration to its workers and makes them chase fresh challenges so that they expand their potential and realize growth by realizing their innovative and creative potential. The company has always striven to encourage personal development by way of on-the-job education and learning and through the employee's ability to access a number of programs designed to meet varied needs and wants, including the education of the next-generation of leaders in business, skills of management, skill training and also training geared towards improving an employee's skills and abilities.

Sony's Incorporation Objectives

the establishment of an ideal factory that lays emphasis on the spirit of open-mindedness and freedom, and somewhere where sincerely motivated engineers can max their skills and technological abilities;

reconstruction of Japan and the elevation of the culture of the nation through fluid manufacturing and technology;

the prompt application of very advanced technologies that were come up with in different sectors at the time of war targeting common families and households;

rapid commercialization of superior technological findings made in universities and other institutions of research that can be applied in common household;

the availing of radio communication as well as devices of a similar nature to common households and the promotion of home appliances usage;

active participation in reconstructing networks of communication that were damaged during the war;

the provision of high-quality radios and the provision of radio services that are useful in the era that is coming;

the promotion of science education in the general public sphere (Sony History).

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Noting the fundamental ideologies informing these objectives of the Sony Corporation is quite interesting. The weight given to the Japan culture in the formulation of these objectives is quite evident even when we ignore the truth that the corporation was born after the destruction caused by the Second World ar. Mr. Ibuka's apparent vision was that Sony will serve as the contribution he has made to Japan's development, and also that technology was going to be important in the growth of the nation. This is in harmony with the advancement of the nation that the government was looking to achieve at the time.

To what extent are the initial objectives of incorporation reliable? Mr. Yoshihide Nakamura, Sony's Core Technology and Network Company deputy president, said in an interview that the culture at Sony is a mix of not so very Japanese thinking and Japanese thinking. He says that in a way, they are quite free. They are not pushed to do anything provided they are performing well. The freedom at Sony is tremendous. The innovative are afforded fresh opportunities. Some individuals who might be unsuitable elsewhere can thrive at Sony. These people will be afforded opportunities to attempt to meet their goals (Richard Gershon and Tsutomu Kanayama, 2002).

The Company Strategy

Howard Stringer on joining Sony Global Japan as the new CEO came up with fresh strategies and made use of them in streamlining Sony to be in harmony with the strategies.

First, he checked the core business and competencies of the organization and channeled his energies on the games, entertainment and electronics products. Established in the organization was a strategy for growth that said that the goal of the company was to realize consolidated sales revenue of at least eight trillion Yen as well as an operating profit margin of five percent ( 4% in electronics) at the close of the 2007 fiscal year. The strategy covering the years 2005 through to 2008 of the company was published by NewBlaze.

The strategy to revitalize the company over the three-year window was as given briefly below:

Restructuring of the electronics organization

Eliminating corporate silos and focusing more on competitive expansion and growth

Taking of steps to improve the organizations profit structure

Reducing costs

Selling of none-core assets like stock and real estate

Strengthening of the prevailing electronics business of the company

Focus more on the electronics field and ump profitability in the television arm by 2nd half of the year 2006

Launching in the market in 2006 a variety of HD products

Having a focus on interoperable and intelligent products

The development of network-enabled applications and products

Solidifying development of technology

Creating mobile and home platforms

Concentration of investment on important component devices and semiconductors.

Next- Generation Display (OLED)

The enhancement of the development of software

Group convergence strategy

Pursuing mobile entertainment

Establishing of a center for mobile development

Impact of Strategy on Organizational Structure:

On taking over Sony as the new CEO, Howard Stringer formulated strategies for every product the company made. These strategies are listed above in the essay.

Looking at the strategies, it is apparent that he had divided the organization along product lines and every product had its own strategy. The organization structure of Sony followed the same division. This means that the organization is flatter and every division now reports to the head office.

As always in organizations divided in several divisions, the divisions proceed to gain flexibility meaning that they can also do mergers, add divisions or close other divisions. This is true for Sony as its mobile division did a merger with Ericsson to take over the production of Sony Ericsson mobile devices.

It is public knowledge that the music entertainment division at Sony did a 50-50 joint venture with a music group, Bertelsman Music Group, thus changing the name of the division to Sony BMG Music Entertainment. Also, in 2008 August, Sony acquired 50% stake and Sony then renamed the division calling it Sony Music Entertainment.

It is clear that….....

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