企业文化变革论文外文翻译.doc

1、外文文献原文及译文The Evolution of the Culture of EnterpriseErvin LaszloAt the top echelons of contemporary business, managers are becoming concerned with the unsustainability of the way companies now operate. A transformation of basic business strategies appears more and more indicated. For such transformat

2、ion to be effective, the culture of the enterprise-the goals it pursues and the vision of these goals entertained by managers and collaborators-needs to change. Consequently there is a growing questioning of the viability of the typical culture of todays enterprise, and a search for more functional

3、and timely concepts for creating anew and more timely cultural pattern.The leading edge of the globally operating world of business is becoming keenly concerned with changes in todays social, economic, and ecologic environment. At the top echelons of management an intense search is under way for up-

4、to-date modes of thinking and acting. It comes to the fore in the emphasis managers place on corporate strategy, corporate identity, corporate philosophy, even corporate ethics. An organizational revolution is underway, as managers seek to communicate their vision with their collaborators. The impor

5、tance of communication among all branches and levels of the enterprise is becoming recognized. It is also recognized that the company can only function when people under-stand what goals management pursues, and what their own role is in the achievement of the goals.Enterprise cultureThe ongoing tran

6、sformation of the enterprise culture is a positive factor in our changing and unpredictable world. It means that companies are becoming more sensitive to the changes that obtain in their environment, and more ready to respond to them. The new emphasis on management and company ethics also suggests t

7、hat businesses are willing to assume the responsibility that goes with their larger role in society. Global enterprises wield unprecedented power and influence, and the transformation of their culture will be a critical factor in deciding the evolution of our interdependent socio-economic and ecolog

8、ic systemsand therewith our individual and collect future.The transformation of the enterprise culture is timely: the company culture dominant for most of this century became obsolete. It focused on the workings of the enterprise without much regard for its social and ecologic environment; it operat

9、ed on the premise that the business of business is business-if it comes up with good products or services, it fulfills all its obligations vis-a-vis society and nature. The self-centered methods of the traditional management philosophy no longer produce acceptable results-they are like concentrating

10、 all ones skills on flying an airplane and paying scant attention to the airspace in which one is flying. The captains of contemporary business cannot be solely concerned with the internal functioning of their aircraft: they must also set a course in reference to climatic conditions, current positio

11、n and projected destination, and the traffic on the network of routes criss-crossing the globe. That traffic is diversified and complex. It includes, in addition to customers, suppliers, distributors, R&D partners, technology subcontractors, and governmental departments and ministries, and numerous

12、other cooperative and competitive aircraft, together with the social, ecologic, and even cultural milieu of the various bases of operation.Global companies no longer resemble a giant mechanism, controlled by those on top. This is new in the history of modern business. For most of the 20th century, t

13、op management could command the company structures without being influenced by, or even much concerned with, its lower echelons. Motivation for task-fulfillment was created by material incentives bolstered by threats; individual creativity and initiative were dismissed as unnecessary nuisance. Power

14、 was concentrated, together with responsibility and overview; middle management had access only to the information that was immediately relevant to its tasks. Following the recipes prescribed in Frederick Taylors scientific management, the distribution of tasks was established at headquarters and th

15、e companys functions were divided into individual work components. Planning was based on a belief in control and predictability, effects were traced to causes, and causes were quantitatively analyzed. Company operations based on cause-effect chains were given value independent of time and place: as

16、in a machine, it was held that the same input would always produce the same output. This was the philosophy of the leading companies of the 20th century; the model for success at General Motors and Standard Oil, and the rest of the Fortune 500 group.The economic growth-environment of the post-war pe

17、riod did not provide grounds to modify, or even question, this philosophy. Almost anything an enterprising manager would try had a knack of succeeding; he could even engage in personal bravado. Technological progress seemed assured, and expanding markets seemed to distribute the benefits of growth.

18、The post-war economy welcomed all entrepreneurs; they could grow as the economy did. Long-term costs, if any, were hidden in the long term. In that regard businessmen were fond of quoting Keynes: in the long term we shall all be dead. If things get better and better, why bother to look further than

19、ones nose? There was no need to worry whether or not there would be progress, it was enough to guess what shape it would take, and how the company could benefit from it.In the 1970s and 80s the situation had changed. The economic growth curve flattened out and optimistic extrapolations failed to com

20、e true. Social alienation and anomie rose, and technology produced unexpected side-effects: scares and catastrophes at Three Mile Island, Bhopal, and Chernobyl, the ozone hole over the Antarctic, recurrent instances of acid rain and oil spill, and worsening environmental pollution in cities and on l

21、and. Belief in progress was shaken. Intellectuals and youth groups found it necessary, and some segments of society fashionable, to espouse the view that technological advance is dangerous and should be halted. Environmental effects and social value-change began to enter as factors in the equations

22、of corporate success, and leading managers, together with consultants and management theorists, began to reexamine their operative assumptions.By the late 1980s further changes occurred in the operating environment. Environmental concerns moved from the fringes of society into the marketplace; peopl

23、e proved amenable to paying higher prices for products they deemed environmentally friendly; and they were known to boycott companies that remained environmentally polluting or unresponsive. New information and communication technologies came on line, markets became integrated and internationalized,

24、 product cycles became shorter and product lines diversified, and clients and consumers demanded shorter delivery times and higher quality. Competition moved into the global arena. Under these circumstances classically run hierarchical enterprises proved unable to cope. The centralization of informa

25、tion and its slow one-way penetration to lower echelons produced fatal mistakes-and then terminal rigidity. The companies that survived did so by transforming themselves into team-oriented multi-level decision-making and implementation structures, often in the nick of time.In the late 1990s the diff

26、usion of information and the growth in the intensity and number of interfaces between people, departments, and divisions have radically changed the companys operative structures. Not only information, also people emerged as the key resource of the enterprise; teamwork proved to be the best way this

27、resource could be tapped. The boundary between the company and its economic, social, and ecologic environment turned fuzzy. Within the business sphere fusions, alliances, and partnerships became commonplace. In many cases the core activities of the enterprise came to be sub-contracted, and work rela

28、tions with other firms became as operative as company-based organizational structures. Reliance on distributors and suppliers, and linkage to local communities and ecologies turned into standard parameters of corporate functioning.Under these circumstances, there is a dire need for new and adapted m

29、anagement concepts. There is no dearth of advice. Theorists speak of activity bundling and the company capacity to sustainably capture the highest portion of the total industry value-added chains profit margin; strategy specialists emphasize the need for management to focus on dynamic competitive po

30、sitioning and customer-driven processes; technology consultants stress the importance of anticipatory R&D in both products and processes; and organizational experts insist on the need for learning within net-worked teams operating beyond established company structures. Leading managers realize that

31、their vision of the companys functioning within its global environment, and its adaptability to changes and trends in that environment, is at least equal in importance to their ability to formulate strategy and carry out operations.Management guru Tom Peters called intellectual capital a companys gr

32、eatest resource, and consultants Gary Hamel and C.K.Prahalad named future vision its greatest competitive advantage, more valuable than a large bank account or a lean organization. Managers who possess intellectual capital and future vision have a sense of purpose, avoid wasting time on useless expe

33、riments and dead-ends, and elicit deep commitment from their collaborators. In todays world effective leadership calls for a sound knowledge not only of current company operations and resources, but of its ability to reach strategic, financial, and organizational objectives in the years ahead. This

34、requires considerable acumen. Because the future, as Charles Handy pointed out, could be most anything, but is not likely to be a continuation of the past.Though the enterprise needs a new and different culture, that culture must be efficient: it must enable executives to cope with ever less predict

35、able economic conditions; offer sufficient flexibility to use new technologies as they come on line; develop adaptability for the company to enter new fields of activity and leave old ones as the opportunities present themselves; and keep track of the growing interdependence of the company with its

36、partners and competitors and its economic and financial environment. But the new culture must also be ethical. It must recognize the impacts of the enterprise on society and on nature, and even on the conditions that we bequeath on future generations. And it must be ready to accept responsibility fo

37、r these impacts.Accepting responsibility in the sphere of society and nature is not only good common sense, it is also good business sense. There are no longer definite boundaries where where a company ends and society and nature begins. The basic enduring interests of the enterprise and its social

38、and ecological environment coincide. What is good for society and for nature is also good for the company-hence what is ultimately good for the company must also be good for society and for nature. This coincidence of interests will not change in the future; on the contrary, it will become more pron

39、ounced. The successful managers of the future will be those that recognize this fact and act on it. They will be effective as well as ethical: leaders of responsible corporate citizens in the global socio-economic-ecological system that is already emerging worldwide.Corporate cultureCorporate cultur

40、e is the glue, if you will, that holds an organization together. It incorporates an organizations values, its norms of behavior, its policies and its procedures. The most important influence on corporate culture is the national culture of the country in which the corporation is based. That may seem

41、obvious, but there are other factors that also help to shape a corporations cultureits views of and its interactions with the “outside world.” The ownership structure of the company will go a long way in defining a corporate culture. For example, the culture of a family-owned firm is likely to be qu

42、ite different from that of a publicly held company. Also, the industry that the corporation is part of will help shape its cultural values. For example, a high-tech computer software firm (a relatively young industry) is likely to have a much more informal and entrepreneurial culture than say that o

43、f an investment bank (a mature industry). And, likewise, an organization in a service industry will have a different culture than that of a manufacturing or mining company. Differences in the corporate culture of organizations in the same home culture and industry may still be profoundsometimes as p

44、rofound as the differences between national cultures themselves.Corporate-culture componentsLike national culture, corporate culture has some basic components that make up the whole. While national cultural components include such things as language, religion, and humor, the components of corporate

45、culture tend to be more utilitarian. No one single component can reveal the true internal make-up of a corporation but when they are taken as a whole, they present a clear picture of a companys values and goals. The key corporate cultural components are:l The system of rewardsWhat type of employee b

46、ehavior is appreciated and rewarded? Do risk takers move up in management ranks or does the corporation reward loyalty and long-term service instead?l Hiring decisionsThe type of individual a company hires says much about its culture. Is a company ready to grow and accept new ideas by hiring a diver

47、se workforce or is it content to keep hiring the same type of individual to build a homogeneous workforce?l Management structureDoes the corporation have a rigid hierarchical structure? Is it managed by an executive committee or a dominating chairman?l Risk-taking strategyWhat is the corporations vi

48、ew of risk? Does it encourage taking chances, trying new products and markets? Or is it content with well-established markets and products?l Physical settingIs the office an open plan that encourages communication and a sense of egalitarianism? Or are management offices segregated from the staff wor

49、kplace? Is headquarter a monument to ownership or a functional working environment?National cultural influencesAs explained previously, Asians place a high value on concept associated with social harmony, while Westerners put greater emphasis on individuals rights and responsibilities. It is no surprise to find that Japanese corporations almost always place great emphasis on group harmony in their corporate cultures. They design a system that rewards conformity, hire staff that is re