ACCA Applied Knowledge · Business and Technology · Organisational culture
Marlow Co has just merged with a rival. Staff from each company continue to follow their former working practices and refer to 'us' and 'them'. Which factor most directly explains the resulting culture problem?
The cause is the combination of two established, differing cultures without integration. Each group keeps its own values and practices, creating subcultures and an 'us and them' attitude. Economic or accounting changes do not explain this behavioural division after a merger.
- ATwo established, differing cultures have been combined without integrationCorrect
- BAn increase in the national inflation rate
- CA change in the accounting policy for inventory
- DA fall in the price of raw materials
Explanation
Mergers bring together groups with different established values and habits. Without deliberate integration, subcultures persist, producing the 'us and them' attitude. Inflation, inventory policy and raw material prices do not explain this behaviour.
Did you get it right without looking?
One question tells you little. A timed set on Organisational culture shows your real accuracy, how long you take and where you lose marks.
More Organisational culture questions
- According to Handy's classification of organisational cultures, which culture is typically found in a large, stable organisation with clearl…
- According to Handy's classification of organisational culture, which culture is typically represented by a spider's web, with power concentr…
- Delta Co's mission statement says 'we put customers first'. Staff, however, routinely ignore complaints because they believe senior manageme…
- Zenith Logistics has a strong role culture: authority is based on job titles, procedures are detailed and decisions follow formal rules. The…
- A national retail chain has many stores and sells low-value items at high volume. Sales staff get immediate customer response and results ar…
- In Schein's model of culture, which level consists of the deeply held, often unconscious assumptions that members take for granted?