The Rhetorical Construction of Corporate Logos

This research is set in the context of today’s societies, in which the corporate visual symbology of a business, corporation or institution constitutes an essential way to transmit its corporate image. Traditional discursive procedures can be discovered in the development of these signs. The rhetorical strategies developed by the great classical authors appear in the logo-symbols expressing the corporate values of today’s companies. Thus, rhetoric is emerging once again in the sense it had many centuries ago: A repertory of rules that, paradoxically, standardizes the deviations of language and whose control is synonymous with power. The main objective of this study is to substantiate the rhetorical construction of logos using as a model of analysis the classical process of creating discourse. This involves understanding logos as persuasive discourses addressed to a modern audience. Our findings show that the rhetorical paradigm can be considered as a creative model for the con­struction of an original logo consistent with a company’s image.

Generation Y : affektives Commitment von Mitarbeitern in Unternehmen der Metropolregion Hannover-Braunschweig Göttingen Wolfsburg

Vertreter der Generation Y, Personen, die in den 1980er Jahren geboren wurden, drängen verstärkt in den Arbeitsmarkt. Ihre Wert- und Erwartungshaltung ist deshalb von großem Interesse für Unternehmen, die mit Themen wie dem Fachkräftemangel und demografischen Wandel konfrontiert sind und die Leistungsträger langfristig binden müssen. Ziel dieser Hausarbeit ist herauszufinden, wie ausgeprägt die emotionale Bindung der Generation Y in Unternehmen allgemein ist und unter welcher Voraussetzung affektives Commitment bei der Generation Y entsteht. Ein weiteres Ziel ist die Erarbeitung von Handlungsempfehlungen bezüglich des Personalmanagements von Generation Y in Unternehmen. Generation Y hat hohe Erwartungen an Arbeitsinhalt, Selbstverwirklichungsmöglichkeiten, Aus- und Weiterbildungsmaßnahmen, Unternehmenswerte und -ethik, Sinnhaftigkeit der Tätigkeit und Teamarbeit. Vertreter dieser Generation wünschen sich Wertschätzung, eine gute Beziehung zum Vorgesetzten, viele Partizipationsmöglichkeiten, regelmäßiges Feedback und Flexibilität. Weiterhin sind Work-Life-Balance, Karriereoptionen, Einkommen, digitale Vernetzung und Arbeitsplatzsicherheit wichtige Themen für diese Generation. Affektives Commitment entsteht durch Erfüllung von Erwartungen. Generation Y ist nur bedingt affektiv gebunden, tendiert zu häufigen Unternehmenswechseln und ist durch eine schwache Loyalität gekennzeichnet. Dies liegt hauptsächlich daran, dass die Erwartungen dieser Generation nicht erfüllt werden. Es wird empfohlen HR-Maßnahmen zu implementieren, die auf Erfüllung der Erwartungen von Generation Y abzielen.

Att leva som man lär : Implementering av företagskultur vid företagsförvärv

Så mycket som 83 % av alla företagsförvärv misslyckas med att öka aktieägarvärde och hela 53 % minskar till och med i aktieägarvärde (Daniel & Metcalf, 2001). Det är mycket lättare att göra själva affären, än att få den att fungera menar Nguyen & Kleiner (2003). Misslyckade företagsförvärv beror oftast på kulturella skillnader mellan företag och implementering av företagskultur är en nyckelfaktor för ett framgångsrikt företagsförvärv (Lodofors & Boateng, 2006). Syftet är att undersöka implementering av företagskultur efter ett företagsförvärv och att kartlägga ledningens och mellanchefernas egna upplevelser av framgångsfaktorer och svårigheter under processen. I den teoretiska referensramen definieras företagskultur och beskrivs utifrån ett flertal kulturella nivåer där värderingar får särskild uppmärksamhet då studien fokuserar på värdegrundsarbete. Det görs även en beskrivning av olika sätt att utveckla kulturer på. Vidare beskrivs faktorer som ledning och chefer bör ta hänsyn till vid implementering av företagskultur. Dessa är ledarskap, förtroende och lärande (Schein, 2010, Nguyen & Kleiner, 2003, Lakshman, 2011, Bijlsma-Frankema, 2001 m.fl.). För att undersöka studiens syfte har en kvalitativ metod med semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts. Undersökningen grundar sig på intervjuer med ledning och mellanchefer på Fastighetsbolaget AB. Resultatet visar att bolagets implementering av värderingar upplevs av de flesta respondenter som väldigt framgångsrik. Framgångsfaktorer i deras värdegrundsarbete sammanfattas med att ta det bästa av två världar, anpassa struktur efter önskad kultur, leva som man lär, ha transparens i information och beslut, skapa en gemensam syn på värderingar och uppföljning av medarbetares upplevelser. Den svårighet som diskuteras är kring att skapa en gemensam värdegrund i hela bolaget. Studiens slutsats är att implementering av företagskultur efter ett företagsförvärv handlar om att ledare måste leva som de lär och att ledningen måste skapa förutsättningar för det och arbeta med uppföljning av medarbetares upplevelser.

Creative process in globally distributed teams: a study of new product development in Volvo

With the business environments no longer confined to geographical borders, the new wave of digital technologies has given organizations an enormous opportunity to bring together their distributed workforce and develop the ability to work together despite being apart (Prasad & Akhilesh, 2002). resupposing creativity to be a social process, the way that this phenomenon occurs when the configuration of the team is substantially modified will be questioned. Very little is known about the impact of interpersonal relationships in the creativity (Kurtzberg & Amabile, 2001). In order to analyse the ways in which the creative process may be developed, we ought to be taken into consideration the fact that participants are dealing with a quite an atypical situation. Firstly, in these cases socialization takes place amongst individuals belonging to a geographically dispersed workplace, where interpersonal relationships are mediated by the computer, and where trust must be developed among persons who have never met one another. Participants not only have multiple addresses and locations, but above all different nationalities, and different cultures, attitudes, thoughts, and working patterns, and languages. Therefore, the central research question of this thesis is as follows: “How does the creative process unfold in globally distributed teams?” With a qualitative approach, we used the case study of the Business Unit of Volvo 3P, an arm of Volvo Group. Throughout this research, we interviewed seven teams engaged in the development of a new product in the chassis and cab areas, for the brands Volvo and Renault Trucks, teams that were geographically distributed in Brazil, Sweden, France and India. Our research suggests that corporate values, alongside with intrinsic motivation and task which lay down the necessary foundations for the development of the creative process in GDT.

CULTURA ORGANIZACIONAL: UM ESTUDO SOBRE O SISTEMA DE VALORES DE UMA MULTINACIONAL NO BRASIL

Este trabalho apresenta o tema CULTURA ORGANIZACIONAL: UM ESTUDO SOBRE O SISTEMA DE VALORES DE UMA MULTINACIONAL NO BRASIL . O eixo central da pesquisa é discutir a cultura organizacional global da multinacional sua relação com a cultura organizacional local da subsidiária no Brasil, bem como as relações de compartilhamento. Para isto, utiliza-se como objeto de estudo uma empresa multinacional alemã do segmento de produtos esportivos com subsidiária no Brasil. Com intuito de responder ao objetivo do trabalho foi realizado um estudo de caso único, descritivo explicativo, em uma empresa multinacional alemã instalada na cidade de São Paulo. O caso é composto por 62 sujeitos, 07 gestores e 55 funcionários administrativos que trabalham na subsidiária brasileira. Como resultado obteve-se a idéia de que a cultura organizacional é um fator relevante na sociedade pós-industrial globalizada e é necessário que as empresas multinacionais compreendam a cultura nacional do país onde desejam instalar-se e entendam como administrar as diversidades culturais de cada país.(AU)

CULTURA ORGANIZACIONAL: UM ESTUDO SOBRE O SISTEMA DE VALORES DE UMA MULTINACIONAL NO BRASIL

Este trabalho apresenta o tema CULTURA ORGANIZACIONAL: UM ESTUDO SOBRE O SISTEMA DE VALORES DE UMA MULTINACIONAL NO BRASIL . O eixo central da pesquisa é discutir a cultura organizacional global da multinacional sua relação com a cultura organizacional local da subsidiária no Brasil, bem como as relações de compartilhamento. Para isto, utiliza-se como objeto de estudo uma empresa multinacional alemã do segmento de produtos esportivos com subsidiária no Brasil. Com intuito de responder ao objetivo do trabalho foi realizado um estudo de caso único, descritivo explicativo, em uma empresa multinacional alemã instalada na cidade de São Paulo. O caso é composto por 62 sujeitos, 07 gestores e 55 funcionários administrativos que trabalham na subsidiária brasileira. Como resultado obteve-se a idéia de que a cultura organizacional é um fator relevante na sociedade pós-industrial globalizada e é necessário que as empresas multinacionais compreendam a cultura nacional do país onde desejam instalar-se e entendam como administrar as diversidades culturais de cada país.(AU)

CULTURA ORGANIZACIONAL: UM ESTUDO SOBRE O SISTEMA DE VALORES DE UMA MULTINACIONAL NO BRASIL

Este trabalho apresenta o tema CULTURA ORGANIZACIONAL: UM ESTUDO SOBRE O SISTEMA DE VALORES DE UMA MULTINACIONAL NO BRASIL . O eixo central da pesquisa é discutir a cultura organizacional global da multinacional sua relação com a cultura organizacional local da subsidiária no Brasil, bem como as relações de compartilhamento. Para isto, utiliza-se como objeto de estudo uma empresa multinacional alemã do segmento de produtos esportivos com subsidiária no Brasil. Com intuito de responder ao objetivo do trabalho foi realizado um estudo de caso único, descritivo explicativo, em uma empresa multinacional alemã instalada na cidade de São Paulo. O caso é composto por 62 sujeitos, 07 gestores e 55 funcionários administrativos que trabalham na subsidiária brasileira. Como resultado obteve-se a idéia de que a cultura organizacional é um fator relevante na sociedade pós-industrial globalizada e é necessário que as empresas multinacionais compreendam a cultura nacional do país onde desejam instalar-se e entendam como administrar as diversidades culturais de cada país.(AU)

Strategic Planning: Implications and Applications for Line Managers

Strategic planning is the key to producing a realistic, attractive rate of growth and a respectable return on investment. The author analyzes the steps in the planning process and looks at the environmental and cultural values which influence the strategic planner in his/her work.

Employer Branding idag : Attraktivitet genom sociala medier

The use of social media has during the last couple of years increased and is now a major part of most of the organizations marketing strategies. But how does this fit with the Employer Branding strategies? And how does this affect the organizational attractiveness as an employer? These were two of the questions we wanted to examine and analyze. In order to answer these questions, we conducted interviews with six different companies divided into 3 subgroups. The intention of this was to get a wider perspective of how the implementation of social media in the Employer Branding could work. And could this change the recruitment process? What we could see afterwards is that more time is spent on taking references online through social media sites. Some say it is more honest than the traditional references that the candidate got to choose. Other conclusions that we could find was that it is important to use social media in todays market but it is crucial to use it in a proper way. Companies must form a strategy based on their Employee Value Proposition in order to reach the wanted receivers using social media. It is also important that the Employee Value Proposition is based on the companies’ corporate values.

Diseño, implementación y seguimiento de estrategias de sensibilización en valores corporativos orientados a la sostenibilidad para el personal administrativo de OMA

Nacional e internacionalmente, la sostenibilidad se ha convertido en el punto clave de las grandes organizaciones, sus actividades y los participantes que se encuentran involucrados. Una empresa es sostenible cuando ha encontrado el equilibrio entre el aspecto económico, social y ambiental, logrando sin lugar a dudas éxito y perdurabilidad en el entorno al que pertenece. Es por esto que el principal objetivo de este proyecto es el diseño e implementación de estrategias de sensibilización en valores corporativos para el personal administrativo de OMA, el cual se enfoca en la creación y desarrollo de actividades que permitan la concientización y cambios en el comportamiento ambiental de los colaboradores de la compañía. A partir de múltiples herramientas como conceptos básicos, normatividad y actividades dinámicas se logró informar y capacitar a los colaboradores de la compañía en temas como la importancia del desarrollo sostenible, política ambiental y prácticas ambientales adecuadas dentro del entorno laboral y sus hogares.

Regulating corporate governance in China and Hong Kong : do Chinese values and ethics have a place in the age of globalization?

Much has been said about the convergence of corporate governance and regulations. The underlying assumptions of this phenomenon are driven by globalisation and the dominance of the Anglo-US model of corporate governance. Since the Asian crisis in 1997, Hong Kong and perhaps to a less extend Mainland China, had amended both Company laws and Stock Exchange Listing Rules obligations, arguably, mirroring provisions and rules in the UK and US. However, there has been a small amount of literature in law drawing from cross cultural management asking the question - is Western governance and regulation appropriate for the East? This paper will approach this issue from a different mindset, instead of drawing distinctions about East and West, a meta-regulatory framework will attempt to incorporate Western ‗hard‘ and ‗soft‘ laws with Asian ethical values. The aim is to combine laws and ethics thereby enhancing corporate governance and, improve compliance of those rules by adapting Chinese ethical values like Confucianism into the regulatory system. The overarching goal of this exercise is to adapt the wisdom of Chinese ethics into regulatory guidelines to suit the modern global market.

Factors affecting perceptions of corporate social responsibility implementation: an emphasis on values

This dissertation is a broad study of factors affecting perceptions of CSR issues in multiple stakeholder realms, the main purpose being to determine the effects of the values of individuals on their perceptions regarding CSR. It examines perceptions of CSR both at the emic (observing individuals and stakeholders) and etic levels (conducting cross-cultural comparison) through a descriptive-empirical research strategy. The dissertation is based on quantitative interview data among Chinese, Finnish and US stakeholder groups of industry companies (with an emphasis on the forest industries) and consists of four published articles and two submitted manuscripts. Theoretically, this dissertation provides a valuable and unique philosophical and intellectual perspective on the contemporary study of CSR `The Harmony Approach to CSR'. Empirically, this dissertation does values assessment and CSR evaluation of a wide variety of business activities covering CSR reporting, business ethics, and three dimensions of CSR performance. From the multi-stakeholder perspective, this dissertation use survey methods to examine the perceptions and stakeholder salience in the context of CSR by describing, comparing the differences between demographic factors as well as hypothetical drivers behind perceptions. The results of study suggest that the CSR objective of a corporation's top management should be to manage the divergent and conflicting interests of multiple stakeholders, taking others than key stakeholders into account as well. The importance of values as a driver of ethical behaviour and decision-making has been generally recognized. This dissertation provides more empirical proof of this theory by highlighting the effects of values on CSR perceptions. It suggests that since the way to encourage responsible behaviour and develop CSR is to develop individual values and cultivate their virtues, it is time to invoke the critical role of moral (ethics) education. The specific studies of China and comparison between Finland and the US contribute to a common understanding of the emerging CSR issues, problems and opportunities for the future of sustainability. The similarities among these countries can enhance international cooperation, while the differences will open up opportunities and diversified solutions for CSR in local conditions.

Managers' personal values as drivers of corporate social responsibility

In this theoretical paper, motives for CSR are considered. An underlying assumption is that the commercial imperative is not the sole driver of CSR decision-making in private sector companies, but that the formal adoption and implementation of CSR by corporations could be associated with the changing personal values of individual managers. These values may find expression through the opportunity to exercise discretion, which may arise in various ways. It is suggested that in so far as CSR initiatives represent individuals' values, so the “responsibility” in evidence is less obviously “corporate.” Our emphasis on personal initiative is intended to counter a tendency to view the corporation as the agent, and may serve to remind us that individuals can, indeed, make a difference.