Introduction
Organizational culture defines an institution, whether based on profit, the kind of products and /or services offered, their arrangement, goals, and employee behavior which sum up to create a feeling of culture in the organization. Most organizations in the world have different cultures, and this mostly depends on their products and services. This paper will attempt to analyze the organizational culture of Shinetsu Chemical company, their values, characteristics, and hence their personality.
Main Body
Organizational culture is the study of the values, attitudes, psychology, and experiences of an organization; it defines the personality of an organization. The culture of an organization is very difficult to express specifically but is always known by its sense of it. An example can be the layout of the offices, which will reflect on the culture of the institution to the observer. The behavior of the team of employees is nurtured by the culture of such institution (McNamara 1)
Shinetsu is a Chemical company limited by shares located in Tokyo Japan and deals with the production of organic and inorganic chemicals, electronic, functional, and other materials. Among the products in each category are (PVC) Polyvinyl chloride, semiconductor silicon, synthetic quartz, information processing among others. Shinetsu is managed by Chihiro Kanaga, who is its current president and the (CEO) Chief Executive Officer.
It was established on 16 September 1926 with a capital of 119,419 million yen (Shinetsu-profile par1). The company’s names “Shin” and “Etsu” come from the geographical location of two companies Nagano Prefecture’s and Niigata prefecture which came together to form Shin-Etsu.
The two locations had very vital materials for processing their chemical products during their startups, Shin came from the word Shinano which was the place of location of Nagano and was full of water that was used to generate electricity while Etsu came from the name Echigo which was an area of limestone, this made it easy for the combination as limestone was a raw material available for processing. The company was first established as a processor of nitrogen fertilizer in 1926 and has since become a big group with a variety of products as had been shown earlier in the paper (Shinetsu-history 1).
The table below shows the organizational structure of Shinetsu Company limited.
Shinetsu’s network is wide in the world; they cover Japan, Europe, Asia-Oceania, and North America, covering a vast group of companies. It is therefore very vital to have a strong culture that maximizes production and retains the employees. Culture is planted from the policies of an organization; Shinetsu’s main goal is to supply the very materials that would improve the lives of the world. From their statistics, they are profit-oriented with the value of giving quality products to the customers.
They can be classified as a corporate cultured organization with a line of management officials heading from the top manager who is the CEO and the president, through the board of directors to the individual employees, with well-defined structures of management, each individual having a clearly defined set of duties. This can be evidenced by their well-structured management hierarchy which follows the following order: President and CEO, two Executive Vice Presidents, two senior Managing directors, sixteen directors, a full-time statutory auditor, and four statutory auditors. This shows their corporate structure and is very significant in the running of the company.
Shinetsu has a procurement policy that is well defined and based on the awareness and the safety of the employees and the consumers. The policy includes collaboration, transparency, safety, and the environment. Shinetsu values research and development, as evidenced by their ever-expanding network, their policy regarding research is to create and turn new ideas into a reality, it gives the employees the authority to come up with new innovative ideas which can be researched and developed to become realities. This creates an open culture where different departments come up with ideas channeled through the research and development for the improvement and introduction of new products in the company.
The company in its policy stresses its commitment to the conservation of the environment, and strategies on the management of the employees, Shinetsu has prioritized environmental conservation and protection of the employees and all the relevant inclusions in all its activities. This is evidenced in their calendar issue on Nature and Life, which creates awareness on the need to conserve nature and water (Shinetsu-interviews par9), which includes environmental conservation activities that were conducted in Costa Rica’s mode Verde, Brazil’s Amazon, New Zealand’s Waipoa, Ecuador’s Olmedo mangrove, Cameroon’s group, and Canada’s Maple Forests.
Shinetsu is an ISO certified company and credits much of its success to the employees, who according to them are fulfilled as they invest a lot on them, the employees are taken through a series of training after employments, the training includes personal development, They offer them favorably, working environment, take them through professional development and even claim to be an example in the area, not to forget the terms of employment which are appealing to the employees.
This has undoubtedly set them apart as one of the great giants in the chemical industry. The other factors are due to their heavy investment in the relevant technologies, having ventured heavily on health, taking safety as a serious part of their activities.
Shinetsu has a mission, which is centered on people’s lives and the environment, they claim to pursue zero rates on incidents and accidents, this they do by incorporating vital factors like health in the process of production, and aims to have the best of performances in the world. Shinetsu also has an open culture in which the employees are allowed to learn more and increase their knowledge and skills. This they do by allowing for culture exchange and group works, it showed its support for environmental conservation by signing the voluntary PVC commitment which was made to help in reducing the consequences of manufacturing.
Interviews given by the current employees of the company show their true commitment to culture, examples are Kindermans, who tells how he began working after undergoing much thorough training by the company, and even stresses on the open culture as he can have time to study, similar sentiments are made by Nieuwland a supervisor with the company and many others like, Solbrig and Wijnberg. The climax being the Shinetsu SEH America Inc voted the best employer during the year 1999 for incorporating those with disabilities in its workforce (see America 1).
Conclusion
It is therefore very clear that Shinetsu operates both in corporate culture and open culture where the employees learn new things to incorporate in their duties and hence maximize their quality and productivity. Employees have a chance to be promoted as in the example of Kindermans who has moved through ranks, there is also a good working condition, as in the case of Wijnberg who was able to adjust to working 3 days a week due to her pregnancy. It can be seen that the company values Culture which has been key to their success, and their wide network in all the corners of the world. Organizational culture is therefore an integral part of the development of a company and should be ensured to allow for maximized production and hence efficiency which results in improved profit margin.
Works Cited
McNamara, Carter. Organizational culture. Published by Authenticity Consulting company LLC. 2000. Web.
SEHAmericaInc. SEH-American am edemployer of the year. 1999. Web.
Shinentsu chemical company limited. Corporate information. 2010. Web.