Corporate Culture of GameStop - Essay Example

Categorizing the culture of the company, it can be stated that the culture of the company is Low-Performance Culture. High-Performance Culture is the one where shared beliefs, attitudes, actions, and goals persist whereas Low-Performance Culture is the opposite of it. The Mission Statement of GameStop Corporation states that the company is less inclined towards High-Performance Culture whereas the Vision Statement of the company states its values for its employees, shareholders, etc.   

Leadership Actions

Leadership actions that are utilized by GameStop Corporation include the following:

• Establishing goals at once
• Acting fearlessly
• Dominating the situation
• Making it interesting to work
• Developing expertise
• Giving rewards and recognition for good work
• Giving opportunity to workers in order to develop their skills
• Moving persistently towards the goals
• Showing commitment towards the company
• Dreaming big

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture can be broadly categorized among one of the four major types. They include:

• Collaborate
• Compete
• Control
• Create

Out of all these four types of organizational culture, the culture of GameStop is a mix of Create and Compete. The company always focuses on bringing something new as the nature of the industry is innovative and competition is very tough. Therefore, in order to keep pace with its competitors, it has to “Compete” by bringing something new through utilizing “Create” culture.

Five Dimensions of a Culture

According to Geert Hofstede, five dimensions of a culture are:

• Individualism; how employees maintain their individualism despite being integrated into a collective group.
• Uncertainty Avoidance; measuring the comfort of employees against uncertain situations and environment
• Masculinity; a company having masculine stereotypes operates as competitive and assertive.
• Power Distance; hierarchical layers between the lowest level of management and top level of management

The culture of GameStop is closest to Masculinity. The company behaves as competitive and highly assertive in achieving its goals and objectives.

Mission Statement

The Mission Statement of the company is:

"Our GameStop, EB Games, and Electronics Boutique retail locations set us apart in the industry. Everything that we offer our customers-from our expansive selection of new products, to our knowledgeable associates and our value-added pre-owned products-is geared to deliver customer satisfaction. We complement our store network with GameStop.com and EBgames.com, and publish Game Informer, one of the industry's largest circulation video game magazines."

Vision Statement

The GameStop vision statement is: 

"Together, we hold a passion for gaming, a commitment to our industry, and a disciplined business perspective to continuously drive value with shareholders, customers, vendors, and employees."

The culture of GameStop supports its Mission Statement but doesn’t support its Vision Statement. In Mission Statement, the company has stated how customer-oriented it is, which is certainly true however in Vision Statement, it has stated about commitment and providing value to its employee and shareholders which is not the case in actuality. The company is highly customer-oriented and employees are directed to perform as per the requirements and preferences of customers.

The culture of the company can be improved only when if it aligns its Vision Statement along with its corporate culture. The company needs to focus and value its employees as much as it values its customers. Employees are considered as internal customers of the organization and if internal customers are not satisfied then external customers can also not be satisfied in long run.