Organizational Culture and Harley-Davidson - Case Study Example

The success of Harley-Davidson as a company can be attributed to its strong organizational culture. Harley-Davidson management strived to rediscover the things their company did best and was gifted with the knowledge of what culture could help achieve its vision of the future. Its leaders consciously re-examined its community roots and undertook actions that served long-term corporate and community purposes (Burack, 1993, p. 78). According to Schuster and Weidman (2006), Harley-Davidson's culture could be described as participatory because it imbues "collaborative decision-making at all levels".

Schuster and Weidman (2006) shared that this company applies "collaborative model" because it decentralized the senior management's decision-making down to its salaried-only work groups. Although Harley-Davidson management considers this culture as a "work in progress", it has already attained various success levels throughout the organization. The continued exposure of their leaders and plant floor employees into working productive teams, the company has gained non-traditional opportunities and it increased the level of employee support for this practice of labor-management partnership.

Harley-Davidson's is an epitome of a company's effective approach to people management No doubt, organizational culture. Conversely, failure to comply with cultural norms generates social pressures to conform; thus the individuals would either align with the cultural expectations or face ostracism and ridicule by their peers. Much of this process occurs in an informal and unspecified manner, filling in the gaps left by rational organizational control systems such as reporting relationships and job descriptions.

Ultimately, it is the customers that benefits in the application of a We have recommended for Harley-Davidson to establish a website where customers and potential customers can convene, the site will be called "Harley Dreamers" and the goal of this website is to promote Harley-Davidson events and while linking our customers to each other. The site will also offer a "Swap Meet" portion of the website, where subscribers could post ads for motorcycles and parts for sale or for trade. Another feature would be a site like "Bike Log", which could complement the "Swap Meet" site because people purchasing a bike from the site will be able to see where the bike has traveled and users can share their good or bad experiences using Harley-Davidson's motorcycles.

"Swap Meet" should be free for all Harley-Davidson customers, since this is the great selling point for getting people to subscribe to this site. Lastly, the "Technical Information Center" is a vital feature of the site where subscribers can obtain answers directly from Harley-Davidson professionals who would answer to their needs 24-hours a day. The GPS system will also enable users to track a bike or they can simply chat with other bike owners about their experiences on our blog. Incidentally, decentralized and collaborative decision-making that already exists in Harley-Davidson culture can work best with