ALBA MSc In Strategic HRM
Understanding Organizations
Final take-home Exam

HENKEL CASE STUDY

a) Describe the new culture of Henkel, in terms of its artifacts as well as content. Critically compare Henkel’s culture before 2008 and after Kasper Rorsted’s arrival. Which key Differences can you identify? How can the new culture drive forward the new strategic objectives?

What is the magic recipe that can make a company effective, successful, fruitful and eventually “Number One”? Henkel with Rorsted on the lead and an ambition of becoming the Leader in the market had to move into radical changes. Radical changes which would lead to the new culture in terms of its artifacts and cultural content. An organizational culture can be
, 2013), (McShane & Von Glinow, 2009, pp. 144-145) under the condition of reaching certain outcomes, targets and goals, or in the language of free market, increasing sales.
The new system is hard and leaves no room for mistakes. The goal is clear and must be accomplished at all costs. Throughout 2008 and 2009 Rorsted and his management team worked intensively to create the new program in order to tackle effectively underperformance, setting three new strategic priorities: 1) achieve full business potential, 2) focus more on customers and 3) strengthen the global team. The old system was aged and outdated in all of its parameters. Targets were easy to achieved resulting in a chill-out and steady climate of steady performance with no signs of improvement. Rorsted annotated the old system as the promoter of “happy underperformers”, fans of the second place, which was no longer the case or the motto of the new Henkel.
A good rewarding system can play a key role for reinforcing people in terms of their performance, growth and innovation (Nohria, Groysberg, & Eling-Lee, 2008). Indeed according with the testimonies of Henkel’s executives there were many cases where the new reward system was efficient and managed to fulfill its objectives. There were cases were employees showed remarkable improvement and other extremes where individuals were even seeking feedback from their colleagues