Conclusion总结
Numerous scholars have tried to explore the secrets behind General Motors’ giant success, although few studies have been carried out concerning the influence of General Motors’ organizational culture on its organizational behavior. This dissertation aims at fulfilling such academic gaps by reviewing the history of General Motors, analyzing its current strategy and looking into its future. Three categories of organizational culture have been positioned so as to explore the influential power of each culture.
First of all, flexible leadership in response to different situation. is the first and earliest organizational culture formed from the beginning of General Motors history and adhered to until these days. The considerable contrasts between the first two leaders of General Motors, William Durant and Alfred Sloan indicate the nature of leadership flexibility. Durant helped the newly born General Motors to over night grow into a nationwide integrated corporation with several brands, any single one of which was notable enough to be the core brand in a competitor company. Alfred Sloan, on the other hand, guided the company into the road of healthy management and solved many problems left from early expansion. The collective efforts of the two leaders guaranteed the prosperity of General Motors for the following half a century. None of their successors, be it John F. Smith, Richard Wagner or Fritz Henderson, is a rigid copycat of whatever virtues, spirit, quality left by the founding fathers, but they display high level of flexible leadership, that is, rather than chosen for their characteristic features, they function as the very leader General Motors wants in different situations. Therefore, the leadership culture of General Motors is not to find clone of Durant, of Sloan, or of Smith, Wagner, Henderson in the future, but to behave as daring, insightful, prudent, pragmatic as them when the leader in position is required to do so.
Secondly, sustainability is one crucial organizational culture that can be written in the textbook of General Motors. The company has dedicated itself to sustainable business for a long time, even before sustainability became a buzz word of the world. The company always believes in a higher level of capitalism, one with social purpose to tackle the problems its business have caused and those equally damaging ones that may seem less connected to its commercial activities. For the sake of such purposes, General Motors not only widely establishes partnership with sustainability-o
