Maintaining a Single Samsung Spirit
In 2009, the world economy was hit hard by the financial crisis that was unfolding in the United States. A number of industries, including the financial, automotive and real estate industries were engulfed in this meltdown. Samsung and the electronics industry was no exception; however, Samsung astounded everyone with their impressive financial performance throughout the crisis. A critical factor that contributed to Samsung’s performance was their strong investment in their employees during that period of time. The fact that Samsung made a deliberate focus on Human Resources efforts to hire and develop a diverse workforce, including more experience and non-Korean employees, provided the rich entrepreneurial environment that saved the day.
Post financial crisis, Samsung management realized they faced a challenging situation in socializing these new groups of employees. Management had become aware of the stark differences in values between it’s older employees, who were obedient and followed rules easily and the younger “digital native” employees who were more individualistic and preferred egalitarian and open policies. How Samsung’s Human Resources Development group responded to this challenge is the subject of this case study. You should read and analyze how Samsung sought to preserve their “Samsung Single Spirit” culture through a New Employee Orientation program; then, answer the following posed questions in a paper essay.
QUESTIONS:
1. What were the main reasons why Samsung wanted to utilize NEO per the case details (what did it achieve)?
2. How did globalization, access to the internet and market reforms contribute to the lack of awareness that NEO sought to provide to new hires (created more market forces that new younger hires were influenced by which negated the Samsung culture)?
3. What are some suggestions you might make regarding how Samsung could bridge the generational divide and utilize a new group of diverse employees (utilize concepts from the course that can be applied to this question)?
What are some concerns going forward considering the generational divide can be quite substantial between the various groups mentioned in the case?
