Managerial Actions to Share Organisational Culture with Employees | AQA Q2.2, Paper 2 2018

Here is a suggested response to the 9-mark analysis question in 2018 on the actions that Lego management might take to help ensure employees share the culture of the business.

The case study indicates that Lego already has a strong culture and that it is particularly based on openness and trust. That implies that communication between managers and employees needs to be frequent and responsive. Managers would therefore need to ensure that Lego employees are fully aware of the mission, aims and objectives of the business as well as its performance. Openness might be achieved by making performance data widely available to all employees rather than just the managers who have responsibility for achieving specific objectives. Trust could be built through a culture of honest feedback between managers and employees, including through performance appraisal. By consistently taking these actions, it is more likely that employees will share the culture of openness and trust.

The core values of Lego are described as being about “Creativity, Imagination, Fun, Learning, Quality and Care”. A key action that managers would need to take would be to ensure that the recruitment, selection and training processes in Lego are consistent with sharing and instilling these core values in new recruits. For example, the induction training for new employees is likely to involve a close focus on these core values, including opportunities for fun team-building activities and new employees learning about Lego’s processes for achieving quality. Recruitment and induction training will be particularly important for Lego managers responsible for building the new teams in China and Mexico where employees might be used to a different kind of culture at work.

Note: the question requires students to explore the "actions" Lego managers might take. The range required for arguments is, therefore, plural. So our understanding is that TWO relevant arguments, in context, of sufficient depth are required in order to reach Level 3.