Verizon Communications, Inc. utilizes its organizational culture to ensure high-quality products. High quality is a competitive advantage that forms the main basis of the company’s strategies for the telecommunications market (Read: Verizon’s Generic Strategy and Intensive Growth Strategies). In this regard, the company benefits from the contribution of its corporate culture to overall business competitiveness and strategic success. A firm’s organizational culture or corporate culture establishes the set of beliefs, principles and values that affect employee behavior. In this case, Verizon sets its organizational culture to encourage employees to support aims for high quality, which is central to the company’s ability to attract customers and stand out from the competition. The corresponding cultural characteristics influence all of the company’s divisions and subsidiaries, such as Verizon Wireless. For example, human resource development programs at Verizon Wireless emphasize and uphold the same cultural traits that are reinforced in other divisions and subsidiaries. As a result, the corporate culture functions in enhancing the company’s employee performance and in integrating the entire organization seamlessly.
Employees can use the organizational culture as a factor in making decisions on the job. For example, institutionalized cultural traits guide prescribed behaviors for certain situations experienced in the business processes of Verizon Communications, Inc. The corporate culture also promotes brand development. For instance, in the case of Verizon Wireless, the cultural emphasis on high quality sustains a strong brand image that attracts customers in the wireless telecommunications services market, and addresses competition as a major factor in the external business environment, as shown in the Porter’s Five Forces analysis of Verizon Communications, Inc.
Verizon’s Organizational Culture Type and Characteristics
Verizon has an organizational culture of quality in performance. This type of corporate culture focuses on achieving high quality through employees’ behavior and decision-making in their job performance. For example, the employees at Verizon Wireless are encouraged to always consider options to maximize the quality of their output in addressing customers’ queries and complaints. The cultural characteristics also motivate workers to develop solutions to comply with the company’s high quality standards for its information and communication technologies and services. The following characteristics define the corporate culture of Verizon Communications, Inc.:
- Quality and reliability (most significant)
- Customer-centricity
- Teamwork
- Excellence
- Values-driven foundation
1. Quality and Reliability. This cultural characteristic serves as the primary factor that defines the company’s organizational culture and contributes to the strength and competitiveness of the business, as determined in the SWOT analysis of Verizon Communications, Inc. For example, the company emphasizes quality and reliability in its employees’ output, especially in maintaining the high quality of its information and communications technologies and infrastructure. This support of the corporate culture enables the company to promote its services on the basis of quality. For instance, Verizon Wireless advertisements highlight high-quality services.
2. Customer-Centricity. The needs and expectations of customers are the focus of this cultural trait. In this regard, customer satisfaction is supported and optimized through Verizon’s corporate culture. Customer-centricity motivates employees to identify what customers expect from the company, and to contribute to solutions that aim to satisfy these expectations. For example, the organizational culture helps in achieving success in implementing human resource programs that train Verizon Wireless employees to provide high-quality customer service, which is a differentiator of the business against other firms in the wireless telecommunications services market.
3. Teamwork. Employees are encouraged to contribute to the success of their work teams, based on this cultural characteristic. In this regard, an emphasis of the organizational culture is on achieving high effectiveness and efficiency through the synergy of Verizon’s human resources. Teamwork is significant in the company’s operations, such as in research and development, problem solving, and infrastructure maintenance. For example, Verizon Wireless uses work teams in improving and maintaining its telecommunications infrastructure. The corporate culture considers effective teamwork as a desirable factor, and instills this perspective in the minds of the company’s employees.
4. Excellence. The cultural trait of excellence empowers employees to support aims for advanced information and communications technologies, which are a factor in the corporate vision and mission statements of Verizon Communications, Inc. The corporate culture influences employees to view excellence as a desirable factor in their work performance. As a result, they are motivated to ensure excellent job performance. This characteristic of the organizational culture contributes to the company’s competitiveness. For example, Verizon Wireless is competitive because of its attractiveness as a provider of high-quality wireless telecommunications services.
5. Values-Driven Foundation. Core values are a cultural characteristic that serves as the foundation of employees’ decisions and behaviors. For example, through the core value of integrity, the organizational culture helps satisfy the interests of the stakeholders of the telecommunications business by influencing Verizon’s corporate social responsibility strategy, in terms of properly considering such interests. The corporate culture also promotes virtue ethics as a framework for decision-making and problem-solving processes. For instance, to address individual customers’ cases, employees at Verizon Wireless are likely to ensure integrity and respect in their communications with customers.
Verizon’s Corporate Culture: Advantages & Disadvantages, Recommendations
The organizational culture of Verizon Communications, Inc. has the advantage of strengthening business competitive advantage based on quality of services. This cultural advantage is a major contributor to the success of the business. For example, high quality technological service and customer service are frequently used as the selling point for Verizon Wireless in the telecommunications services market. Another advantage of the corporate culture is its promotion of excellence in employee behavior. Excellence adds to the company’s competitive advantage and business strengths.
Despite such advantages, Verizon’s organizational culture has the disadvantage of limited motivation for output maximization. This is understandable because the company’s emphasis is more on quality than quantity of output. However, a recommendation is to improve the corporate culture by establishing high-productivity as a major cultural trait, without sacrificing the cultural trait of quality and reliability. For example, the high quality of Verizon Wireless must remain even if such additional cultural trait is formally established. This recommendation aims to enhance the company’s financial performance. Verizon’s operations management strategy should reflect such recommended change in the organizational culture.
References
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- Verizon Communications, Inc. – Code of Conduct.
- Verizon Wireless – Official Website.