Contents

Introduction.....................................................................................................2
Analysis of the culture.....................................................................................2
Strengths......................................................................................................2
Weaknesses..................................................................................................3
Potential areas of conflict................................................................................4
Conclusion.......................................................................................................5
References.......................................................................................................6
References from books.................................................................................6
References from Academic Articles...............................................................6
Bibliography.....................................................................................................8

Case Study 1: Creating a high performance culture at Siemens

Introduction
Siemens AG is a global business that produces and supplies electrical and electronic devices all
over the world. Having headquarters in Munich, Germany, the company employees half a million
people worldwide. To efficiently manage such a large and diverse workforce, the company has
adopted a high performance culture throughout the organization. With the help of talent
management, employee engagement and an effective human resource development strategy, a
high performance culture is established.
Analysis of the culture
High performance culture is a culture that performs at the highest levels consistently and have
such goals for the workers that when they reach that goal, the organization also fulfills its goals.
This culture fosters shared beliefs, values, attitudes, goals and actions, at all levels in an
organization, and focused on the superior execution of agreed actions. This type of a culture is a
push culture. In a push culture, innovation, elevated performance, value-additive change,
excellence in customer experience and relationships are driven from the bottom up. By adopting
this culture, Siemens believe that the world is filled with possibility and opportunity. That is the
reason that they focus so much on human resources management.
Strengths
High performance culture have some strengths and weaknesses. Its strengths contribute to the
growth and success of Siemens whereas, the weaknesses of this culture pose challenges to the
company that need to be addressed in order to secure the future of the company. The high

performance culture aids the employees of Siemens to achieve their goals and later achieve the
companys targets. This culture aligns the goals in such a way that when an employee achieves
his goal, the company moves one step closer to its goal. Additionally, it measures how well the
individual goals are aligned with the organizational goals. The managers can easily assess this
association and propose steps and methods to align them even more. Furthermore, successful
employees add to Siemens competitive advantage. This culture develops a talented, diverse and
engaged workforce who become the companys competitive advantage and help it to take the
market lead. Moreover, the companies who adopts high performance culture tend to experience
high net income as compared to low performers (Hartog &Verburg, 2004). High performance
culture includes talent management and employee engagement which increases employee
motivation. It encourages them to take one step ahead to fulfill their goals and the companys as
well (Lee &Yu, 2004). Lastly, it is necessary to communicate well in order to stay within the
right framework and remain engaged with the right tasks so this improves the information flow
and encourages two-way communication. Furthermore, well communicate goals lead to better
performance and thus high customer satisfaction, assuring a potential increase in customer base
(Minnesh, 2006). Hence, high performance culture provides a clear picture of the companys
strengths and weaknesses that can be tackled by the management to maintain those strengths and
eradicate weaknesses.
Weaknesses
High performance culture promote employee engagement and the managers are focused and
respected. This is why Siemens is doing exceptionally well. But a question arises, is this culture
sustainable? Are they engaged in the right things? This is one of the weakness of this culture. It is

difficult to sustain it (Owen, Mundy, Guild & Guild, 2001). In a huge company as Siemens,
where there is a huge workforce, it is very challenging to make sure that each employee is
engaged in the rights things and focused on the right targets. Because if any one of the employee
is not, then it will have a negative impact on the performance of the entire company and can
cause hindrance in the achievement of organizational goals. Furthermore, for the company to be
successful, first its employees need to succeed. If they fail in achieving their goals, it will have
an adverse impact on the success on the company (Robson, 2005). So, efficient leadership and
supervision is required in order to sustain this culture. Siemens need to continuously train their
supervisors so that they can lead the teams to achieve the company goals. Moreover, team
working is necessary. But some employees may prefer to work alone. Or they work better on
their own rather than in a team. This might result in conflicts taking place in the team. And these
conflicts reduces efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. Furthermore, the role of a team
leader is very crucial. Siemens need to spend a lot of resource; time and money. To recruit a
vigilant team leader so that he can organize and lead the team in a right direction and resolve all
the conflict within the team (White, 2012). Lastly, the talent management needs to be very
efficient in identifying the right and the most useful talent of the employees so that the company
can benefit from it. If this task is not done properly, Siemens can suffer huge costs and losses.
Potential areas of conflict
To establish and implement high performance culture, the organization and the employees are
required to work in unity. Their goals are required to be aligned. And in an attempt to adopt this
kind of culture, many conflicts can arise (Gupta, 2011). Firstly, conflict between the employees
and the management can take place due to the difference in their goals. The organizational

targets might not support the employee individual goals. He might want to focus on one of his
talents but the managers want him to focus on some other talent that is more beneficial for
Siemens. This could reduce motivation levels to great extents, as opposed to management
expectations and a demotivated worker will only add to the costs of the company. Secondly,
performance management is an important element of high performance culture and means and
methods of measuring performance might not be favored by the employees. Although it might be
cost effective for Siemens but the employees may label it as unfair or inappropriate. This further
reduces motivation and the employee may no longer feel to work towards achieving the
companys goals (Wilkins & Ouchi, 1983). The same could be the case with the talent
management team. Their policies and practices might not be approved and supported by the
workforce at Siemens. Lastly, miscommunication can lead to misinterpretation of information
that can deviate a worker from the goals and can cause conflicts (Katzenbach & Smith, 1993).
Conclusion
Although, high performance culture adopted by Siemens have its positives. But it also has some
negatives. And if these weaknesses and conflicts are not addressed and taken seriously, they
might cause a hindrance in the achievement of organizational goals. High performance culture
can turn into a liability and Siemens can lose their competitive advantage.

References
References from books
Katzenbach, J.R. and Smith, D.K. (1993).The wisdom of teams: Creating a high performance
organization. Harvard Business Press
References from Academic Articles
Gupta, V. (2011). Cultural basis of high performance organizations. International Journal of
Commerce and Management, 21(3), 221 - 240
Hartog, D.N.D. and Verburg, R.M. (2004). High performance work systems, organizational
culture and firm effectiveness. Human Resource Management journal, 14(1), 55-78
Lee, S.K.J. and Yu, K. (2004). Corporate culture and organizational performance. Journal of
Managerial Psychology, 19(4), 340 - 359
Minnesh, K. (2006). The human factor. II: Creating a high performance culture in an
organization. Cost Engineering, 48(6), 27-34
Owen, K., Mundy, R., Guild, W. and Guild, R. (2001). Creating and sustaining the high
performance organization. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, 11(1), 10 - 21
Robson, I. (2005). Implementing a performance measurement system capable of creating a
culture of high performance. International Journal of Productivity and Performance
Management, 54(2), 137-145
White, R.E. (2012). Building highperforming teams rapidly. Industrial and Commercial
Training, 44(7), 424 - 428

Wilkins, A.L. and Ouchi, W.G. (1983). Efficient cultures: Exploring the relationship between
culture and organizational performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28(3), 468-481

Bibliography
Appelbaum, E. (2000). Manufacturing Advantage: Why High-performance Work Systems pay
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Kotter, J.P. and Heskett,J.L. (2008) Corporate culture and performance. Simon and Schuster
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Studer, Q. (2013). A culture of high performance: Achieving higher quality at a lower cost. First
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