1.0 Individual Comparison Report Between the Case Study of Samsung and Blackberry
Samsung, a South Korean electronics company, manufactures various home and business electronics, accounting for 20% of Korea’s economy. Between 1999 and 2011, BlackBerry was a famous smartphone brand. In 2016, the company shifted to cybersecurity software and solutions after losing the mobile phone business value to Samsung and other quick innovate brands (Yoo & Kim, 2015). Samsung is chosen as a successful long-term company, whereas Blackberry has been chosen as a failed company. The first part analyses both company’s culture and structure. The second section explains how the organizational structure, culture, and management styles relate to either company’s success or failure. The third part analyses both companies’ HR strategic planning, recruitment and selection, and talent management. After the logical conclusion of the findings, the paper has suggested recommendations for further improvement.
2.0 Comparing The Organizational Structure and Culture of Both Organizations
2.1 Samsung’s Communication Modes
Internal staff communication
The way Samsung conveys its mission, vision, and values to its employees is very productive. This mode of communication allows the staff members to interact and share ideas, resources, and information. It encourages employees to be creative, open-minded, and communicative (Kim & Ko, 2010, p.70).
Conventional communication techniques
For expansion and development, the CEO uses common forms of electronic communication, including email, IM, blogs, and Twitter. These methods boost productivity in service provision, as well as teamwork, social cohesiveness, and the timely exchange of information across organizational units (Hurta, Koplyay, Malouin & Motaghi, 2018).
2.2 Blackberry’s communication modes
The client App and server App
The client initiates an ICC engagement by making a request, which the server answers. Service discovery reduces duplicate services across applications. Both client and server applications have code for requests and processing replies, with appropriate handlers called by the BD run-time (Danaher & Rossiter, 2011).
Blackberry’s BlogHub
The BlogHub system at Blackberry facilitates internal communication by enabling users to form online groups by sharing written and visual content. This helps get people talking at the ground level and sparks new ideas, fostering employee innovation and teamwork inside the company (Guffey & Loewy, 2014).
2.3 Samsung’s Leadership Styles
Democratic leadership style
Current CEO Lee Kun-Hee emphasizes democratic leadership by emphasizing the need to agree among senior management on major strategic choices. He separates himself less actively from the process of creating new products by giving the team more freedom (Men, 2014, p.267).
Transformative leadership
Lee Kun-Hee is a visionary who has led Samsung from an agribusiness to a world-class manufacturer of electronic components, including microprocessors, flat-panel displays, and mobile phones. In addition to producing around 20% of South Korea’s exports, it is also partly responsible for the nation’s recent economic growth (Al, 2018).
2.3 Blackberry’s Leadership Styles
The calm water metaphor approach
Blackberry’s leaders saw the market as stable and opposed innovation, accelerating smartphone transition and revolutionizing instant messaging. Their failure to adopt touch screen innovation affected consumer preferences to shift to new smartphones (Nawaz & Khan, 2016, p.7)
Autocratic leadership
Thorsten Heins, Blackberry’s previous chief executive officer, used an authoritarian management style that resulted in the disastrous rollout of the touchscreen Z10 without informing Founder Mike Lazaridis. A new keyboard with a physical keyboard was proposed by Marlow (2013), and it continues to be popular among corporate customers. With a second-quarter deficit of $975 million, the corporation had to let off 4,500 workers (Iqbal, Anwar & Haider, 2015).
3.0 Ways in Which Samsung’s Culture, Structure, And Management Style Have Contributed to Its Success
The company’s emphasis on technical innovation and human resource development influences workers at all of Samsung’s branches and regional headquarters. For Samsung to be competitive against companies like Blackberry and maintain its long-term financial success and social accountability, the company must maintain its cohesive and innovative team culture (Nanjundeswaraswamy & Swamy, 2014, p.51). The flat organizational structure allows effective information sharing between management and employees.
Furthermore, the organization has used a transformational leadership style for many years. As a result of the company’s commitment to innovation, it has successfully developed commercially via its product lines that consistently satisfy the preferences of its target market (Bhatti, Maitlo, Shaikh, Hashmi & Shaikh, 2012, p.190).
3.1 Ways in Which Blackberry’s Culture, Structure, And Management Style Have Contributed to Its Failure
BlackBerry failed to respond to new circumstances due to the company’s change resistance culture. Due to the firm’s fast expansion and litigation, a significant priority was put on the bureaucratic structure and a fear of the unorthodox. This led to arrogance, bad choices in design, and isolation, which fostered a culture resistant to modification (Chang, 2012).
The organization’s leadership approach, exemplified by the “calm water” metaphor, ultimately backfired, causing employees to oppose digital transition. For instance, BlackBerry’s QWERTY keyboard was revolutionary, but it has now been rendered obsolete by the innovations of Samsung, among other companies (Jung & Chung, 2016).
4.0 HR Strategic Planning, Recruitment and Selection, And Talent Management Strategies of Both Companies
4.1 Samsung
HR strategic planning
Due to falling product market worth, Samsung is reorganizing its human resource strategy to save 10 percent at its headquarters. As a result of stiff market rivalry from Chinese firms, the corporation has also frozen pay for its South Korean employees (Boyne, 2010).
Selection and Recruitment
There are four phases in the hiring process where qualified applicants are offered permanent positions.
Global Samsung Aptitude Test
The first stage in the hiring process at Samsung is the GSAT, a 60-minute test of aptitude that measures analytical thinking and critical reasoning abilities (Smith, 2020).
Technical Interview
In this section, you should expect questions relating to projects, variables, operations, and understanding of concepts. The applicant must also have a solid knowledge of his primary or intended major.
HR interviews
The company seeks candidates with strong communication and interpersonal skills and a well-rounded character and knowledge base.
Talent management strategy
Through self-employment training and development programs, Samsung provides employees with personal and professional development opportunities. Staff performance is assessed, and feedback is provided by the firm’s performance administration team (Ekwoaba, Ikeije & Ufoma, 2015).
Blackberry company
HR strategic planning
BlackBerry’s goal is to dominate the worldwide market with its superior products. To thrive, the firm has to provide better goods, boost sales, and have a solid financial foundation by selling more to existing customers (Haizar, Kee, Chong & Chong, 2020, p.100).
Recruitment and selection process
Blackberry conducts phone interviews to verify information and interest in the role. Those selected are invited to in-person interviews, which may last up to an hour ((Frattasi & Della, 2017). The screening test and written exam evaluate applicants’ quantitative and technical abilities, assessing their fit with the business culture. The final interview is in-person (Syer, Adams, Zou & Hassan, 2011, p.60). If a candidate makes it through the screening processes, they will be employed once a background check has been conducted.
Talent management strategy
Through its learning management system, BlackBerry provides on-demand training that can be taken at any time. The training programs are meant to impart new skills to the current job role of the employee (Firtman, 2013).
Conclusion
Effective communication, leadership styles, and a cohesive working culture are crucial for organizations to grow productively in terms of profits and research and development. Samsung has successfully embraced these components, while Blackberry’s bureaucratic structures, poor autocratic leadership, and change resistance culture contributed to its downfall. Globalizing companies must stay updated with the dynamic technological environment to compete with rivals sustainably.
Recommendation
- Both companies should invest in streamlined communication systems and traditional hardware for modern communication. The administration should create lean networks for increased output and market share.
- Companies like Blackberry should adopt a flat communication structure to avoid bureaucracy and interruptions, resulting in increased productivity, effective streamlining of information flow, and speeding up decision-making.
- Companies like Blackberry, operating in a highly competitive and rapidly changing market, must prioritize R&D to produce innovative products.
- In addition, both companies should periodically do market research to monitor the shifting consumer behavior patterns. This strategy will help both companies to understand customers’ needs and demands.
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