OB Final Culture Report-Sikandar

8/8/2019 OB Final Culture Report-Sikandar

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Institute of Business Management 2

Letter Of Authorization

Aug 26, 2007

Dear Reader:

As the students of Institute of Business Management, we have been authorized by Mr.

Humayun Zafar to prepare a term report on Cultural aspects and norms of Sanofi-

aventis for the course of Organizational Behavior which is scheduled to be delivered on

26 th of August 2007.

The report required an in-depth research to be conducted before compiling a detailed

account of the underlying facts. All attempts have been made to provide you with an

informational report detailing credible data and results to educate you on this subject.

If you have any queries regarding the report or the subject, you may contact at the given

email addresses for further assistance.

Sincerely,

Group members,


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Letter Of Transmittal

Aug 26, 2007

Mr. Humayun Zafar Course Facilitator Organizational Behavior Institute Of Business ManagementKarachi.

Dear Sir:

We feel pleasure to submit our term report on Cultural Aspects and Norms of an

organization Sanofi-aventis which we have completed under your supervision in the

semester summer 2007.

This report focuses on different cultural aspects of an organization Sanofi Aventis where

weve found culture serves as Values which are guiding principles and are like a beacon

of light which shows us the way of respect, creativity and performance of employees with

in organization.

We are also looking forward to hearing about your precious guidance and valuable

suggestions during the future.

Sincerely,

Group members,


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Letter Of Acknowledgement

August 26, 2007

Dear Reader:

First and foremost we praise to AL-MIGHTY ALLAH for giving us the courage and

strength to prepare the report on Cultural aspects and norms of Sanofi -aventis and we

would like to thank our instructor Mr. Humayun Zafar who made this report possible by

providing his unconditional guidance and cooperation through out the semester.

We would also like to appreciate the valuable support of following individuals, without

whose guidance and support this task would not have been achieved easily:

Mr. Shakeel MaparaDirector Human ResourceSanofi Aventis Pakistan

Mr. Munzir IshaqSenior Product Manager Sanofi Aventis Pakistan

Sincerely,

Group members,


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Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................... 6

INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 7

1.1 Organizational Culture: ......................................................................................... 71.2 Organizational Culture is like an Iceberg: .............................................................. 81.3 Culture is an important component of every organization: ..................................... 8

2. CULTURAL ASPECTS AND NORMS ................................................................. 10

2.1 Central Concepts about Culture: .......................................................................... 102.2 Components of the Organizational Culture: ......................................................... 122.3 Types of Culture: ................................................................................................. 13

3. CORPORATE CULTURE OF SANOFI-AVENTIS ............................................. 15

3.1 Corporate Background: ........................................................................................ 153.2 They Value Social Commitment: ......................................................................... 153.3 They Value Corporate Social Responsibility Approach:....................................... 163.4 They Value Code of ethics:.................................................................................. 163.5 They Value Respect for diversified employees: ................................................... 17

4. CORE VALUES OF SANOFI AVENTIS .............................................................. 18

5. SURVEY METHODOLOGY ................................................................................. 21

5.1 Questionnaire for the HR department ........................................................ 215.2 Questionnaire for the Senior Mangers ........................................................ 22

6. OBSERVATIONS AND FINDINGS ...................................................................... 24

7. RESULTS AND FINDINGS ................................................................................... 33

8. CONCLUSION........................................................................................................ 34

BIBLIOGRAPHY ....................................................................................................... 35


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Executive Summary

The main theme of this report is to understand the culture present in Sanofi Aventis and

helps gaining the productivity of the employees as a whole. The reward system in SanofiAventis in present motivates the employees to participate in the wellbeing of the

company and get the desired result in favor of them also. In this regard company likes to

favor those employees who are dedicated with their work and making their presence felt

in the organization by participating in the major decisions. The communication between

the employees would leads to trust among them and by adapting that behavior the

problems can be solved in a desirable manner.

The primary objective of culture at Sanofi Aventis is to sustain their Performance - one

in which they all are committed to ensure the sustained success of our business in a

rapidly changing and increasingly competitive market. Sanofi Aventis is divided into

different departments. Commercial Operations recently reorganized into a business unit

structure to enable smaller, flexible, more independent businesses to approach each

launch with dedicated resources, a committed sales force and a clear focus on its mission.

Sanofi Aventis utilizes their superior product and market knowledge to differentiate its

well being from the competition while building strong customer relationships. They offer

compensation and benefits programs that drive the achievement of their business

objectives. Their compensation & benefits package is designed to attract, motivate, and

retain associates that share Sanofi Aventis values and contribute to our high performance

organization.


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Introduction

1.1 Organizational Culture:

Organizational culture is the personality of the organization. Culture is comprised of the

assumptions, values, norms and tangible signs (artifacts) of organization members and

their behaviors. Members of an organization soon come to sense the particular culture of

an organization. Culture is one of those terms that are difficult to express distinctly but

everyone knows it when they sense it. For example, the culture of a large for-profit

corporation is quite different from a hospital which is quite different than that of a

university [11, McNamara, 1997]. Corporate culture can be looked at as a system where

Inputs include feedback from society, professions, laws, stories, heroes and values on

competition or service etc and the process is based on our assumptions, values and norms

e.g. our values on money, time, facilities, space and people while Outputs or effects of

our culture are e.g. organizational behaviors, technologies, strategies, image, products,

services and appearance etc. [1]

An organization's culture is comprised of the set of values, beliefs, assumptions,

principles, legends and norms that define how people actually think, decide, and performin an organization or culture is define as a basic set of assumptions that defines for us

what we pay attention to, what things mean and how to react emotionally to what is going

on and what actions to take in various kinds of situations. [2]

Culture is the behavior made up of the values, beliefs, underlying assumptions, attitudes,

and behaviors shared by a group of people that results when a group arrives at a set of

generally unspoken and unwritten rules for working together. [3] An organizations

culture is made up of all of the life experiences each employee brings to the organization

and especially influenced by the organizations founder, executives and other managerial

staff because of their role in decision making and strategic direction. [3]


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Organizational values are beliefs and ideas about what kinds of goals that members of an

organization should pursue while ideas about the appropriate kinds or standards of

behavior which organizational members should use to achieve these goals. [4]

1.2 Organizational Culture is like an Iceberg:In order to understand organizational culture i.e. system of shared meaning held by

members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations and this system of

shared meaning is a set of key characteristics that the organization values or culture is the

environment that surrounds at work all of the time also shapes work enjoyment, work

relationships and work processes. [3]

Beliefs, assumptions and values work as the founder pillars that are hidden thus provide basis of physical structure, language, rituals, ceremonies, stories and legends for the

cultural development of an organization thats why its like an Iceberg. Here is an Iceberg

model of an organizational culture,

Artifacts of an Organizational Culture

Physical StructuresLanguagesRituals and CeremoniesStories and Legends

Belief, values and assumptions about workpatterns of superior / subordinaterelationships, concepts of humor, attitudestoward elders, friendship, body language, eyecontact, behavior, social interaction andconversational patterns in various socialcontexts and roles in relation to status b yage, class, occupation.

1.3 Culture is an important component of every organization:

Every organization has four major components:


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i. Physical (visible aspects of the organization)

ii. Infrastructure (systems and processes for directing and managing work)

iii. Behavioral (daily actions and reactions of employees)

iv. Culture (underlying assumptions, values, beliefs and norms that shape daily

behavior). [2]

Fig A [2]


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2. Cultural Aspects and Norms

2.1 Central Concepts about Culture:

Here are following characteristics of culture, as discussed previously that it is embedded

in the organization in order to provide foundation.

Culture represents the Behaviors. It represents the general operating norms in an

environment, not usually defined as good or bad but aspects of culture likely support

progress and success e.g. norm of accountability will help to make organization

successful while norm of spectacular customer service will sell products and engage

employees. [3]

Culture is learned. People learn to perform certain behaviors through either the rewards

or negative consequences that follow their behavior, when a behavior is rewarded it is

repeated and the association eventually becomes part of the culture like simple thank you

from an executive for work performance in a particular manner molds the culture.[3]

Culture is learned through Interaction. Employees learn culture by interacting with

other employees. Most behaviors and rewards in organizations involve other employees

e.g. an applicant experiences a sense of culture during the interview process so an initial

opinion of culture can be formed as early as the first phone call made from the Human

Resources department. [3]

Sub-Cultures form through Rewards. Employees have many different wants and

needs, sometimes employees value rewards that are not associated with the behaviors

desired by managers for the overall company. This is often how subcultures are formed,


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as people get social rewards from coworkers or have their most important needs met in

their departments or project teams. [3]

People shape the Culture. Personalities and experiences of employees create culture of

an organization. For example, if most of the people in an organization are very outgoing

the culture is likely to be open and sociable. If many artifacts depicting the companys

history and values are in evidence throughout the company then people value their

history and culture. [3]

Culture is negotiated. Only one person wont be able to create culture alone and wont

change it too. Its not a one-way process; rather the inputs come form both the sides of

management and employees, the actions of top management have a major impact on theorganizational culture. Through what they say and how they behave; senior executives

establish norms that filter down through the organization as to whether risk taking is

desirable, how much freedom managers should give to their employees, what should be

the code of dress, what actions will pay off in terms of pay raises, promotions and other

rewards. [3]

The management gives the tasks i.e. preferred procedures to accomplish these tasks and

decision making etc while the employees establish the norms, beliefs, customs, socialrelationships, informal groups, manner of performing tasks, stories, off hand tips and

shortcuts etc. If needed or if not preferred employees try to change the direction, the work

environment, the way work is performed or the manner in which decisions are made with

in the general norms of the work place. [3]

Culture is difficult to Change. Culture change requires people to change their

behaviors; it is often difficult for people to unlearn their old way of doing things and to

start performing the new behaviors consistently. Persistence, discipline, employee

involvement, kindness, understanding organizational development, work and training can

help to change a culture. [3]


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Culture is interpreted differently by diverse employees. Although an organization has

a common culture but each person see that culture from a different perspective due to

employees individual work experiences and belongingness to different ethnic groups. [3]

Culture may be strong or weak. When work culture is strong most people in the group

agree on the culture and if work culture is weak people do not agree on the culture.

Sometimes a weak organizational culture can be the result of many subcultures or shared

values, assumptions and behaviors of a subset of the organization. For example, if culture

of company is weak then it is very difficult to characterize because there are so many

subcultures and each department or work cell may have its own culture. [3]

2.2 Components of the Organizational Culture:

It includes,

y Stated and unstated valuesy Customs and ritualsy Storiesy Physical structuresy Languagey Decision making,y Stories and legendsy Overt and implicit expectations for member behavior y Climate i.e. the feelings evoked by the way members interact with each other,

with outsiders and with their environment, including the physical space they

occupy.

y Symbolsmay be unconscious but can be found embodied in other culturalelements. [5]

Values are the basic beliefs and strongly held attitudes about important ideas, norms are

the accepted standard of behavior, history & tradition includes the historical or traditional

way of doing and thinking about things, mores are the customs or rituals that the society


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believes in and follows, myths are Common stories or folklore passed from one

generation to other, arts & artifacts represents art, symbols, weapons, pottery, i.e.

physical representations. [5]

Organization members interpret organizational culture behavior and language of others

through their own cultural biases. Each members set of beliefs, values and assumptions

becomes their unquestioned "reality" i.e. they perceive behavior inconsistent with their

own biases as irrational. The model suggests reinterpreting such conflict as a product of

different sets of experiences instead of looking at conflict as "right" versus "wrong" this

approach suggests that subsystems examine assumptions underlying their behavior, honor

the experiences and learning that led to those assumptions and then investigate whether

those assumptions still work well in the present. [5]

2.3 Types of Culture:

There are different types of culture just like there are different types of personality. [1]

Academy Culture

Employees are highly skilled and tend to stay in the organization, while working their

way up the ranks. The organization provides a stable environment in which employees

can develop and exercise their skills. Examples are universities, hospitals, large

corporations etc. [1]

Baseball Team Culture

Employees are "free agents" who have highly prized skills. They are in high demand and

can rather easily get jobs elsewhere. This type of culture exists in fast-paced, high-risk

organizations, such as investment banking, advertising etc. [1]

Club Culture


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The most important requirement for employees in this culture is to fit into the group.

Usually employees start at the bottom and stay with the organization. The organization

promotes from within and highly values seniority. Examples are the military, some law

firms etc. [1]

Fortress Culture

Employees don't know if they'll be laid off or not. These organizations often undergo

massive reorganization. There are many opportunities for those with timely, specialized

skills. Examples are savings and loans, large car companies etc. [1]


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3. Corporate Culture of Sanofi-aventis

3.1 Corporate Background:

Sanofi-aventis is one of the worlds leading Pharmaceutical companies present in more

than 100 countries with around 11,000 scientists and 100,000 employees working to

improve health and wellbeing while the global headquarters are in Paris, France . [7]

Were values are the guiding principles or like a beacon of light which show the way

where values are meaningful when implemented in practical ways in daily business &

social life (dealing with clients) during fighting against diseases. They are committed for

raising standards of Health Care in Pakistan and during the past eighteen months; Sanofi-

aventis has distinguished itself by taking a leadership role in supporting initiatives of

formulating and disseminating national guidelines for the management of allergy. [7]

3.2 They Value Social Commitment:

As a responsible corporate citizen, Sanofi-aventis responded swiftly to the urgent need

for relief and rehabilitation program. With such a large number of injuries, the immediate

requirement was for medical professionals, medical and surgical supplies then they

recognize demand for medical and Para-medical professionals and several teams of

doctors were sponsored to travel. [7]

The relief operation has now moved into the next phase of rehabilitation and there is anongoing effort is still going on to rehabilitate those who have lost so much. Some

employees belonged to northern Pakistan and the earthquake directly impacted their lives,

as a benevolent employer Sanofi-aventis is continuously assisting them for rehabilitating

their families and rebuilding their homes. [7]


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3.3 They Value Corporate Social Responsibility Approach:

Corporate Social Responsibility (Sustainable Development) aims to meet the needs of the

present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Sanofi-aventis embraces this approach due to the very nature of its business. [7]

For over30 years, the Group has made CSR an essential and ongoing part of its

contribution to human health focusing on discovering and producing medicines and

vaccines and making them available to doctors and their patients. [7]

From Board of Directors to 100,000 employees working in 100 countries, the entire

Group is involved in Corporate Social Responsibility. In 2006, the Group created an

international network of delegates coordinated by a department specifically devoted to

CSR based on values and principles specific policies have been defined for the Groups

various functions and activities. Specially adapted resources are deployed to ensure that

these policies are implemented effectively everywhere the Group operates and this is why

Sanofi-aventis implements a proactive strategy based on anticipation, prevention and

preparedness to manage any crises that may occur. [7]

3.4 They Value Code of ethics:

Sanofi-aventis complies with international codes, rules and principles that cover the chief

issues related to business activity also has internal rules and enforcement systems. Code

of Ethics defines corporate principles and rules for individual behavior, it has been

translated into more than 20 languages and distributed to all employees and supported by

an alert system that allows all Group employees to express their concerns about practices

they may feel are not in keeping with the Code. Other specific charters and policies are

applied to certain functions, including Human Relations, Research and Purchasing and

with respect to Health, Safety and the Environment. [7]


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3.5 They Value Respect for diversified employees:

Sanofi -aventis lives out the values of solidarity and respect for employees and always

strives to integrate a wide range of skills and values from diverse cultures and backgrounds. It is committed to developing high-quality social dialogue and ensuring fair

compensation and benefits to prepare employees for future also offers career

development opportunities where employees can grow with in the company, protect their

health, safety in the workplace. Operating in over 100 countries, Sanofi-aventis stresses

diversification as a source of creativity and innovation to drive performance and always

strive to integrate a wide range of skills and experiences when it comes to hiring and

professional development, it ensures that all job candidates and employees enjoy

equivalent conditions. [7]


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4. Core Values of Sanofi Aventis


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Courage

y Deciding and managing changes essential for performancey Recognizing ones mistakes and rectifying them

y Standing up for ones position vis--vis the environment and managementy Communicating openly with team members about their shortcomings and their

assets

y Setting objectives and providing means to attain them

Creativity

y Imagining new processes, innovative organizations and solutionsy Contributing new and effective ideasy Being open-minded in order to make head awayy Always striving to do better with originalityy Promoting diversity in ones team

Respect

y Adapting ones management style to each individual employeey Listening and analyzing before actingy Displaying integrityy Being a role model

y Allowing team members to experiment and make mistakes

Solidarity

y Endorsing and carrying out acts of solidarity promoted by the groupy Deciding and acting while respecting the global interests of the Groupy Cooperating and working across boundariesy Developing team spirity Promoting employee development

y Helping and sustaining employees in difficulty


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Audacity

y Setting ambitious objectives-being able to take risks in ones sphere of

competencies and responsibility

y Capitalizing on opportunitiesy Being able to progress in the face of uncertainty

y Being able to delegate and encourage ones team to take initiatives

Performance

y Providing meaning and global coherence to diverse and wide-ranging activitiesy Ensuring the short, mid and long term performance of ones entity whilst

respecting companys values

y Ensuring the performance of ones entity to guarantee group performancey Creating and developing added value in ones actions [6]


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5. Survey Methodology

We have done qualitative analysis to analyze the cultural aspects and norms of Sanofi-

aventis; tools used for survey are questionnaires and an interview with Head of HR department, here is enclosed copy of questionnaires.

5.1 Questionnaire for the HR department/ Mangers at Sanofi-Aventis:

Position of the person filling the questionnaire: _______________________________

Directions: This is a questionnaire for academic purpose. The objective of thisquestionnaire is to collect information regarding organizational culture at your organization and the management-supported strategies and policies regarding culturedevelopment at your organization. Please provide brief, objective and comprehensiveanswers to the following question related to the organizational culture at your organization.

Q.1. What is the culture motto of the organization? Or what type of culture issupported by the top management?

Q.2. What does the top management do in keeping organizational culture alive andhow?

Q.3. How a new employee is introduced and/or oriented to the new organizationenvironment/ culture?

Q.4. Is the culture supported by management, depicted or represented in structuresand/building of the organization and how?

Q.5. Does the management promote hiring people belonging to different ethnic

backgrounds?Q.6. Does the management support celebrating achievement of milestones and how?

Q.7. Does the management provide ethical training programs for employees?

Q.8. Are employees encouraged to discuss their personal problems and issues withtheir managers?


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Q.9. What kind of dressing is preferred at your organization? Is there a specific dresscode?

Q.10. How many female employees work in your organization? What is the ratio or percentage, and in what areas/departments mostly?

Q.11. Is the overall environment restricted?

Q.12. What percentage of minorities works in your organization? And in what type of jobs mostly?

Q.13. What kind of written communication is prevalent? What is the tone of themessages? (Formal, informal, pleasant, aggressive, to-the-point, formal addressing.)

Q.14. What kind of furniture/furnishing is provided to employees?

Q.15. How is physical space allocated to employees?Q.16. How bulletin boards/ notice boards are utilized?

Q.17. At what time most of the employees reach office (against the actual office time)?

Q.18. How the attendance system is regulated and how it works?

Q.19. How late coming and absenteeism is handled?

Q.20. What kind of common areas (e.g. lobbies, tea bars, cafeteria, etc.) employeeshave? And how these common areas are used/ utilized?

5.2 Questionnaire for the Senior Mangersof various departments at Sanofi-Aventis:

Position of the person filling the questionnaire: _______________________________

Directions: This is a questionnaire for academic purpose. The objective of thisquestionnaire is to collect information regarding organizational culture at your organization and the management-supported strategies and policies regarding culturedevelopment at your organization. Please provide brief, objective and comprehensiveanswers to the following question related to the organizational culture at your organization.


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Q.1. What is the culture motto of the organization? Or what type of culture/ culturalnorms and values are supported by the top management?

Q.2. What does the top management do in keeping organizational culture alive andhow?

Q.3. Are employees given specific directions and closely supervised or are theydelegated responsibility and self-directed?

Q.4. Does the management support celebrating achievement of milestones and how?

Q.5. Are employees encouraged to discuss their personal problems and issues withtheir managers?

Q.6. What kind of dressing is preferred at your organization? Is there a specific dresscode?

Q.7. Is the overall environment restricted?

Q.8. What kind of written communication is prevalent? What is the tone of themessages? (Formal, informal, pleasant, aggressive, to-the-point, formal addressing)

Q.9. How is physical space allocated to employees?

Q.10. At what time most of the employees reach office (against the actual office time)?

Q.11. Is the culture supported by management, depicted or represented in structuresand/building of the organization and how?


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6. Observations and Findings

Culture is the main source of an organization which represents the success as Sanofi

aventis reflects a powerful culture, although people are coming from diversified groups,

belonging to different ethnic background, culture, gender carries different own beliefs

and values but despite Sanofi is successful in harmonizing a uniform strong culture and

prevailing throughout the organization and stand in corporate world having a diversified

employees strength. Sanofi is maintaining free environment to all and have maintained

the culture which gives freedom of speech whether its a line man or an executive,

everyone is encouraged to produce its opinion may share its feelings and suggestions

accordingly. Similarly an open-policy is prevailing like if any member whether belongsto a lower management or middle management may have access to everyone without any

hesitations and hurdles and may across his ideas and opinions that may bring positive

results in their day to day operations.

Here is the list of cultural aspects and norms found out at Sanofi-aventis,

Culture:

The culture where People have diversified backdrops, with different ethnic background

hence in short Sanofi would like to see a strong mix of employee strength. Although

people come from different background and have different subculture values but Sanofi

like to harmonize the culture and employees have to respect those set of norms which

comes from the top management.

At Sanofi, People stand up in what they believe in


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Physical Structure and Premises:

y Modern Architecture of building with lush green lawny Two tennis courty Gym with trainer y Table tennis roomy Large playground for cricket matches

Official timings:

y 08:35 am to 05:00 pmy

Absenteeism is taken controlled by technology all employees need to register time-in and time-out.


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Open Environment:

An Open environment has maintained where employees are free to share their ideas and

suggestions and can raise their concerns, any employee suggestions can be reached

directly to top level management without any hurdles. Sanofi make sure to maintain the

culture which gives employees F reedom of Speech.

Culture of no differentiation:

There is no differentiation between higher management, lower staff or senior staff and

thats the reason there is one canteen where any employee can sit and occupy any place to

eat.


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Working Environment:

Sanofi has created very beautiful and tidy surroundings for the employees so the working

environment is very conducive and good.


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Talents:

They are moving toward development of talents, employees who perform good are

rewarded good.

Appraisal System:

They have strict and proper appraisal process for having employees who go through the

appraisal process so no one left out of justice.

Employees addresses by:

Employees address each other by first name unless some one very senior then one couldadd sahib in respect usually people communicate through first name basis.


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Recognizing people:

Sanofi has the process of recognizing people who have performed beyond the expected

level of performances.

Ethical policy :

Sanofi has a very strong ethical policy because the compliance is very strict at

pharmaceutical industry so they believe people must be ethical and follow the

procedures.

Training Procedures:

Sanofi has a culture of training at all level of employees for the betterment of performance hence workshops to train employees in subjects like stress management,

time management etc are being offered to all employees so that people can come in and

learn more to manage them selves in working environment which will ultimately result in

better professional culture.

Dress Code:

Sanofi allow casual dresses on Fridays even wearing jeans are also allowed but if there

are formal meetings and workshops then they have to be formally dress up.

Employee Orientation to organization and culture:

When new employee joins Sanofi, gets the introduction by going around and

If joins in the field force then district manager gives orientation and introduction about

company and its norms and takes around all the 9 locations/ branches to introduce him to

all location managers. When a person joins Head office then there is an announcement

via e-mail with photograph and his past experiences.


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Mentor Program:

People can interact and send their complaints through a form name mentor program

which they can fill it up and send it to the focus group or raise it to junior management

committee.

Male/ Female ratio:

Right now ratio of female employee strength is 12-15% but Sanofi has an open policy of

employing only the best of the breed regardless of sex and ethnicity, in sales force Sanofi

like to have as many females but due to intense traveling and outdoor tasks females are

less numbered.

Events:Events are being celebrated at all notches and at all levels in order to keep employees

bounded together.

Open Door Policy:

Sanofi has Open door policy where any body could knock in and walk into others room

without any hesitation regardless of respective designations, even the Chief executive

himself maintains very open relationship with all employees so people can just walk in

and ask him any question it shows the culture does not curtail employees.

Formal Procedures to Keep Culture Alive at Sanofi Aventis:

Employee Focus Group:

Sanofi has cross functional team known as F ocus Group Committee , its an entirely new

concept which came into existence from feedback of employees.

The Focus group is an independent entity although HR head supports it but it usually

formalizes report in isolation. The major responsibilities are to list down the gaps where

ever they see, so that things could get better and better.


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Focus group contributes in appraisal process, leadership, employee training and

development. On the basis of this EFG report, the higher management put ups the action

plan that is finalized by HR department with the consent of higher management. It is

being represented by all different departments; therefore the balance of maintaining the

integrity is completely incorporated.

Town-Hall Meeting:

Periodic basis there is a session arranged in which all the departmental heads from

managers to senior managers participates and this session is headed by the country

manager where he stands up and talks about companys future plans; any thing which isnewly introduced in Sanofi, introduces new employees, talks about new and old

processes, takes suggestions and feed back therefore employees have the platform to raise

the question and concerns.

News Letters:

At Sanofi, there are different kind of circulars and communications that circulate through

e-mails which comes out on periodic basis. The perfect example is the Z oom magazine

which is an in-house journal. It is like a companys news letter which has a detail of what

had happened in the company for the employees and from the employees.

Every month Sanofi prints journal name Communiqu (communication in French). Its a

message from countries manager emphasizing on the key messages for the coming month

so there are key pointers that he points out for the employees of the company.

Developing Leaders:

Sanofi has a tendency of developing leaders in the middle level, they believe in

developing leaders from the middle that will help to develop the culture of supervision

where the vision and mission could be stretched and more employee satisfaction could be

attained. There fore Sanofi has launched a junior management committee where the


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members from different departments and middle levels who have leadership qualities can

discus and bring up issues and concerns between departments. They are also responsible

for doing different projects.


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7. Results and Findings

Sanofi-aventis has strong code of values embedded deeply in the roots of the organization

developed from time to time and they practice ethical and moral code of conduct for their

corporate survival that makes the rich cultural beliefs and norms for the employees.

They practice group diversification all around the world because they are present in more

than 100 countries, they respect employees school of thought in order to bring

innovation and creativity not in work content also for the personal growth of employees.

They strive to provide a stimulating and creative working atmosphere and to establish

relations based on trust with its work force, its customers, its suppliers and the authoritiesor with every one that comes in contact regarding activities.

Culture at Sanofi is rich with diversified groups and they practice an open minded culture

with no differentiation in order to develop leaders not followers. They nourish values of

courage, creativity and respect in order to make better society.


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8. CONCLUSION

The concept of organizational culture has now been internationally accepted as a

way to understand human systems in organizations. Each aspect of organizational culture

serves as an important environmental condition affecting the organizational system and

its subsystems. Organizational culture encompasses the shared meanings that individuals

place on their working life and use in making sense of their organizational context.

Corporate culture can be looked at as a system where inputs include feedback from

management, stake holders, society, professions, laws, and values on competition or

service etc., and the process is based on our cultural values and norms. Today, themanagement understands and gives due value to the organizational culture which serves

as the backbone for behavior of the human resources of an organization. Because of its

importance, globalization and the proliferation of technology, the key cultural aspects

which contribute valuably to the culture of an organization demonstrate that the

management needs to embrace diversity to cross pollinate the culture; to develop

corporate citizenship; to learn the rules of engaging employees; to be creative with

benefits system; to be attentive to the changing needs of the employees; to realize that

great employees thrive under great leaders; to create performance conducive

environment; to help employees achieve work-life balance; to create an environment of

trust between management and employees; and to be careful not to misrepresent

organizational culture.


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Documents

OB Final Culture Report-Sikandar