A View on The Corporate Culture in Maersk Line Business Model

An excellent corporate culture is a significant condition that paves way for the formulation of corporate strategy. Corporate culture also highlights the characteristics of the enterprises, the formation of values that are common among all the stakeholders, and has a distinct personality. In the Maersk Line, corporate culture has been vital in developing strategies that recognize the employees as the most important stakeholders of the company (Kenexa Corporation 2008). The organization culture in Maersk Line has maintained the company as the world’s leading transport and logistics organization. The corporate culture used by Maersk Line is, therefore, emotional as it considers the rights of its employees and their labor conditions (Vallejo Peña 2016).

In modern business, strategies implemented by corporations are just the headline of the companies’ story while culture requires that a commonly understood language is used to embrace and tell the story (Kotter 2008). For instance, Maersk Line has ensured that it conducts training on safety measures to its employees so that the culture of safety risks in the organization are managed from the top management to the last person employed. The employees speak the same language in understanding the mission, vision, and the values that the company stands for, and the clear expectations from other stakeholders. The common goal in the shipping company, which is to satisfy the customer, is pursued by implementing the strategies as per the culture of the organization (Vallejo Peña 2016).

Corporate culture is a significant means of implementing a corporate strategy as it determines and measures desire, engagement, and execution of the strategies. It is a requirement that an active and effective implementation of the strategy is carried out after corporate strategy development (Kotter 2008). For example, the method of recruiting new employees in Maersk Line ensures that there is diversity and inclusion in the structure of the company to maximize talent and knowhow from the varied employees who work towards achieving the same goal. Before the implementation of the strategies, it may be important to ensure that the strategies are corporate culture oriented and that there are cohesion and motivation of the corporate members.

Corporate culture and corporate strategy ought to adapt to each other, mutual organization and strategy development, business culture should be altered with the formulation of strategy. However, changing corporate culture may not be possible once the culture of an organization has been formed (Nawaser et al 2014). It is, therefore, required that corporate culture maintains greater rigidity and certain continuity in the implementation of corporate strategy.

Committed to maximizing diversity and inclusion as key levers that would strengthen business results in the markets where the company operate, Maersk Line has taken the necessary action for access to future and wider talent pools. For non-profit organizations, the success of the institutions may be viewed from different angles such as providing free education to students (Zaheer, Muhamamd, and Saleem n.d). A holistic view of the performance of an organization depends on the achievement of the organizational objectives. Maersk Line attempts to implement its strategy in relation to the existing corporate culture which may be hard to change (Kenexa Corporation 2008). In various types of industries, different cultures could give rise to different types of strategies implemented for the success of the organizations.

The strong organizational culture that has been adopted by Maersk Line is a competitive advantage for the company as the company has continued to lead in shipping and logistics activities. There are competitors who could be striving to crack into the market but copying the norms and values practiced in Measrk Line could be impossible. Different companies have different ways of carrying out their operations, some of which have a positive impact on production while others contribute to organizational problems (Hemmingsen 2011).

Since organizational cultures are unique and offer strategic advantages, it is a clear indication that companies would opt to consider culture in strategic management. Cultures that do not align well with the company objectives often lead to the failure of businesses. For example, a high-performing company that has a corporate strategy of providing fun and an environment that is customer friendly would not align well with the stagnant culture. It may be appropriate for the company to hire workers who are fun, friendly, and customer-oriented employees instead. The balance between external and internal strategic elements aids in carrying out corporate missions and visions that state the company’s purpose and values (Chriatian-Livu 2013). Strategic management that supports culture is often intended to offer direction for the company as it interacts with its stakeholders.

The relationship between culture and strategy is a two-way relationship in which culture influences strategy and strategy alters the culture. Organizational culture influences the people working for the company at different levels to work for a common goal (Schein 2010). The employees are then influenced to change their strategies in the strategy development process. In many organizations, the resultant strategy is often the manifestation of the organization culture (Janićijević 2012). There may be the need to change the corporate culture when there is a change in the environment and the existing corporate culture does not produce a strategy that is fit with the new environment.