Assignment 2: Integrating Culture and Diversity in Decision Making: The CEO and Organizational Culture Profile at Xerox Corporation
Johan Patel
Dr. Carla Henryhand
BUS520: Leadership and Organizational Behavior
November 30, 2014

Introduction What is a company that comes to mind when thinking of a world-wide leader in office printing and supplies? Xerox Corporation is the leader in business process and document management solutions. They provide goods, such as printers, copiers, and fax machines, as well as services, such as document management, solution planning, and application design and development services (Professional Support Services, 2010). They are located in 180 companies and provide these goods and services throughout the world.
Culture
The culture that is present at Xerox Corporation is unique to those of its competitors. The CEO for the company is a female that has been with the company for a long time and it is rare to see females in that type of leadership role. Also, Xerox has over 140,000 employees all over the world and that gives them a cultural edge over the competitors (Xerox Diversity, 2009). With the different goods and services that Xerox provides, they have multicultural expertise in fields such as healthcare, IT, transportation, document management, and HR. Also, by bringing in cultural differences into the company, they are able to get different viewpoints of how things might be more effective if done a certain way. Xerox has made three commitments to better their business and to become the primary competitor in the industry. Innovation, environment, and citizenship are the three main categories that Xerox is working on to improve the industry and the company.
Innovation
Innovation is defined by the process of creating new ideas and then implementing them in practical applications, according to Schermerhorn and associates (Schermerhorn, 2012). The ways that Xerox is taking innovation to the next level are ways that people only imagined. For example, by using analytics techniques, infrared optical imaging systems, computer vision, and social media analysis, Xerox is finding ways to better transportation services (Xerox, 2014). The reason that they are able to do this is because of the organizational culture that is present within the company.
Environment
Environmental and social responsibility are major issues within organizations nowadays. At Xerox, environment safety is an important aspect of the culture because it shows to the customers that they care about what kind of pollution they are releasing into the air (Xerox, 2014). Xerox is reducing the amount of energy they use to produce their products to protect the climate on the planet. Even though these are issues that are mainly important when making executive decisions, they also play a role in ensuring that the employees of Xerox understand what is expected of them.
Citizenship
According to T.E. Cavanaugh and associates, corporate citizenship is defined as a full range of both internal and external corporate activities that contribute to the well-being of society (Cavanaugh, 2005). Xerox associates these actions with being a diverse organization (Xerox, 2014). When dealing with their outside clients and customers, Xerox ensures that their company is known and recognized as being a diverse group of employees that work together to obtain the goals set out by the executive officers.
Signs of Culture Xerox Corporation is a company that values how their employees are treated and also how they obtain the goals that are set by the executive officers. There are multiple signs of culture that are present within each company but at Xerox, they focus on starting from the inside and working out. What this means is that the first step in identifying culture is through internal integration, which deals with the creation of a collective identity and with ways of working and living together (Schermerhorn, 2012). The second step is through external adaptation which deals with reaching goals, the tasks to be accomplished, the methods used to achieve the goals, and the method of coping with success and failure (Schermerhorn, 2012).
Internal Integration Xerox has established a comprehensive set of diversity initiatives and strategies to show that they care about what happens within the company first. They have set an initiative called the balanced workforce strategy and it implies that there is an equitable representation of employees within all areas of the company (Xerox Diversity, 2009). They have minority leaders in each of the different departments within the company to show that they are an equal opportunity company. Also, not only is the CEO of the company a female, she is an African-American female and that shows that Xerox does not look at race or gender when filling positions but they focus on the qualities and characteristics of the individual. The minority/female vendor program is a program that ensures that they are actively purchasing supplies and products from qualified female and minority owned businesses (Xerox Diversity, 2009). It is important to make sure that they have a broad scope of suppliers because that helps to show that they are diverse outside of their company as far as vendors are concerned. The final initiative that Xerox has set for the company to have diversity is to promote work life programs. The work life programs enable the employees to be assisted in many aspects of their personal lives (Xerox Diversity, 2009). Aspects of the employees’ personal lives can be things such as their personal well-being, along with their families. Xerox offers multiple health insurance plans for their employees and families to ensure that they are healthy enough to be great assets for the company. Xerox may also have different ways of motivating the employees to work on achieving the goals that have been set by the executive officers such as monetary rewards.
External Adaptation When a company feels confident with the structure and culture within their company, it starts to focus on what needs to be done in order to have a business that is still making profits. With Xerox, their first step in doing this was to hire a new CEO that has known the company inside and out and will be able to make the company benefit, that is when Ursula Burns was hired as the CEO of Xerox Corporation. Also, Xerox came up with their own proactive steps for success as part of the culture within their company and they are: strategic planning, brainstorming possibilities, create a working plan, and making it part of their day (Tips, Insights and Tactics, 2014). Xerox explains that when they do strategic planning, they weigh the benefits, degree of difficulty, level of available support, and many other things. The reason for this being that since they are an international company, they have to ensure that all of the locations around the world are under the same understanding of what the goals are. The process of brainstorming possibilities involves setting different action plans of how those goals can be achieved. At the multiple locations of Xerox, each location would come up with different action plans because each country may have different rules and regulations to different cultural ways of achieving goals. The third step is to create a working plan and that can be associated with brainstorming possibilities. The final step is making it part of their day and that can be a hard task to do. With the correct motivational tactics, all of these goals can become part of the employees’ daily routine. This includes taking actions on a daily basis to promote goal attainment.
Factors
The factors that caused Xerox to embody this culture is the ability to become the leader in this industry. Xerox wanted to become the primary competitor in the business process and document management industry and in order for that to happen, they had to strive continuously to become the best. Even though they are the leaders in the industry, they still have to strive to be the best on a daily basis by recognizing the goals of the company and the individuals as well. The biggest factor in embodying this culture is that of the one set by their CEO. Ursula continues to set goals that are attainable but still challenging for each of their departments and that is what allows the company to have the team-oriented culture.
Leader
The type of leader that is best suited for this organization is a team-oriented leader. Since there are so many different locations that are involved in this company, they have to communicate and know what is getting done and what is not getting done. A team-oriented leader ensures that all of the employees know what the goal is and they are continuously pursuing that goal. Also, a team-oriented leader is not going to focus on experience or age or gender to figure out the things that will make the team work, but will focus on the character and work ethic of the individuals. The leaders that are present at Xerox are people that have had leadership experience and know what it will take to make sure the company is a success. Ursula and her board members have experience in leading a company and making sure that it is a team effort and not an individual effort. They also know that the goals cannot be accomplished by just one person and that they have to communicate effectively in order to continue being the leader in this industry.
Conclusion
If there were to be a decline in the demand of products and services that are offered by Xerox, the company would have to endure some organizational changes so that the company can still make a profit. The change in culture that would occur would be that the organization would let go of the lowest performers in the company. There is no point in keeping people that will just bring the company down by not performing. Next, the company would probably establish a new set of goals that will help them to become the competitor again. Also, Xerox might try and advance their technology to keep up with the competitors. Finally, the company may endure a change within the leadership roles to bring in new viewpoints to achieve the new goals that they have set.

References
Cavanaugh, T.E. 2005. The Measure of Success: Evaluating Corporate Citizenship Performance. The Conference Board.
Schermerhorn Jr., J. R., Osborn, R. N., Uhl-Bien, M., Hunt, J. G., (2012). Organizational Behavior (12th ed.). Danvers, MA: John Wiley & Sons Inc. Xerox Corporation (2009). Xerox Diversity: Different ideas. Diverse people. Dramatic results. Retrieved from: www.xerox.com
Xerox Corporation (2010). Professional Support Services: Adding value to your business is our business. Retrieved from: www.xerox.com
Xerox Corporation (2014). Tips, Insights & Tactics Best Practices to Achieve Your Goals. Xerox. Retrieved from: www.office.xerox.com
Xerox Corporation (2014). Xerox at a glance. Xerox. Retrieved from: www.xerox.com