Soul of Dell Essay Example

Soul of Dell Essay Example Soul of Dell Essay Soul of Dell Essay The â€Å"Soul of Dell† was created Kevin Rollins was serving as the Senior Vice President of strategy and noticed Dell had a culture that needed to be changed. This culture was, â€Å"created a culture of stock price, a culture of financial performance, and a culture of whats in it for me? throughout our employee base (Zellen, 2004). Between Rollins and Michael Dell the â€Å"Soul of Dell† was created. This is now the corporate philosophy for Dell and has been since 2000. The purpose of The Soul of Dell is to define the kind of company Dell is and where they aspire to become. The Soul of Dell serves as a guide for their actions around the world, and ultimately forms the basis of their winning culture. † The core elements of The Soul of Dell are: Customers: We believe in creating loyal customers by providing a superior experience at a great value. We are committed to direct relationships, providing the best products and services based on standards-based technology, and outperforming the competition with value and a superior customer experience (Soul of Dell, n. d. ). The Dell Team: We believe our continued success lies in teamwork and the opportunity each team member has to learn, develop and grow. We are committed to being a meritocracy, and to developing, retaining and attracting the best people, reflective of our worldwide marketplace (Soul of Dell, n. d. ). Direct Relationships: We believe in being direct in all we do. We are committed to behaving ethically; responding to customer needs in a timely and reasonable manner; fostering open communications and building effective relationships with customers, partners, suppliers and each other; and operating without inefficient hierarchy and bureaucracy (Soul of Dell, n. d. ). Global Citizenship: We believe in participating responsibly in the global marketplace. We are committed to understanding and respecting the laws, values and cultures wherever we do business; profitably growing in all markets; promoting a healthy business climate globally; and contributing positively in every community we call home, both personally and organizationally (Soul of Dell, n. d. ). Winning: We have a passion for winning in everything we do. We are committed to operational excellence, superior customer experience, leading in the global markets we serve, being known as a great company and great place to work, and providing superior shareholder value over time (Soul of Dell, n. . ). There are different levels and forms of communication. James S. O’Rourke IV and Jaba Mukherjee Gupta listed four different levels in our book. Those levels were intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational, and mass or public (Rourke, 2010, p. 26). Once Dell implemented The Soul of Dell the interpersonal communications between Dell and Rollins changes significantly. When they signed internal communications instead of signing â€Å"Office of the Chairman† or any level title they were now signing â€Å"Michael† and â€Å"Kevin† (Rourke, 2010, p. 0). Dell also used Mass and Public media when they announced the Town Hall Meetings, Platinum Council, or even during the help they provided after September 11, 2001. Within communication there is the sender, receiver, message, medium, code, feedback, noise, and effect. All these factors play a part in how the message is communicated and received. In the case of Dell the management (sender) gave the employees (receiver) their first taste to The Soul of Dell through the intranet (medium) (Rourke, 2010, p. 28). This happen through what Dell called â€Å"Splash Screens† (code) and this particular screen was the first screen they saw with new products or messages. Using all these different areas to make sure they are working right you need to evaluate your feedback (what the audience is telling you about the message), noise (how many messages are you putting in one place), and the effect (is your audience getting the message) (Rourke, 2010, p. 28). Even though the employees got the messages and update through the intranet it was also responsibility of their immediate manager to train and teach them about The Soul of Dell. In October of 2002 there was a phone interview with a Dell manager that said the following about The Soul of Dell, â€Å"I actually know non of the key tenets [of The Soul of Dell], but would guess they have something to do with maintaining work-life balance, building a long-term career time here, valuing diversity, and leadership† (Rourke, 2010, p. 92). In this case Dell spent all this time as the sender, but did not evaluate if the receiver understood the message. Dell should do a better job of evaluating the message and the new corporate philosophy. The high level managers of Dell want to live by The Soul of Dell and have the employees live by these values as well, but in order to do so they need to find a medium that will get the appropriate message across. References Rourke, J. S. (2010). Management communication: a case-analysis approach (4th ed. ). Upper Saddle River, N. J. : Prentice Hall. Soul of Dell | Dell. (n. d. ). Dell aâ‚ ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" The Official Site | Dell. Retrieved February 6, 2011, from dell. com/content/topics/global. aspx/corp/soulofdell/en/index? c=us;l=en Zellen, B. 2004, September 1). Getting In Touch With Dells Culture: Youve Got Soul! Analyst Insights EnterpriseInnovator. EnterpriseInnovator. Retrieved February 6, 2011, from http://enterpriseinnovator. com/index. php? articleID=3844;sectionID=269 Appendix Leslie Eggleston 12397 E Tennessee Dr, Aurora, CO 80220 (720) 878-8840 - [emailprotected] com February 9, 2011 Ms. Elizabeth Allen Dell Inc. One Dell Way Round Rock, Texas 78682 Dear Ms. Allen, I woul d like to start off my introducing myself to you. My name is Leslie Eggleston and I am an independent management consultant that works for High Class Consultants. I am based out of Denver, CO and travel to different Fortune 500 and help out the upper management. Mr. Michael Dell asked me to evaluate The Soul of Dell and come spend some time at different locations and report directly to you with my findings. After visiting several locations it has come to a shock to me that over half of the staff that I interacted with did not know the purpose of The Soul of Dell or they had never heard of it. In order for Dell to live my theses values I would recommend having a training just on The Soul of Dell with the orientation and test all the employees yearly to make sure they retain the meaning. Another issue that I found is the communication between the different segments. It is great that the upper management signs only their first name, however this sometimes can cause confusion to the other employees. In the intranet portal the message seems to get lost with all the advertisements of the new products and specials that are going on. I would suggest making the first page focused on The Soul of Dell and have links to different pages of information. This will help remind the employees about the corporate philosophy. Overall I believe Dell is a great company and has upper management that believes in the employees and the product. Feel free to contact me with any questions and we can discuss my finding in more detail. Hope you are doing great and I look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Leslie Eggleston