As we have seen in class as well as in Organizational Behavior, a company culture with strong shared values and beliefs creates a sense of identity among employees and breeds commitment and higher productivity.

Along with Zappos, another company that has a unique culture is Hewlett Packard. They follow the “HP Way” which is a set of guidelines similar to Zappos Core Values, and it includes provide employment opportunities and give them autonomy as well as maintaining a fostering environment that encourages initiative and creativity.

In 2002, HP made a decision that could have jeopardized their beloved culture, the merger with fellow computer giant Compaq, who has a completely different organizational culture. While HP cares about their employees, wishes to retain them, and tries to give them liberty to innovate, Compaq sees their workforce as more expendable and they are not encouraged to be creative but to stick with the rules. Their oppososing treatment of employees as well as theri overall differences in culture can pose as a problem to their merger as cultural synergy is very important.

http://www.awpagesociety.com/images/uploads/HP-Compaq-case.pdf