Corporate culture of a clan organization

Uses a case study to illustrate DHL International’s corporate culture, which may be used as a benchmark for other companies in the service industry sector. Suggests that the business success factors of this organization lie in its adoption of the culture and structural characteristics of a clan organization. Clan organizations can create for themselves a more manageable social space that will provide them with protection and stability. The clan metaphor, and its organizing principles, may provide guidelines to be used by companies to manage strategically within a turbulent environment. Argues that when the general conditions within an environment are moving towards turbulent conditions, the business organizations within that environment should prepare for their own structural consolidation to ward off uncertainties. Such a structural consolidation can be modelled after the formation of social enclaves, or clans. © 1997, MCB UP Limited