Turning three sides into a Delta at General Motors: Enhancing partnership integration on corporate ventures

Long Range Planning

Volumn 37, Issue 5, 2004, Pages 421-434

  Briody, Elizabeth K ^a,b   Cavusgil, S Tamer ^b   Miller, Stewart R ^c  

^a WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^c UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

GROUP TECHNOLOGY; INTERNATIONAL TRADE; MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS; OPERATIONS RESEARCH; STRATEGIC PLANNING;

COLLABORATIONS; GENERAL MOTORS (CO); GLOBAL OPERATIONS; STRATEGIC ALLIANCES;

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS;

AUTOMOBILE INDUSTRY;

EID: 7744236077     PISSN: 00246301     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.lrp.2004.06.001     Document Type: Article

References (38)

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2. Delta I, the predecessor of the current Delta (or Delta II), was in operation during 1995. The programme was cancelled due to cost, technical and cultural problems. The current Delta programme began in 1996. At the time of the study, Saturn was based in Springhill, Tennessee. International Operations was the name given to the sector responsible for GM's operations outside North America and was based in Russelsheim, Germany. Most of the International Operations staff were German nationals employed by Adam Opel, one of GM's wholly-owned subsidiaries. Small Car Group was the organisation responsible for the engineering of compact cars marketed under the Chevrolet and Pontiac marques. Small Car Group was reorganised from the former Lansing Automotive Division in Lansing, Michigan and relocated to Warren, Michigan in 1996
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26. G. H. Hofstede, Cultures consequences: International differences in work-related values, Sage, Beverly Hills, CA (1980). Saturn respondents, for example, contrasted attributes of their organisational culture with Small Car Group's. Their response suggests an explanation beyond the fact that both were "American" in their orientation
27. International Operations employees may not have recognised the differences between the two North American units-at least in the early phase of the programme. It is also possible that because the proportion of Americans from Saturn was considerably smaller than those from Small Car Group, International Operation's focus may have been largely directed towards Small Car Group
28. Small Car Group respondents may have assumed that those around them understood their culture. At the time of the initial interviews, Small Car Group employees accounted for the vast majority of those associated with Delta.
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34. Of course, companies need to be cognisant of the application of antitrust laws if their partners are competitors.
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38. The study continued for another 17 months during which time Briody conducted 46 additional interviews, observed more than 70 hours of engineering and business meetings of the programme, and validated the results and recommendations at more than 35 presentations