Implementing Values in the Pharmaceutical Company Actavis

Culture has relatively recently been defined and applied within the business and management literature as a theoretical concept and has through some years of research increased in value. With respect to its theoretical definition, culture has been found to be a significant variable in the corporate economic performance. Not only does culture contribute directly to business profits by improved marketing and production through image development and employee productivity but it also supports the welfare of workers and in some cases even the society as a whole. A number of interesting theoretical contributions have been made recently. On one hand by providing guidelines as to how culture can be assessed within companies and on the other hand by explaining how the value statements can be used to manage culture. The study will compare four frameworks of assessment and two frameworks of culture management. The results will demonstrate how the frameworks mutually complement each other and provide solid foundations for the empirical work that follows. The merits and drawbacks of qualitative research methods and case studies are summarized before presenting an introductory coverage of the Pharmaceutical Company Actavis. Its value management processes are analysed, particularly how the value statements were chosen, developed, implemented and reinforced. This is compared to what theory considers best practice. Then a qualitative case study explores how these value statements have been perceived by a sample of employers. The research questions posed are to give evidence for whether the Actavis employees manage to recall and associate themselves with the chosen company values in their day to day working lives. Further, whether they appreciate those values and actively respect and practice them. If such is the case, then evidence is to suggest that the value statements, although not consciously in the minds of the employees, are all the same adopted and thus one of the underlying shared tacit assumptions at work within Actavis. The thesis concludes that Actavis has managed its values as recommended by the literature and that evidence supports the successful implementation of its current value statements