2.5 Organisational (corporate) culture questions for IB Business Management

Van der Meulen and Tadokoro

Van der Meulen Ingenieurs B.V. (VDM), based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, designs flood defences and coastal infrastructure. Tadokoro Sekkei K.K. (TS), based in Yokohama, Japan, designs earthquake-resistant bridges and port facilities. Both have about 900 employees. Their boards have agreed to merge to form VDM-Tadokoro, which would bid for large climate-adaptation projects in Asia and Europe that neither firm could win alone.

At VDM, project teams are small, engineers challenge senior partners openly and decisions are made quickly in informal meetings. At TS, decisions follow a formal consultation process across several levels of management, and long-term relationships with clients and staff loyalty are highly valued. Both boards have promised that no jobs will be lost.

Table 1: Hofstede’s cultural dimension scores for the Netherlands and Japan

Source: adapted from Hofstede Insights. Scores range from 0 to 100.

Tearmann Cafés and Ladder Youth Skills

Read the resources and answer the questions that follow.

Tearmann Cafés (TC) is a social enterprise that runs five cafés in Cork and Limerick, Ireland. It was founded in 2011 by Úna Doherty, who had herself recovered from addiction. About 30 % of its 46 staff are in recovery from addiction or have left prison. Tearmann is the Irish word for sanctuary. Ladder Youth Skills (LYS) is a larger non-governmental organization (NGO) in Dublin that trains unemployed young people aged 16–24, mainly through contracts with the state. In 2026 the two organizations agreed to merge into one company, the Ladder Tearmann Group (LTG). LYS’s chief executive, Declan Fitzgerald, will lead LTG, and Úna will become Director of Social Enterprise.

Image: a busy café counter with a chalkboard menu; a barista in a green apron smiles as she hands a coffee to a customer. Above the counter a hand-painted sign reads “Tearmann – everyone deserves a second cup”.

Resource 1 – News article from *Munster Business Weekly*

Café with a heart joins forces with training charity

Supporters say the merger is a natural fit: LYS trainees will gain work experience in TC’s cafés, and both organizations will save money by sharing finance, HR and IT. LYS’s strong relationships with government funders could help TC open more cafés. But some TC staff are nervous. “It’s like a family business being bought by a government department,” said one.

Table 1: The two organizations in 2025

Resource 2 – Social media posts from Ciarán, a TC barista

When I got out of prison, nobody would hire me. Úna sat me down, made me a coffee and said “you start Monday”. Five years later I train the new lads. Tearmann is my family. [1/2]

Since the merger we have a 40-page staff handbook, timesheets on an app and “performance reviews”. Head office emails us in words I don’t understand. It feels like a government office now, not a café. Three of my friends have already left. [2/2]

Resource 3 – Internal email from Declan Fitzgerald to LTG’s board

From: Declan Fitzgerald, CEO, LTG

To: Board of directors

Subject: Integration: the next steps

To keep our state training contracts, which are 78 % of LYS’s income, every LTG workplace where trainees aged under 18 are placed must meet the funder’s rules by next September:

• all staff must be vetted by the police;

• a drug and alcohol policy with random testing for staff who supervise trainees;

• one set of HR procedures and pay scales across the group.

I know some of this will be difficult in the cafés. But if we have two cultures we will have two organizations, and we will lose the savings that justified the merger. I propose that the cafés adopt LYS’s procedures in full within six months.

CONFIDENTIAL: this email and any attachments are intended only for the named recipients.

Resource 4 – Staff culture survey, 2026 (TC: 41 replies; LYS: 76 replies)

Resource 5 – Interview with Úna Doherty

“I agreed to the merger because I can’t keep doing everything myself, and our people need the training and security a bigger organization can give. But our staff are not trainees, they are adults rebuilding their lives. Random drug tests would tell people in recovery that we don’t trust them – and some have criminal records that vetting will show. If we lose them, we lose what Tearmann is. Declan is a good manager, but he manages by spreadsheet. Our cafés run on relationships.”

Resource 6 – Finance director’s summary of the merger

Two Peruvian supermarket chains, Mercados Chalaco S.A. (48 stores in Lima and Callao) and Supermercados Huallaga S.A. (31 stores in the central highlands), have merged to form Grupo Chalaco-Huallaga. Chalaco’s 3 600 staff are paid monthly salaries and are represented by a union that negotiates every year. Huallaga’s 2 100 staff were paid hourly wages plus a bonus decided by each store manager, and were not unionized. The new board wants one set of pay scales and job roles across all stores within a year.

Two member-owned credit unions in British Columbia, Canada, Fraser Valley Savings and Cascade Community Credit Union, are considering a merger. The boards of both credit unions prepared the force field analysis in Table 1.

Table 1: Force field analysis for the merger (weightings 1–5)

Ardenne Mutuelle

Ardenne Mutuelle (AM) is a mutual insurance company founded in 1904 in Namur, Belgium. It is owned by its 310 000 policyholders and employs 1 400 people. Every task has a written procedure, decisions pass through several committees, and promotion is based mainly on length of service. Employees wear formal business clothes, and many have worked for AM for over 20 years.

In January 2026 AM acquired Polis42, an insurance-technology start-up in Antwerp that sells car insurance through a mobile app. Polis42’s 80 employees work in small teams that form and disband around projects, and anyone can propose a new feature. Its founder, Jonas Peeters, stayed on as head of the new “AM Digital” division.

Since the acquisition, Polis42 staff have been required to follow AM’s procedures for approving spending, recruiting and launching products. A new app feature that Polis42 would previously have launched in three weeks took five months to approve. Several developers have resigned. Table 1 shows staff data for Polis42.

Table 1: Staff data for Polis42

Beit Zaatar is a family-owned group of five restaurants in Beirut, Lebanon. Its founder, Georges Haddad, decides on every new dish, every hire and every price change, usually after a phone call with the manager concerned. Managers who have his trust are given more freedom, and the most trusted are members of his family. There are few written rules.

Explain two features of the power (Zeus) culture at Beit Zaatar.