Taran Swan at Nickelodeon Latin America (A) Case Solution

1. How would you describe the culture at Nickelodeon Latin America? Be specific.

Nickelodeon Latin America as an organization differed from its parent company in a multitude of ways but first and fore mostly the Latin America team knew that the company would run if it was creatively good enough to tap the Latin American market holistically.

In analyzing the culture of the organization, one has to understand the role of Ms. Swann who set up a culture at the organization in her own image. Her superiors cited that she was competent, easy to work with, and her style of management resulted in entrusting of responsibilities to others; traits consistent throughout the entire organization.

Most importantly the team exhibited a sense of camaraderie and singular purpose; to make the channel successful given the various constraints they faced. On any single issue, it was evident by the fact that various departments worked together and aided others in making decisions that would collectively be in the best interest of the channel with Swann being the final word on potentially controversial decisions.

The organization had a culture true to its image connecting with kids. It was apparent in the dress and décor at the offices. Integral to its success the team culture harbored challenging itself to meet not only internal goals but external goals affected by the economy, market and other variables. That a limited staff, on travel for work and family, achieved success against all odds exhibit and identified itself as one. It was this cohesion that allowed the team to enter a heterogeneous market of three languages, 16 countries but yet always come true on its ultimate projected goals.

2. How did Swan go about building that culture? (Consider Nickelodeon Latin America's position within its company, its organizational design, and its culture.)

Taran Swan tried to build up a culture in Nickelodeon Latin America that strives to keep all the members of the team as one unit. Swan focused on creating a “One unit” team by employing people and training them in the right direction to put all their efforts in the positive and productive direction towards the main goal of the company rather than the personal interests. Taran Swan worked on other aspects of the team building also that involved providing feedback and let the company know about the ideas that each employee had for the betterment of the company. Decision making and participating in taking the decision was a part of the culture under the leadership of Taran Swan in order to go about by the strategic planning of Nickelodeon Latin America. The friendly atmosphere at Nickelodeon Latin America was maintained by having open conversations that encouraged communication among all and at the same time the welcoming culture was made in practice by hiring the right amount of people instead of hiring more than required and then downsizing. The ease and opens of the communication was also encouraged by having meetings on a regular basis and allow everyone have their say. Taran made sure that the exhibition of the leadership skills that each and every employee has shall be brought into focus by rotating the leadership on the occasion of various meetings. Overall observing and analyzing the strategy employed by Taran Swan at building the culture of Nickelodeon Latin America focused on the people employed, training them in the direction and making a good use of the peoples’ skill at work so as to enhance the work productivity.

3. How would you describe Swan's leadership style? What impact has it had on the culture?

Taran Swan’s leadership was driven by ambition, imagination and foresight. She proved to be an exceptional human resource manager in the sense that she was able to control the entire team in different and difficult scenarios. As, the team leader, she had the responsibility to inculcate creativity and imagination into the minds of her team members. She had to provide them with an environment in order to foster their imagination and independent viewpoint. Swan encouraged the environment of independence and freedom of expression and speech. She believed that a channel like Nickelodeon, which has its own identity, needs a creative team to make the venture successful. She constantly kept in contact with all of the team members. Bimonthly meetings and one to one communicating sessions were the norm of Swan’s leadership period.