1.1 Analyse culture in an organisation
Organisational culture are the values, attitudes and practices that contribute to the “unique social and psychological environment” within a business, or organisation (“organizational culture” 2016). Needle (2004) notes that this is a complex process of creating collective values through shared history, understanding of market, hiring and firing of employees, management style, vision, norms, systems, symbols, language use, beliefs and habits. This allows for a set of shared assumptions, which increase the sense of teamwork, and establishes the pattern of collective behaviours and behavioural expectations within an organisation (Ravasi and Schultz, 2006). Successful companies, who carefully manage organisational culture use it to sustain profitability (Cameron & Quinn, 2006).
The idea of organisational culture is significant, not only because it defines the organisation and how its members operate, but also because it can be changed, or manipulated, in order to improve the performance of members and move the organisation as a whole toward an established set of goals (Modaff, DeWine, & Butler, 2011).
Gerry Johnson (1988) created a cultural web for organisations, that identified seven key areas of cultural creation. These included the paradigm, which include the mission and vision, the control system, including roles, and power culture, organizational structures, like hierarchy, power structure, regarding decision making, rituals and routines, and stories and myths.
Of these, the sense of community is most communicated in the workplace is through the creation of work rituals. These activities do not provide direct results, in products or productivity, but create a sense of security of position within the organisation, and create a common identity among employees (Deal & Kennedy, 2000). These include meetings, creation of reports, celebrations and other social structures within the workplace that are not directly related to the creation of the business’s key products.
In contrast, Schein created the model of organizational culture, now known as the Onion Model, which assumes that there are three primary levels of values, or shared organizational constructs which can be observed by external parties: assumptions, espoused values, and artefacts and symbols.
1.2. Handy’s Model
Understanding the specific role of culture in the organisation can be seen by comparing this organisation with the features of the Handy model. According to Charles Handy’s model (1999) there are four types of culture within the organisation: power culture, task culture, person culture and role culture. This can be specifically demonstrated in the features of the organization I am currently involved in.
1.3 Evaluation of Internal and External Factors
There are a variety of internal and external factors that directly impact business success. First, the internal factors, and cultural issues discussed above directly impact the internal ability to succeed. External factors that impact success can be defined by the PESTLE framework (Patridge, 1999). Political factors include ways that the government is directly involved in business. This includes, for the business I was involved in, regulation and taxation of alcohol products most significantly, and laws that limit its use. This poses a potentially serious limitation for the business, because alcoholic related legislation is quite strict, and the penalties for not adhering to the legal limitations are severe. The business could incur fines, or lose their liqoue license, if the rules are broken. This creates a culture of vigilance, in which compliance is made a priority, and seen as an essential function of the business. Economic factors include interest rates, inflation, and cost of capital. In recent years, this has also posed a significant limitation, as economic factors have damaged beverage sales, as people had less discretionary spending to invest in beverages and perceived luxuries, as such, sales were less prolific during this period. Social factors include cultural aspects of sales. Within my brand’ market, there is an opportunity presented by the public’s growing desire for healthier products have created an opportunity, for example, to sell both low calorie, and organic beverage options in both the alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverage lines. Technology factors have changed both research and development, as it relates to the best ways to create, and bottle new beverages, but have also directly impacted marketing, as social media has become a more significant part of the brand marketing scheme. These technologies will be accepted more quickly if the brand has a culture of innovation, where all members of the team desire to stay on the cutting edge. Legal elements are closely tied, in the case of alcoholic beverages, to political factors, and generally include close regulation, and the need to adhere to specific expectations with regard to alcohol. Finally, environmental factors are of growing concern for the company, as there is a growing public concern for reducing environmental footprint and going green. This can be managed, in our bottling process, by recycling and reusing bottling when possible, as an example. In terms of internal factors, culture is closely tied to human resources, and leadership. Both the employees, and the management need to be made up of people who strive toward a stronger company culture, who are aware of the external factors impacting the business, and seeking to make the most of opportunities.
References:
Cameron K.S. and Quinn, R.E. (2011) Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework, Hoboken, NJ, John Wiley and Sons.
Deal, T.E. and Kennedy, A.A. (2000) Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life, New York, Penguin Books.
Handy, C. (1999) Understanding Organizations, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
Johnson, G. (1988) Rethinking Incrementalism. Strategic Management Journal. 9, 75–91.
Modaff, D.P., DeWine, S. and Butler, J. (2011) Organizational communication: Foundations, challenges, and misunderstandings (2nd Ed.), Boston, Pearson Education.
Needle, D. (2004) Business in Context: An Introduction to Business and Its Environment. Atlanta, Cengage Learning.
“organizational culture” 2016. The Business Dictionary, Available from: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/organizational-culture.html [Accessed 8 January 2017]
Partridge, L. (1999) Strategic Management, New York, Select Knowledge Limited.
Ravasi D. and Schultz, M. (2006) Responding to organizational identity threats: Exploring the role of organizational culture, Academy of Management Journal. 49 (3), 433–458.
