Business Culture - Blog three

Provide some examples of the ‘visible’ aspects of culture in an organisation of your choice? To gain this information use your own work experience or base it on a company from The Eden Centre.

                     

A business Culture can fall into many categories, from the people that work there, the customers, the store layout, the brand image and many other aspects; all which can be seen and felt, it’s an impression a person feels.

The Eden centre (Unknown, 2012) is a large shopping centre in the middle of High Wycombe, for which is home to a verity of restaurants, fashion and supermarkets. It is only clear what a business’s culture really is, and what impression you get from it, by comparing it to one of a similar nature. Looking at supermarkets, the two main ones to compare in Eden are Marks and Spencer (M&S, 2012) and Tesco (Tesco, 2012).

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Marks and spencer was founded in 1984 (M&S, 2012), and has since been a well-known traditionally luxury supermarket. The business culture is known by just being in the store. The staff dress smartly, and look presentable. The staff are also very knowledgeable about the products, and are very vocal about the traditional British products that they sell. The employees are proud of their brand and are happy to express themselves. The shop layout also shows how there is a relaxed but organised feel to the organisational culture. It is spread out, and in calm neutral colours. As a costumer, it is relaxed, it is calm, and it is an experience. Shopping for most people is a chore, but Marks and Spencer try to make it an event, an experience.

Tesco has a different set up, and too has a different culture. (Tesco, 2012) The first Tesco store was opened in 1929. Tesco has developed from a market store, to an international super brand for which is very well known. The cultures at Tesco although older has a more modern less traditional feel. They care less about shopping being an event, but about speed, and price. The staff are less smart looking’s, and the uniform more informal, The people in the store are less smart and formal, and are on a whole younger and as a result less knowledgeable and less excited about the products offered. The stores are cramped, and clinical feeling, whereas Marks and Spencer feels more home like. It is clear that the Tesco culture is less about customer experience, and more about convenience and price.

The culture of a business can also be observed by the type of people who shop there; as a result certain business cultures attract certain types of customers which can be seen in each different environment.  

Handy’s (1993) main ideas(Sherwin, 2009)

Handy proposes four alternative cultures that a business can adapt, or can combine more than one culture to create a specific atmosphere. Handy actually related each culture to an image and a Greek god in his book Gods of management By Charles Handy There are several issues of this book but the most recent publication of it, in 2000 by arrow books in the united kingdom shows the most detail and information.

A power culture is described as being like a web as it gives a few individuals a large amount of power in a business and revolves around the idea of being spontaneous, with fast decisions and few rules and regulations for others to follow. This is seen usually in family run businesses, if you are working for, but not a member of the family you will not be able to be at the centre of the web.

 A role culture is described by Handy as being like a Greek temple as it is all to do with a hierarchy and bureaucracy, with a business having a specific way of doing things, people take procedures very serious and follow them exactly. This is seen in industries such a security.

 A task culture is described as being best looked at as a lattice or a net, as all departments in a business work together as a team, mostly based around the idea of team work, taking everyone’s piece of expertise into account to solve the issue or task, this way the task is performed quickly. This can be seen in McDonalds, as all workers do every job, they rotate after so long and so can all use there ability’s on each department.

 A person culture is the idea that Handy put forward to show that some businesses take everyone’s views into account, and use this to take them forward; he describes this as being like a cluster, as everyone sticks together and follows the same norms and values. John Lewis to some extent follow this idea, of taking everyone’s views into account, and their employees know that their views count, also very initiative based company’s such as innocent and Google.

Handy was not the only theorist that was interested in organisational culture, the two other well-known theirs come from Schein and French and Bell. Schein and French and bell both have similar ideas, their theories are both focused around the idea that there are certain aspects of culture that can be seen and parts that cannot be seen. Schein (Ambler, 2012) puts this forward in the idea of the layers of an onion, as you get deeper into the core of the onion there are different layers of culture, French and Bell (unknown, 2010) on the other hand put it forward in the idea of an iceberg, that above the water there is a visible piece of ice that represents the visible aspects of culture, but then under the water there is a much larger more discrete section of it that represents the hidden piece of culture that is within the organisation.   

What do you think are the problems of trying to classify culture into one of the four types described above?

When a Business is very large, for example, Tesco(Tesco, 2012) and Marks and Spencer (M&S, 2012), it can be hard for a specific store to fall exactly into the same category as others. This is increased when you look at franchisees, as with a franchise you are given all the materials and the brand name, but you run it, so the business can have less corporate control over the running of their business. Most franchises fall under the fast food industry category with businesses such as McDonalds and Dominos both being well know successful franchises.

 People are all very individual, and although a supervisor or employee may be told to act in a certain way or do certain things they may be infused by other factors which could cause inconsistency with their brand culture, and as a result their brand image. Brand image therefore is one clear result from a Brand culture, and people’s brand loyalty reflects very closely in the brand culture.

Some business mix their culture, they can have a bit of more than one category, this would mean they are a more well-rounded business, and would allow them to appeal to a wider audience, this is both in customers wanting different aspects to a business to appeal to them, as well as to what staff they wish to work for them.

If the business is international also, it can be hard to adapt a business culture country to country, as different tplaces have different expectations and requirements, this does not have to even be abroad, it can be regional based in the UK also that there are some real diffrences in what people want from their business culture. 

This can be seen in the YouTube vieo below, which explains the difference between business culture in America/UK and china. 

Conclusion and evaluation.

It is clear that Business culture is something very individual to each business. As is based around there branding. Branding is a vital aspect to every business, and in some ways a culture can really effect this. If as a business you are very interested in corporate social responsibility, then this is shown to your employees and customers and gives you a selct brand image. However it is hard for business to have a strong business culture as they become larger corporations, as it is harder to keep track of each individual store; also, Handy’s ideas on Business Culture do to some extent help allocate each business to a category, but some businesses mix their culture to form a more well-rounded business that appeals to a wider audience, and so it is hard to just specifically define a business culture by just one of the categories.  

Bibliography

Ambler, T.E. (2012) Course and Direction [online]. Know thyself- culture in stratigic managment. Available from: 2012 [Accessed: 1st jan 2012].

Handy, C. (1995) Gods of Management. The Changing work of organisaitons ed. Oxford : Oxford university Press.

M&S (2012) Eden High Wycombe sotre finder [online]. Your M&S. Available from: http://www.marksandspencer.com/gp/store-locator/store-locator.html/275-5570257-5268121?ie=UTF8&viewID=details&postcode=HP11%202DH&storeID=6363&prevView=listing&client=mands_01&f_id=634&lon=-0.755630&lat=51.630750&db=GB [Accessed: 2nd Dec 2012].

Sherwin, L. (2009) Culture - Handy [online]. Managing Change Toolkit. Available from: http://www.lindsay-sherwin.co.uk/guide_managing_change/html_overview/05_culture_handy.htm [Accessed: 2nd Jan 2012].

Tesco (2012) Tesco [online]. Store locator and time opending times. Available from: http://www.tesco.com/storelocator/ [Accessed: 3rd Dec 2012].

unknown (2010) Communicaid Blog [online]. Views on cross cultural training. Available from: http://blog.communicaid.com/cross-cultural-training/the-iceberg-model-of-culture/ [Accessed: 20th dec 2012].

Unknown (2012) Eden High WYcombe [online]. Eden Shopping centre, High Wycombe. Available from: http://www.edenshopping.co.uk/ [Accessed: 2nd Jan 2012].