Business Culture

Business Culture

Stories
1. negative stories affect culture.
  1. such as in the case of an employee getting married and being made to work on that day.
    1. This results in bad gossip and employees feeling unwanted
2. Positive stories or fixing a negative story will help culture.
  1. when employee gets married they will now receive a week of paid leave to enjoy start of marriage
    1. this results in employees moral being more positive and now rumours will spread about the positives of working at the company
Theories of culture
1. Charles Handy
  1. Types of Culture
    1. Power- Autocratic
      1. Control radiates from center
      2. Concentrates power among a few
      3. Few rules and little bureaucracy
      4. Swift decisions are possible
    2. Role- Autocratic/ Paternalistic
      1. Clearly delegated authorities in highly defined structure
      2. Hierarchical bureaucracy
      3. Power derives from person's position
      4. Little scope exists for expert power
    3. Task- Paternalistic/ Democratic
      1. Teams are formed to solve particular problems
      2. Power derives from expertise
      3. No single power source
      4. Matrix organisation
      5. Team may develop own objectives
    4. Person- Democratic
      1. People believe themselves to be superior to the business
      2. Business full of people with similar training, background and expertise
      3. Common in firms of proffesionals e.g accountants and lawyers
      4. Power lies in each group of individuals
2. Edgar Schein
  1. Believed key role of CEO was to manage culture
    1. Paradigm- Behaviours- Beliefs-Values
Reasons to Change Culture
1. To improve business performance
  1. Declining profits and sales
  2. Inadequate returns on investment
  3. Low quality or standards of customer service
  4. Dis-satisfaction of shareholders and other stakeholders (e.g low staff morale)
  5. To improve productivity and efficiency
2. To respond to significant other change
  1. Market changes (growth, competitors)
  2. Political & legal environment
  3. Change of ownership (e.g acquisition)
  4. Change of management or leadership (e.g a new CEO)
  5. Economic conditions (e.g downturn)
Common Barriers to Cultural Change
1. Tradition and Set Ways:
  1. Loyalty to existing relationships
  2. Failure to accept the need for change
  3. Insecurity
  4. Preference for the existing arangments
  5. Different person ambitions
2. Fear of:
  1. Loss of power
  2. Loss of skills
  3. Loss of income
  4. The unknown
  5. Inability to perform as well in the new situation
  6. Break up of work groups
Different Ways of Identifying the Culture in a Business
1. How decisions are made
2. Methods & style of communication
3. How customers are treated
Examples of businesses with a distinct corporate culture
1. Apple (innovation)
2. Google (creativity, speed)
3. Tata Group (long-term decision-making)
4. Sony ( bureaucratic, consensual)
5. Goldman Sachs (aggressive selling)
6. John Lewis Partnership/ Waitrose (shared values and ownership)
7. Innocent Drinks (ethical, democratic)

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	Created by laura-wilson134 over 11 years ago