CuLtUrE...

An organisations culture is highly represented through an organisations, beliefs, attitudes and values, or how they which to be perceived by others most importantly their consumers. An organisations culture also consists of the mission the organisation wishes to accomplish alongside their goal and targets, some organisations hold strong cultures others don’t the ones with a strong culture consist of smoother days and more organised days and tend do well in comparison to the ones that do not consist of a strong culture or of any type of logical structure. Organisations with stronger configuration of a culture have an enhanced understanding of the organisations values and beliefs where as the ones with weak culture tend to have a very weak link to the company’s values and beliefs as they require centre attention. 

Having done extensive research into different culture structures I found that there have been a number of theorists that have put forward their understanding of organisational culture, in these they have stated what factors motivate and de-motivate employees in a working organisation. The following are some theorists that have implemented studies on   the structures of culture ‘Deal and Kennedy’ (The process culture), ‘Charles Handy’ (Power, role, task and person culture), ‘Edgar Schein’ and ‘Hofstede’.

Argos is the organisation, of who’s culture I will be looking into in further detail, I have chosen to do an analysis of the Maidenhead store as I am an employee there myself, I already have a full understanding of the Argos’s values, beliefs, mission and how they wish to be perceived as a company, or even a store.

Broadly speaking the visible aspects of a culture is, what can be seen, how the organisations employees and stores layout and props represent and settle and image for the organisation. Some of the visible aspects are:

·        Dress code

·        Working conditions, conditions of store

·        Store layout

·        Music

·        Employee attitude

·        Displays/dummies/posters around the store

The first visible aspect that has been stated is the dress code, uniform across all stores has to be the same, all employees MUST wear black trousers-straight or boot cut with a red blouse, and only in the winter employees get provided with a navy blue fleece which has Argos written across the back of it which they are allowed to wear. The uniform is comfortable and puts forward a very smart image as everyone has to wear blouses or shirts, the men in the store must have their shirts tucked in at all times. This sets off a smart and professional image to the consumers, which indicates that the culture of the organisation is smart and professional also.

The second aspect is working conditions and the conditions of the store generally, as I work in the maidenhead store myself there is nothing in the store that may cause a hazard or any harm to any of the employees, in fact the working conditions of the sales floor are to the best of the employees interests, during the winter each section of the store is offered a heater and a fan during the summer, this indicates that the organisation does take care of its employees and that the culture is of a caring kind. Each store has 1 or more cleaners depending on the size of the store which come in everyday before store operating hour’s and they clean all around the store ensuring that the environment is clean and not harmful for employees as well as customers.  The store layout is the same in all Argos stores, each store has a browsing area, in which you browse through a catalogue and select what you want, a payment/ customer service area, a collection counter from which ordered goods get collected from and a jewellery counter. All displays, planograms, flyers, posters etc are placed depending on the size and the store structure. All the stores are open spaced as there are four different sections to each store; this enables customers and employees sufficient room to move around in. There is always music being played in Argos, each store is instructed to play the company’s radio... Argos radio which plays all the recent offers etc and some songs here and there, each store is under strict instructions of the radio volume being no louder than 10 as music being played out to aloud is distracting and outs forward a unprofessional image and can come across as unwelcoming to consumers. The other visible factor is employee’s attitudes, if employees are welcoming and, greet you with a smile etc it indicates a positive culture, whereas if an organisations employees are just serving customers it puts forward a negative image and culture of the organisation. Lastly the displays in all Argos stores are the same, all posters, flyers, planograms etc are all the same throughout the company, all flyers, displays posters etc are all colour co-ordinated with the uniform even the colour of that catalogue has to be the three main colours that represent Argos.. Red, blue, and white.

Charles Handy is the individual that I have been asked to look into in regards to his organisation structure study, his study was presented in 1985 and his work was influenced by Roger Harrison whose study originated in 1972. Both of these scholars generated studies that consisted of four different structures that represent organisational structures. Charles believed different organisations could adapt to one or more of his structures of culture, some organisations can have a mix of two different structures others may consist of just one single structure this depends on the organisations aim and their mission. 

The first structure that has been put forward by him is the ‘Power Culture’, which is also known as the web culture. Having done extensive research I found that this culture consists of a centre person or a small amount of individuals who lay out all the rules and regulations, alongside the aims and objectives of the organisation, these rules and regulations etc which are then passed out outwards from the centre point of the web through to each other person or segment of the business and organisation. With this type of culture in practice it is difficult to get your view through as an individual because decision making and changes objectives are all decided from a few people from the centre point so like the owner or main manager of the organisation. It is a structure that individuals have to get used to and once they have adapted to it they begin to perceive it as a simple and straight forward structure that sets out aim and objectives that then get passed down to achieve and complete. Smaller firms, convenience stores and family businesses tend to put this type of structure into practice, as they consist of a small number of individuals. (Local Co-ops, Budgens, corner shops.) 

The second structure within Charles study is the role culture which is also known as the Greek temple because of its functioning, and the way the structure is processed the apex of the temple is the main decision point and it is the apex that decides what ideas and thoughts will be implemented in the organisation. The pillars in the temple type structure are the stores/branches/authorities that actually put in practice the decisions that are made from the apex as when decisions get made they get passed down towards the pillars (authorities, branches etc). This type of structure is commonly used in local authorities/council and certain legal authorities. Also any organisation that uses this culture finds it difficult to adjust to change and all their work tends to be paper based. 

The third structure that Handy implemented is the role culture which is also labelled as the lattice culture; this is the most commonly used structure in organisations with equality rights etc coming in place, this culture consists of individuals being teamed together in order for the task at hand to be completed to the best of ability, the teams in this instance like every other a temporarily team is initiated and a task is given which must be completed. People of different job titles and prescriptions get together to tackle the task at hand as an organisation with this type of culture generally considers the fact that always doing the same tasks can be repetitive and lead to be boring which is de-motivating for staff.  This culture encourages constant change and switchover in the organisation, it aids in team building skills as it encourages all people to work together in order to get the best results in this type of structure an individual from HR may be working with an individual from finance, hence it is referred to as a lattice everything is cross overed and cross wired within the workforce. This is used by a number of larger organisation for example the place in which I work, Argos uses this type of structure depending on the time of year in the company, other times there is very much a power type culture, however this culture in practise can be difficult to understand and be aware of who has more authority and who holds higher levels of power as there is so much of a crossover and mix through the organisation.

The last (fourth) structure, the person culture, which is referred to as the cluster structure, this structure is based upon individuals just doing their jobs to what is a satisfactory level to the individual. In this type culture jobs are carries out regardless of organisations expectations. The idea of this culture is more about pleasing the employees or members of the organisation, it’s less driven towards establishment of the organisation it’s more of a people’s structure and gets used in a people’s organisation such as communes and churches etc. This type of structure could never be used in a professional business/working environment as every individuals aim is not the same in when carrying out tasks at hand and it’s more about what they are going to gain from doing the job not beneficial or profitable towards the business.

  

Sometimes it can be very difficult to classify organisation under one specific culture as there can be a mixture of two cultures in the organisation, it is difficult to put an organisation into one specific sector, as an organisation can implement a number of different techniques from different cultures to run itself successfully in order to achieve the good profitable results.  An example of this is the organisation that I have looked into earlier, Argos it falls into both power and role cultured structure.