Organisation Culture

An example of a 'visible' aspect of culture in FMY Chemist (a organisation that I worked in for two weeks as work experience) is the way in which employees dress. When I was working temporarily at FMY Chemist, I noticed that the workers there dressed very smart which is something that is very 'visible' from mine and the customer's point of view. For example, most of the employees working at FMY Chemist were wearing shirts and trousers (applies to both men and women) which I feel is very smart, especially in comparison with other businesses that aren't strict about what employees are allowed / not allowed to wear e.g. dance clubs and gyms.


Another example of a 'visible' aspect of culture in FMY Chemist is the unwritten rules of the business. While I was working there, I noticed the way in which the employees at the tills were treating their customers. Needless to say, they treated the customers very well. Almost every time when a customer bought something, the person at the till would say 'that's £ please" before a transaction and "thanks for coming" after a transaction. Their were no rules about being polite to the customers, but clearly it was expected that employees should be polite to customers at all times. This is something that I feel was very 'visible' and I'm sure the customers felt that it was very 'visible' too.


In addition, another example of a 'visible' aspect of culture in FMY Chemist is the atmosphere. While I was there, I personally felt that their was a very relaxed atmosphere at the Chemist. I think that this is largely attributed to the fact that the owner of FMY Chemist was quite a laid back individual. Even though he would tell you what you should or shouldn't be doing, he very rarely raised his voice, and only did when it was absolutely necessary. I think his laid back attitude rubbed off on the employees at the Chemist as they were equally as laid back as him. I also feel that the atmosphere was very positive as it seemed like the business was constantly about moving forwards even with occasional setbacks such as supplies arriving late.


An example of a 'hidden' aspect of culture in FMY Chemist is the way in which employees are valued. Even though I feel I wasn't given the authority that I deserved during my time at FMY Chemist, I feel that me and all of the employees working at the Chemist were valued a lot as individuals. I really liked the way in which the owner of the business consulted us privately about our performance as it felt like he was going out of his way to keep things private that were private. I felt that this avoided creating resentment as he wasn't lecturing us if any of us were doing something wrong or incorrect out in the open. Instead, he would do things privately which I felt was a extremely positive aspect of the culture in FMY Chemist and clearly showed that he values his employees.


Another example of a 'hidden' aspect of culture in FMY Chemist is the importance of customers to the business. Even though I was working there for only two weeks, it was very clear to me that the customers were the highest priority to the business. This is interesting as FMY Chemist is a private company, so you would expect that the business's priority would be maximising it's profits. However, during my time there, I never felt as though maximising profits were a bigger priority than to provide customer's the best quality service possible. This is therefore clearly a aspect that is 'hidden' from people outside the business.




Power Culture:

In my own words, Power Culture is a business culture in which few (and in some cases just one person) makes most if not all decisions in the business. The few that make the decisions are fair but strict and decisions that are made are done quickly with very little red tape generally. An example of a business that would have a Power Culture is a small independent Chemist. This is because in a small Chemist (an example of one would be the FMY Chemist in Chesham that I done my work experience in) the owner of the Chemist would make most of the decisions in the business. For example, the owners would make the decision about the employees wages, how much time employees are allowed for their holidays, who gets employed, who is made redundent, what products are sold in the Chemist, the prices of the products sold in the Chemist and so on.

Role Culture:

In my own words, Role Culture is a business culture in which the business operates in a hierarchial fashion. For example, in a typical business that has a Role Culture, their would be several different departments and each employee from one of the departments would consult one of the managers from each department about any decisions that need to be made or issues that they have generally. An example of a business that would have a Role Culture would be a big supermarket such as Tesco. A supermarket such as Tesco would have a Role Culture because in a supermarket like Tesco, their would be several different departments with each department having a manager that is in charge of that respective department. For example, in Tesco's Human Resources department, their would be a manager that controls the department and most if not all the employees below the manager in that department.

Task Culture:

In my own words, Task Culture is a business culture in which teams are created in order to complete a certain task or activity. For example, teams will work together to meet specific goals rather than work on their own as individuals. The principle behind Task Culture is therefore about being united. An example of a business that would have a Task Culture is a sports team such as a Football team. An example of a Football team that would have a Task Culture is Manchester United. Manchester United would have a Task Culture because each of the 11 players on the football pitch at any time would need to work together in order to defend properly and score goals. As a result, the team of players at Manchester United would need to work together in order to perform well and win trophies.

Person Culture:

In my own words, Person Culture is a business culture in which individuals have the authority to make all decisions regarding specific tasks and or activities. The theory behind Person Culture is therefore about working on your own, calling all the shots. An example of a business that would have a Person Culture would be a Architect business. Architects would have a Person Culture because Architects make all decisions regarding their jobs. For example, Architects would have the authority to make all the decisions regarding the designing and constructing of all the projects that they are involved in e.g. such as deciding when to prepare construction drawings and specifications as well as other technical documents. An example of a Architect organisation that would have a Person Culture would be Kees Christiaanse Architects & Planners (KCAP) with Kees Christiaanse being the main Architect of the organisation.

I think that the main problem of trying to classify culture into one of the four types as described above (Power Culture, Role Culture, Task Culture and Person Culture) is that some businesses might have different aspects of different cultures inside the business. For example, a company like Tesco might have one department that has a Role Culture (e.g. Marketing department), another department that has a Power Culture (e.g. Accounts department), another department that has a Task Culture (e.g. Human Resources) and another department that has a Person Culture (e.g. Production department). As a result, for a business that has several different cultures in one organisation, it would be very difficult to reach the conclusion that an entire organisation has a [insert specific culture]. This applies mainly to large organisations that have several different departments and operate in many different markets e.g. Tesco.

Another problem of trying to classify culture into one of the four types is that some businesses may have a culture that is entirely different to each of the four types (Power, Role, Task and Person). As a result, they would have a culture that could not be classified as Power, Role, Task or Person because it would be neither of these cultures. For example, a business may have a culture that doesn't have one person making most if not all the decisions (Power Culture), a business that operates in a hierarchical fashion (Role Culture), a culture in which teams are created in order to complete a certain task or activity (Task Culture) or a business culture in which individuals have the authority to make all decisions regarding specific tasks (Person Culture).

http://www.apple.com/uk/

I think that Apple has a strong culture. I feel that Apple has a strong culture because Apple have a reputation of generally selling more reliable products than their competition (with the exception of the iPods that are well known to brick and for their screens to scratch easily.) The best example of this is the line of Mac OS X operating systems. Mac OS X operating systems are well known to be more stable and secure than Microsoft's Windows e.g. XP. For example, Mac OS X users are much less likely to get viruses or hacked into than Windows users. This has built Apple a reputation for making reliable and secure operating systems in comparison to their competitors e.g. Microsoft with Windows despite the fact that Microsoft are the market leaders in the operating systems market. It is therefore clear that Apple quality control their products extensively so they satisfy their customers demands.

Another reason why I think that Apple has a strong culture is because Apple's products are almost always associated with being fashionable. The best example of this is the iPod. Despite the fact that their are many MP3 Players on the market that are both technically superior and cheaper than many of the types of iPods sold, iPod's are still by far the most popular MP3 Player brand. This is largely because of Apple's extremely effective marketing campaign. I feel that this shows that Apple have a strong culture because Apple often sell technically inferior products at uncompetitive prices to their competitors yet still manage to be the #1 brand in the MP3 Player market. This shows just how effective Apple are at Marketing their products in comparison with their competitors. It is therefore clear that Apple value Marketing in order to sell their products.

In addition, another reason why I think that Apple have a strong culture is because Apple have a big reputation of making their employees work extremely hard. For example, Apple have a history of employing as few people as possible in order to make the currently employed employees work as efficiently as possible. In fact, Apple employees work "sixty to seventy hours a week".

[Anon. 1] (2005)

I think that this shows that Apple have a strong culture as even though it may be a stretch to say that Apple's employees are being exploited, clearly Apple want their employees working as hard and as efficient as possible. Their therefore must be a strong sense of work ethic in Apple's working environments.

In Conclusion and Evaluation, one of the main findings I got from this topic is knowing that each business has a culture depending on the market in which they operate. For example, it is likely that an Architect that owns a business would have a Person Culture because that is the nature of the Architect industry.

Another finding that I got from this topic is that businesses can have aspects of all four types of culture (Power, Role, Task and Person). For example, a company like Asda may have a Accounts department that has a Power Culture, a Human Resources department that has a Role Culture, a Production department that has a Task Culture and a Marketing department that has a Person Culture. As a result, a company like Asda may not have a clearly defined overall culture. This usually applies to large organisations however.

In addition, another finding that I got from this topic is that some businesses have stronger cultures than others. For example, a company like Google would have a stronger culture than an average supermarket such as Morrisons. This is largely because organisations with stronger culture's have generally more unique cultural aspects (Google is no exception to this). These are the findings that I got from this topic.

References:

[Anon.] (2005) The Apple Corporate Culture [online]. [n.k.] [s.n.] Available from:http://viewfromthemountain.typepad.com/applepeels/2005/07/the_apple_corpo.html[Accessed 24 October 2009].

Organisational Culture Image - http://www.solutions4training.com/www.solutions4training.com/images/t0/89 [Accessed 24 October 2009].