Organizational Behavior: Kudler Foods
Within all organizations, there is a very specific organic behavior that occurs. Kudler Fine Foods (Kudler’s) exhibits many different processes in the organization of the business. The following will present a review of Kudler’s to assess for current trends in the organization. The purpose of this analysis is to identify certain aspects of the company to assess if they need to be changed, the areas for analysis are as follows: the apparent organizational culture of Kudler’s, to breakdown the organizational structure, identify leadership styles, and identify environmental forces that will drive change with Kudler Fine Foods.
Organizational Culture
“Organizational culture is a system of shared values, assumptions, beliefs, and norms that unite the members of an organization” (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002, p.108). The apparent organizational culture at Kudler’s is the club culture. According to Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a leadership expert, a keystone to the club culture is loyalty (Gomez-Meija & Balkin, 2002). Loyalty is rewarded by promotion from within, job security, and bonuses for experience. Kudler’s offers promotion from within by offering current employees promotions before looking elsewhere “openings for department managers, assistant store managers and store managers are posted internally to see if current employees may be interested” (University of Phoenix, 2008). This also contributes to job security being that the employee can be assured that they are considered first rather than an outsider. Kudler’s also has a bonus plan for employees if the quotas for selling are met. There is an opportunity to earn an extra 7% on top of the salary that Kudler’s employees are already getting paid if the quarterly quotas are met (University of Phoenix, 2004).
This case study will examine the key management practices that make Trader Joe’s successful. Sound management practices have been a catalyst for the long-term financial success of Trader Joe’s. The literature review examines Trader Joe’s approach to management practices. The research will analyze the: employee job satisfaction, management practices, importance of human capital, and contingency planning.
Kudler Fine Foods is a store unlike any in the grocery industry. Kudler Fine Foods represents a store that could possibly spark a new era within the grocery world. The owner of Kudler Fine Foods, Kathy Kudler, has watched her dream of owning and operating a grocery store that specializes in fine quality food grow within a short period of time. The success of Kudler Fine Foods can be attributed to the innovative ideas, effective leadership, and organizational structure. The overall mission of Kudler Fine Food's "is to provide our customers the finest in selected foodstuffs, wines, and related needs in an unparallel consumer environment. Our selections coupled with our experienced, helpful and knowledgeable staff, merge to offer each customer a delightful and pleasing shopping outing" (Apollo Group, 2003). Kudler has managed to maintain its mission statement by providing its customers with the best and as a result the company has flourished. "Kathy considers one of her key responsibilities to be that of identification of new gourmet items that can be offered in her stores (Apollo Group, 2003)." Therefore, Kathy is considering plans to contract with local growers of organic produce to yet obtain the best in quality products for her consumers and take her business to the next step. If Kathy makes the decision to contract with local growers then changes could be introduced into the company's overall structural organization. Each aspect of Kudler Fine Food's organizational structure from basic business process to the supply chain and quality control process will be affected by the formation of a contractual relationship with local organic growers.
Each organization big or small has its own values, ways of doing things and assumption that it operates in. The principles and ethics that exist in each of these companies are the baseline through which the company operates its affairs. This is what can be called as that organization’s culture. The culture in existence has an impact on the productivity, effectiveness and efficiency (Keyton, 2011). The basis of setting the most appropriate culture of a company is not only to move or increase the profitability but also to make the stakeholders happy and satisfied. One aspect of that is the employee or the human resource the firm who put their expertise in the firm and add a bit of creativity and innovativeness to move the products. Chick-Fil-A operates in a competitive industry thus it requires all the stakeholders.
Founded in 1986, Pret A Manger is a fast food chain, which produces freshly prepared, natural food with over 250 stores throughout the United Kingdom, France, Hong-Kong and the United States. Unlike most fast-food chains, Pret is a private company; they do not face the same pressure to grow as a public company does. However there are many factors that affect Pret A Manger’s marketplace such as economy, competition, technology, political environment, and the standard of living. This report evaluates major internal and external factors affecting Pret A Manger using various analytical techniques.
“Culture is not the most important thing. It’s the only thing.” (Gabler, The Magic in the Warehouse, 2016). It has been said that “Costco acts more like a cheerful cult than a hard-driving business.” (Gabler, The Magic in the Warehouse, 2016). Costco hasn’t wavered from their founder’s strategy of promoting within; over 98% of their management started their careers with Costco. This strategy clearly works; the environment is one of family not just coworkers. They are loyal to the brand and motivated to work hard and climb the corporate ladder. Costco sees this as ensuring the future of their values which in turn ensures their
Kudler Fine Foods is also a fierce competitor in their industry, with several locations in the San Diego Metropolitan area of California. Although their competitors, including Whole Foods, a large fine food box store, and other local fresh food markets, Kudler also has to work at staying innovative and maintain their capability to cater to each individual consumers’ wants and
"Kudler Fine Foods has experienced significant growth and is now focused on expanding the services, improving the efficiency of its operations and increasing the consumer purchase cycle as a means to increasing the loyalty and profitability of its consumers" (, ). This paper will justify the importance of marketing research in the development of Kudler Fine Foods marketing strategy and tactics. It will also identify the areas where additional market research is needed and analyze the importance of competitive intelligence and analysis in regards to the development of Kudler Fine Foods marketing strategy and tactics.
problem to next level. Besides Kudler Fine Foods top managers are responsible for communicating the vision
Case study number two is a four-page article written by Marian L. Houser and Astrid Sheil, and it’s titled “How Do You Get Anything Done Around Here?” The article focuses on the concept of real organizational experiences, but primarily Kate Elliot’s experience and dissatisfaction with her job at Donaldson Family Foods, Inc. Kate’s a hard-working, educated woman who is initially impressed with the Donaldson Food, Inc., especially at the opportunity that she has to become the national brand manager. As time goes on, and her first project’s assigned, Kate notices countless negatives within the organization, including how the company remains a low-growth business, its employees’ lack of competitiveness and hurry, and the SMART group’s “Black Hole,” a term referring to the grinding halt that’s applied to all initiatives, ideas, and proposals. In this case, Kate’s cooking bag project faces the dueling black hole. Throughout my paper, I will relate and apply Kate’s experience to organizational culture and socialization, how the conflict is handled, both verbal and nonverbal communication, and possible suggestions for Kate.
You are a management consultant for Kroger to analyze communications and leadership. You have been asked to submit a final report to the executive team with UR findings including the following USE terms Communications and culture:
The P-O-L-C framework, has been a reoccurring topic in these case studies and has been used to describe management processes throughout the book. P-O-L-C stands for, planning, organizing, leading and controlling, which is an exceptional framework for companies to establish themselves and keep them afloat. The discussion in this case, Pret A Manger, involves the teamwork that Pret builds itself on. In 1986, Pret A Manger started planning their company with a vision and mission to provide healthy, inexpensive food while avoiding preservatives and chemicals, as well as establishing a well-oiled team structure. In the organizing section of the framework, Pret designed its company to be able to provide for their customers for a low price, but
As all organizations are striving to meet goals and objectives of the business, so must any comprehensive staffing strategy. Applying this to Tanglewood, the leadership realized that the business must remain competitive with their rivals of Kohl’s and Target. Even so, the company’s culture and values has set them apart, where employee involvement, engagement, and recommendations have been truly valued.
Based on past experience with Starbucks both as consumers, and undergraduate students studying about successful business, we predict that Starbucks will be a theory Y organization, that promotes empowerment within its entry-level staff. Our first impression of Starbucks when we enter a local store is simply that we are going to get a quality product. The staff always remains professional but appears to enjoy their jobs. You don’t see Starbucks employees being yelled at and it appears that all the staff is well trained and knows how to perform their jobs.
The four types of diversity and demographic characteristics chosen to talk about are ethnicity, age, sexual affinity and differences in skills and abilities. These diversities and demographic characteristics have a great impact on an organization. Each of these characteristic has an impact on personal behavior from my personal experiences and then will relate it to my organization.
Organizational behavior is important to many organizations because it helps management understand their employees’ attitude as well as behavior while they interact with one and other at the work place. There are several aspects of organizational behavior and attitude is one that can hinder and help job performance. In the past, organizations were defined almost exclusively by the products produced or the services provided. This has changed a great deal over the years. They are now defined by the way they provide their products and services. Attitude plays a major role in and outside of the workplace as it does in most aspects in everyday life.