The Organizational Culture of Quinlan's

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The Organizational Culture of Quinlan's

Introduction

Quinlan has been UK’s foremost retail giant for a long period of time.

By end of 1998 there was evidence of a crisis and since then the

company has been on a decline. The company has been ignoring market

changes and trying to maintain its corporate image and identity. This

has caused the customers to drift to more fashionable brands causing

huge loss of business to Quinlan. Presently the company is on a

restructuring exercise to improve sales with particular emphasis on

customer satisfaction and marketing.

Organisation culture at Quinlan’s

Organisation culture can be defined as the set of key values, beliefs,

understandings and norms shared by members of an organization (Daft,

Management, 2003, p88). It guides the behaviour of its employees that

includes routine behaviour, norms and dominant values. As Schein

pointed out culture can be analysed at three levels – visible

artifacts, expressed values and underlying assumptions (University of

Leicester, Management, People and Organisations, section 13). Visible

artifacts are observable outcomes of cultural norms and assumptions.

Examples of artifacts include the language spoken, dress code, the way

employees think and other behaviour observed by anyone.

Organisation culture is shared by everybody in an organisation and

determines to a great extent how people think, behave and where they

place their priorities. In the Quinlan’s case study, the organisations

expressed values and beliefs have been cultivated by the founder Sir

Thomas Quinlan himself. These beliefs are the guiding factors that

influence how people think ...

... middle of paper ...

.... F. (1943) “A Theory of Human Motivation”, Psychological

Review

* Sajgalikova, H., Trends of Flexible Work Arrangements and their

Applications, University of Economics Bratislava, Slovak Republic

* Schoemaker, M. (Dec 2003), Identity in Flexible Organisations:

Experiences in Dutch Organisations, Blackwell Publishing Ltd,

Volume 12, Number 4,

* Gjerling, A. N. (1999), The Evolution of the Flexible Firm,

Presented at the conference on National Innovation Systems,

Industrial Dynamics and Innovation Policy, Denmark

* Fowke, D. (1999), Shaping Corporate Culture, The New Management

Network, Volume 12, Number 2

* Businessweek, April 30 2004,

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=comment&id=570 [3 May 2004]

* Alderfer, C. (1972), Existence, Relatedness and Growth

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