Organizational Theory Applied to the Retail Industry
PART I
Introduction
Antonio’s, as it will be referred to for confidentiality purposes from here on in, is a retail shoe store that operates in Fredericton, N.B.. It is part of an open system. This company originated in Montreal, Quebec. The head office is now located there and retail outlets are located throughout Canada, the United States and parts of Europe.
The market in which this company operates may be considered a division of the fashion industry. This industry is known for being highly competitive and dynamic. Also for obvious reasons many companies within it concern themselves with company image.
This particular shoe company has been in existence since the early 1990’s. Antonio’s has grown significantly and is currently a leader in the shoe industry, even on an internationally level. It produces quality shoes at a reasonable price.
From its beginnings until now Antonio’s has been operating in the formation stage. This company has met with great success, though, and has grown quickly. It now faces the task of moving into the growth stage. Antonio’s must be careful in managing every aspect of its company now in order to survive. Since the industry in which Antonio’s operates is very image oriented a key issue in moving from the formation to growth stage that must be discussed is company culture.
In this situation “managed” (as it is referred to in its most popular definition) means changed. In order to manage the company culture through the move from stage to stage in the life cycle of this organization the culture within the current stage, the formation stage, must be discussed. The culture, in my opinion, must be managed as it currently has a negative impact on the organizational effectiveness. The organizational effectiveness as a result of culture must analyzed in order to determine if in fact it does have a negative impact on the company, if so, it must be managed for the sake of the company’s survival in the growth stage.
PART II
Analysis of current company culture
The current culture existing in Antonio’s organization is effective according to most of the strict definition meanings.
It is not particularly strong, this is because most organizations which are young or have constant turnover (Antonio’s finds both of these things to be t...
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...ething so shallow as their appearance. Thus in the long run they are indirectly and unintentionally promoting organization decline by doing this.
PART III
Conclusion
In my opinion the main problem that exists within this organization is the fact that Antonio’s fits into a certain aspect of the Competing Values approach mentioned above to a greater extent than need be. They take organization culture too far despite the fact that it is very well fitted to its industry. My experiences there as an employee were not all negative yet many I did have made me feel very unappreciated and worthless within the organization.
A stress on this particular type of culture results in high turn over. This will ultimately lessen the chances of survival for the organization as it moves through the stages of the life cycle. If this culture persists, Antonio’s will be run by disloyal employees who purposely defy it costing them time and money in the long run. It will have a damaging effect on their so preciously held reputation and this will not fair well for them considering the competitive nature of the fashion industry.
Bibliography:
Robbins. Organizational Theory
This culture is real and effective because it brings everyone on board as it builds relationship between the various organization levels vertically or horizontally depending on each firm as well as directly influencing the employee have the confidence in their work because they...
It all started in 1999 when Francesca’s first opened their doors in Houston, Texas (Coltrin, 2010). Looking at the name of this new fashion boutique, one would assume that the person behind it all would be named Francesca. This would be far from the truth however. The company wasn’t started from a girl named Francesca like many would assume. In fact, Francesca’s was started by three siblings and a close friend. The three siblings, Chong Yi, Kyong Gill, Insuk Koo, and their friend John De Meritt are the four names behind Francesca’s (Oursler, Sept 2012). John De Meritt held the position of the president, as well as the chief executive officer for Francesca’s until recently retiring in 2012 ("John de meritt"). John De Meritt isn’t the only co-founder to recently retire from Francesca’s however. Kyong Gill has also recently retired from her position of Executive Vice Chairperson of the Board of Directors in 2012 ("Kyong ...
A Review and Assessment of Its Critiques, Journal of Management, SAGE. Viewed on5th April 2011, at http://jom.sagepub.com/content/36/1/349.full.pdf+html
This type of culture results in lack of communication, lack of direction towards a common objective/goal and lack of commitment to the To ensure all the employees are competent, they need to develop a system to measure this competency. For example, they can do assessments to gauge competency. Besides that, they should provide compulsory and supplementary training to their employees to add in value and skills. Mentoring systems also can be implemented to ensure sharing of knowledge and experiences. Performance Rewards.
The company had to be the second largest retailer shop in the US; it has many advantages that come along. The customers well acknowledge the company and its brand have been well established.
The franchise owner is results oriented. Meeting and exceeding sales goals is the main objective of daily, weekly, and monthly goals. His main expectation of the staff is getting the job of selling shoes done right the first time and in an efficient manner. It is expected that the sales representative does such an excellent job that the product does not return back to the store. SAS Shoes is a very structured business model at the level of retail. There are very detailed steps that the employee is required to follow from adhering to the strict dress code, utilizing the four-step selling structure, to putting the shoes back in their assigned boxes the correct and efficient way. The employee is expected to not only meet but excel at using these meticulous techniques. Although the culture at SAS Shoes is very stringent, it works well with the ever changing environment surrounding shoe sales in Albuquerque, New
Price: They have pricing strategy for different group of consumer. The price of their shoes varies depending on the type of the shoes, the feature of the shoes, and even design and edition matter. The shoes can be price at a standard price where most customers can afford. Yet some special feature shoes are specially design and created for premium customer who can afford to pay a higher price. For this reason they can capture different group and level of customer.
WALMART store inclusive is the largest retailer and the largest company in terms of revenue.
This essay gives a basic idea of what organizational culture is, and emphasis on the controversial issues of managing organizational cultures. As there are various definitions for organizational culture, and none of them are universally agreed. Therefore, for an easier understanding by readers, the definition of organizational culture given in this essay focusing on levels of culture, and will be discussed t together with Schein's(1983) framework. Before talking about managing organizational cultures, the types will be introduced first. Because, there are some descriptions about managing different types of organizational cultures, in the following content.
...l man who enables others to think and do in his way (role model) and his employees work him for unconditional loyalty (e.g. his PA), also, adopt a fair system of rewards and punishments; however, as a leader sometimes he just needs some transformational styles which respect and communicate with followers equally rather than forced them to shut up rudely. As for organizational culture, the article obtains further understanding that some factors attribute to detect cultures existed in an organisation, communication system, for example. As a result, it can be identified that his culture not only can be classified as power but task. Moreover, due to the changeable outside environment, compounded and flexible cultures seems to be a better way for an organisation’s sustainable development. Therefore, leadership is tightly related to organizational culture.
These above ingredients of culture are gained from birth which means anyone is much influenced by their family, religion, school, and workplace and from friends. Culture mainly stands for supporting role for almost overall success of organization not only that but also it reflects in the outcomes of an organization such as, quality and productivity, obligation and performance. Organizational culture has always been a question for everyone on how the culture and power are associated to an organization.
Their weak points are, lack of motivating employees, low wages, unfair promotion system, lack of activities for employees to become involved in, and lack of ceremonies. Prescolite’s organizational structure seems to be a good fit for the company, but it could use some improvements. In order to have a better structure, the managers and supervisors could show the employees that they are appreciated more. They also could provide more activities for the employees to engage. The division of labor seems to be fair within the company. Decisions are made at a higher level, which is known as a centralized organization. This seems to work very well at Prescolite because it helps the best decisions to be made by the higher up managers and supervisors. There are a few subcultures within Prescolite’s culture what causes a few problems within the way that the company operates. Differences between management and the production employees cause problems within the company. In order to solve these problems, production employees should often be reminded that they are appreciated for the work that they do. Prescolite should also host ceremonies in order to show their appreciation to their employees. I would say that the policies at Prescolite are a great fit for the environment in which the company
A strong organisational culture leads to higher organisational performance. Organisational culture can be defined as a total function of common beliefs, values, patterns of behaviour that are held and shared by the members of an organisation. It is also a valuable resource which can improve the competitiveness of a company and is used to distinguish the company (Barney 1986). From the 1970's the study of organisational culture has become an important issue and closely studied in the early 1980s. Since then, organisational culture has turned out to be one of the most important factors which affects the overall performance of a company.
The concept of organizational culture is one of the most debated topics for researchers and theorists. There is no one accepted definition of culture. People even said that it is hard to define culture and even more change it. It is considered a complex part of an organization although many have believed that culture influences employee behavior and organizational effectiveness (Kilmann, Saxton, & Serpa 1985; Marcoulides & Heck, 1993; Schein, 1985a, 1990).
This essay will set out to define what is organisational culture, examine the main attributes that characterise it and how cultural originate and develop within it. At the same time, this essay will also assess the importance of organisational culture to the financial performance and continued survivability of firms.