3.4.2 - Corporate Culture Flashcards
What is a company culture?
Norms and values of a business
What is a strong company culture?
Factors such as attitudes values and beliefs are easily-recognised and embedded into the way that a business operates
What are visual features of a strong company culture?
- Business specific artefacts like uniform
- Well known figurehead as role model
- Ceremonies and awards evenings
What are norms of a strong company culture?
- Workplace procedures
- Business specific language like calling workers team members
What are the benefits of a strong culture?
- Ability to attract and retain employees
- Motivated and efficient
- Less turnover
4 types of culture
Power
Role
Task
Person
What is a power culture?
Decision-making is carried out by one or a small number of powerful individuals, usually at the top of the business hierarchy
- Encourages competitive nature
What is a role culture?
Key decisions are made by those with specific job roles
- Power lies with those with particular job titles rather than those with desirable skills
- Employees are expected to adhere to rules and understand their place in the hierarchy
What is task culture?
Decisions are made by teams made up of employees with specific skills
- Power lies within those with task-related skills
What is a person culture?
Individuals with extensive experience and skills are loosely brought together.
- These individuals have great power to determine their own decision-making procedures and often work autonomously
What factors contribute to the formation of a business culture?
- Leader’s attitude
- Type of ownership
- Human resource policies
Example of human resource policies.
Timpson actively recruiting prisoners at the end of their sentence
Example of ownership type
Public limited companies likely to be focused on meeting profit maximisation, whereas family owned are more likely to have a longevity approach.
Example of a leader’s attitude
Founder of Superjam developed the idea with his grandmother, and contributes to the wellbeing of senior citizens
What are benefits of a business changing their culture?
- Increased productivity
- Innovation
- Creativity
What are some difficulties businesses face when changing an establish culture?
- Identifying contributing factors
- Sub cultures
- Overcoming resistance to change
Why does identifying contributing factors pose difficulty?
Identifying various elements of an organisation’s culture takes time and significant insight to fully understand.
Why does the existence of sub-cultures pose difficulty?
Unofficial subcultures such as undermining management decisions can be hard to change.
Why does overcoming resistance to change pose difficulty?
Any change process is uncomfortable and requires employee buy in. Requires careful communication in order for change to be achieved.
