Organisational Culture and Organisational Structure

Question: Discuss about theOrganisational Culture and Organisational Structure. Answer: Introduction Organisational culture is a system consists of explicit and implicit instructional techniques and policies, designed to outline the various work functions and responsibilities. Organisational culture signifies the combined values, beliefs and the ideologies of the members of an organisation and is a collective product of several factors such as, product, history, values, market strategies, employees, management strategies, national cultures, also the beliefs, norms, systems of the particular organisation. In this essay, the famous Australian supermarket chain Woolworths Limited is taken to analyse the organisational culture, the organisational structure, and the application within the organisation. (Methner, Hamann and Nilsson 2015) The major factors determining the organisational culture are symbols, rituals, story, and control and power link. The symbols in an organisational culture determine the human behaviour within the company. Symbols trigger to remind people the rules and regulations, beliefs and policies within the culture. They sometimes act as a simple way to keep the employees aligned. Those can also be used as the indication status with the organisational culture, containing office decor, clothing etc. The status symbols are indicators to use the proper behaviour with others in the hierarchy within the organisation (Neuhaus et al. 2014). The symbols determine the appropriate attitude towards other employees according to their status and position in the company. There might be several symbols around a company, starting from welcoming cultural members around the globe to the pictures of different products on the walls. Rituals are an integral element in an organisational culture. It generally contribu tes to the operating process of the company. The rituals are the procedure or the set of proceedings, which are repeated in a specific situation with a particular meaning, but it also had a symbolic part to embody the values of the company. The stories within an organisation are the sequence of true events, though often exaggerated when told to the new employees. The most common narratives in an organisation are the stories of the founders or the chief leaders, the challenges they have faced and their way to deal with those hurdles etc. In a way, these stories are mainly used to encourage the employees; also, these are the medium of carrying the legacy in a company. The organisational culture also influences the management to have a control over its employees. If the management has a definite form of guidance, well-described jobs, and authoritative decision taking procedures, it is considered to have a formal process of control over its employees, whereas, the collective decision-ma king process is considered a cultural way of control. This also depends on the power link within the organisation, which describes the hierarchy (Persson 2013). With respect to the in-house environment in Woolworths, there are few major points in implementing the organisational culture. Woolworths has always been an example of excellent leadership and creating a sustainable environment by closely working with their suppliers. They have improved their amount of profit and overall organisational culture through it as well. The workspace is considered as a driver of the performance of the employees. The culture creates a sense of continuity, order and commitment in the employees, so that they can work with dedication. Having a perfectly implemented organisational culture establishes a sense of positivity within the employees, so that they also have the encouragement for work (Persson 2013). Woolworths always aims to improve their organisational culture by involving themselves in the community and working together towards the constant growth of the company. This always helps to improve the personality of an employee, where he has the correct amb ience to work (Shields et al. 2015). There are few challenges in implementing the organisational culture in a company, because there are always commitment issue among the employees. Different teams might have issues against each other, like the sales and the accounts team can turn against each other; logistics and manufacturing team might have conflicts between them on the basis of creating new products. This can always affect the productivity of the company. However, several surveys show that, to increase the employee loyalty, the leadership needs to be effective and strong, and the personal issues should be kept aside when it comes to company growth. Organisational Structure Organisational structure can be an ambiguous term to determine, but to state it minimally, it can be said that it defines a specific hierarchy in a company of every shape and size. However, the organisational strategy is the plan to execute the use of the primary resources in the company. The organisational structure plays a major role to achieve the general strategy in a company, where the organisational culture plays a very important role to accomplish the company policies as well. There are several issues in a company for the execution of the organisational structure; one of the major issues is the function. Several companies use vertical or horizontal structure to grow rapidly. Mostly small companies use the horizontal structure, where the manager can directly contact the president. It also defines the distribution of authority within the organisation. The company needs to channelize their communication flow through the team leaders, so that the employees do not get confused about the reporting. In fact, the structure helps the employers define the skills of their employees as well. The linear structure helps the superintendents to evaluate the progress of the work of their employees (Sorensen and Stanton 2013). If the work-progresses are sorted within the company, it is helpful in achieving the targets as well. It can also be said, that the structure promotes teamwork, where all the employees work towards a common goal. The structure also allows the change i n the company policy. In other words, the structure is helpful to regulate the company policies. The six key element of organisational structure are Work specialization, Departmentalisation, Chain of command, Span of control, Centralisation and decentralisation, and Formalisation. The company structure entirely depends on these key elements and they determine the flow of the strategies as well. (Hubbard, Rice and Galvin 2014) Woolworths is a popular company, grown rapidly within few years, and has around 400 stores all over Australia. The company is known to be polite and respectful towards their employees and considers them the biggest assets in the organisation. Woolworths always believe in assigning right job to right people. They always work together to make their employees better and more committed retailers. Woolworths has classified their organisation into different sectors to departmentalize their tasks (Lozano 2013). In the organisation, the chain of command is a continuous flow of control, where an employee is answerable to his direct superintendent. The sales managers of both the retail and the wholesale accounts are answerable to the director of sales. The functional and the divisional structure of Woolworths is divided in a designed way. The company follows the divisional structure, where the general manager of any retail outlet is always responsible for their performances in every sector. There are several challenges in the implementation of the organisational structure like the communication problem, delegation of responsibility in different sectors etc. Apart from that, the implementation can cost a fortune for the company. Nevertheless, there are few proposed changes can be done, like developing the right job description for the employee, so that there will not be any confusion or difficulty in assigning any task (Bailey 2016). If there are huge gaps between the job requirement and the employee profile, the growth of the company can be hampered. The company can plan an organisational chart after a certain interval to avoid misunderstanding. Reference List Bailey, M., 2016. Absorptive Capacity, International Business Knowledge Transfer, and Local Adaptation: Establishing Discount Department Stores in Australia.Australian Economic History Review. Hubbard, G., Rice, J. and Galvin, P., 2014.Strategic management. Pearson Australia. Lozano, R., 2013. Are companies planning their organisational changes for corporate sustainability? An analysis of three case studies on resistance to change and their strategies to overcome it.Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management,20(5), pp.275-295. Methner, N., Hamann, R. and Nilsson, W., 2015. The Evolution of a Sustainability Leader: The Development of Strategic and Boundary Spanning Organizational Innovation Capabilities in Woolworths. InThe Business of Social and Environmental Innovation(pp. 87-104). Springer International Publishing. 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