organisational culture

Organisational culture

John Lewis uses the iceberg model to help better understand the visible and hidden aspects of a successful organisation.
The visible aspects are things such as;
• Management styles
• Uniforms
• First appearance
• Language
• Atmosphere
Whereas the hidden aspects comes down to the core of the business;
• Values and beliefs
• Power and politics
• Norms of behaviour
Visible aspects of John Lewis are obvious from the moment you step into any branch across the UK, they have a clear dress code that all of the employees adhere too. This dress code is a formal one that shows that the employees respect themselves and the customers that they will be serving. The atmosphere in John Lewis branches is often a fun flowing one where the employees and customers are interacting well together.
The hidden aspects of John Lewis show just why they are such a successful business, the values and beliefs of John Lewis are that the customer is always right and that customer service is first priority. The belief is that all of the employees are working for each other as John Lewis is a unique business where all of its employees are also partners in the ownership of John Lewis.(online)
What is meant by the following phrases?
A power culture – Handy describes power culture as a web, he states that this describes the distribution of power from the centre of the web to the outer reaches of the web.

A role culture - This has been typified as a Greek temple and has often been stereotyped as portraying bureaucracy in its purest form. The apex of the temple is where the decision making takes place; the pillars of the temple reflect the functional units of the organisation which have to implement the decisions from the apex.(online)

A task culture - The culture is represented best by a net or lattice work. There is close liaison between departments, functions and specialities, liaison, communication and integration are the means whereby the organisation can anticipate and adapt to change quickly.

A person culture - This is characteristic of the consensus model of management, where the individuals within the structure determine collectively the path which the organisation pursues. This will be the most evident in smaller businesses.

Trying to classify a business into one of the four cultures is a problem as many of the successful businesses will put more than just one of these culture types into action in there working environment therefore they cannot be classified into just one of the four types of cultures indicated above.


I feel that John Lewis provides a strong culture both hidden and visible. I feel that to customers John Lewis is viewed as a very successful company that produces a very good visible culture, i chose John Lewis because i also know that they also produce a very good hidden culture with excellent ethics and personal views.

In conclusion i have found that it is impossible to expect a business to follow just one of the four cultures, power, role, task and person, for they will need aspects of all to become a company that is held in high regard.

Also within the research for the visible and hidden cultures, it is my own view that the visible culture is much more vital to a business as the customers will keep coming to the store if a good visible culture is presented to them.

References;

John Lewis (online)

Available on: http://www.johnlewis.com/ Accessed: [17th January 2010]

Handy (online)

Availableon:
http://www.lindsay-sherwin.co.uk/guide_managing_change/html_overview/05_culture_handy.htm
Accessed on:[18th January 2010]