Management, People & Organizations

Essay by diash01University, Master'sB, April 2006

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QUESTION 1: 2

Introduction 2

Organisation culture at Quinlan's 2

Types of cultures 3

Culture and organisation success 4

QUESTION 2: 5

Why is it that the morale has declined 5

Concepts of motivation 5

How motivation can be achieved at Quinlan's 7

QUESTION 3: 8

A 'flexible firm' model 8

Types of flexibility 8

Organisation and management strategy - to be flexible 9

How Quinlan should respond to the new challenges 10

REFERENCES: 11

Question 1:

Analyse the organisational culture of Quinlan's. What factors explain this culture? To what extent is this culture responsible for the company's current difficulties?

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...