Source: http://dnabehavior.com/blogbeta1/10-ways-to-cultural-change/

1. Introduction

Source: https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/

In the first blog, I am asked to provide an explanation on how cultures can be managed within the organizations.  I hope that I can gain an insight and enhance my knowledge to become a good and effective leader in the future.  I will be using Sainsbury’s, the second largest supermarket in the UK with 16.3% of market share (after Tesco 27.9%, and Asda 15.5%) to illustrate how cultures can be managed within the organizations (Figure 1). 

Figure 1: Big Four Supermarkets Start 2019

source: https://www.kamcity.com/namnews/uk-and-ireland/supermarkets/big-four-supermarkets-start-2019-with-further-market-share-loses/

2. The principal challenges that an organisation faces

Organisational culture has been defined differently in several academic literatures (Deshpande & Webster Jr, 1989). I have chosen the definition given by Sagiv & Schwartz (2007) mentioning organisational culture as the shared insights of organizational workplace within the organisational units.  This is supported by McNamara (1999) that this is the organization’s personality in which culture is comprised of the assumptions, values, norms, and tangible signs of a company’s employees and their behaviour.  According to Hofstede (1994), culture is the collective programming of the mind which differentiates the member of one group or category of people from another.  In other word, culture is the consistent, behavioural patterns which are unique to a specific group.  This can be summarised in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Organisational culture in an organisation

Each organization has a life of its own and often like puzzles compromised of varied little pieces that act as a whole.

3. Implementing change in organizational culture

Most supermarkets including Sainsbury’s to perform wellin this competitive market are forced to change their strategies many times especially when managing organisational culture changes.  During transformation/changes, they are faced with two fundamental issues: integrating individuals into the workplace and adapting to the external environment (Armenakis & Bedeian, 1999).   It is possible to use Iceberg model to explain the culture change within Sainsbury’s (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Iceberg Model (Herman, 1970)

Organizations resemble puzzles which compose of various littles pieces that act as a whole.  Most top managers are aware of one-tenth of what is going on in the formal aspect or the way we say we get things done, and consequently fail to identify the bulk that is under water or the way we really get things done.  Usually, they cannot change what they do not understand.  This is an analogous to a ship heading for an iceberg whereby the long-term sustainability of an organisation relied heavily on the ability of leadership to realise how the organisation should think, feel, and act. As a consequence, they fail to implant necessary changes that have been implemented due to not understanding or acknowledge the basic assumptions in driving the culture.

The iceberg model emphasises on the importance of having a balance between formal and informal aspects of organizational culture.

4. Change of strategy in Sainsbury’s

Sainsbury’s began its operation officially in 1869, and been growing steadily over time.  Formerly known as J Sainsbury, in 2018 Sainsbury’s has 606 supermarkets, petrol stations and banks to be found around the Highstreets. Sainsbury’s include 817 Sainsbury’s local, 604 Argos stores, Sainsbury’s Online and Sainsbury Bank. (Sainsbury PLC, 2018 & 2019). 

Currently, Sainsbury’s employ over 185,000 colleagues who work hard every to make the customers’ lives easier and to provide them with great products, value for money, and service whenever it is convenient for them. (Sainsbury PLC, 2018 & 2019)

Based on Handy’s four types of organizational culture (1993), Sainsbury’s operated using a role culture which resembles a bureaucratic system whereby the employees are assigned with specific roles and responsibilities.  Due to the competitiveness of the market, Sainsbury’s has to adjust and move towards task culture where the employees are more flexible with more freedombeing provided (Handy, 1990). The mission of Sainsbury’s is to ensure that its employees feel valued and motivated. Sainsbury provides a Sainsbury’s Gift Card known as Nectar for employee reward and recognition of their good works and success (Deresky, 2017).  Currently, there are 19m collectors and considered the largest loyalty programme in the UK. (Sainsbury PLC, 2019)

5. Managing Culture Effectively

In managing culture effectively, the behaviours of leaders must be amplified and embedded in a network of organizational practices.  For any effective leadership, the followers tend to follow their leaders as an example. Sainsbury’s past strategies have been quite outdated; however, the new strategies alone are not enough for survival. Sainsbury’s introduction of employee reward and recognition of good work practice is a starting point to get everyone motivated.

Reference:

Armenakis, A. A., & Bedeian, A. G. (1999). Organizational change: A review of theory and research in the 1990s. Journal of management, 25(3), 293-315.

Deresky, H. (2017). International management: Managing across borders and cultures. Pearson Education India.

Deshpande, R., & Webster Jr, F. E. (1989). Organizational culture and marketing: defining the research agenda. Journal of marketing, 53(1), 3-15.

Handy, C. 1993, Understanding Organizations, Penguin, London. 

Herman, S. N. (1970). Cultural Iceberg. TRW Systems Group.

McNamara, C. (1999). General guidelines for conducting interviews.

Reference:

Sagiv, L., & Schwartz, S. H. (2007). Cultural values in organisations: insights for Europe. European Journal of International Management, 1(3), 176-190.

Sainsbury’s Annual Report. (2018).  Retrieved from https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/~/media/Files/S/Sainsburys/documents/reports-and-presentations/annual-reports/sainsburys-ar-2018-full-report.pdf

Sainsbury’s Annual Report. (2019).  Retrieved from https://www.about.sainsburys.co.uk/~/media/Files/S/Sainsburys/documents/reports-and-presentations/Sainsburys-Bank-AR19_FINAL4.pdf

Schein, E. H. (1990). Organizational culture (Vol. 45, No. 2, p. 109). American Psychological Association.

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Big Four Supermarkets Start 2019 With Further Market Share Loses