Organizational Theory Applied To The Retail Industry Essays

Organizational Theory Applied To The Retail Industry PART i Introduction Antonio's, as it will be referred to for confidentiality purposes from here on in, is a retail shoe store that operates in Fredericton, N.B.. It is part of an open system. This company originated in Montreal, Quebec. The head office is now located there and retail outlets are located throughout Canada, the United States and parts of Europe. The market in which this company operates may be considered a division of the fashion industry. This industry is known for being highly competitive and dynamic. Also for obvious reasons many companies within it concern themselves with company image. This particular shoe company has been in existence since the early 1990's. Antonio's has grown significantly and is currently a leader in the shoe industry, even on an internationally level. It produces quality shoes at a reasonable price. From its beginnings until now Antonio's has been operating in the formation stage. This company has met with great success, though, and has grown quickly. It now faces the task of moving into the growth stage. Antonio's must be careful in managing every aspect of its company now in order to survive. Since the industry in which Antonio's operates is very image oriented a key issue in moving from the formation to growth stage that must be discussed is company culture. In this situation ?managed? (as it is referred to in its most popular definition) means changed. In order to manage the company culture through the move from stage to stage in the life cycle of this organization the culture within the current stage, the formation stage, must be discussed. The culture, in my opinion, must be managed as it currently has a negative impact on the organizational effectiveness. The organizational effectiveness as a result of culture must analyzed in order to determine if in fact it does have a negative impact on the company, if so, it must be managed for the sake of the company's survival in the growth stage. PART ii Analysis of current company culture The current culture existing in Antonio's organization is effective according to most of the strict definition meanings. It is not particularly strong, this is because most organizations which are young or have constant turnover (Antonio's finds both of these things to be true for itself) are said to ?have weak culture because members will not have shared enough experiences to create common meanings.? Antonio's culture fits well in to the big picture of the organization as it is aligned with company strategy, environment and technology where company image is everything. This company's culture has both good external and good internal fit. It emphasizes individual initiative, risk taking, high integration, tolerance of conflict, and high horizontal communication. Employee input and opinion is taken seriously, Dress is of importance while in the store and approach and attitude towards customers is very important. These company policies fit well, given its competitive environment, resulting in good external fit. Good internal fit is evident when a company's culture is well matched with its technology. Antonio's would most likely use a mass production technology according to Woodward's contribution to technology theories in the study of Organization Theory. This type of technology is characterized by large-batch or mass ? production. The organization's culture fits well with it's technology as it encourages adaptability to its environment and most importantly its customers. From this we can conclude that Antonio's has a high degree of overall complexity, a high degree of formalization and a moderate degree of centralization. In this case and many others, though, formalization may be replaced, to a certain extent, by the company culture. A strong culture increases behavioral consistency. Predictability, orderliness and consistency are all promoted by the culture at Antonio's, formalization could do the same. As mentioned above though Antonio's is currently in the Formation stage and does not have the strong culture it desires, in some cases culture is pushed and may not be seen as a reasonable move on the part of the company by some employees. This culture promotes predictability, for example, by stressing the importance of the Antonio's ?image? as far as the way employee's should look when in the store and the approach they should take towards customers