Organizational culture refers to the general culture within a company or organization and is often also referred to as corporate culture. A man called Gareth Morgan has described organizational culture as a set of beliefs and values together with symbols like dramatized events and personalities that represents the unique character of an organization, and provides the context for action in it and by it.
The Body Shop believes in 'Delivering Value' which looks at conventional accounting areas such as profitability, relationships with customers and staff, and relationships with suppliers (all of which have an ethical dimension); 'Social Responsibility' which looks at areas such as ethical policies (particularly in regard to investment), charitable support and community involvement; 'Ecological Sustainability' which looks at areas such as ecologically sound purchasing of supplies, recycling waste, energy consumption and provision of ecological financial products and services and 'environmentally friendly' making sure that their products are 'green' , not animal tested and 'kind to the environment'.
Body Shop is a global business and they battle against climate change. They are constantly seeking new ways to improve their business practices and reduce their carbon footprint. The Body Shop has a variety of shops that has refits rolling which will improve their energy efficiency, for example in some their stores they have new lighting and store signs which helps them to reduce their energy use.
In 2008 they replaced all their carrier bags with 100% recycles and recyclable paper bags and have also reduced the content in their gift packaging.
The Body Shop has always believed passionately that animals should not be used for cosmetic testing. They have never tested their products on animals and always encourage their suppliers not to test any of their ingredients on animals for cosmetic purposes. The Body Shop complies with the strict requirements of the Humane Cosmetics Standard created by the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection.
Charles Handy classified organisation into a broad range of four cultures. The formation of culture depends upon on a variety of factors including company history, ownership, organisation structure, technology, critical business incidents and environment.
The four types of culture that Charles Handy discusses are ‘Power’, ‘Task’ and ‘People’. The use of this analysis is to measure the degree to which the main culture reflects the real needs and constraints of the organisation.
Power culture centres on the idea of one individual. Usually group and team work take place within this type f culture which sometimes gives a few problems in some cases. In some cases the lack of consultation may de-motivate some staff for the reason that decisions are made rapidly without questions. Then again, the power culture tends to look up and trust their leader.
This strength of the culture lies in specialisation within its pillars. Interaction takes place between the functional specialism by job descriptions, procedures, rules and systems. Organisations under this culture are run by a paper system. Handy states that the job description is more essential than the skills and abilities of those who are in the people culture. Handy believes that this type of culture is appropriate in businesses are not subject to constant change. The culture performs better in a steady-state environment but can be insecure in times of change. This sort of culture finds it extremely difficult to change rapidly. The role culture is typified by rationality and size.
This is characteristic of organisations which are involved in extensive research and development activities they are much more dynamic. They are constantly subject to change and have to create temporary task teams to meet their future needs. The culture is represented best by web 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.
This is characteristic of the agreement model of management, where the individuals within the structure determine collectively the path which the organisation pursues. If there is a formalised structure, it tends to service the needs of the individuals within the structure. Organisations which portray this culture reject formal hierarchies for ‘getting things done’ and exist solely to meet the needs of their members. The rejection of formal ‘management control’ and ‘reporting relationships’ suggests that this may be a suitable culture for a self-help group or a commune, etc., but it is not appropriate for business organisations.
The problem of trying to classify culture is that Handy believes that all businesses should follow the four types of cultures. With some businesses the different departments within the business may use different ways of culture to be used. Different cultures are likely to change over a certain period of time which means that may have different methods of operating. For example the employees at a workplace may have different suggestions on how they will like their working conditions to be and then may adapt to these changes. Some managers may take these suggestions into considerations if it is evident that it is bringing the business good results.
In some cases culture can be a problem in a business for the reason that some employees may not agree on the way their workplace operate.
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In conclusion some different businesses will have their own personal type of culture that they will work under. Handy suggested four main types of business culture, which was the power culture, the role culture, person culture and task culture. These give a business an outline on how certain businesses should operate. In some cases most businesses don't only stick with one business culture, they sometimes use more than one. This suggests that businesses may change the different cultures they use.
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