Sainsbury Organisational Structure and Culture free essay sample

An Organisation’s structure is a network of interdependencies among the people and the tasks that make up the Organisation. It is created and sustained by the basic coordination mechanisms of mutual adjustment, direct supervision and standardization, all of which coordinate inter-dependent relationships among people and groups (Wagner and Hollenbeck 2009). Pugh (1990) simplifies this by defining an organizational structure as consisting of activities such as task allocation, coordination and supervision, which are directed towards the achievement of organizational aims. Different types of organisational structures have been proposed (Salaman, 2001; Bamford West 2010). Wikipedia however, identifies six main categories of an organisation structure as: 1. Pre-bureaucratic structure 2. Bureaucratic structure 3. Post-bureaucratic structure 4. Functional structure 5. Divisional structure 6. Matrix structure Every organisation has a culture; they are structured according to the way they operate and according to their culture. The structure of an organisation and its culture can affect the way it works and performs. Deal and Kennedy (1982) argue that culture is the single most important factor accounting for success or failure in organizations. They identified four keydimensions of culture: †¢ Values – the beliefs that lie at the heart of the corporate culture. †¢ Heroes – the people who embody values. †¢ Rites and rituals – routines of interaction that have strong symbolic qualities. †¢ The culture network – the informal communication system or hidden hierarchy of power in the organization. Information gathered from Sainsbury website indicates that they employ the divisional structure of organisation. Operational divisions are listed on their corporate website: †¢ Sainsburys stores Sainsburys online Sainsburys property Sainsburys Finance Sainsburys Energy Sainsburys Entertainment Sainsbury’s Mission Statement and Purpose According to Hill and Gareth (xxxx), a company’s mission statement describes what the company does. Essentially, the mission statement answers these questions: What is our business? What will it be? What should it be? The responses to the questions above guides the formulation of the mission statements Sainsbury’s mission statement states that: Our mission is to be the consumers first choice for food, delivering products of outstanding quality and great service at a competitive cost through working faster, simpler and together. This mission statement underpins . and drives their corporate values and business strategy. Environmental The diagram below illustrates the PETLE framework [pic] Fig 1: PESTLE illustration diagram Political Political factors represent the way and the extent to which a government influences the economy and a certain business. Political factors are represented by specific areas, such as labour law, tax policy, tariffs, and trade restrictions. A key government policy in the UK that affects Sainsbury is the National Minimum Wage rate, this mandates that employees under a certain age have to be paid no less than what the government has authorised for that year. Source GOV. UK Another government requirement is that businesses must cater for disabled people, by building ramps into offices, shops etc. This will require in some cases redesigning of existing office building and stores owned by Sainsbury. It can even have possible knock on effect on its employment strategy. Others such the maximum weekly working hours as stated in the Working Time (Amendment) Regulations of 2003 will mean that Sainsbury employees cannot mandate its employees to work over the stipulated hours unless they choose to do so. Economic Wikipedia defines an economy as: â€Å"An economy consists of the economic system of a country or other area, the labour, capital and land resources, and the economic agents that socially participate in the production, exchange, distribution, and consumption of goods and services of that area† The state of the economy will therefore dictate things such as inflation rate, interest rates, economic growth or exchange rates. All of these can greatly influence a Sainsbury’s operations, because they are likely to influence demand, costs, prices and profits. Unemployment which can be as a result of economic recessions can cause a slowdown in retail sales. Generally, people tend to cut back on their spending, or they don’t have the power to spend at all. For Sainsbury’s, this could mean introducing more budget lines cheap food such as meat and fish off-cuts, misshapen fruit and vegetables, and food made with cheaper ingredients in other to drive sales volume and to remain competitive. Overall, if the economic environment does not improve, expansion plans may have to be put on hold. There is even the possibility of some of their stores closing down and thus affecting their profit margins. Social Social factors mainly influenced by cultural changes within the environment are often referred to as socio-cultural and social trends are often importance to companies (Henry, 2008). Demographic factors, which comprise factors like population growth rate, cultural aspects, age distribution and health consciousness, can be a key consideration in consumer behaviour. The type of goods and services demanded by consumers is a function of their social conditioning and their consequent attitudes and beliefs. Sainsbury’s will have to respond to the needs of our current dynamic social environment in other to retain its customer. Consideration for value-added products and targeted group of people in certain areas of the UK can become an advantage. Technological Technological changes cannot be ignored. Technology continues to influence the development of many products and also changing the way shop. It can be argued that it benefits both the customers and the organisation. Sainsbury will have to adopt to new technological concepts in other raise its customer satisfaction and also to improve efficiency of their operations.