Organizational Culture at Dymocks - Case Study Example

Dymосks Introduction This paper will analyse the culture and structure of Dymocks, potential challenges of the organisational structure and culture and recommendations for management of change in relation to technological factors. Dymocks is a leading bookseller in Asia Pacific region with 72 book stores in Australia and 12 in Hong Kong. It is a family owned business founded by William Dymocks in 1879 and later taken over by the Forsyth family. Dynamics also stocks music DVDs, CDs and other related items. In addition, it has an online store that enables it to penetrate to the growing book market in Australia. Dymocks strives to meet booklovers needs of learning, leisure and gifts by providing a superior book buying experience and excellence customer service. Organizational Culture Organisation culture is the personality of an organization. The same way each individual has a unique personality so does every organization. An organization’s culture distinguishes it from other organizations and shapes its stakeholders actions (Daft, 2010). Organization’s culture is composed of heroes, rites and rituals, values and social network. Heroes are exemplary people who reflect values, attitudes or the image of the organization and serves as role model to the rest in the organization. A hero may be the founder of an organization or an everyday hardworking employee who impacts the organization in a great way. Dymocks hero is the founder William Dymocks who grew the business to a million books in stock and moved to a larger premise. The tradition for great bookselling and company heritage he instilled in the business is being maintained today as the company reinvents itself constantly. The second component is rites and rituals which are ceremonies and routines the company uses to recognize employees who perform highly. According to Cameron and Quinn (2011) quarterly meetings, company gatherings, and awards banquets are used as a platform to recognize outstanding service of employees. This act is aimed at inspiring other employees in the organization to perform better next time. The case study does not provide any information regarding the Dymocks employees, making it hard to know whether its employees are awarded for their high performance. However, Dymocks would not flourish or provide excellence service to its customers if the employees involved are not performing exemplarily. The third component of organizational culture is values which are organization’s beliefs that define the success of employees. Social network the fourth component is the informal communications means within which stories of heroes and grapevine is carried in the organization. Through this network workers learn about the values and culture of the organization (Daft, 2010). Robert Quinn and Kim Cameron of University of Michigan assert that there are four main types of organization culture: adhocracy, hierarchy, market and clan. Adhocracy organization culture is entrepreneurial and dynamic and focuses on innovation, taking risks and doing things first. Clan oriented organization culture focuses on doing things together, nurturing and mentoring. Market oriented cultures are focused on getting the job done, achievement and competition (results oriented). Hierarchy oriented cultures on the other are focused on stability, efficiency and doing things right as they are more structured and controlled. Dymocks’ organizational culture is more adhocracy oriented as it is more focused on innovation and trying out new things that have never been tried before. John Forsyth the successor of William Dymocks has undertaken pioneering and innovative initiatives leading to the success of the organization mainly in the development of new services and products, fostering creativity and entrepreneurship. From the case study he travelled to Japan, Europe, America and UK to investigate innovative book retailing concepts which he implemented in the business, concepts which Australia had never heard of. He began by revamping the flagship store on George Street. Colour corrected lighting was introduced, designed displays and gondolas built and installed most sophisticate computerised customer enquiry service for books. A telephone ordering facility was also established to serve customers who were too busy or far to purchase books physically from the store (Dymocks, 2011). Organization Structure Organizational structure defines how organization activities are directed towards the achievement of organizational goals, and include task allocation, coordination and supervision. The structure of an organization varies from organization to organization depending with their objectives. It allows the allocation of responsibilities for different processes and functions to workgroups, individuals, department and branches. Organizational structure is essential to actions of an organization. First, it is the foundation on which procedures and routines standards rest. Second, it determines who to be involved in the decision making processes and the extent to which their opinions shape the actions of the organization (Graen & Graen, 2005). Common organisation structures include hierarchical, flat, tall, centralized and decentralized. Hierarchical organization structure is common in most organizations as employees are ranked into levels with one level above the other. There are a number of employees under one level within their span of control. Traditional hierarchy composes of board of directors who are the senior managers responsible for developing business organization’s strategy. Middle managers are responsible for specific functions like marketing, accounts, finance or human resources. Hierarchical organization structure defines the role of each employee and its relationship with other employees within the organisation. It is usually tall and narrow from the top and gets wider as one moves down. The most importance decisions are made and implemented by the senior management (Daft & Marcic, 2010). Flat organisation structures only have one management layer. There is a short chain of command (from top to bottom) and the span of control is wide. This organization structure is ideal for small organizations. Tall organisation structure has a long chain of command due to many management levels and supervision. For example the top of the organisation may have the Chief Executive while at the bottom there may be a floor worker. Centralised organization structure is one where major powers and responsibilities are retained at the head office. Decentralised organisational structure is where some specific decisions are spread to branches and outlets (Keyton, 2011). From the case study Dymocks has 72 book stores in Australia and 12 in Hong Kong and an online book store. The company has franchised its stores and continues to expand by purchasing nut and chocolate confectioner and sandwich bar. All this is done with the mind of spreading the Dymocks tradition and heritage. However, this cannot take place successful unless most powerful decisions are made from a centralized place while those related to a particular store can be made at that level. Therefore, Dynamocks organisation structure is both centralised and decentralised structure. Major decisions are made by the headquarters like the layout of the store, theme colors, and service structure and so on. Decisions made at the store level can include recruiting a customer service staff or promotion activities for the store. Purchasing and accounting functions have been centralized at Dynamocks headquarters to save costs. Senior managers are able to enjoy greater control of Dymocks while saving costs on standardized procedures. Decisions made by senior managers benefit all the stores. Organisations are affected by technological changes in the country or industry. Scott and Davis (2007) define technology as work performed by an organization. Technology is beyond hardware as it also includes machines, people, knowledge and skill. Organisational structure is designed to coordinate interdependent tasks, deal with complexity and reduce uncertainty. Since interdependency, complexity and uncertainty are technology’s dimensions then technology plays an important role in organizational structure. Challenges of organization structure and culture in relation to technological changes Technological changes may affect Dymocks organization structure forcing it to embrace flexibility and differentiation. Orlikowski (2000) supports Scott & Davis (2007) that the relationship between technology and structure involves both internal and external social cultural factors. Conflicts among top managements are sometimes influenced by the traditional social structure. Culture makes top managers to find education, gender and ethnicity similarities within the structure. Technology becomes more advanced as technology increases. As Dymocks expands its boundaries and division of tasks become more complicated, while technology increases. Technology development like enterprise systems may link human resources, production, finance and marketing within Dymocks and other regions where customers, affiliates, suppliers and employees exit. This technology may force Dymocks to develop to a matrix or flat structures. Matrix structures are a hybrid of flat and tall organizational structures that link decision makers to project or product needs. Technological changes improve the supervision of operations in the company. With surveillance cameras managers will save on time wasted moving around the office observing employees work, by simply monitoring them from their offices. Voice and telephone surveillance, data communication surveillance and video monitoring surveillance will need to be conducted. To view job performance companies are today forced to review e-mail messages, storage, voice mail messages and phone calls reviews. Increased technological changes also affect the interaction between employees within the organization. Teamwork software or groupware products are shared databases which employees can access common documents and conduct electronic meetings and discussions. They also contain real-time meeting functions, e-mail, calendars and schedulers. Teams are able to work discuss ideas online, prioritize, schedule team work and meetings, and work on a single document. These groupware include exchange, notes and Collabra Share among others. This improved technology seems to flatten further the currently Dymocks organization structure. The technology also will force Dymocks to decentralise most of its activities as more control can still be taken regardless of whether they are centralized or decentralized. Dymocks organization culture is bound to be affected by ever increasing technological changes (Bodnarczuk, 2011). Having knowledge about the organization; vision, mission, values and its offering is part of what incorporates employees and other organization members in the organization culture. Intranets are private computer networks and internet a public network which are important to organizations today if they need to succeed in the dynamic business environment. Intranets may allow Dymocks members access corporation information that is important for their knowledge. Its functions are similar to groupware. Technology affects organization structure, affects behavior and attitudes of employees, determines the nature of individual jobs and controls the organisation’s informal social structure. Appearance of new technology would result to Dymocks changing its structure. Recommendations Change is inevitable for society, organizations and individuals such as political change, laws change, resource availability changes, needs and goals changes, attitudes and values change, and technology changes. Change management is an approach to dealing with change on the individual and organization level (Morril, 1991). Change management activities in organizations involve defining and instilling new norms, behaviours, attitudes and norms within the organization to support new way of doing things. It is also planning, testing and implementing the transition of business processes or organizational structure to another. Demand for change is constant and imminent (Dawson, 2003). If the organization structure of Dymocks is weakly supported it will need to be changed, transferred to an improved culture in a tactful manner. Set of values common to all members of the organization need to be redefined to help them understand its purpose and future importance. To assess organizational culture Dymocks should employ a matrix to help identify the possibility of change resistance due to incompatibility between culture and change management strategies. Dymocks can decide to manage the new changes around the culture or change the culture. Assessing culture is significant because there is a possibility that conflicting values may be present in the organization or groups that are manifested through inconsistent behavior, especially in cases where Dymocks is franchising. Dymocks should also have the capacity to adapt quickly to technological changes. The environment of organizations is becoming turbulent and unstable. Adapting quickly to the external environment will lead to successful change management strategies. When managing change in response to technological changes all members of the organization must be involved for successful results. The change management team should provide resources needed for change. If people side is well management then change initiative will successfully take place. Change management activities can only be completed with dedicated resources. The limitation is when schedules and budgets are squeezed. The change management team should apply a structured change management methodology to avoid operating in a careless manner. A strategy should be formulated, plans developed. The visible and active participation of senior managers is a contributor to success of any change in the organization. Employees always expect to see the commitment of executives towards change for them to follow suit. Senior managers need to build sponsorship coalition composed of leaders and managers who will need to implement the change back to their workgroups, departments or divisions. Senior management will also need to communicate directly with employees and give them reasons for change. If Admocks decide to change its structure and culture it should ensure that all its systems including training, performance management, talent management, training and recruitment reflect the same. By use of inquiry engagement and review process change is likely to successful take place. Employees will become contented, productive, committed and effective. Middle managers and supervisors’ teams are the ones that need to act on the actual change such as change on how they do their jobs. A manager’s attitude whether of opposition or support will show up in his or her team. Employees prefer to hear change information directly from their supervisors. An immediate supervisor is the best intervention to mitigate resistance from employees. References: Bodnarczuk, M. (2011). Four Global Forces That Will Shape Organizational Culture. Breckenridge Institute. Cameron, K., S & Quinn, R., E. (2011) Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture: Based on the Competing Values Framework ( 2nd ed). John Wiley & Sons. Daft, R & Marcic, D. (2010). Understanding Management (7th ed). Cengage Learning. Daft, R., L. 2010. Organization Theory and Design. Cengage Learning Dawson Patrick. 2003. Understanding Organizational Change – The Contemporary Experience of People at Work. SAGE Publications London, Thousand Oaks, New Delhi. Dymocks. (2014). The Dymocks Story. Retrieved on May 14, 2014 from http://www.dymocks.com.au/ContentStatic/Corporate/About.aspx Graen, G., B & Graen, J., A. (2005). Global Organizing Designs. IAP Morrill, C. (1991). Conflict Management, honor and organizational change. American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 97:585-621. Keyton, J. (2011). Communication and Organizational Culture: A Key to Understanding Work Experiences. SAGE Orlikowski, W. (2000). Using technology and constituting structures: a practice lens for studying technology in organizations. Organization Science, Vol. 11:404-428. Scott, W.R. and Davis, G.F. (2007). Organizations and Organizing: Rational, Natural, and Open System Perspectives. Pearson, Upper Saddle River: NJ. Read More