Organizational Analysis of Tally Food Court - Research Paper Example

Organizational Analysis: Tally Food Court We find a unique organization and a distinct personality like Tally Food Court. It has been thereto cater to the students of Ball State University, but to also help the students in their cultural integration and in their financial problems. Most of the workers at Tally have their own cultural milieus and background. At the university and at the food court, they are introduced into a different kind of culture, i.e. a combination of different cultures. Even the different managements provide their own technique of dealing with their customers. Tally Food Court is a training ground for students, to make them more prepared for a globalized environment composed of different cultures. This is now the age of globalization, where some say the age of the “global village” composed of a multi-ethnic and multi-cultural workforce. This is the new type of human resource, who comes from various parts of the world. Students should be prepared to adopt to this new kind of organizational culture. Introduction Organizational culture is what people practice and believe, which becomes the foundation for all the other activities and policies the organization will implement. This research will focus on the organizational culture of the Student Center Tally Food Court of Ball State University. The goal of the study is to research and report about the workplace environment at the Tally Food Court. Tally Food Court is an organization composed of various businesses dedicated in serving the students of Ball State University. It has its own culture consisting of a combination of different cultures from various nationalities. The students and workers are multi-cultural. They seem different because they carry with them their own culture, customs and traditions, but they look alike more than they are different because they have an almost united goal – to serve the university students and their customers. In short, the organizational culture of Tally Food Court is that the workers have their own native culture, which influence the way they work and interact with management, fellow workers, and customers. The food court is located in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center. It accepts students as workers to train them management and cooking techniques and to help them cope with their financial difficulties. Some popular brands have stalls there, giving some convenience on the part of the students and customers. The brands include Taco Bell, Starbucks, and others that provide choices of salad bar, grilled foods, soups, comfort foods, and several other delicious foods. There is also a specialty lunch entrée created every day by Chef Jason Reynolds, which is a campus favorite. Tally also offers a grocery section for students’ convenience. I started working at the Tally in the fall of 2014, working at a variety of the stations cooking and serving food for the customers. Over the past year and a half, I was exposed to the culture of the different employees and managers and the customers themselves. A multi-cultural environment offers a multi-cultural food, and the interaction among the employees and between the customers was somewhat challenging from the beginning. I had difficulty communicating but I learned to adjust and go with the different teams. Students come from the Middle East, East Asia, Africa, and from North America. Critical-culture perspectives The dress codes of some cultures are distinct and can be said as very traditional. But we also feel that religious beliefs and traditions distinguish the different kinds of people in this world. Muslims pray and worship at least three times a day. Christians can worship any time, but there is no prescribed number of praying time in a day, and sometimes they have no time to pray. A distinction between these two religions is that Christians separate their worship time from work or business. Importance of the study This is important in the study of organizational culture and how people of different ethnic groups converge to form one culture of their own. This study will include an auto-ethnographic description taken during my stint as worker and when I was immersed at the Tally Food Court with my own culture and tradition. In the beginning, the student workers felt different from each other but as time went by, they felt more alike than different, even if each has had their own peculiarities and distinctions. Organizational culture: concept and meaning The workplace environment provides a challenging experience because of the multi-cultural setting. During my job stint, I could not easily adjust to the cultural differences, but I learned a lot from my experience. Learning other students’ culture is one of the most challenging experiences I have had at Ball State and at Tally Food Court. I have my own cultural uniqueness, being a Saudi, which others have to adjust too. Social interaction therefore had to be reciprocal. At first, I found it difficult to determine the goals of this establishment, on why they employed people of different cultures. This question had remained hanging at the back of my mind, but when I was introduced to this milieu, I realized our similarities and not the differences of our respective cultures. Tally Food Court has a multi-cultural clientele or customers. Their employees have to be multi-ethnic as their customers. The background of this organization is that it has a team-based structure, i.e. they use teams to accommodate and meet customer demands. I experienced this myself: we usually formed teams and the members came from different nationalities. This means that this organization, which has several businesses inside, has an up-to-date business framework. With teamwork, tasks are accomplished faster than before the advent of the information age. A team-based structure can help provide leadership effectiveness because it allows vertical and horizontal interactions, in which team leaders and members can directly communicate with each other and with top management at the same time. Firms prefer teams to work in their projects because of its effectiveness in attaining organizational objectives. A study found that about 60 percent of firms used teams to respond to the changes caused by globalization and technology innovations (Lawler et al., cited in Wu, Wang, & Tsai, 2010). Organizational culture is “a shared meaning held by members” that differentiates the organization from the others (Robbins, 2001, p. 508). When effective leadership is emphasized within the organization, i.e. employees and managers focus on management timing and accuracy and they observe and practice this to the point that it becomes a part of organizational culture, there will be effective leadership outcomes and organizational achievement. Lee and Tsai (cited in Wu, Wang, & Tsai, 2010) argue that organizational cultures that foster organizational learning, communication and sharing between group members, and collaboration among group members can lead to organizational performance. Organizational culture can provide a clear way for the future. In 2007, the United Nations’ Global Compact formulated guidelines to integrate GC philosophies into academic courses or become a part of management education. Ban Ki-moon, the U.N. Secretary General himself, asked business management universities and institutions to adapt the GC’s “Principles for Responsible Management Education” (PRME) in order to encourage teachers to teach corporate social responsibility and motivate businesses to adapt CSR globally (Pies, Beckmann, & Hielscher, 2010). PRME should be given preference by educational institutions for “ethical leadership” in the business community. Is Tally Food Court a way of responding to the ethical need in the business community? This could be so. Tally Food Court is not only for business; it is there to help students as customers and workers. The student workers of Tally Food Court This research involved auto-ethnographic component because aside from the observation and interviews conducted, which produced results, it also involved myself the Researcher, and my political and social experiences. I learned the culture of others and mine. I was a student worker and I knew a bit of the culture inside Tally Food Court. I wanted to know more of the student workers through observation and interviews. I interviewed two student staff of Tally Court and the results of the semi-structured interviews are provided below. The interviews The two employees were from different cultures: Ahmed Norri is from Tajikistan and Rhino Fakhrua is from India. I preferred these two unique cultures – a Tajik and an Indian culture. The Tajik culture hails from ethnic Persian while the India culture is South Asian in origin. I could relate to them their experience, problems and challenges they hurdled in their stay and work at the Tally Food Court. Tally Food Court is not the problem; it helped them solve the problem. They do not come from rich families, unlike some of those who come from noble lineage. It was enough, they said, that their government recognize their talents, but they still had to strive hard and earn for themselves to augment their allowances given to them. Ahmed and Rhino were quite outspoken when the subject of their country and their government were the topic. “We have our own university,” said Ahmed. “But studying in another country is more challenging and exciting. I can learn more by being with people of different culture.” “The world now is flat,” Rhino added. “This is the twenty-first century, a period of globalization and the internet. The number of organizations worldwide has exponentially increased, and these organizations are multicultural. We have to be part of an organization; we have to belong to a group.” I was inspired to hear the statements voiced by my interviewees. Even if they have difficulties in living in foreign land, they know how to express themselves. In our initial encounter, I sensed they wanted to go beyond Tally Food Court, or beyond the university campus. I was not concerned of their political beliefs, nor of their future plans, I told them, but I wanted to listen whatever they wanted to express. However, my interview questions were focused on their experience at Tally Food Court and how they viewed, and became instrumental to the formation of its organizational culture. What challenges have you encountered as student workers of Tally Food Court? “Communication!” They both voiced their opinion. Their first challenge in coming to a foreign country is communication, in particular, language. They knew how to speak English, of course, but they still had to improve it. Ahmed related how some English words were strange to him. He did not understand most of the terms that he had to carry with him a Thesaurus dictionary. Rhino, on the other hand, narrated his first experience in the university where he had to stay indoors because he could hardly speak English. It did not take him long to go out as he took to social media and was introduced to fellow Indians. In this interview, I narrated to them my own experience. I wanted them to be at ease with my questioning. I was all alone when I arrived in this country, I said, and I never knew anyone except my professor who was too accommodating. When I was accepted at the Tally Court, I learned the ropes and everyone seemed to accept my weakness. Tally Food Court is a large “training ground” for new students. Since it is multi-ethnic, the question of culture especially communication always crops up. How do you solve the problem of communication? Some of their responses are: Social media is very helpful in bridging the communication gap. Most of the people I knew from the start were introduced through social media. Studying is a part of the culture of Tally Food Court. Teaching others what you know is another thing. We help and we reciprocate. We interact with people of different culture. Tally Food Court’s multi-cultural background has been made into one culture through continual interaction among the student workers. My language improved through constant talking and conversation with native English-speaking students. I can understand why they took the job at the food court. There is an interaction arena in this part of the university. Most Saudis converge here, and we find this not only a place for dining, but also a place where we could express our social and political thoughts. Most of us do not know each other personally but when we see the costume and the way people act and converse, a Saudi or a Tajik could feel he is in his native land. Ahmed and Rhino did not personally know each other when they came to this university. They only met at the Tally Food Court and became the best of friends. They speak one language and they have the same sentiments and political ideas about their country. We can talk freely about what is going on in the Middle East. Their ethnic background is not far from mine, Saudi Arabia. Other co-Saudis I met at the Tally Food Court can speak freely about their misgivings, that despite the wealth of Saudi Arabia, it is still far from being a developed country. People are not as free as in the West. For me, I feel freedom when I am not inside my country, although there are other rights we can enjoy in my own country. Freedom of the press or of expression is not too much observed there. It is only in my interactions with fellow expats that I feel what is lacking. Other questions posed for the interviewees were: What are the cultural differences you have encountered? Aside from language, we are different in the way we clothe ourselves, including religion, customs and traditions, social interaction, etc. Even in business, we have different cultural practices observed. We have different culture when it comes to dining. We don’t usually dine with people we do not know, but here we have to do it. How do you deal with these cultural differences? We have respect of each other’s cultural differences. Through our constant interaction with the different cultures, we learn to adopt, but we do not ignore. For example, we Muslims have our own personal greeting if we meet each other in public places. Christians also have their own way of greeting and we respect that. What kind of social interaction do you experience at Tally Food Court? We can meet daily, or weekly, as we have fast communication through social media. Social interaction can be in the form of casual conversation, or weekend party. It depends on whatever some individuals or groups have agreed. Does Tally Food Court help you in your cultural integration? Yes, most of the meetings and social interaction are encouraged by management. They allow us to participate in meetings with different groups. Tally Food Court encourages inter-cultural programs. Do social media influence cultural interaction at Tally Food Court? How? Social media is the basic tool for our social interaction. Even if we do not personally meet, we communicate through social media. Social media allow us to know different kinds of people or different groups. Methodology The study used indepth interviews to examine obstacles and challenges of international student workers. An indepth interview can be defined as “qualitative research technique that involves conducting intensive individual interviews with a small number of respondents to explore their perspectives on a particular idea, program, or situation” (Boyce & Neale, 2006). It is popularly used in qualitative research. Indepth interviews provide detailed investigation of people’s perspectives, and indepth understanding of the research topic. Discussion/Conclusion Through studies on culture at Tally Food Court, I learned more about my own country, my culture and my people of Saudi Arabia. It is interesting that by learning other cultures, we learn about ourselves. By knowing about organizational culture, we improve our knowledge of our own culture. Organizations are like living organisms because they work according to how living organisms operate. The different parts of the system in the organization are interrelated in complicated ways. Changes in one area of the system will surely affect the other parts of the system. The initial state of affairs matters when a distraction occurs. A calm condition might have a disturbance, but it can be rekindled by the same disturbance in an agitated state (Fortado & Fadil, 2012). Organizational culture at Tally Food Court is unique because it combines a number of cultures and this was formed and enhanced through the years. The different managements provide their own brand of managing human resource, which makes Tally Food Court effective in helping and serving the market segment, the students of Ball State University. References Fortado, B. & Fadil, P. (2012). The four faces of organizational culture. Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal, 22(4), 283-298. Pies, I., Beckmann, M., & Hielscher, S. (2010). Value creation, management competencies, and global corporate citizenship: An Ordonomic approach to business ethics in the age of globalization. Journal of Business Ethics, 94(1), 265-278. doi: 10.1007/s10551-009-0263-1 Robbins, S. (2001). Organizational behavior, 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc. Wu, C., Wang, P., & Tsai, L. (2010). The effect of organizational culture on team interaction and team effectiveness: Team leadership as a medium. The Journal of International Management Studies, 5(2), 190-198. Appendices Appendix A: Letter-request Dear sir/madam, The undersigned is conducting a study on organizational culture of Tally Food Court, as part of the requirement for my course. May we ask you to be a part of this research? We would like to inform you that the results of this study will remain confidential and that the aim is for purely academic purposes. Your identity and background will also remain confidential. Thank you for your help. Sincerely, Student/Interviewer Appendix B: Interview Questions What kind of an organization is Tally Food Court? What challenges have you encountered as student workers of Tally Food Court? How do you solve the problem of communication? What are the cultural differences you have encountered? How do you deal with these cultural differences? What kind of social interaction do you experience at Tally Food Court? Does Tally Food Court help you in your cultural integration? Do social media influence cultural interaction at Tally Food Court? How? Read More