Gomez-Mejia & Balkin States - Organizational Culture - Kudler Fine Foods

Phase I

Organizational culture is commonly developed among many businesses and companies. It's prevalent for organizations to develop an organizational culture in order to have cooperation, compliance and unity. Organizational culture contributes to the decision making process of hiring new employees into the industry. Gomez-Mejia & Balkin states, "Organizational culture is a system of shared values, assumptions, beliefs, and norms that unite the members of an organization. Organizational culture reflects employees' views about "the way things are done around here." The culture specific to each firm affects how employees feel and act and the type of employee hired and retained by the company." Kudler Fine Foods is an industry that has built its company surrounding the idea of an organizational culture.

There are three levels of culture that are involved and contribute to an organizational culture: visible culture, espoused values and core beliefs. Gomez-Mejia & Balkin states, "The most obvious level consists of visible culture that an observer can hear, feel, or see. Aspects of visible culture include how people dress..." Kudler Fine Foods is an illustration of the visible culture. Personal appearance is significant to the culture of Kudler Find Foods. Kudler reports "Personal appearance means how you dress, how neat you are, and your personal cleanliness standards. Your personal appearance can influence what customers and visitors think about KFF. Personal appearance can also impact the morale of your co-workers." Due to management and employee relation and interaction most organizations have espoused values. Gomez-Mejia & Balkin states, "At a deeper level, espoused values are not readily observed but instead are the way managers and employees explain and justify their actions and decisions." Kudler Find Foods are engaged in implementing and maintaining espoused values because it's crucial to the development of sound relationships between the employers, management and employees. Kudler reports "Our experience has shown that when employees deal openly and directly with management, the work environment can be excellent, communications can be clear, and attitudes can be positive. We believe that KFF fully demonstrates its commitment to employees by responding effectively to employee concerns." Gomez-Mejia & Balkin states, "At the core of organizational culture, there are basic core beliefs that are widely shared, that operate unconsciously, and that are considered nonnegotiable." Kudler operated its business to satisfy their customers and keep their employees content. For example, "Kudler Fine Foods is deeply committed to employee recognition. The following awards are available to recognize outstanding employees...Associate of the Month, Store Associate of the Year, Company Associate of the Year, and Discretionary Spot Bonus." In addition, Kudler reports how significant customer relations are to the industry. Kudler's goal is provide good products and services to their customers. Kudler states, "Our customers are very important to us. Every employee represents KFF to customers and the public. Our customers judge all of us by how we treat them. One of the highest priorities at KFF is to help any customer or potential customer. Nothing is more important than being courteous, friendly, prompt, and helpful to customers."

Organization Structure

Organization structure is equally as important as organizational culture in order to get the job done and keep the industry expanding. Gomez-Mejia & Balkin states, "Organization structure is a formal system of relationships that determines lines of authority (who reports to whom) and the tasks assigned to individuals and units (who does what task and with which department)." In Kudler's industry organizational structure consists of a strong management and employees that ensure their customers are a priority. Also, the management conducts employee relations appropriately to assure that the company is maintained in a proper manner as to benefit the whole organization. Kudler's industry has implemented and established both policies and procedures; that outline the "authority, responsibility, and accountability" of the administration, management and employees. Gomez-Mejia & Balkin states, "Managers, teams, and employees have varying amounts of authority, responsibility, and accountability according to the specifications of the vertical structure of the organization." A prime example regarding employee conduct and work rules at Kudler's Fine Foods is that each employee is required to be accountable, responsible and to demonstrate the ability to meet the company's rules and regulations or there may be