Importance of Organisational Culture in Business Organisations

This assignment discusses the concept and importance of organisational culture in business organisations, with a focus on the case of Holland & Barrett. It explores the impact of culture on processes and activities, and the role of leadership in contemporary organisations.

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Leading in a changed world
6/14/2019

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The assignment brings about the discussion on the concept and importance of
organisational culture in business organisations. The culture of the organisation
determines the way processes and other activities are performed in the
organisation. Holland & Barrett has been taken as the company in this
assignment, to acquire an understanding about the culture. Therefore, the
discussion will outline the case of an organisation with weak corporate culture,
and the concept of learning about leadership in contemporary organisations.
Organisational culture is defined as the set of values, beliefs, and assumptions
that direct or guide the behaviour of individuals in the organisation. It is crucial
for managers to emphasize establishing a positive and strong culture for
attaining success in the long period. Moreover, it is considered an important
factor in the formulation and implementation of strategies. Therefore, it is
possible for managers and leaders to manage culture in the organisation (Davies,
2016) .
Organisations that manage their cultures in best way attain a steady increase in
their revenue or profits and gain effective performance. Analysing the values,
beliefs, and by setting the preferred direction of efforts, an organisation can
effectively manage their culture.
The company ‘Holland & Barrett’ is one of the biggest chains of health food
shops in the UK, with over 1300 stores in many countries. The company
generally deals in the homeopathic remedies, vitamin supplements, Kosher
food, and others. It has been found that the company aims to enhance the
wellbeing of their customers through delivering the best quality products, and
other nutritional supplements (Natural Products, 2018)
The rationale behind choosing the organisation, ‘Holland & Barrett’ in this
assignment is that it envelops the cultural issues and other problems affecting

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performance. Moreover, the company has been one of the leading health food
retailers. Therefore, exploring the cultural issues will facilitate gaining an
understanding of change and leadership and their effectiveness in sustaining
future growth (Montandon, 2015).
The company has achieved a wide importance for innovation in their products,
charitable giving attitude, and gaining customer loyalty over time. However, at
present the company is facing some challenges or issues related to their work
culture, affecting the performance of their employees. It has been found through
research, that Holland & Barrett’ has been accused of delaying the payment to
their suppliers and this represent irresponsive culture. Several news headings
stated about the “purposeful culture of poor payment practices” (Bilińska-
Reformat et al., 2019).
This was one aspect of the culture required to be changed to establish healthy
relationships with their suppliers, and ensure growth of the organisation.
Furthermore, it has been analysed that the company works with a profit-oriented
culture, and does not emphasize on the key values such as customer satisfaction,
and employee engagement. The commissioner, Paul Uppal found this issue,
and he stated about the brand’s failure for cooperating during the process of
investigation (Noltemeyer, Harper and James, 2018).
The research mentioned about the initiatives of the UK Government, to bring
about a change in the culture of Holland & Barrett, to ensure prompt payment.
This determines that the company need to emphasize on change management
and development of positive culture (Noltemeyer, Harper and James, 2018). Ethical
work culture will enable effective management of the core activities of the

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retailer, and eliminate such problems. After the complaints and issues related to
their irresponsive culture and behaviours, the managers in the firm took a
decisive action to resolve the issue. Holland & Barrett took a strong
determination to eliminate their late supplier payment issues, and establish a
high performance culture in the organisation (Landon, L.B., Slack, K.J. and Barrett,
2018).
The managers focused on changing their business strategy to make timely or
prompt payments to their suppliers. The company made investments into new
technologies to substantially improve their performance, and work relationships.
To state more significantly, the managers established a better leadership
executive team, to initiate and sustain change in the organisation.
Besides, the above stated aspects, learning will help in identifying a suitable
leadership practice or style in the organisation. The above -mentioned cultural
issues would facilitate the company to identify their strengths and weaknesses,
and identify about their leadership style. In this way, learning about the culture
and other work practices will help in sustaining effective leadership (Natural
Products, 2018). Earlier the company adopted a transformational growth strategy,
and now, the change needs to be made in the leadership team effectiveness. The
managers after identifying the cultural issues should make a change, in their
leadership by adopting ‘participative or collaborative leadership’. Thus, the
company Holland & Barrett would attain change in the organisational culture,
as it matters the most common culture.
To conclude the above discussion, it has been analysed that culture is a crucial
part of any organisation, affects the functioning and growth of the company.
The assignment above has described about the cultural issues of ‘Holland &
Barrett’ and stated that culture can be managed or changed in the organisation.

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References
Bilińska-Reformat, K., Kucharska, B., Twardzik, M. and Dolega, L. (2019) Sustainable
development concept and creation of innovative business models by retail
chains. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 47(1), pp.2-18.
Davies, P.W. (2016) Current issues in business ethics. United Kingdom: Routledge.
Landon, L.B., Slack, K.J. and Barrett, J.D. (2018) Teamwork and collaboration in long-
duration space missions: Going to extremes. American Psychologist, 73(4), p. 563.
Montandon, A. (2015) Retail in South Africa: profile and future prospects. In European
Retail Research (pp. 125-152). Wiesbaden: Springer Gabler.
Holland & Barrett. (2018) About Us. [online] Available from:
https://www.hollandandbarrett.com/info/who-we-are [https://www.hollandandbarrett.com/info/who-
we-are [Accessed 14/06/19].
Noltemeyer, A., Harper, E.A. and James, A.G. (2018) Culturally Responsive Positive
Behavioural Interventions and Supports. In Positive Schooling and Child Development (pp.
93-102). Singapore: Springer.
Natural Products. (2018) HOLLAND & BARTETT Pledges change of culture after
‘Embarrassing [online] Available from:
https://www.naturalproductsglobal.com/europe/holland-barret-pledges-change-of-culture-after-
embarrassing-late-payment-headlines/