Company's Structure and Culture: Essay

STRUCTURE AND
CULTURE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Organisation structure refers to the model or framework of the company in which it
defines each job, function and in what way the company will operate in order to achieve the
objectives and culture defines the combination of the beliefs, norms, attitude, behaviour, values
that each member contribute to the organisation. Costa coffee is the British international
enterprise which was established in 1971 in London. It has its headquarters situated in Dunstable,
England, UK and founder of the company were Bruno Costa and Sergio Costa. The company
deals with the products Coffee, tea and drinks. It has 3,401 stores in 31 countries and the
enterprise has 2,121 restaurants in UK and 6000 Costa express selling facilities (Scott and et.al.,
2018). The essay will include the company's structure and culture by applying theories or models
as well as factors contributing to organisational performance.
TASK
Costa Coffee is the British global coffee house enterprise which was established in 1971
by Costa family in London. The company is headquartered in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, UK and
the founder were Bruno Costa and Sergio Costa. The CEO of the company is Dominic Paul.
Costa Coffee deals with the wholesale products by supplying the roasted coffee to the caterers
and to special coffee shops which were Italian and it sells the coffee, tea, soft drinks and snacks.
It had Revenue of 1.167 billion pound and its Net Income of 153 million pound in the year 2016.
In 2018 it spread in number of location of around 3,882 countries some are UK, Poland, Russia,
Germany, Spain, Ireland, France and many more (Laforet, 2016).
In the year 1995, this company was acquired by Whitbread and in 2019 it was sold-out to
the Coca-Cola company with worth 3.9 billion pounds. The company grown and now it has
3,401 branches in 31 countries at the same time it has around 2,121 UK restaurants and 6000
Costa express facilities of vending and further it has 1280 outlets including 460 in China
(Elsmore, 2017). The company then declared of acquiring the Costa limited from the parent
company called Whitbread with worth 5.1 billion dollar. The agreement was closed on 3rd
January 2019 and it gave the Cola a powerful coffee platform in Europe, middle east and Africa
and the company has coffee house unit which is second largest across the world and in UK it is
the largest company.
Organisational Structure

Company's structure defines the particular model or framework that the company follows
which gives the description regarding each and every job and its functions. Company follows tall
organisational structure where all the decisions are taken by higher authorities only (Laforet,
2016). Flat and tall are two major structures, flat structure defines that the business which is
having no levels of management or structure and short command unit in which all the employees
of the organisation reports to only one manager. This structure is suitable for the business which
is small in size and that are very flexible. This structure leads to better communication and
improves the relationship among employees. This structure has a simple process as well decision
making is done fast. This helps the business to adapt the change in the better way. This structure
helps to increase the responsibility levels among employees This structure can lead to confusion
because there is no specific manager. lack of speciality and there is no functions regarding
specific job .Their is no opportunity like promotion and growth.
Hierarchical organisational structure plays a very important role for the organisation.
Generally, this structure is followed by the organisations and enterprise which is large in size.
This structure includes the tall hierarchy structure for the business and it has different levels as
well as unit of command and the workers are ranked accordingly. It has the structure
resembling like a pyramid the size gets broader as the company moves down that includes on
the top CE(chief executive) that is followed by senior managers of different departments like
finance, marketing etc. then comes middle managers and at last the staff workers. The roles of
the employees in the organisation is defined clearly according to the relationships with others.
This structure has both advantages and disadvantages (Laforet, 2016) This structure very well
defines the roles and responsibility. It helps in motivating the employees by giving them
promotions. This structure gives the opportunity where employees can become expert by
specialising in their own field. This structure can lead to difficulty for the business to adapt as
well as to modify accordingly. The bureaucracy that can lead to lag in decision making. Conflict
may arise due to competition between different departments regarding the decision making. Less
effective communication is drawback of such structure (Anitha, 2016).
Costa coffee is following the hierarchical structure as it is the multinational company and
has different branches worldwide that are to be managed as per to the new technology, products.
In Costa coffee every employee working in different departments have clear and well defined
goal in order to fulfil the needs and wants of the customers at large level. This hierarchy has

made the business productivity of Costa coffee more effective and improved relationship has
boosted up the morale among the employees and employers this has resulted to growth and
expansion of costa coffee worldwide(Arifin, 2015). This type of organisational structure supports
Costa coffee business in making quick decisions by this way innovative ideas can be
implemented quickly in the firm which always support firm in gaining more profit. As there is no
involvement of employees ,only higher authorities make decisions hence it reduces chances of
conflicts and sticks in the organisation.
Organisational culture
This is the most important aspect of every organisation. It defines the combination of the
culture that is attitude, behaviour, beliefs, norms which is shared within the organisation. A good
organisational culture can result to good relationships among employees and employers, better
management support. Handy has divided the culture into four classes that is Power, Role, Task,
Person that are explained below:- The culture of power in the organisation refers to the power
that only few individuals have and that influence is spread in the organisation as whole. The
judgement of the employees is done by what employee has attained rather than focussing on how
it has been achieved. The effect of this can result to fast judgment even if is not beneficial for the
organisation for the long term. In this the employees would have no freedom to ask any queries
or to express the feelings or ideas. In this the employees have no option they have to follow the
instructions of the managers strictly (Nguyen Van and et.al., 2018).
Task culture refers to the culture where the targets are attained and problems are solved
in teams or units with the help of task culture. In this the organisation with the individuals those
who are having specializations are formed as a team. The number of members in each team is
four or five and the contribution done by individual is equal so that the task can be achieved in
most innovative manner (Maduenyi and et.al., 2015). Costa coffee follows the task culture
through which the targets are achieved as well as problems are solved with team and unity. And
those employees who have specialisation as well as common interest are put together in a team.
Like for management there is a separate group as well as for managing operations there is
separate team and many more. Every employee contributes equally has resulted in unity and
healthy relationship among employees. The task culture has helped the organisation to achieve
the objectives in an innovative way and to expand the business internationally(Preuss, 2017).

Factors contributing to organizational performance
There are some factors that Costa Coffee company should keep in mind that are very
essential can affect the organisational performance in uncertain environment in both ways
positive and negative. The factors include leadership, motivation, organisational culture,
managing the knowledge that are explained below:-
Organisational culture:- This is the another very essential aspect of the organisation that
is culture of the organisation which is the combination of attitudes, behaviour, beliefs, norms and
values of an individual contributed within and for the organisation. It is the tool that an
individual learn from its society and each individual has its own culture and norms. The culture
and behaviour of the employee depends on achieving the objectives. The strong culture of any
organisation will result to the competitive advantage over other competitors. In task culture
every body is given task as per their capability and leaders guide people to work better. This
aspect is very important factor to keep in mind that can result to success as well as failure of the
organisation. This process involves the person that directs the other employees to attain the
objectives that can influence the other employees of the organisation. For making the employees
effective the leader should have good leadership skills that is trust, supportive, understanding
effective. These skills will result to the satisfaction of the employees as well as achievement of
objectives of the organisation effectively and efficiently for the long term. Good culture motivate
people that affect the organisational performance of Costa Coffee that can result to success as
well as for failure. Motivation refers to persuading or influencing or to initiate an individual
towards achieving objective. For initiating employees the company should organise some
training and development programme and the interactive structure of the organisation can
motivate the employees in order to achieve the organisational objectives effectively(Grispos,
Hanvey and Nuseibeh, 2017).
Structure highlights the manner of communication between different level of employees.
As Costa coffee follows tall structure where decision are taken by management, all they have
great knowledge and they support their employees to perform their work effectively. This
concept explains that in organisation managing knowledge includes gathering, sharing,
organising and then assessing it according to the resources and skills of the individuals. It is the
important tool for every business. It is very important for Costa coffee to manage as well as to
enhance the knowledge among employees by organising development programmes in order

build as well as to enhance their skills, knowledge in an effective manner. This typeof structure
make the frameworks for managing the knowledge as per the technological advancements which
results to attain the organisational objectives in an effective and efficient manner for the long
term(Coccia, 2015).
CONCLUSION
From the above study it is concluded that the organisational structure plays a very
important role for the company it describes the framework for the organisation in which it
includes the duties and responsibilities of every employee and employer. It also explained the
types of the structure that were hierarchical and flat structure and the company follows he
hierarchical structure. Further it also explained the organisational culture that includes beliefs,
norms and values of the individuals towards the organisation at the same time also explained in
brief the culture of the organisation with the help of Handy's model of organisational culture. At
last it analysed the factors that can contribute or affect positively or negatively to the
organisation which included leadership, organisational culture as well as knowledge of
management in order to achieve the organisational objectives effectively and efficiently that can
result to growth and survival of Costa Coffee.

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