The Modern Workplace: Analyzing the Relationships Between Organizational Culture, People, and Performance

This report examines the relationships between organizational culture, people, and performance in the modern workplace. Using Pert a Manger as a case study, it explores different types of organizational structures and cultures and their impact on overall performance and profits.

Introducing the
Modern Workplace

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK- ANALYSES THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE,
PEOPLE AND ORGANISATIONAL PERFORMANCE..............................................................3
Introducing the organisation (Pert a Manger).............................................................................3
Organisational structure..............................................................................................................4
................................................................................................................................................5
Organisational culture.................................................................................................................8
Relationship between structure, culture, people and their impacts on the performance of Pret a
Manger........................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Workplace is the area or a professional setting in which people gather for working and
performing actions in relation with specific objectives of the company. Every workplace is
different providing separate responsibilities, resources and operations to people (Landy and
Conte, 2016). The culture of an organisation plays a vital role in its functioning and defines the
structure of the company. Therefore, it is said that organisational culture, structure and people
are interrelated and their overall organisational performances depends upon their relationship.
The report is developed upon Pert a Manger a sandwich shop which is based in United Kingdom,
founded in 1983 and has around 450 shop chain around 9 countries of the world. The report
evaluates different types of organisational structure and cultures. At the end relationship is
identified amongst structure, culture and people of Pert a Manger for knowing the impacts upon
overall performance and profits.
TASK- ANALYSES THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE, PEOPLE AND ORGANISATIONAL
PERFORMANCE
Introducing the organisation (Pert a Manger)
Pert a Manger is a sandwich chain which was first established in 1983 by Jeffery Hyman
as a shop which opened in a posh locality of London. The company liquidates in 1983 itself and
reintroduced in market again in 1986 by Beecham and Metcalfe and restarted the business. Both
Beecham and Metcalfe developed the menu for the shop by themselves which are natural food
products that are prepared in shop kitchen. Afterwords the Beecham and Metcalfe set up a Pert
foundation for alleviating poverty. The trust was funded by in house sales and boxes being
delivered to customers.
Today Pert a Manger has around 500 shops in over 9 countries of the world and its
structure is divided in stores and head office which is located in its domestic market that is
England, United Kingdom. Pert a Manger's main offerings are sandwiches, salads, snacks, sushi,
soups, coffee and beverages which are offered earlier through small shops and now in
restaurants. All food and beverages are freshly made in the kitchen of each restaurant everyday
with fresh and natural ingredients. The food which is left unsold in restaurants by the end of the
day are collected by charity houses and if not then donated to NGO's and others needy people.

Organisational structure
Organisational structure is a flow chart or an visual diagram of a company which shows
its hierarchy. The organisational structure reflects upon the responsibilities of employees, whom
they report to and decisions are made in the entity. It is defined as a system which outlines how
all the respective activities and actions are directed and should be running for goal achievement
and productiveness. The structure of a company also decides the communication flow of a
particular firm. The main reason behind having a prescribed structure for the organisation such
as for Pert a Manger is to increase productivity, increase the performance standards and keep the
firm focused towards the aim (Schubert, 2019). Mainly there are four type of Organisational
Structure which companies adopts while operating for keep their staff on track and direct them
properly. One of the structure is followed by Pert a Manger too. These structures elaborated
underneath and structure of Pert a Manger is identified:
 Functional Structure- The functional structure is the oldest for of organisational flow
which is known as traditional structure as well. The functional structure divides the
company into smaller groups with specific tasks, resources and responsibilities such as
dividing the into separate departments. Every group is led by different managers or
leaders where employees needs to report to them and those managers are answerable to
the executives and higher management. Pert a Manger is structured on functional basis
the chart is presented below.

Illustration 1: Functional Structure, 2020
(Source: Functional Structure, 2020)
 Divisional Structure- The next is divisional structure which is divides on two basis that is
on the basis of market and on the basis of geographical locations. This is a complexed
structure which is mostly used by large organisations for their operations as this structure
allows for more autonomy in the group. For instance General Electric a large organisation
which is utilising divisional structure as it has numerous division like aviation,
transportation, renewable energy and many other (Wilton, 2016).
Illustration 2: Divisional: Market Based Structure, 2020
(Source: Divisional: Market Based Structure, 2020)

Illustration 3: Divisional: Geographical Structure, 2020
(Source; Divisional: Geographical Structure, 2020)
 Matrix Structure- The outcome of combining functional and divisional is matrix
structure. In this employees are required to report to two or more bosses and due to
overlapping of roles and authority is divided amongst many people depending upon
different situations. This is a challenging structure specially for employees as it is tough
reporting to numerous bosses that same information and conducting the same
communication again and again (Sloane-White, 2017).

Illustration 4: Matrix Structure, 2020
(Source: Matrix Structure, 2020) Flat Structure- The flat structure is newly invented and used by small companies and
new start-up's which have just entered in the market. The flat structure is flexible and
communication flow is simple because no hierarchy is present in the company everyone
can freely communicate and make decisions with combines efforts (Byström, Ruthven
and Heinström, 2017).
Organisational structure of Pert a Manger:
Pert a Manger make use of Functional Structure form the above four discussed
commonly used organisational structures. The diagram shows the division of authority in the
company and determines the communication flow as well.

Illustration 5: Organisational Structure, 2020
(Source: Organisation Structure, 2020)
The chat above shows the division of Pert a Manger where the chairman is the head
holding the ultimate power then the managing director is second on the authoritative level and
then comes the managers of separate departments of Pert a Manger such as sales, marketing,
communication and human resource departments (Flyverbom and et. al., 2016).
Organisational culture
Organisational culture is a system which holds the underlying believes, assumptions,
values and ways which reflects over a different and unique social and psychological environment
of company. The path towards a developing key traits and which are most essential and
necessary for the success of business is derived through the organisational culture. The culture
sets particular expectations and develops practices accordingly that guides the employees and
team members and keep them informed.
Organisational culture directly affects the performances of company and its employees
which is why positive traits are necessary that are developed through great culture of the entity.

The business owners and management is responsible for creating and maintaining an efficient
workplace culture which is aligned to modern working practices and environment. There are
many different workplace cultures which existing in the market which are practised by
management and leaders such as Power, Role, Person and Task Cultures.
Pert a Manger is an organisation which is operated through Functional Structure where
authority is divided according to a hierarchy into different department or groups such as
marketing, sales and others. The managers of Pert a Manger have developed and follows Role
Culture while leading and guiding people for bring best performances and inducing the
motivation level of workforce regularly.
Role Culture is a rule bases approach which is strict and highly controlled culture for
work. Management of organisations which has functional structure most probably adopts role
culture, where they guide staff properly and render them clarity of tasks (De Stefano, 2016) .
Managers of Pert a Manger make sure to keep staff informed about what is exactly expected out
of them, they have a clear picture of what job and responsibility does and individual hold, whom
they need to report and focuses over value efficiency and accuracy above all. Moreover, role
culture is created for those tall organisations which are divided according to functional structure
and follows long chain of command.
In Pert a Manger every functional manager has one respective duty and goal for which
they assign specific tasks and roles to their team members and accordingly delegate authorities to
individuals for bring out their best performances and work with the team for common objective.
For instance, chef's and other sales staff members are expected to perform beyond normal
traditional requirements of for any fast food workers. The employees have to work efficiently for
attaining the end goal everyday and contribute to the mission of Pert a Manger (Angouri, 2017).
Relationship between structure, culture, people and their impacts on the performance of Pret a
Manger
Organisational performance refers to the overall results acquired by the company after
combining multiple actions and efforts of the management, workforce and leaders of the entity.
The performance of company is measured by both qualitative and quantitative tools such as by
developing budgets and comparing actual financial figures with projected ones or by focusing on
critical success factors or by developing key performance indicators and making comparisons

accordingly. Organisational performance is an internal factor which can be easily influenced and
improved by taking control measures.
Workforce of an organisation plays a major role in attaining all performance standards in
order to gain the set pre determined objectives and aims. The human resource of an entity are the
responsible parties who execute all the plans and ideas of management in actual situations and
face the practical problems or scenarios developed. Here, comes the role of company's culture
and structure which can be used and for influencing and inducing the performance standards of
each employee and which can impact upon the whole organisational performance (Mumby and
Kuhn, 2018).
The company Pert a Manger is a fast food chain which is holding restaurants and shops in
several locations in the Unites Kingdom that is their domestic market and in other nine countries
with large markets in the world. Organisational structure which is followed and according to
which company is being operated by the management is through functional structure. The
company is divided into small departmental team which is developed by focusing over the skill
sets and potentials of people. The organisational culture which is followed by the executive
managers of all the teams is role culture. The structure and culture of Pert a Manger is interlinked
with each other as the role culture is typically developed and devoted for tall organisation where
multiple stages of hierarchy is present and authority is delegated accordingly.
All the teams of Pert a Manger is allocated the necessary and ample amount of resources
as well as managers have the power that is required. The employees are directed towards their
motives by giving clear picture of their roles, the superior whom they have to report and with a
concentrated approach of accurate and valued results to be achieved. For instance, chef's and
sales executives preparing and selling food and beverages are given strict instructions for using
all natural ingredients to be used while preparing food. On the other hand sales executives have
to make sure that all food is being sold out daily or passed to charity at the end if left. They are
not allowed to sell any food or beverage which is not freshly made. These criteria have to be met
by the team members for accomplishing their daily sales targets and to reach to their respective
expected performance standards for maintaining a balance and keeping up with the overall
expectations and productivity of company (Wilson, 2018).

CONCLUSION
The above report acknowledges the ways and phenomena's by which modern workplace
operates and function concluding the need for organisational culture and structure to be
interlinked and related for attaining effective results at the end which matches with pre-
determined objectives and goal of company. The overall performance of people that is human
resource of company is dependent upon the productivity and effectiveness of direction and
guidances received by them. The organisational culture is a guide which sets the behaviours of
individuals. In the same manner organisational structure is which reflects upon the authority and
responsibilities of people according to which they work and render their best performance in
order to fulfil their job roles and contribute to end aim of the entity for which the operations are
established and flourishing.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Angouri, J. ed., 2017. Negotiating boundaries at work: Talking and transitions. Edinburgh
University Press.
Byström, K., Ruthven, I. and Heinström, J., 2017. Work and information: which workplace
models still work in modern digital workplaces?.
De Stefano, V., 2016. Introduction: crowdsourcing, the gig-economy and the law. Comparative
Labor Law & Policy Journal. 37(3).
Flyverbom, M. and et. al., 2016. Digital age| the management of visibilities in the digital age—
introduction. International Journal of Communication. 10. p.12.
Landy, F. J. and Conte, J. M., 2016. Work in the 21st century: An introduction to industrial and
organizational psychology. John Wiley & Sons.
Mumby, D. K. and Kuhn, T. R., 2018. Organizational communication: A critical introduction.
Sage Publications.
Schubert, P., 2019. Joint Work and Information Sharing in the Modern Digital Workplace: How
the Introduction of “Social” Features Shaped Enterprise Collaboration Systems.
In Collaboration in the Digital Age (pp. 45-59). Springer, Cham.
Sloane-White, P., 2017. Corporate Islam: Sharia and the modern workplace. Cambridge
University Press.
Wilson, F. M., 2018. Organizational behaviour and work: a critical introduction. Oxford
university press.
Wilton, N., 2016. An introduction to human resource management. Sage.
Online:
Types of Organizational Structures, 2018. [Online] Available Through;
<https://online.pointpark.edu/business/types-of-organizational-structures/>
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE, 2020. [Online] Available Through:
<https://gothamculture.com/what-is-organizational-culture-definition/>