Harrods: Organizational Structure, Culture, Leadership and Performance

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of Harrods, a renowned department store, focusing on the interconnectedness of its organizational structure, culture, leadership, and employee performance. It begins by defining organizational culture and structure, highlighting Harrods' hierarchical structure and its alignment with its operational goals. The essay then delves into Handy's model of organizational culture, applying it to Harrods to illustrate how different cultural dimensions influence employee behavior and decision-making. Furthermore, it explores the crucial roles of leadership in shaping culture, providing guidance, and setting objectives within the organization. The essay also examines the impact of various leadership variables on organizational performance, emphasizing the importance of relationship building and clear direction. Finally, it discusses the behavioral approach to management, analyzing how individual behavior is influenced by organizational structure, leadership style, and employee engagement. The essay concludes by emphasizing the direct link between organizational culture, structure, leadership, and overall performance, highlighting the importance of aligning these elements for sustained success.

Structure and Culture

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Organisational culture is described as the underlying feeling, anticipation, belief and
ways of making interaction which make contribution to the unique social and psychological
environment of a company. It also represent the values, beliefs and principles of organisational
members and the way and manner through which a company operate its business (Almond and
Verba, 2015). This essay is based on Harrods which is a department store and located in
Kinghtsbridge, London, UK. It is the world's most famous department store online with the latest
men's and women's designer fashion, luxury gifts, food and accessories. This document will
discussed about the relationship between structure, culture, people and organisational
performance. Further will defined about the role of leadership and variables that determine
effective management and leadership. Behavioural approach to management and the factors
which create impact differences in individual behaviour will also described.
MAIN BODY
Organisational structure refers to a system which defines that how certain activities are
directed in context to attain the goals of a company. Basically it refers to the distribution of the
employees and their roles and responsibilities according their specification or department. There
are different kind of organisational structure which can be followed by different kind of
organisation like hierarchical, flat, divisional, matrix, simple and several others. The
management of Harrods following hierarchical organisational structure. This structure refers to a
way through which an organisation can use different levels of authorization and a upended link
or chain of dictation between senior and subordinate levels of the company. The organisation
structure of this firm are helping to promote corporate that each individual person a group
interest. The organisational culture of this organisation is also good. Basically organisation
culture mention to a system of shared assumptions, beliefs and values which help in providing
information that how people and employees of this company behave in organisation. These
shared values create a strong influence on the people in the company and monitor how they
dress, act and perform their allotted tasks and job responsibilities. There are various models like
Handy's model of organisational culture, Hoffestead model of organizational culture etc. which
are developed to monitor the organisational culture (Banet-Weiser and Miltner, 2016). Here, for
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providing description about organisation culture of Harrods, the management of this firm can
used Handy's model of organisation culture which is as following:
Handy's model of organisation culture
Handy Model of Organisational Culture was developed by Charles Handy. He was a
well-known philosopher who has specialized in organization culture (Brown and et. al., 2019). In
his model he has explained four types of culture which the organization follows:
Power culture-In this culture power is given only to few persons and individuals
according to their knowledge and performance in the organisation. It consists of only a couple of
rules and regulations. Within this kind of culture only a single person is responsible to take
decision regarding any action and activity of the company. In Harrods, managers and seniors are
responsible to take decision regarding any activity and they have not any requirement to make
discussion with the employees and and persons of the company. This culture is not good because
create demotivation within the employees and they realised that they are not essential for the
company.
Source: Handy's model of organisational culture, (2019).
Role culture- This type of culture can be seen in the larger organisations where power is
distributed according to the job roles of the employees. It consists of rules and regulations to be
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Illustration: Handy's model of organisational culture

strictly followed by the employees in the organisation. This kind of culture is negotiable in
nature and extremely job oriented. In Harrods, the duties and responsibilities are allotted by the
management of the firm to the workers as per their skills and abilities. So that they can complete
their work in appropriate manner without facing any issues and problems and make their
contribution in the growth and success of the firm.
Task culture- The need of this type of culture is felt when there is any task to be
completed by the organisation within specified time limit. In this culture individual is
empowered according to their skill. The organisation where this type of culture is followed is
adjustable. Within this kind of culture the work and task assigned to the employees according
their previous performances. In Harrods, the manager of the firm can allotted the work to the
employees by analysing their past performance.
Person culture- The organisations which follows this culture keeps individuals at
supreme place. Hence, the power is felt by every individual working in the organisation. This
importance given by the organisation to individuals encourages them top work for the growth of
the organisation intentionally (Christensen, Lægreid and Rykkja, 2018). This kind of culture can
be frequently found in professional firms where employees are independent and responsible to
take decision according to them. In Harrods, this type of culture make concentration to make
development in the skills and abilities so that they can complete their work effectively. For this
the management of this company organised training and development programs so that the
employees improved their capabilities and effectively take essential decisions which help in the
success of the firm (Dodge, 2016).
People refers to the employees and workers who make contribution in the operating the
business of the company so that it can attain set aims and obstructives of the firm. In Harrods,
people basically indicates to managers, leaders, employees, directors, workers and other human
resource who are essential to this organisation to run its business in appropriate manner
internationally. The working manner and activities or actions of doing their allotted work is also
known as their performance. For instant, if the employees of this firm complete their work in
appropriate manner and in given period of time then they perform good if they do not complete
their work in set time period then influence their performance. Their performance is also
beneficial for organisational performance. Simply, organisational performance indicates to the
process of making ensure that the resources of a firm are being properly utilized in context of
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attaining aims and objective of the company. If the management properly use the resources of the
company in the working activities of it then it attain the aims and objective in appropriate
manner which indicates to the effective performance of Harrods.
Organisational structure and culture are directly linked to organisational performance.
Within the organisations, if the mangers and employees are committed to collective principles,
customs and morals then it generate positive outcomes in the firm in term of growth and success.
If the company and its employees follow a common culture then the surroundings makes it easier
to share common aims and objectives and follow appropriate process in attaining them.
Leadership is also playing an effective role within an organisation because it help in shaping the
culture, providing guidance to the employees, designing vision, mission and objectives etc. In
Harrods, leadership plays different role, for instant, with the help of leadership quality, the leader
provide a vision to the employees. When the management of the company allotted work and task
to the employees then the leader set vision so that they can make focus on their vision and attain
the aims and objectives of the work (Grijalva and Newman, 2015).
Another role which is played by leader is inspire and motivation. During the time of
working in a team regarding a task, when the employees are feeling demotivation then leader
encourage them by organising and conducting motivational sessions and programs so that they
can feel motivated and effectively complete their work . Leadership is also helpful for setting up
a clearly described organisational structure which consist an organisational chart outlining the
chain of command and protocols for effective communication. To alleviate efficacious
abstraction and efficiency, develop communication protocols. Another role which is played by
leadership is effective time management. In Harrods, the leader provide help to the employees in
time management so that they can perform their task and work in set period of time. These all
roles of leadership are effective for the culture, structure and performance of the organisation.
Because if the employees will completing their work on time then the organisational
performance will be improved in term of growth and success.
Different variables of effective management and leadership are also helpful for
organisational culture, performance and structure. Grow relationship, focus on results, set clear
directions and others are some variables which positively affect the performance, culture and
structure of the firm (Haferkamp, 2017). For example, if the management focus on maintaining
relationship then they can make better relationship with the different employees who belong
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from different culture so that they can understand the culture of the firm and feel comfortable
and work appropriately.
It is a crucial tool which is mostly concerned with social and psychological aspects of
human beings working for an organisation (Almond and Verba, 2015). The major purpose for
undertaking this theoretical model is that it helps in understanding behaviour of human being
which ultimately affects organisational culture and design. This model have been able to prove
that workforce stands as paramount elements in the organisation upon which success and failure
of a business is determined.
This theory have proven that when managers give special consideration to the employees
working for the business, it tends to have positive outcomes in terms of performance and
productivity. Therefore it can be analysed that culture in the organisation is directly influenced
by the leadership approach employed. In context of Harrods, the business is employing
democratic approach to leadership which has been successful in garnering views further assisting
them in making decisions. This approach encourages employees to perform up to their optimum
capacity and achieve better results for the organisation. Considering the bank wiring observation
experiment conducted by Hawthrone, when women were given special privileges like company
sponsored lunch, better compensation and workstations, it resulted in better organisational
culture and productivity.
However there are some influential factors which are to be considered while opting for
behavioural approach to management. The primary factor is the manner in which individual
behaves within organisation. The targets and standards which are determined within the premises
are helpful in determining behaviour of an individual. The organisational structure and type of
leadership play an influential role in determining and influential behaviour within organisation.
For instance: Democratic approaches will be helpful in maintaining positive morale amongst
employees and availing continuous within organisation.
Another crucial determinant for human behaviour within organisation is informal
leadership. The informal control and approach are considerable features which assure that
performance level in the operations are maintained. Opting for participative approach in Harrods
assure that ideal business performance is achieved. Engagement of employees within
organisational activities are crucial as well (Banet-Weiser and Miltner, 2016). It will assure that
they are involved in organisational decision making resulting in higher satisfaction. The satisfied
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workforce helps in forming a positive culture in the organisation resulting in positive
performance. The changes in terms of structure and technology are supported by employees and
there is little resistance portrayed (Brown and et. al., 2019). This feature will enhance the
competitiveness and productivity of a business.
CONCLUSION
As per the above defined information, it can be analyzed that organizational culture is an
appropriate function which I effective for a company so that the management of the firm can
monitor that they should do operate the firm according different organizational culture. Different
kind of organizational structure is also beneficial for the firm to provide a effective framework to
the company so that it can perform well and provide effective outcomes. Several leadership role
and variables are also help the employees to perform well so that it positively affect the
organizational performance. Behavioral approach are also effective for the management with the
help of understanding that factors which create impact on differences in individual behavior.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Banet-Weiser, S. and Miltner, K. M., 2016. # MasculinitySoFragile: culture, structure, and
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homes. Ashgate.
Christensen, T., Lægreid, P. and Rykkja, L. H., 2018. Reforming the Norwegian police between
structure and culture: Community police or emergency police. Public Policy and
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Dodge, J., 2016. Reassessing culture and strategy: Environmental improvement, structure,
leadership and control. In Corporate Environmental Management 2 (pp. 118-119).
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(CWB): Meta‐analysis and consideration of collectivist culture, Big Five personality,
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Haferkamp, H. ed., 2017. Social structure and culture. Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG.
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technology infrastructure and knowledge sharing: Empirical evidence from MNCs
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O'Neill, J. W., Beauvais, L. L. and Scholl, R. W., 2016. The use of organizational culture and
structure to guide strategic behavior: an information processing perspective. Journal of
Behavioral and Applied Management. 2(2).p.816.
Steinmetz, G. ed., 2018. State/culture: State-formation after the cultural turn. Cornell University
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Stuetzer, M. and et. al., 2016. Industry structure, entrepreneurship, and culture: An empirical
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Online
Handy Model of Organisational Culture. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.toolshero.com/management/handy-model/>.
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