Analysis of Organizational Culture and its Impact on John Lewis

This report provides an executive summary and analysis of the organizational culture at John Lewis, a UK-based department store chain. The report investigates culture using Handy's model, which includes power, role, task, and person cultures, and illustrates how these models fit into the organization. It explores how culture upgrades the firm's effectiveness, with a focus on communication, and examines the role of culture in employee motivation, including how it fosters open communication, shares understanding, generates commitment, and promotes healthy competition. The report also discusses different ways the company could use its culture to further enhance its success, highlighting the importance of power, role, task, and person cultures in achieving organizational goals. The analysis emphasizes the impact of culture on employee behavior, productivity, and overall organizational performance.

ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOUR

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Organizational culture varies from business to business in the open market place.
Changing the culture according to the market conditions helps them to grow the business
successfully across the globe. Here, model is adopted to identify culture in the global market as
well as aid to receive best results. Also, focus on culture and how it impact organizational
effectiveness on continuous basis. Moreover, study the role of culture on employee motivation so
that improvements can be done accordingly.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1) Investigate culture in line with a theoretical model. .........................................................1
Illustrate the model findings and focus how they fit into the organization............................3
2) Discover how culture upgrade firm's effectiveness a focus on communication................3
3) Role of culture on employee motivation............................................................................4
Role of culture on employee motivation................................................................................4
4) Different ways in which company could use the culture of organisation to further enhance
its success ..............................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................2
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Organizational culture is described as underlying values, norms, assumptions and beliefs
that governs how individual behave in an enterprise. It is important to carry out in the working
premises so that employees can work effectively and efficiently in the cut throat competitive
world. Organizational culture is the core element in the growth and development of the business
across the boundaries. This report is based on John Lewis was established by Spedan Lewis and
is famous for high end department stores in United Kingdom. This administration came into
existence in the year 1929 and is successfully serving it's services across the globe. This covers
investigation of culture by using various models (Wilson, 2017). Also, focus on how culture
upgrades firm's effectiveness by focus on communication. Along with this study role of culture
in motivating staff.
1) Investigate culture in line with a theoretical model.
Culture plays a vital role in business upliftment across the boundaries. Strong strategies
need to be formulated every now and then so that changes barriers can be overcomed easily in
the cut throat competitive world. The organizational culture changes as per dynamic environment
so at that skilled and potential employees can be retained for longer time period. In order to
investigate culture Handy's model is used which is explained as follows:
Power culture: In this case, power is held in few hands of individuals and their influence
is carried out in the working premises. Also, there are limited rules and regulations designed in
power of culture which helps the firm to run the business smoothly. Here, the employees of John
Lewis are judged how they achieve the goals rather than what was their act to achieve it. The top
level management take decision quickly even if the decision does not last for long time.
Role culture: This is based on rules and is controlled with everyone in the enterprise.
Here, in John Lewis the role of culture is examined by the position of the individual in the
organizational structure (Barry and Wilkinson, 2016). This directly affect the decision making
process and business associates are able to take less risk. Moreover, role culture tend to be
bureaucratic in nature. It aid the company to gain competitive advantages against competitors in
the global market. This step of Handy's model is quite long with chain of command as well as it
is build on detail organizational structure.
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Task culture: In an organization this is framed when team is built to address particular
assignment or task (Handy's Model, 2018). Combination of effective people with mixture of
personalities, leadership, skills, abilities etc. turned out to provide productive outcomes in the set
time frame. John lewis adopts task culture in the working premises so as to get best results.
Along with this the power within the team fluctuate depending upon the status of the problem or
project respectively
Person culture: Human assets are unique in their own way and are carrying
distinguished abilities and skills in them (King and Lawley, 2016). The reason behind John
Lewis is a leading firm is all because of skilled and potential staff members. This made the
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Illustration 1: Handy's Model, 2018

administration to flourish across the globe with their innovative product. An enterprise with a
person culture seems to creating competition for rivalry in the open market place.
Illustrate the model findings and focus how they fit into the organization.
Handy's model is classified into four classes which are, task, role, person and Power. This
model completely fit into the company as they lead to achieve in effective results. The
distinguished sections of the model help them to attain emerging needs of the customers in the
global market. Here, the power changes as per the circumstances in the working premises in
order to attain competitive advantages in the global market.
2) Discover how culture upgrade firm's effectiveness a focus on communication.
Culture act as a backbone in the organization which directly leads to upgrade
administration effectiveness across the globe. There should be modification in the culture as per
the dynamic situation so as to retain skilled and capable staff members for longer time duration.
The following are the reason by which it can be stated that through this culture uplift
administration effectiveness and are discussed as follows:
Emphasis on employees wellness: Culture is modified in John Lewis as per the
necessity of the workers. Smooth working environment with effective culture is carried out so
that employee’s productivity ratio can be uplifted accordingly (Aithal and Kumar, 2016).
Effectively communication the culture scenario workers easily adopt to the modified
environment. Organization design the culture according to the needs and wants of the employees
which directly leads to raise goodwill in the eyes of the staff.
Foster social connections: Bringing effective culture in the working premises of John
Lewis helps them to foster social connections at a large scale. By doing so more and more strong
connections is built among the team members and reduces the chances of conflict among the
staff members. Using effective communication channels helps them to foster social network at a
wider level which is a positive sign for the firm. This directly leads to raise in productivity and
profitability in the global market.
Empower culture champions: In this case, John Lewis empower culture champions so
that workers can easily be a part of changed culture. This motivates the staff members to
effectively and efficiently adopts the culture of the organization. It is through communication
that staff members are convinced easily to adjust with the changing dynamic culture. It leads to
accomplishment of set goals and objectives in the set time frame.
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3) Role of culture on employee motivation
Organisation culture- Organization culture includes the set of values, norms, beliefs and
vision that an organisation shares with its member. Organisation culture being distinctive directs
behaviour of the employees in the organisation. Every organisation has its own organisation
culture. It is invisible but powerful force which affects the roles of the employees. A healthy
culture motivates the employees of the organisation to work effectively and give productive
results ((Dutta and Khatri, 2017).
Employee motivation - Motivation is the force which helps the employee to allocate his
energy towards the goal accomplishment of the organisation. The culture of the organisation
plays an important role in motivating the employees and indulging them in innovation. Employee
motivation is the level of satisfaction, commitment and encouragement that the employees feels
towards their work in the organisation.
Role of culture on employee motivation
Assist open communication-In organisation where good communication practices are
present employees shares their ideas and opinions.
Positive impact- The culture of John Lewis has open communication practices. Negative
morale, termination and employee absenteeism do not exist in the company. This type of
environment encourages employees to participate, share ideas and creativity.
Negative impact- It lead to increase in employee expectations (Singh and Srivastava,
2016).
Shares understanding- The culture of the organisation brings together the employees from
different backgrounds, mentalities and family. Hence, creating a sense of integration.
Positive impact- The culture of John Lewis consists of employees from diverse
backgrounds. It inculcates a sense of unity and enables them to share common understanding.
It generates commitment- The culture develops a sense of commitment and belonging towards
the organisation and also create a sense of unity among employees.
Positive impact- John Lewis has the healthy culture which motivates the employees to
perform their task effectively and stay loyal towards the organisation. Such culture makes an
employee habitual to working and therefore, a need for forcing employees to work doesn't arises.
Negative impact- Commitment may lead to rise in level of job stress.
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It brings together employees- The culture of the organisation gives a fair treatment to each and
every employee and any of the employee is not avoided in the organisation.
Positive impact- The culture of John Lewis provides equal treatment to employees. It
helped the employee in providing productive results to the company (Ranjan, 2017).
Negative impact – It discouraged the employees with greater skills and knowledge.
Control mechanism- The culture of an organization consists of predefined rules and policies
which directs the employees and give them a sense of commitment at the workplace.
Positive impact- In John Lewis every employee has awareness about their roles and
responsibilities and are well conscious about the accomplishment of their tasks.
Promoting healthy competition-The culture which gives recognition to the employees and
appreciates them for their achievements motivates the employees to try hard for giving better
performances.
Positive impact- The culture of John Lewis enables employees to have clear
understanding about their organisation’s strategic objectives and goals. Hence, they feel more
motivated to help the organisation in attaining the goals on time (Hanaysha, 2016).
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4) Different ways in which company could use the culture of organisation to further enhance its
success
Organisational culture plays a significant and crucial role in success of every business
(Newman and Zhu, 2016). Culture or structure of organisation have its impact on all activities
and task of organisation and also provides the synchronization and direction to the organisation
for achievement of targets and goals. John Lewis is a chain of high end departments stores
operating in UK. Culture of an organisation reflects the overall behaviour, attitude, believes and
intention of whole enterprise. The main components of organisational cultural that can be used
by John Lewis for further enhancing its success and which also ensures future growth are
explained below:
Power culture – under this culture power is held by few people and there are less rules
and regulations and thus having less bureaucracy. This culture is best suitable for quick decision
making and thus helps in fast operation of business. John Lewis can adopt this culture to
establish a healthy environment with less structural complication and political wrangling, thus
provides internal motivation to employees and helps in increasing their efficiency and
productivity.
Role Culture – it is highly controlled culture where role and responsibilities of all
employees are already defined and thus it is hierarchical bureaucracy. Role culture helps in
achieving specialisation and clearly defines authority and responsibility of workforce thus
reduces chances of conflicts. John Lewis can implement role culture in its organisation for
clearly defining the role of each employee in success of organisation. It helps in keeping a check
on performance of all employees thus any kind of deficiency can be easily corrected (Namada,
2018).
Task Culture - in this type of work culture task different teams are formed to address or
solve specific problem or project. John Lewis cab make use of this culture to form different
dynamic team for addressing different issues. This also provides a balance or perfect mix of
skills, personalities and leadership which enhance creativity and productivity of employees of
John Lewis. It provides more scope for personal independence, innovation and critical thinking
thus provides new scope and opportunists for success of organist ion.

Person culture – in person culture, people feels themselves to be superior to the
business. It is commonly adopted in professional firms, but John Lewis can implement this
particular culture in its specialised functions like for finance department or marketing to get
benefits of expertise or professionalist in these operations (Gupta and Khatri, 2016). This
provide people with similar characteristics and skills and thus helps in creating an atmosphere of
expertise. This grope of expert , skilled and professional individuals helps in achieving success
foe John Lewis.
From the above explanation, it is clear that for John Lewis, task culture is best suitable, as
it provides most skilled and creative team for addressing different issues. It also provides
specialisation and distribution of work as per the talent and skills of employees thus provides
more motivation and increase productivity of employees, therefore ensures successes and growth
of organisation. This also provide a a scope for new creation and innovations thus providing
better opportunities for success of John Lewis (Chmiel and Sverke, 2017).
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be calculated that theoretical model plays a significant role
in smooth functioning of the business. Handy's model helps the administration to carry out the
business operations effectively and efficiently so as to meet the desire need and want of the
potential customers. However, new culture upgrades the organizational workforce effectiveness
due to which set standards are meet on time which is a positive sign for the enterprise.
Organization by carrying out effective communication channels in their working premises helps
them to attain best results. The role of culture on employee motivation is studied so as to push
them to work day and night create tough competition for other. Along with this evaluation of
culture is done in order to enhance success in the global market.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Wilson, F. M., 2017. Organizational behaviour and gender. Routledge.
Wilson, F. M., 2018. Organizational behaviour and work: a critical introduction. Oxford
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Barry, M. and Wilkinson, A., 2016. Pro‐social or pro‐management? A critique of the conception
of employee voice as a pro‐social behaviour within organizational behaviour. British
Journal of Industrial Relations. 54(2). pp.261-284.
King, D. and Lawley, S., 2016. Organizational behaviour. Oxford University Press.
Aithal, P. S. and Kumar, P. M., 2016. Organizational behaviour in 21st century–'Theory A'for
managing people for performance. IOSR Journal of Business and Management (IOSR-
JBM).18(7). pp.126-134.
Newman, A., Miao, Q., Hofman, P.S. and Zhu, C. J., 2016. The impact of socially responsible
human resource management on employees' organizational citizenship behaviour: the
mediating role of organizational identification. The international journal of human
resource management. 27(4). pp.440-455.
Namada, J .M., 2018. Organizational learning and competitive advantage. In Handbook of
Research on Knowledge Management for Contemporary Business Environments (pp.
86-104). IGI Global.
Gupta, V., Agarwal, U.A. and Khatri, N., 2016. The relationships between perceived
organizational support, affective commitment, psychological contract breach,
organizational citizenship behaviour and work engagement. Journal of advanced
nursing. 72(11). pp.2806-2817.
Chmiel, N., Fraccaroli, F. and Sverke, M. eds., 2017. An introduction to work and organizational
psychology: An international perspective. John Wiley & Sons.
Dutta, S. and Khatri, P., 2017. Servant leadership and positive organizational behaviour: The
road ahead to reduce employees’ turnover intentions. On the Horizon. 25(1). pp.60-82.
Singh, U. and Srivastava, K. B., 2016. Organizational trust and organizational citizenship
behaviour. Global Business Review.17(3). pp.594-609.
Ranjan, P., 2017. Human Resource Management and Organizational Behaviour. Journal of HR,
Organizational Behaviour & Entrepreneurship Development. 1(1). pp.8-12.
Hanaysha, J., 2016. Testing the effects of employee engagement, work environment, and
organizational learning on organizational commitment. Procedia-Social and Behavioral
Sciences. 229. pp.289-297.
Johnson, P. and Szamosi, L. T., 2018. HRM in changing organizational contexts. In Human
resource management (pp. 27-48). Routledge.
Armstrong, D., 2018. Organization in the mind: Psychoanalysis, group relations and
organizational consultancy. Routledge.
Online:
Handy's Model. 2018. [Online] Available
through<https://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/models-of-organisational-culture-handy/>.

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