Retail employees' experiences of organisational culture / E. de Bruin

During the 1980's the focus on corporate culture had received revived attention. The key tocorporate success was a strong unified culture and it soon became a secret weapon to gain acompetitive advantage. Aligning corporate culture to the organisation's strategy is crucial inenabling organisations to respond to the rapid and ever-changing internal and externaldemands. Organisational culture is considered the glue that keeps an organisation togetherdue to the impact of the culture on the organisation's survival.The objective of this research was to determine how employees experience organisationalculture and how it manifests within a retail organisation. A purposive (n = 13) was taken ofmanagers on different managerial levels within a South African retail company. Allparticipants attended a strategic leadership intervention that was implemented. Data gatheringwas conducted by means of interviews based on the phenomenological approach. Theinterviews were transcribed and data analysis was carried out by means of content analysis.The results showed that the old culture of the organisation was typified by the power and rolecultures as identified by Harrison and Stokes, whilst the new culture is typified by a movetowards the performance culture with some elements of the support culture. The managementstyle in the old culture was very autocratic with closed lines of communication. Peoplerelationships were formal and the focus was on individualism, where people were notregarded in the organisation. The new culture is very people focused and people feel a senseof belonging. There is a culture of continuous learning and there is a move towardscollectivism. People live the values of the organisation.Age, race, gender or years of service in the company did not significantly influenceemployees' experiences of organisational culture. There were no significant differences in thecultural experiences of employees on different managerial levels.Recommendations for future research are made.