Organizational Behavior At Kudler Fine Foods

Kudler Fine Foods

Kudler Fine Foods is a chain of upscale epicurean food shops located in San Diego, California. It was founded in 1998 by Kathy Kudler in response to her personal frustrations about the lack of a convenient, one-stop shop for gourmet cooks. The first store opened in La Jolla and was greeted with immediate success. Since then Kudler Fine Foods has expanded to include three different locations in the San Diego metropolitan area and has even more growth plans set in place.

This paper will explain the apparent culture at Kudler Fine Foods and how the organizational structure at Kudler Fine Foods impacts the overall profitability. To have an organization reach its goals the leadership style has to be effective and motivating. This paper will also examine and analyze Kudler Fine Foods organizational performances which can be traced to the leadership style evidentially reflected in the employee motivation at Kudler. This paper will also discuss what is happening external to the organization that drives change at Kudler.

Organizational Culture

"Organizational culture is a system of shared values, assumptions, beliefs and norms that unite members of an organization," (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002, p. 108). It basically describes the stated and unstated rules, how certain procedures tend to occur normally, and the overall personality of a company. There are three levels of culture in a company: the visible culture, esposed beliefs and core beliefs.

The visible culture is the most easily observed and can usually define a company's dominate traits and characteristics. The visible culture includes things such as dress code, office set up and formal/nonformal behaviors. The next level is the esposed values. Esposed values are perceived from explanations and justifications that all levels of employees give for their actions. It can not be readily recognized but is usually are conscious and deliberate. The deepest and most difficult level is the core beliefs. Core beliefs represent the firm and uncompromisable beliefs that are shared by the majority of a company's staff and they tend to occur unconsciously. The core beliefs describe the most basic underlying reasons why a company behaves the way that it does.

The overall appearance of the company and its employees demonstrates the shared acceptance of the company’s mission and core belief to “provide our customers the finest in selected foodstuffs, wines, and related needs in an unparalleled consumer environment,” (Kudler Fine Foods, 2007, Ð'¶ 2). The outside appearance of the store is beautiful and well designed and each store is located in a “fashionable shopping center” (Kudler Fine Foods, 2007, Ð'¶ 1) both of which reflect its upscale image. The appearance of the employees is also required to reflect KFF’s upscale culture. According to KFF’s employee handbook, “Your personal appearance can influence what customers and visitors think about KFF. Personal appearance can also impact the morale of your co-workers,” (Kudler Fine Foods, 2007, Ð'¶ 51).

According to leadership expert, Jeffery Sonnenfeld, four different types of organizational cultures exist: baseball culture, club culture, academy culture, and fortress culture (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002). A baseball culture is “the fast-paced, competitive, high-risk form of corporate culture found in organizations in rapidly changing environments, with short product life cycles, with high-risk decision making, and dependant on continuous innovation for survival,” (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002, p. 116). A club culture is “a type of organizational culture that seeks people who are loyal, committed to one organization and need to fit into a group, and rewards tem with job security, promotion from within, and slow progress,” (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002, p. 116). Examples of a club culture are the military and the United Parcel Service. An academy culture is “a type of organization the seeks to hire people with specialties and technical mastery who will be confined to a set of jobs within a particular function and be rewarded by long-term association and a slow, steady climb up the organizational ladder,” (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002, p. 116). Examples of an academy culture include General Motors and IBM. A fortress culture is “an organizational culture with the primary goal of surviving and reversing business problems, including economic decline and hostile competitors,” (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002, p. 116). Examples of a fortress culture include textile firms and savings and loans.

Kudler Fine Foods is a combination of both an academy culture and a club culture. KFF’s different departments all specialize in a specific area which requires its employees to be knowledgeable and well trained in those specifics. This is where the academy culture is evident. The required qualifications and experience for a department manager listed in HR’s job classifications states that “each department manager must have specific training in the department he/she is managing,” (Kudler Fine Foods, 2007, Ð'¶ 3). The club culture is evident by reviewing KFF’s policies and procedures where it states “all other positions [besides entry level positions] are posted internally within each store. Current employees may apply for these jobs and are considered before the company looks outside of the organization,” (Kudler Fine Foods, 2007, Ð'¶ 1).

Organizational Structure

“Organization structure is a formal system of relationships that determines lines of authority (who reports to whom) and the tasks assigned to individuals and units (who does what task and with which department). The vertical dimension of organization structure indicates who has the authority to make decisions and who is expected to supervise which subordinates. The horizontal dimension is the basis for dividing work into specific jobs and tasks and assigning jobs into units such as departments or teams” (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin,, 2002, p.6). There are several elements of the vertical dimension that includes the unity of command, authority, responsibility, and accountability, span of control, centralization and decentralization, and formalization. The three approaches of the horizontal approach are functional, divisional, and matrix. Every organization whether it is big or small has some form of organizational structure because without it a company would be unable to operate effectively.

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