To separate employees from customers at Sainsbury’s, employees wear a uniform. Customers are then able to establish who work for the company in case they need any help or advice about in-store products. Generally, the colours that are worn by the employees are blue and orange. The uniform varies from one section to another within Sainsbury’s. If employees are working in the cold areas of the store, e.g. fridge’s and freezers, then they will wear orange fleece jackets and gloves to keep them warm. People who work on the tills wear blue shirts with squares of fruits on them. Even for the employees that don’t work in-store, like trolley collectors and delivery drivers, they still have to wear the uniform to represent that they are a part of the Sainsbury’s team.
Sainsbury’s have seen a huge tangible change in the culture of the company over the past two years. The pace of activity has had a significant increase and there has been a real release of positive energy. All very keen to build and capitalise on this changed culture. Sainsbury’s is creating a cost conscious culture. They have kept costs low to achieve success and to keep customers happy as they value their custom. Sainsbury’s significant cost savings are £160 million during the year.
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According to Charles Handy, a Theorist who writes Management books, there are four main types of culture:
- Task Culture
- Role Culture
- Person/Individual Culture
- Power Culture
Sainsbury’s is a part of two of these cultures. They are unlikely to exhibit a person/individual culture because this tends to exist in small companies. Sainsbury’s is more likely to be a combination of task and power culture. I am making these judgements due to the information that I was given.
A task culture exists within Sainsbury’s because they consist of a whole team working together to complete tasks. There would be one person stacking the shelves and one person cleaning the aisles to make them tidy. Then there are people serving behind customer services, meat and fish counters and people working on the check-outs. All these people within Sainsbury’s work and communicate as a team to increase efficiency and to increase
customer satisfaction. All the team members of Sainsbury’s share
aspirations and values. Sainsbury’s want their employees to be more independent so they can take on more power and responsibility to do things of their own accord, instead of being told what to do.
The other culture that exists within Sainsbury’s is a power culture. At Sainsbury’s some parts are not group decision making it depends on just one person to make the decisions.eg. A manager. This allows Sainsbury’s to make quicker decisions and react well to threat or danger. Sainsbury’s can be very procedure led.
Sainsbury’s are a forward-facing culture because this enables rapid change for them in the future. This makes them innovative and entrepreneurial, with little respect for methods or previous patterns
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