Undercover Boss - Lush 's Organizational Culture Essay

The organization which I attended to analyze their organization, based on the three levels of culture discussed in class was Moe’s Southwest Grill. Over the past couple of years, my friends from Bloomington-Normal have raved about how good Moe’s food is. I thought that this class assignment would be a good opportunity to take up one of my friend’s offer to go to Moe’s. Doing so allowed me to get some great food and to further look into the company’s culture. From walking in, to getting food, and eventually leaving, it was evident what the employees at Moe’s believe in and the culture within the organization. Specifically relating to artifacts, espoused and enacted values, and basic assumptions, Moe’s organizational culture was extremely apparent.

To understand the organizational culture of a company, one needs to start by looking at the history. Lakeshore Learning Materials was born from a divorced mother of three named Ethelyn Kaplan, who took a dream and a chance by moving her family to California in 1954 to open a toy store. When she started noticing that teachers were interested in her material, Ethelyn realized that she needed to expand her business into educational materials. 60 years later, Lakeshore Learning Materials has grown into a company with over 2000 employees, 60 retail stores throughout the United States and growing. Lakeshore Learning Materials is currently headed by Ethelyn’s grandsons, Bo and Josh Kaplan. Under the supervision of Bo and Josh, Lakeshore continues to be a leader in the Educational Materials, yet still able to keep the family culture that their grandmother started. Highest quality customer service and hard work are the core values that shape Lakeshore’s Organizational Strategy. These high expectations aren’t hard for employees at Lakeshore because the company is so loved by everyone that works there, that they give nothing less than the best.

This report is on LUSH cosmetics – a sustainable brand in cosmetic industry. This report will

Prepare a 10-minute presentation (10-15 slides, not including title or reference slide) on organizational culture and values.

Various television shows have pushed boundaries to create positive differences in social perception of minorities, but only few have had the power and influence to make a noteworthy impact on American culture. Television Comedy has been able to cleverly impact acceptance of American Culture boundaries for years on end. From the show “Good Times” all the way to “The Office”, comedy has been an effective way of creating positive perceptions and acceptance of all different kinds of views on our society. An easily countable number of academic texts give evidence to Black-watched, Black-targeted television narratives. (Marc, 1997). Racially directed comedy television shows have, in my opinion, have been one of the most prevalent types of television

Prepare a 10-minute presentation (10-15 slides, not including title or reference slide) on organizational culture and values.

The organizational culture of One Smooth Stone is defined by its leadership and the service and products customers receive. Three stated key values of One Smooth Stone are those of: (1) Smart; (2) Fast; and (3) Kind. (One Smooth Stone Website, ) 'Smart' means that the business situation is quickly grasped and that anticipated challenges are acknowledged and solutions created. 'Fast' means that the organization thinks quickly, responds, quickly and does so through maintaining flexibility. 'Kind' means that the best interest of the client is always considered and that the attitude of the organization is one of a 'can do' spirit. Finally, kind means that the organization cares.

For most companies, identifying what a learning organization should be and actually becoming one is tricky at best, impossible at worst. One way that manager's and companies can promote the concept of being a learning organization is to assess whether the company is in need of a short-term fix or whether it is more focused on long-term results. Organizational learning is a long-term activity that will build competitive advantage over time and requires sustained management attention, commitment, and effort. Learning organizations maximize their competitive positions during strong economic times and they prudently train their employees and prepare for change even in turbulent times. As a result, learning organizations and learning

In this paper I will discuss the effects and responsibilities leaders have on an organizational culture. I believe leaders have an enormous effect on the well-being of an organizational culture. Leaders must take an active role within their organization's culture. Whether positive or negative, in an organization, things tend to follow suit "down hill." A leader has the power and influence to maintain, create, or repair an organizational culture. However, this can prove to be a delicate and challenging task.

According to Robbins and Judge, organizational culture is, “a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organization from other organizations” (Robbins 249). A strong organizational culture is one whose organization’s core values are both intensely held and widely shared. After viewing Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, it is obvious that Enron had not only an organizational culture that was strong, but one that was extreme and aggressive. This aggressive and strong organizational culture discouraged both teamwork and ethical behavior and in the end it only plagued Enron until it eventually collapsed under its downfall.

Lush is a leading cosmetics manufacturer and retailer with famous of its hand made bath and beauty products. Brandi,as the director and brand communications for Lush in North American, took an undercover and worked as a ground floor in manufacturing plant and retail shop of Lush in Vancouver. In the process of undercover, the organizational culture, leadership style and motivation methods of Lush is revealed. This essay will recognize the good and bad practice of Lush through its culture, leadership style and motivation methods and their impact on stakeholders. The recommendation will also be given in the essay.

In today’s dynamic business environment leadership must understand the value and importance of their organizations’ culture. While it may never be formally defined, leadership must have a vision of their intended culture and a plan for creating and maintaining it. This vision will serve as the potter’s clay that determines everything from the dress code to the organizational structure. This paper examines two methods organizations can choose to create and maintain a healthy culture.

Edgar Schein, a famous theorists dealing with organizational culture, provides the following definition for the term: "A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learned as it solved its problems that has worked well enough to be considered valid and is passed on to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems." (organizationalculture101) However, organizational culture is more than sharing assumptions used by a group to solve problems; it is the combination of the points of view, ineffectual processes, education, backgrounds of all the staff which are part of an organization way of doing things. Corporation culture should uncover from the board of the directors to the rest of

The shared characteristics and, in some cases, perception of employees create what is known as organizational culture. A strong culture constructs a unified employee atmosphere, whereas a weak culture lacks a shared sense of distinction between employees. An employee’s heritage or individual culture, although different than, affects the overall organizational culture of companies. Like society, sub-cultures exist within organizations. Formed by departmental function, geographical location, and/or the personalities of employees, sub-cultures include employees who continue to adhere to the organizations’ overall culture, but have additional independent characteristics. Employees’ individual heritage, along with the culture and

Oticon, a Danish company founded in 1904 was the first company in the world to invent an instrument to help the hearing impaired. In the 1970's, Oticon was the world's number one manufacturer of the "behind the ear" hearing aids. During the 1970's and 1980's as the market for "in the ear" hearing aid grew, Oticon's fortune suddenly declined and they lost money and market share. The main problem for all of this was that Oticon was a very traditional, departmentalized and slow-moving company. Even though Oticon had 15 sites and 95 distributorships around the world, Oticon was operating in a market dominated by Siemens, Phillips, Sony, 3M and Panasonic and most importantly, Oticon manufactured the "behind the