Kudler Fine Foods Organizational Behavior

Kudler Fine Foods Organizational Behavior

Kudler Fine Foods Organizational Behavior
T. Hudson, I. Duran, S. Williams, D. Tanner
University of Phoenix
Managing The Business Enterprise
MBA/502
Samuel Cunningham

Kudler Fine Foods Organizational Behavior
Kudler Fine Foods is a premiere gourmet grocery store that is focused in the niche market of gourmet foods providing a wide selection of products to savvy shoppers. Assembling the finest locally grown organic ingredients, providing excellent customer service, and giving back to the community are key objectives stressed by Kathy Kudler. This analysis will examine Kudler’s culture, organizational structure, leadership style, and identify factors that will drive change to improve the company’s competitive advantage.
Organizational Culture
Kudler’s organizational culture is one of hierarchy, with Kathy doing most of the hiring and firing. Kudler’s key management and specialists are employed in full time salaried positions, and the remaining staff is hourly employees, typically made up of college students, and employed either full or part time. The company has created a baseball team culture, typically “found in organizations in rapidly changing environments, with short product life cycles, with high-risk decision making, and dependent on continuous innovation for survival.” (Gomez-Mejia and Balkin, 2002) Even though the baseball culture type tends to show little commitment, Kudler encourages cross training and promotions to reduce turnover rate. Giving formal reviews, establishing minimal procedures for employee responsibilities categorizes Kudler’s environment as having a strong organizational culture. “A strong culture pressures people to do what the organization wants with less reliance on formal control mechanisms such as close supervision, hierarchies, rules, and procedures.” (Gomez-Mejia, and Balkin, 2002) The organization focuses on recognizing customer by names, providing excellent customer service, and taking initiative and...