Organizational Culture

25 Pages 6281 Words

on which would engender further corporate success.

As a well established company, it is necessary to have a definition of the organization's past, present, and future. PJR decided to develop a definition of itself. Almost five years ago, an organizational consultant aided in gathering data from employees and founders. A statement of corporate mission was drafted and adopted that reads:

We seek to achieve and maintain a position of superiority and growth with our parent company and in our served markets, as a distributor of Kesher products and in doing so to:

* Maintain the Kesher professional status

* Constantly serve, educate, and upgrade professionals in our industry

* Offer opportunities for success to motivated employees

* Provide a consistent return on owner investment

Today, enlarged copies of this framed text are placed in prominent places throughout the office. Implicitly, within the statement of corporate mission are the values on which the founders based their company twenty-three years ago. The combination of such values, corresponding beliefs, and behaviors, constitute PJR's organizational culture. It is a culture that guards the original values of the founders; it is a culture that is oriented toward success; and as PJR began as a family business, it is a culture in which the metaphor of family is salient (Cleary & Packard, 1992). This paper will address how culture occurs at PJR, and will examine three pertinent theories of organizational culture to establish a multilateral definition. Finally this paper will apply the theories to the specific culture at PJR and confirm their complementary validity.


BACKGROUND

PJR Inc. is the exclusive distributor of Kesher hair and skin care products in Michigan and Canada (except for the province of British Columbia). Supplied by the manufacturer, Kesher Products Company of Santa Barbara, California, PJR sells product to barber shops and beauty salons acro...