Review of International Comparative Management Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2017 63 Organizational Culture in Romanian Retail [604716]

Review of International Comparative Management Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2017 63 Organizational Culture in Romanian Retail

Alicia -Georgiana ZALUPCA1

Keywords : attachment, multinational company, multicultural environment ,
organizational culture, retail, retention

JEL classification : D23, F23, M14 .

Introduction

The theme of this article is very present , representing a direct and detailed
analysis of the organizational culture within the German retailer . I am a former
employee of this mu ltinational retailer company within the sales department for the
discounter ch ain for several years. During the years that I had worked for this
company I had been witnessed to multiple internal changes and transformations
because of a very strong personnel fluctuation within the discounter stores and the
headquarters in key departm ents, such as acquisitions, sales and logistics due to the
fact that the competitors had had offered bigger salaries, a personalized
development plan and a smoother career path. These external factors together with
a wrong understanding of the real value o f this company on the market had led to a
decrease of the working quality and a negative working environment. Because of
the fact that the organizational culture had not been seen as a must and a necessity
within the organization in order to retain the val uable employees, the number of
persons who decided to leave had grown considerably.

1 Alicia Georgiana Z ALUPCA , National S chool of Political and Administrative Studies –
faculty of Communication and Public Relations , Email: [anonimizat] Abstract
This article aims to describe the organizational culture within one of
Romania’s biggest retail chai n. The organization is a German multinational retailer
company that has opened more than 50 discounter stores all over Romania starting
2005. The management is German, but the store’s employees are Romanian. It was
very hard to analyse the organizational c ulture within this company because of this
cultural and linguistic difference. I had been working in the sales department and I had
been caught in the middle by these two worlds several times. The methodology that has
been used is a qualitative one; respec tively the study case implies an explanation of the
organizational culture’s components from a theoretical and a study case approach.
Also, because of the daily activity I had used the participative observation method. By
these means it will be raise d the awareness and the need of the existence of the
organizational culture within the organization.

64 Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2017 Review of International Comparativ e Management This article aims to define the organizational culture, the main types of
organizational culture and the concrete aspects of this culture in order to be able to
apply the theoretical part to the practical part that is the case study .
The methodology that has been used is a qualitative one; respectively the
case study implies an explanation of the organizational culture’s components from
a theoretical and a case study appro ach. Also, because of the daily activity I had
used the participative observation method. By these means it will be raised the
awareness and the need of the existence of the organizational culture within the
organization.
The case study is being completely dedicated to the organizational culture
of this German retailer. The organization is a multinational retailer company with a
top German management distributed in the key sectors of activity, such as
acquisitions, sales and logistics, but with employees in majority Romanians. The
company had struggled as the years passed by to handle the increase of
employment as the expansion was very fast. Only in two years after the opening of
the first store, the company had more than 35 discounter stores all over Roman ia.
Also, the fas t expansion of the competitors had influenced the behaviour and the
attitude of the employees, leading to changes at the level of the values. The retail
world had been facing several transformations in real time, becoming more to look
like a jungle where no rules and principles are to be applied. The only facts that
really matter are profit , big sales and local supremacy. A very little focus is being
put on the employees and their needs. The return on investment policy is to be done
with fe wer employees in a discounter store, but the profit must be very high. By
other means , the normal employee must face a large volume of work, so the
employer must not spend much money with the costs of two or three employees for
the same position so that th e money can enter in its pocket. The store manager and
the regional sales managers had not noticed the difficulties and the lacks that these
employees had to face every day . The same situation had been manifested at the
headquarter within the different dep artments where the number of employees is
fewer than the huge working volume, the pressure and the tight deadlines due to
the continuing expansion and the opening of new discounter stores. All these
factors occur due the policy that most of the German reta ilers apply on the
Romania market: huge profit but little costs. The effects are notable: fewer
employees in a discounter store, overstrain, high personnel fluctuation and poor
salaries. But the facts do not limit only to the economic and human level of th e
organization. They do go further towards the attachment level of the employees
towards the organization and the sudden changes that take place in their cultural
system. After the company had faced multiple difficult issues such as the departure
of qualif ied and experienced store’s and headquarters’ employees, the company
had realized that a process of attachment and motivation of their own employees is
mandatory and highly recommended through different methods: Christmas party,
contests between the stores on different topics, raffles , gifts, trainings in order to
raise their efficiency and job satisfaction and to maximize the degree of belonging
to a multinational retailer company. The next chapters will detail the explanation of

Review of International Comparative Management Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2017 65 the organizational culture ’s components from a theoretical and a case study
perspective using qualitative methodologies such as the case study and the
participative observation so that the we can raise the need of the existence of the
organizational culture.

1. Conceptual specificat ions

An organization is born in a certain country and is being defined by the
national culture and civilization of that country. The organization either inherits or
takes over, in the case of multinational retailer companies, all the features and
charac teristics of that specific culture because it is part of that culture. The people’s
cultures are so different therefore these differences are notable also in the
organizational culture. By these means, we could portrait the German employee
who is expert in his area of activity, is direct, independent, systematic, flexible,
respects the work life balance principle while the Romanian employee tends to be
obedient, to execute all the tasks without questioning whether they are good for the
company or not, to wo rk a lot, to meet all the deadlines and to be available all the
time. A single national culture has the capacity to generate multiple types of
cultures, based on the regional and local differences that could be influenced and
determined by the economic, ex pansion and historical factors. The differences
within the frame of the same national culture occur also due to the organization’s
profile and field of activity. The most notable cultural , managerial and mentality
difference can be noticed between the publ ic sector and the private sector
organizations. The organization is a living system that is growing continuously and
is evolving rapidly. Its cultural profile varies due to the elder and the new
employees. The organizational culture is easy to be taught if the right methods and
mechanisms are being applied. The organizational culture is formed due to the
repetitive interactions between t he members of the organization and the bringing in
common the beliefs and the values of the individuals of the organizatio n.
According to Elfconsulting (2017), t he organizational culture is being determined
by strong shaping factors such as: the leading style, the decision making method,
the level of formalism, the organizational structure, the policies and know -how, the
systems that offer support to a specific type of work or behaviour .
The culture could be seen as being the core of an entire organizational
network that is influencing and is being influenced by strategy, structure, system,
human resources and habits. The cu lture is the main identification element of an
organization because as the organizations have a culture also the people have
personality . Also, each organization has an individualized culture.
Most of the anthropologists from the American School had defi ned the
culture as being a system of beliefs, ideas and behavioural methods that are being
taught because of the social experience and are being transmitted through
socialization and acculturation. By these means, the American anthropologists,
According to Georgiu (2001, p.37), the theoreticians Kroeber and Kluckhohn had
built the following definition: “ Culture consists of patterns, explicit and implicit, of

66 Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2017 Review of International Comparativ e Management and for behavio ur acquired and transmitted by symbols, constituting the distinctive
achievements of human groups, including their embodiment in artefacts; the
essential core of culture consists of traditional ( i.e. Historically derived and
selected ) ideas and especially their attached values; culture systems may, on the
one hand, be considered as produc ts of action, on the other, as condit ional elements
of future action .”
From a semiotic perspective, according to Georgiu (2001, p. 195) the
culture represents an ensemble of signs and languages that are coding and
treasuring the experience in order to t ransmit it from one generation to another,
from one group to another, from one organization to another, assuring the
continuity of the historic process. Through culture, the human being is exceeding
his immediate existence medium and gives sense to his lif e. In this way, the
individual accesses the organization and adapts easily to the organizational medium
where he activates.
Georgiu (2001, p. 34) had researched Abraham Moles who had proposed a
reinterpretation of the culture from a social communication and socio -cultural
cycle’s perspective that the messages need to cover in order to structure the
“spiritual picture” and the “knowledge screen”. Each of us is carrying in its own
physical structure a “picture of the world” that is being formed of knowl edge ,
ideas, opinions, beliefs, representations , values, norms, and attitudes. All these
elements are composing our image towards the world and the organization .
Dumitru Iacob (2001, p. 86) has stated that t he organization culture is
composed from its collecti on of values and instinctive organic reactions, its
collection of heroes and negative characters, and its collection of achieve ments,
interdictions and bids . The organizational culture could be seen as an expression of
norms and values, representing that p attern of values and norms that are
distinguishing one organization from another, determining what is being important
for that specific organization and designating the norms or the system of beliefs
and the specific values of the organization’s members (Iacob, 2001, p. 87).
The majority of the specialists had defined the organizational culture as
being “a philosophy, an ideology, values, beliefs, liabilities, hopes, attitudes and
norms (accepted and shared) ”. The main important aspect of the organizational
culture refers to the fact that the people could better familiarize with the
organization and even to anticipate the behavioural method if they succeed to
understand the “chemistry” of its composition. The organizational cultures is
existing on multiple l evels: the exterior level of the culture is being constituted og
symbols such as words that are composed of dialect and colloquial language,
gestures, figures, physical objects; at the next level there can be found the culture’s
heroes (persons that are st ill alive or already dead , real or imaginary but they serves
as raw patterns for the culture); at another level there can be found the
organizational rituals and ceremonies; at the deepest level or the “ culture’s heart”
there can be found the cultural valu es (beliefs, answers, collective feelings) . (Iacob,
2001, p. 87)

Review of International Comparative Management Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2017 67 Starting with the ‘80s, the corporate culture is representing a very special
resear ch domain especially since she started to be associated with the
organization’s performances. There are seve ral definitions for the term of
“corporate culture” , some of them are being vague and some of them are being
very concise. According to Rao and Swaminathan (2017) , from an anthropological
viewpoint culture refers to the values and beliefs shared by members in a society
and include patterns of behaving, feeling and reacting, and the premises underlying
behaviour . In other words, culture consists of man -made aspects of an
environment. As a matter of fact, culture consists of all the aspects realized by the
individual in the medium he lives in.
According to Donnoly (2017) , the organizational culture refers to the
impact on the medium that has resulted not only from group’s norms, values and
philosophy , but also from the informal activities. This definition spe cifies the fact
that the corporate culture is similar to the existing culture within a society because
has norms, values, beliefs and behavioural patterns . Also, the definition underlines
the fact that the values and the norms create the culture. Therefore it may be said
that the culture is for the society or the organization what the personality is for an
individual. The corporate culture represents a pattern for the shared and stabile
beliefs and the values that are being developed within an organization over time.
This definition brings the “time” factor on the front page. The longer an
organization exists, the more its culture will develop over time. The more the
organizational culture is developed, the more it will be more difficult to change or
to infl uence it. Van der Erve (2017) reviewed many definitions of corporate culture
and summarized it as follows: “ Culture is the share values and behaviour that knit a
community together. It is the rules of the game: the unseen meaning between the
line in the ru lebook that assures unity .” This implies that culture maintains order
and regularity in the lives of community members and only assumes importance in
people's minds when it is threatened or disturbed. Kotter and Heskett (2017) have
found it helpful to thin k of organizational culture as having two levels that differ in
terms of visibility and their resistance to change. At the deeper and less visible
level, culture refers to the values that are shared by the people in a group and that
tend to persist over ti me even when group membership changes. At this level,
culture can be extremely difficult to change, partly because group members are
often unaware of many of the values that bind them together.
The organizations express their culture through declarations of principles,
success stories, slogans, emblematic characters, ceremonies, symbols, climate and
physical environment. No matter what kind of culture exists in the organization, it
is shared to reality. When a person enters an organization as an employee , he
passes in the organization’s cultural barriers and become s acculturated. Each
organization has its own culture and set of values. Most organiz ations do not
consciously try to create a particular culture. Corporate culture is created
unconsciously, based on the values of top management and founders of an
organization.

68 Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2017 Review of International Comparativ e Management 2. Organizational culture’s components

The concept of organizational culture refers to the collective standards of
thinking, attitudes, values, beliefs, norms and habits that exist within an
organization and at the mental level of its employees. Analysing the cultural
component we can distinguish several visible elements: behaviours, attitudes and
common language, rituals and symbols. The less visible components of the
organizational cultur e could be: perceptions and representations of what “the
value” represents within the organizations, myths, and empirical standards
regarding what means to work efficient and good and to behave properly or just
simply said “ how things are being done around here”. The organizational or the
corporate culture is that eel of values, norms, beliefs, attitudes and suppositions,
that, even if they had not been properly formulated, determine the behaving
individuals’ modes and the problem solving. The norms are unw ritten behaving
rules of the employees within an organization. The values refer to what is being
considered to be important towards the mode in which the employees and the
organizations act. The organizational culture has as main study object abstract
notions, such as values and norms that are being present and manifest in all the
departments of an organization or in a part of it. The organizational culture can
influence people’s behaving significantly and represent s the subjective part of the
organization’ s life. As such, the corporate culture could be understood as “…the
whole consistent of values, norms and symbols that have emerged and developed
over the history of the company in response to external requests and needs of the
people working in the enterp rise, which are transmitted consciously or
unconsciously to new employees especially through the symbolic behaviour
patterns (dominant culture carriers), and marking the thinking and behaviour of
workers in unmistakable fashion. ” (Gareis, 2006, p. 133)
James M. Higgins considers that the components of the organizational
culture are the: myths and the beliefs (include the history of the facts that had
determine the behaviour , success stories from the past, loyal empl oyees of the
organization); metaphoric sys tem and specific language (refers to the core values
of the organization and the slogans that the organization uses in order to attract the
listener’s attention and to remain in the mind of the customer); symbols,
ceremonies and rituals (show what it is ma ndatory to be respected within the
organization; the flags, company’s logo, advertising panels, organization’s specific
colours reveal the importance and the place that certain ideas or events occupy);
mottoes are very important for the organization’s memb ers and must transmit and
promote the organization’s philosophy); values and norms are being reflected by
strategies, structure, political systems, rules, policies and procedures showing what
it is allowed or not to be done) . (Iacob, 2001, pp. 87 -88). Mich ael Armstrong
(2003, p.185). adds as a component of the organizational culture the artefacts
(elements that resulted from the way a procedure had been applied) besides values
and norms ).

Review of International Comparative Management Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2017 69 Therefore, organizational culture is considered a framework of unwr itten
rules that guides employees’ behavior within organizations. Sulkowski (2012)
mention that through organizational history, in -house training, customs, taboo,
symbols, stories, narratives, metaphors and myths, senior members transfer aspects
of organiz ational culture to new employees.
Alvesson (2012) opinions that “culture is not primarily “inside” people’s
heads, but somewhere between the “the heads of a group of people where symbols
and meanings are publicly expressed – in work group interactions, in board
meetings, but also in material objects. It is the meaning aspect of what is being
socially expressed and it is thus visible and invisible at the same time.”
Theoretically, we have identified and analysed briefly which are the
components of the organi zational culture. In practice, these elements can take
various forms, being very hard to be identified and analysed.

3. Organizational culture in Romanian retail

3.1 Methodology and data

In this article we aim to analyse the organizational culture in Rom ania
retail by determining how the German organizational culture elements impact the
Romanian one. The quantitative methodology that had been used is the
participative observation method due to the fact of the previous employment within
this retail organiz ation. In order to recognize the German organizational culture
elements we considered a 30 days’ timeframe starting from 1st of June until 30th of
June 2006. The participative observation took place at the retailers’ headquarter
within the sales, purchasin g, expansion, logistics, accounting and IT departments
and the 35 discounter stores. The sample had been composed on 1 5 people. This
method had helped to notice the behaviour of the Romanian employees towards
their German colleagues and which their degree of ability to adapt to an
organizational change and work in a multicultural environment being determined to
mix the Romanian values with the German ones.
We had also used the quantitative methodology of the case study and we
focused on the analysis of the nonmaterial elements ((values, norms, myths,
legends) and material elements ((symbols, rituals, language) of the organizational
culture within the Romanian retail.

3.2 The results

The results of the researches had offered a better understanding of how a
multicultural environment is able to function properly and where there is the need
of improvement. In the next two chapters we will introduce these nonmaterial
elements ((values, norms, myths, legends) and material elements ((symbols, rituals,
language) o f the organizational culture within the Romanian retail.

70 Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2017 Review of International Comparativ e Management 3.2.1. Nonmaterial elements (values, norms, myths, legends)

The values of the German retailer that are being applicable for his daily
activity are: success, quality, expansion. The discounter cha in is one of the firsts
retail chains that had appeared on the Romanian market and had succeeded to
become, in a very short period of time, the favourite store of the middle class, to
register huge sales and a large number of customers at each store openin g and not
only. The quality of the services consists of a better management of the assortment
for each commodity group (beverage, fruits and vegetables, bakery products, staple
food, frozen products, detergents, cosmetics, hygiene and cleaning, sweets and
non-food products) and also the low prices and the promotions.
The German retailer had applied a very dynamic and strong e xpansion
policy, being interested in acquiring lands in small to medium towns, and most
recently also in bigger cities by becoming t he only owner. The investments for
each location are between 1.5 and 2 million euro, but that had not been a problem
that prevented from opening the discounter stores in most of Romania’s regions,
such as Dobrogea, Moldova, Oltenia, Transylvania and Buchar est, the capital of
Romania since 2005 until now. The German retailer had risked and won: loyal
customers, huge sales , fame and identity on Romanian retail market. The situation
has changed throughout the years do the presence of the direct competition in the
same cities.
The norms of the multinational retailer company are: responsibility,
professionalism, adaptability to each medium and to several types of customers.
These elements had been included in the norms’ category because characterize and
guide th e organization’s and its members’ activity. The professionalism is being
exemplified through the quality of products on the shelves (around 1.500 products
in one store) and the services offered by the store’s employees.
The adaptability is being reflected in the cases of the store’s employees
because each of them needs to participate to a three up to six months internal
training in another experienced store and then to implement in its own store what
he had been taught in the other store. Due to these inte rnal trainings , they have the
opportunity to get in contact with the other colleagues , to socialize, to learn from
them, to manifest flexibility and availability to do overtime, to integrate in very
different mediums and to act in various situations that s uddenly occur. The
responsibility of each employee is being presented in the job description , but this
occurs also in the daily activities in the store or in relation to suppliers, distributors
and the several departments from headquarter.
The myths and the legends exist in each new created organization, and
usually, the founding hero is being labelled by the employees as being a myth for
them. The formal leader of the organization plays also the role of the informal
leader and is getting transformed in an emblematic figure that takes over the
organization from zero and makes it known on the market due to his
professionalism and experience. In this case, this myth of the organization is the
former German general manager that had ruled the company for eigh t years with a

Review of International Comparative Management Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2017 71 special devotion and professionalism having networking skills and a very good
communication with his employees , succeeding to form a very solid and trustful
nucleus. Having very much know -how for the expansion phase (when lands for the
store s are being searched, viewed, the sales prices are negotiated , the areas with
expansion and profit potential are being identified, are being acquired and then
starts the building of these stores). When this general manager had left the
company in 2006 , the company had opened over 20 stores, and other 40 stores and
a deposit where planned to be opened by that time in the years to come. His and the
sales managers experience had been firstly notable once the discounter markets had
been opened and unique concep ts had been thought in order to arrange the store
and to place the products on the shelves. So, when you enter for the first time in
such a store, it is very easy to find what you need, because all the products are
being placed according to the respectivel y commodity group (the landing with
fruits and vegetables, the detergents island, the palettes with staple food, the
cashier are with sweets, flowers and cigarettes etc.). Also these concepts, once
implemented in the store and imprinted in the mind of each store manager and each
chief inspector of the area, had remained as “last word s” for those who succeeded
them at the management , department and store level of the organization. There are
numerous stories and all of them have on the front page the founding members of
this company, our heroes so to say, but also the ones who followed. The stories
have various subjects and are related to very funny events from the stores openings
or to sad ones (when the stores had received penalties from the local authoritie s
because some legally conditions were not met). The individuals that have lived all
these events are talking about them gladl y, and the narration takes place in informal
places (lunch, coffee break, on the way home) most of the times. All these facts
keep the history of the organization alive, since it’s very beginnings in Romania
until now, determining each member of the organization to be proud that he is
working for this company.

3.2.2 Material elements (symbols, rituals, language)

The organizat ion’s symbols and the distinctive signs in the mental of its
own employees, the supplier and its customers are the logo, the store’s image and
the leaflet ’s mottoes. The image of the discou nter stores in Romania is being
characterized through squares units with a sales area of 750 sq., with 1.500
products in assortment and parking place for 30 cars. The discounter store’s logo is
being dominated by the colours red (the background) and yellow (the writing). The
promotional articles such as cups, pens, lighters, agendas , calendars, trinkets are
imprinted with the logo. These gits are being offered to the customer when raffles
are being organized or to suppliers on special events (Christmas, Easter,
anniversary of the discounter store on the Romanian market). Also, the
discounter’s logo is being present on the bags, on advertising panels on the street,
on street signs, badges on employee s’ T-shirts , on the employees’ E -mail signature
and leaflets. Also, all the store’s employees wear T -shirts, shirts and vests with this

72 Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2017 Review of International Comparativ e Management logo. In the symbols category must be integrated the various stickers that are pasted
it in the store, on the price rails, on the shelves or the panels from the landing site
with fruits and vegetables. The motto is very suggestive and persuasive: “In your
advantage!”, being present one ach leaflet and on the employees’ E -mail signature
attracting by the force of its words the potential and the current customers raising
the commitment to the company and its values, but also generating huge sales . By
this mean, the customer is being attracted by the various assortment based on cheap
Bio qualitative products which are the own brand , but also by the special offers.
The rituals are being manifested through the daily activity that takes place
in the stores and at headquarter. A working day in a store is being exemplified by
the arrival of the tracks with goods in the morning and afternoon, by ordering at
specific times the goods for the next delivery , by supplying the shelves with
products so that no lacks can occu r, by communicating with the local authorities
when specific controls may take place etc. On the other hand, a specific working
day at headquarter, within the sales department, is also very dynamic, because the
sales managers and the stores must be informe d about the listing and enlisting of
products on a daily basis, about the weekly promotions that are taking place in a
store, the current status of the sales plan for each store so that everybody knows
what needs to be done in order to achieve the target, establishing the sales plan for
the next month and transmit it to the stores, establishing several statistics regarding
the productivity (the balance between the achieved sales and the working hours) or
the best sold products , analysing and monitoring the competitors by identifying the
products that are included in the leaflet and the daily promotional actions ,
organizing daily and monthly inventory in the stores in order to know the current
stocks and which are products are to expire soon. So, it is never boring to work in
the retail world because the rhythm is so alert and in a continuous transformation
that you can never say that everything is a routine.
The specific language contains special words or terms in German that are
being used in the sales are such as: sales plan (G erm. Umsatzplan), placing
products on the shelves or pallets (G erm. Artikelplatzierungen ins Regal oder auf
dem Palett), meter shelf (Germ. Regalmeter – when a new article is being listed in
the system ), commodity turnover on the she lf (G erm. Ware ins Regal rollen – the
articles that are about to expire soon come in front on the shelves so that they could
be sold quickly, and the articles that have a longer valability are put at the back on
the shelf ), the fruits and vegetables landin g (Germ. Obst und Gemüse Podest), the
detergents island (G erm. Waschmittelinsel), the articles that are only for the
internal usage (G erm. eigeneverbrauch Artikel), invent ory (G erm. Inventur), losts
(Germ. Abschriften), damaged broken missing articles (G erm. gebrochene,
zerstörte, fehlende Artikel), the cashier area (G erm. Kassenzone), goods reception
(Germ. Wareeinnahme), cost center (G erm. Kostenstelle) etc. All these words are
being imported from German and are being used as such in all the stores becaus e
they are such a colloquial language for all the employees that are working for
German retailers.

Review of International Comparative Management Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2017 73 Conclusions

The cultural form ation of each individual is beginning from the medium
where he grew up, went to school and is working. The cultural formatio n is being
influenced by the following factors: individuals, authorities, reli gious beliefs,
ideologies and scientific theories, social class, sex, generation, mass media, social
media, job etc. These differences are visible from one country to another, be tween
the ethnical, linguistic or religious groups within countries where they represent
only a national minority, or from one organization to another such the case of
multinational retailer companies that has established subsidiaries in countries other
than the so called “mother country”.
The organizational culture forms a whole in which each element has a tight
connection with the other components. This fact requires an internal coherency
with relations between the elements that are composing the organiz ational culture
and with a disparate collection of diverse habits. The organizational cultures could
have common features, but each of it is unique in its own way. The organizational
culture consists of a set of values and fundamental norms, codes and coll ective
images that result from the history and the patrimony of each organization. Also,
the organizational culture consists of dealing with the competitors in the market
and the compromise between the management and other key players of the
organization. Everything is being accepted by the members of the organization and
is being translated through rules, myths, habits, taboos, references and procedures.
The organizational culture includes symbolic expressions, being the symbol of
cultural identity, a pers onality, a core of deep configurations. The culture is a very
important tool for the management because creates a positive environment in
which the employees are motivated and enthusi astic. The culture is being a
landmark for each member , and the individua ls that are working for a company
with a very powerful culture know precisely which the expectations that they need
to meet are. The existence of cultural norms is the basis for the personal
identification and engagement. The organizational culture support s the social
integration and facilitates the assimilation of new comers within the company . The
new comers start to know the culture, to act according to its principles, to be
integrated in various groups and to be accepted by the other colleagues. This ra ises
the feeling of securit y and belonging to a community.
The profile of the German multinational retailer company could have been
done because of the previous employment experience within this organization. The
profile is based on the knowledge brought by the skilled and experienced
management and employees. The awareness of the organizational culture is huge
because of the good communication between the parties and the equality at
employee level that governs the company. Also, the facts that the employ ees are
very proud to wear clothes marked with the company’s logo determine a high
degree of identification with the company’s symbols. The image that is being
perceived by the customers is the one of a friendly and familiar environment where
they could sh op with pleasure because the personnel are ready to help any time
they are being asked. This fact also indicates the professionalism of the employees.
In order to keep alive the actual healthy situation of the organizational culture

74 Volume 18, Issue 1, March 2017 Review of International Comparativ e Management within this retailer th ere must always be remembered and mentioned the heroes and
the success stories of the organization that helped to achieve the current status.

References

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