1. What are the emerging challenges for the Biscuit Company in their marketplace? What organisational factors have contributed to this developing situation? What needs to change at the Biscuit Company if they are to remain successful? Justify your answer in the context of relevant theory / material discussed in class. (625 words approximately)

The biscuit company faces both internal and external challenges to their marketplace. With the advent of global markets and global organisation it is no longer safe for companies to remain in the past. They need to be agile and be able to react to change quickly. A key ingredient in having this ability is based on the culture of the organisation. The cultural web model (Johnson, Whittington, Scholes, 2012) is a useful model to examine how the culture of the company contributes to the internal forces resisting the external pressures for change. The culture web allows us to examine each of the different levers that can be used to help bring about a cultural change or new paradigm within the organisation. A summary of the model is presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Cultural web model

Taking each of these subsystems in turn a paradigm can be defined that gives insight into the culture of the company and what companies values stand for.

Symbols
The paperclip example of Eastern focusing on the low value item is symbol of the importance of cost. The historical photos on the walls such as the ‘old mill’ and retained old office names reflect a company holding on to older values. We are told that Gareth Eastern was not ostentatious, again reinforcing the frugal culture.

Power structure
Murphy’s appointment was pushed through by John Southgate. We are told that Eastern tries to maintain a ‘paternalistic culture’ and that the company is ‘Slow to action’ and ‘risk adverse’ wanting just to focus on current brands. There is a real sense of a family owned business with Gareth Eastern passing the reigns to his son, and Andrew making his best friend a manager.

Organisational structures
A diagram from the passage represents the structure of the organisation as hierarchy in nature see figure 2, however Murphy does appear to have a much wider brief than captured in the diagram. This would suggest that his role was not clearly communicated to the organisation and the structures are more scattered.

Figure 2: Company structure

Control systems
Cost feedback is a key controller for finance and production. We are told Eastern focuses on stock level and inventory to the extent of paperclips cost. The other key control is the personnel relationships behind Eastern and the different departments. In particular finance and production, who align behind the old traditions.

Routine and rituals
The Queen’s birthday was celebrated and historical pictures (the mill) were kept in place along with names of offices from previous users.

Stories
We are told that Gareth Eastern was a religious man and treated his employees like family. We are told that all employees were kept during lean times. This fosters a strong sense of loyalty.

Paradigm:
When applied to the Biscuit Company we can see that the organisation follows a very rigid approach to the control of manufacturing with primary focus on cost and not on the customer. There is a high level of control and this makes them inflexible and very slow to change but very loyal. Control of the organisation is spread across many different people with the roles and responsibilities not clear. An overview of this paradigm in presented in Figure 3.

Figures 3: Current Paradigm for the biscuit company

A large behavioural change across all these levers needs to occur in order to shift to a new paradigm. The new paradigm is much more customer focused, giving a fast, flexible organisation ready to change to meet the global challenges. The communication of a common goal and vision across the organisation needs to be established. An assessment of the future state paradigm is presented in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Future paradigm for the biscuit company