Tesco’s Vision and Mission

Discuss about the Strategic Managers and developing Corporate Culture Module of TESCO.

Tesco is a leading brand in supermarkets. They sell huge variety of foods. They serve fresh and local food. Tesco is of great value in UK and other city centers. Tesco also provides customers with the clothing line, electronics and stationary. Garden furniture is also one of the things Tesco sells when ever season is there. Tesco has around 360,000 employees all over the world and major sector of UK is covered by it. In UK, the sales from Tesco are 86% (Tesco, 2018). Local Tesco express provides variety of Tesco stores for having large supermarkets and it operates outside of UK as well. There are 12 countries worldwide where Tesco operates. Tesco also operates in countries like China, Japan, Istanbul and Turkey etc. It also operates in United States. When Tesco was established in United States, it was known to be as international expansion for the organization as it then got the chance to grow in international market. Floating markets in Thailand also sells Tesco’s products (tesco, 2018). The vision of Tesco is actually based on its customers. Tesco sees itself as the only grocery business in UK because of their development strategy. The mission of Tesco is to make sure that there should always be flow of income from their loyal customers in all the segments of their business. For this they removed all the obstacles that stop Tesco from becoming less entertaining for its customers. The philosophy of management that Tesco follow is to keep it simple and not make anything complicated.

Hofstede Theory of cultural dimensions helps in studying of the organization culture. The Hofstede’s culture Theory of Tesco is as follows:

• Power Distance: Power Distance, related to the different solutions to the basic problem of human inequality. The structure of organization and power’s attitude is defined in this section. These could easily be differentiated between patterns like: clear structure having firms and difference in the one’s who manage and those who are managed and organization with flat structure where people are considered to be equal. This phase defines these degrees with which any of the two patterns are accepted by people. Larger degree people are comfortable and feel good in hierarchy while low degree people always wishes for equality at workplace(Hofstede, 2011).
• Individualism: Individualism versus Collectivism, related to the integration of individuals into primary groups. While talking, people sometimes use “I” and sometimes “We”. To determine which is going to be used or preferred, individualism is helpful. People preferring “I” will be concerned and responsible for their own welfare while people with “We” will take help from the friends and family. They will act as a burden.
• Avoidance of Uncertainty: Uncertainty Avoidance, related to the level of stress in a society in the face of an unknown future. This dimension defines the risk acceptance degree. In case if the degree is high then uncertainty of future will remain. If it is low then ideas that are free are always welcomed.
• Long-Term V/s Short term: Long Term versus Short Term Orientation, related to the choice of focus for people’s efforts: the future or the present and past. This will be reflected in thinker’s attitude which is normative. The results are always quick in short term and but saving and investments are done in long term orientation(Rinuastuti et al., 2014).

The recruitment which is used by Tesco is external. This recruitment will result in rivalry between managers about becoming potential recruits.  Universal competencies are needed in Tesco as organization and this is always wanted by other organization too. At last, we can say that Hofstede is not be used in Tesco’s case as it is unethical in terms of the recruitment in Tesco. The best retail company is considered to be Tesco in UK as it has a wide expansion in food products as well as other services.

There is one more dimension in Hofstede culture dimensions and that is Indulgence and restraint. Let’s discuss that as well.

Indulgent V/s restraint: Indulgence versus Restraint (IND) Indulgence stands for a society that allows relatively free gratification of basic and natural human drives related to enjoying life and having fun. Restraint stands for a society that suppresses gratification of needs and regulates it by means of strict social norms.

Tesco’s Operations and Employee Strength

This is the sixth dimension of Hofstede’s cultural dimension. This is relatively new and that is why it is not very much known to the organizations. This dimension is simple as it focuses on happiness in organization (Communicaid, 2018). This dimension analyses as to how happy the people in the organization are. Degree of freedom and happiness is defined. As far as Tesco is concerned, this dimension will be in good degree as employees there are given freedom of speech. They share their ideas with their managers and employees are valued too. Tesco believes in keeping the workplace as a happy place for all their employees.

This model defines four types of Organizational Culture which makes the impact in the effectiveness of the company.

• Tough Guy Culture: This culture contains a world of individualists who enjoy risk and who get quick feedback on their decisions. This is an all-or-nothing culture where successful employees are the ones who enjoy excitement and work very hard to be stars. The entertainment industry, sports teams and advertising are great examples of this cultural type.
• Work Hard culture: This culture is the world of sales (among others). Employees themselves take few risks; however, the feedback on how well they are performing is almost immediate. Employees in this culture have to maintain high levels of energy and stay upbeat. Heroes in such cultures are high volume salespeople.
• Bet-Your Company culture: The culture is one in which decisions are high risk but employees may wait years before they know whether their actions actually paid off. Pharmaceutical companies are an obvious example of this culture, as are oil and gas companies, architectural firms and organizations in other large, capital-intensive industries.(Alisa & Senija, 2010).
• Process Culture: Risks and feedbacks are on the lower side in this type of the model. A few government organizations like banks come into this category.

According to the analysis, Tesco comes in to the category of the Work Hard culture. Tesco is a hard working company and it believes in working with teams. The managers are always connected with their subordinates and hear their ideas and employees are always given respect and are valued.

There is no doubt that the world has become global and widely absorbed and continuously united. People in the whole world stay connected with the help of telecommunications all the time. The management which is done cross culture can be defined as global management which makes out the difference between the behavior of the people and organizations. Also the staff of the organization is trained worldwide so that they can cater the needs of their clients from different cultures (Khazraji, 2009).

United Arab Emirates consists of people from India, Pakistan, Philippines, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The locals are very less there. Approximately more than 80% of the people are from across these parts of the world. The ratio at the work place of Foreign and native workers are causing tensions. The issues are from both native population unemployment issues and issues with the workers who are experienced but from a foreign land. This is because of the less than optimal conditions of working in a few situations. There are social, economic and political concerns still foreign workers are hired on the same pace. The speed is actually increased if seen profoundly. Porter stated that for achieving success in the long term, the organization should choose strategies which will benefit. In United Arab Emirates, there is Hybrid Strategy used by almost every organization (Jenaibi, 2012). The organizations which are really successful use low cost differentiation strategy. If the combination of the differentiation strategy and niche strategy is done, this would be great for UAE market. There are no supermarkets with huge market chains in UAE and it is still under the development of markets. Hence, Tesco is a very good option if it operates there. Tesco is able to sell one of kind products in UAE such as finest brand range could easily appeal to expatriate people which are 80% in total population.

• The working traditions are like this in UAE that it starts on a Sunday and Ends on Thursday. Friday and Saturday is officially for rest. A few businesses will still open on Friday’s but they also opens late when the prayers are over. Office hours are western though.
• Meetings are always scheduled in advance with time allocated is extra in a few of them. People are very punctual there, hence, there is no provision of being late there. Often the meeting gets cancelled at the last minute so, it is important to be flexible.
• The attitude toward time is flexible in UAE if it is compared in many other countries or nations and their cultures. Schedules and punctuality is given less preference when relationships and people are concerned. Hence, it is allowed if the Emirates are late but the foreigners are expected to be on time(AlMazrouei & Pech, 2015).
• The moment discovery of oil was done; the country is transformed into a region which has high standards of living. Many different approaches and traditional attitudes are evolving day after day in the world of business but it is still very important to be respectful for some of the differences which exists.

Hofstede Theory and Tesco’s Organizational Culture

UAE never gives any of the working people the citizenship of their homeland. The visa gets extended for years and years though (Waal & Frijns, 2016). The traditions are still the same. Following of Islam, working weekends, Documentation is done in Arabic and English Only etc. Yet it has become modernized and growing as the place to do business.

The culture of the company is always made up of the values, assumptions, behaviors, attitude and the beliefs which are shared by the people of the organization. It is the behavior which gives the results when the group of people works on the unwritten and unspoken set of things together.

Deal and Kennedy believed that most of the cultures fall into four categories of organizational cultures. These cultures are:

• Tough Guy Culture: The tough guy culture is very common as is seen in many of the organizations. In this, the feedback is given but in the form of rewards which are financial. Sportsperson, entertainers receive feedback rapidly for their work done. Hence, where there is rapid feedback from the people is received; tough guy culture exists there even when the feedback is not just financial(Zabid et al., 2003). One can say that Tesco can have Tough guy culture now as their products will not receive rapid feedbacks. Now that they have grown so much as the organization, their products are known to the market and the consumers. Hence, rapid feedbacks are possible.

Threats: There is a risk related to this culture type. Success and Failure is related to the feedbacks given. Quick decisions are to be taken by the managers in order to accept those risks.

Opportunities: There is whole lot of internal competition which goes on in the organization due to rapid feedback being received.

• Work Hard and Play Culture: To work hard and play at the same time is the rule which is followed in such type of organizations. Risks are taken by the employees on the basis of the feedbacks in order to succeed. A huge level of low risk activity is though encouraged in this model. Success can be measured by persistence(Leithy, 2017). The first priority is to develop high quality products to the customers. Hence, usually very large scale industries like IT or motor industry uses this type of model as there is low risk anticipated in such big firms.

Threats or Risks:  There occur problems for managers that there is high level of energy flow and the manager has to make sure that this energy is being absorbed in the right tasks and also to ensure the quality.

Opportunities: Good opportunities for the employees as they are allowed to take risks and perform better.

• Bet your Company Culture: The organization culture with the big stakes decisions and where the employees almost come to know very late if their decisions finally paid off or not. Feedback is slow and the risk is high(Nesbit & Lam, 2014). When the huge amount of resources are used and for realization, it takes a long time then bet your company culture exists there. The organization however does its best to perform better and takes the right decisions for itself but still as the organization does not get feedback quickly, there is high amount of risk in such types of business.

Threats or Risks: Not getting feedback gives no idea of improvement and there might be huge amount of resources that might get wasted even when a single decision is taken wrongly.

Opportunity: In case of long term results in a good way, there is a high opportunity for the business to grow. But it takes years for that.

• The Process Culture: This type of culture exists where there is no feedback or very little feedbacks are given. The employees almost never come to know about the feedbacks. One can say that the process gets out of control in such type of cultures. The risk is low and the feedback is also low. Hence, the employees focus on the ways with which the work is being done rather than what exactly the work is(Barnat, 2014). Employees could become defensive here. They are always in fear that they will be attacked if they work incorrectly.

Threats: Employees gets defensive and aggressive. Work environment might get ruined.

Opportunities: Fewer opportunities are there in such cultures as the work culture is not very appreciative but there is a chance of low risk.

• The Islamic Culture: The Islamic Culture tries to be westernized as far as they as this culture allows them to do so, in order to grow and do business with global markets. Islamic culture is seen in UAE as this is the religion which is followed there. This type of culture might not be effective if some flexibility is not given. Still UAE is growing and developing as it tries to adopt new cultures while following their own traditions too(Nurullah, 2008).

Culture is held most important for the business growth perspective. For long term success, culture plays an important role.

There are a few impacts of culture due to which an organization can achieve its objectives. They are as follows:

• Mission at Heart: The first work of the organization’s culture is that it establishes the specific set of goals which are aligned with the total set of goals that the company has to achieve. The culture of the company specifies that it should have strong purpose for the encouragement of the employees(Qawasmeh et al., 2013). This way the organization will be able to motivate most of the individuals for buying the purpose and then the feedback loop will be completed. At last, everyone will be more focused and aligned in the organization. Then whether it is long term or short term goals, they will be achieved.
• New Talent: Attracting new talent is hard for all the companies. But new talent is always needed for every company to stay afloat. No matter what the company do to hire new talent like hiring professionals, head hunt at networking or post new jobs but the inbound approach is simpler if well established culture exists in organization. Talent in that case will naturally seek out(Aktas et al., 2011). This works nicely when candidates know the worth of their skills and are very picky about the place they work in. They usually are in need to look for the organization whose culture can match up to their personalities. Hence, culture can help bring new talent.  
• Employee Retention: Employee turnover if is excessive then it is hard for the company to grow. The organization’s morale also lowers when there are always new joiners ready for the training(Kelepile, 2015). All the hard work goes into training new candidates and integrating them into business. If the culture of the company is strong, it will encourage people to come for work every day and that is how the number of retention will become less. Retention and culture both have self sustainable relationship. If the culture of the company is strong, the retentions will not take place.
• Passion Encouraging: If people are given good culture in the organization, they will not just feel the need to stay and enjoy their work but also feel occupied and invested in their work. Workers need to feel that office is the extension of their home. More passionate the employees are, more productivity can be expected from them(Nganga & Nyongesa, 2012).
• Brand Identity Differentiating: Internal company culture is very important for differentiating between the brands in external terms. In case if the workers in the company are more conversational, the customer calls service employees will also be more conversational. Hence, if the culture is string then so will be the brand.

An organization tends to do everything that can make the culture and the climate of the organization healthy. Keeping employees motivating is very important these days to reduce retention. There are a few points with the help of which climate of Tesco is maintained.

• Strengthen Communication: Effective communication can become a key leadership for the motivation development and healthy work climate. When meetings are regularly done in an organization, there is no way that any miscommunication happens in the internal climate of the organization. Tesco believes that any kind of problem is solved by creating a good communication channel in the company. The top management leadership always stays connected with the subordinates in order to have better communication.
• Restructure, Organize and Downsize: When restructuring and downsizing is done, issues occur in the organization. Employees are also affected by this. During the time of inflation, Tesco made sure that it keeps the prices intact of the products but deliver the best ones. Tesco majorly did not have to face any of such issues as it played well in its strategies in the market.
• Motivating Staff: For motivating staff, Tesco believes that this depends on two types of people: customers and Staff. Tesco values its staff and agrees that their staff is one of a kind and also they have very different lifestyle outside work. Hence, it helps its staff to maintain the work life balance and often offers rewards like flexible working hours, reduced benefits of health rates, gym membership, Salaries that are competent and other discounts. Also sports days and ethnic day and competitions for fun goes on throughout the year(Yamuna & Devi, 2016).
• Whistle blowing and Grievance Handling: For both such things, Tesco has a 24 hours online service for the benefit of their employees. This helpline is places in all the countries where Tesco operates(Report, 2009).
• Structure and future Plans: The only vision and mission of Tesco is to grow its customers and become a top seller in UK. Structure of Tesco is very well defined and the reporting is done in a way that every top management member is connected with down management(Millar & Rigby, 2015).

Understand how the current organizational values of your chosen organization are linked to the organizational objectives, and propose a framework of organizational values that can meet the specific strategic and operational needs of your chosen organization. 

Types of Organizational Culture and Their Impact on Success

The long term idea of Tesco is valuing preparation of employees and to indulge this value in the civilization of the administration. The type of value is also placed on HR demonstrates commitment from the top management. The sole purpose for this is to keep up this increased accent on staff preparation and to involve this gain on top in administration. The administration of Tesco at UK is very successful (Javed et al., 2017).

The trainings at Tesco are given to the interns after they are hired so that they can indulge the values and beliefs of Tesco in mind and heart since the inception. With age come maturity is what Tesco believes in. The higher responsibilities are given to the senior people who not just have experience but maturity to handle situations too. Tesco believes in motivating employees by various methods which are discussed above.

Tesco also take online tests for hiring good interns or the employees. The size of Tesco allows the thriving applicants to participate in the tests seeking variety of roles. Tesco also gives offers graduate programs for finance, food, customer service, online stores, supply chain, general merchandise, program manager and technology engineering too. The test includes a few steps:

• Online Application submission
• Psychometric Tests
• Interview (Video)
• Assessment which includes face to face interview, GD and presentation(Practiceaptitutetests, 2018).

In the year 2007 and 2008, the retention percentage of the company was 80% (TESCO, 2008). Tesco makes sure that its employees are values and feel respected. For doing this, every leader/manager is connected with the employees and knows what they are going through or feel.

Tesco majorly operates with the stakeholders like:

Customers: Time meeting for customer’s questions is important like a diamond which should be cut and polished from time to time. The staff of Tesco hears all the views of their customers irrespective of the topic or the problem. They have developed a mark in the community as their services are the best in UK (Apaoja & Haapasalo, 2014).

Staff: The staff is one of the most important stakeholders for Tesco. Due to its staff, the company has reached to this amount of heights. The staff view points are given too much importance and just like customers, the staff also has staff question time sessions (Caputo, 2013).

Suppliers: Tesco believes in treating people just like it wants to get treated by them. This is something very unique and they apply this to their suppliers as well for getting that grip in their relationship.

Government: Tesco reputation allows it to have good relations with the Government of every country. For example: Following disciplines and traditions of UAE, Tesco does well there as well.

Tesco’s Hiring and Employee Retention Strategies

Tesco has several ways to communicate with its stakeholders. They are:

• Information Presentation: The organization makes sure that the information given to all is transparent. Tesco does not believe in hiding information or giving out the partial one.
• Communication as per comfort: Tesco communicates with its employees as per their comfort level. It gives its stakeholders all the platforms for the communication like Emails, social media, personal meetings or group meetings etc.
• Understand Stakeholders: Never misjudging the stakeholders and learn as to why and what they seek is what Tesco offers.
• Providing Feedback: The feedback is always provided to the stakeholders regarding their interest or the issues they are facing in such a way that the stakeholders do not take it in a negative manner(Stephens et al., 2005).
• Keeping Records: The records of each meeting done with the stakeholders are kept safe in order to have the clear idea of the multi-year projects(Lesko & Hollingsworth, 2011).

Conclusion

Tesco is one of the biggest, largest and the famous brands in food selling line. Its clothing line and other services also are doing good as Tesco operates all over the world with good communication and culture being followed by it (Palmer, 2005). This report focuses on the culture that Tesco follows. With the help of the staff members and managers, the marks of culture being followed by Tesco also have reached from people to people and it has got nice feedback from its customers too. Tesco’s success depicts that branding and amazing service delivery can help the business in long term. Tesco promotes identities which are powerful by creating a retail concept into virus and spreading out their culture everywhere. Environment changes day after day but Tesco despite of this external environment keep on delivering products with high quality and gain trust of their customers and hence, maintaining its leading position (Nwagbara, 2010). The quality of strategy and the speed of their implementing things directly affect their quality of products they deliver. The cognitive behavior followed by this organization is taking it to heights. Within huge organizations, the strategies of Tesco are analyzed and implemented now days and this in itself is the biggest compliment for the culture that Tesco follows.

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