Company Selection: Save-On-Foods .

Executive Summary

The primary purpose of this study is to describe in depth Save-On-service Food's

procedure and the quality of its services. Save-On-Foods is a grocery store in Canada.
Pattison Food Group is the owner of the network of retail locations. Save-On-Foods is
well-known for its inexpensive assortment. When you shop, you will encounter store
brands like Western Family. Numerous grocery stores provide pharmacies, clinics, and
nutrition programs. There are also Starbucks kiosks and juice bars. Some restaurants
sell only British Columbia wines. Save-On-Foods is a grocery chain in Canada. Save-
On-Foods Arena is named after its owner. Since 2004, when Jim Pattison Group agreed
to spend $1,250,000 over ten years, Save-On-Foods' logo has been on Victoria's new
arena. Despite the fact that most people detested Jim Pattison, this occurred. In
February 2014, the company announced its intention to acquire eleven Sobeys shops
on Vancouver Island. The majority were Safeway and Thrifty Foods stores
(Goddard,2020). Both were major regional employers. According to Overwaitea, eleven
PriceSmart Foods locations will rebrand as Save-On-Foods. Save-On-Food's services
and products are universally endorsed.

Introduction

Save-On-Foods is a Canadian grocer. Pattison Food Group owns the network and
outlets. Save-On-Foods is noted for its cheap selection. You will see store brands like
Western Family when you shop. Many supermarkets have pharmacies, clinics, and
nutrition programs. There are juice bars and Starbucks kiosks. Some restaurants solely
sell B.C. wine. Canadian supermarket chain Save-On-Foods. It has 176 stores in BC, 1
in Yukon, and 1 in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba. Save-On-Foods started in BC
in 1982. Overwaitea Foods was responsible. Since 1915, Jimmy Pattison has owned it
(DiResta et al., 2020). British Columbia's Overwaitea Foods. Overwaitea outlets
became Save-On-Foods in the 1980s. Slowly, this changed. Save-On-Foods was the
only Overwaitea store open in 2018. Edmonton's first Save-On-Foods opened in 1990.
The store's loyalty card has had several names since May 1992. It's now branded the
More Rewards card after a rebranding effort. Victoria, British Columbia's Save-On-
Foods Memorial Centre Arena. Overwaitea owned 11 stores and eateries here. Before
2015, only B.C. and A.B. had SaveOn-Foods. The company plans to open up to 40
more stores in Manitoba and Saskatchewan over the next three to five years. Three
locations in Winnipeg and four in Saskatchewan were planned for 2016. The first store
is scheduled for 2016. Save-On-Foods said in March 2016 that it would open northern
stores. The first one was in Yukon in 2017. This year, Save-Ondistribution Foods
started offering Tesco's private label items.

Mission

By offering a wide range of Food, goods, and services that promote healthy eating, a
healthy lifestyle, and overall wellbeing, we will give our customers the tools they need to
make better health decisions. Some of these include living a healthy life, eating well,
and taking care of your health.

Organizational Culture of Save-On-Foods.

Save-On-Foods vision statement is succinct and to the point. This indicates that the
corporation did not employ lengthy discourses and conversations to communicate its
position to the public and important stakeholders. The vision statement should be
concise and thorough; it should explain the essence of the company and its future
intentions to assist stakeholders understand its business philosophy and strategy.
Three levels of organizational culture

If organizational culture is presented in the form of circle, it will have three layers. The
outermost will be artefacts, middle will be the values and beliefs and inner most will be
the underlying assumptions. Save-On-Foods organizational culture is its strongest
asset, and can be analyzed on three levels:

 Artefacts of Save-On-Foods organizational culture

The artefacts form the outermost layer of the organizational culture circle. The artefacts
are the tangible and visible aspects of the Save-On-Foods organizational culture. Some
examples of the artefacts are- open door policy, office layout and official dress code for
the employees. The cultural artefacts of the Save-On-Foods are easily observable by
the outside world; however, they are hard to interpret.

 Values within the Save-On-Foods organizational culture

The core values are not easily observable. The Save-On-Foods core values are the
shared goals, and standards. These core values are accountability, diversity, quality,
collaboration, passion, integrity and leadership. The Save-On-Foods management
understands the importance of communicating the core values so that each employee
could accept and modify the behavior accordingly.

 Assumptions within the Save-On-Foods organizational culture

Assumptions are deeply embedded ideologies and philosophies and provide the
foundation to the Save-On-Foods organizational culture. Employees generally remain
unaware of these underlying assumptions, yet they play an important role in formulation
of core values and visible behaviors.

Why it is important to understand the organizational culture?

It is important to understand the organizational culture because in today’s competitive
business environment, the organizational culture plays an important role in gaining the
competitive advantage. The organizational culture of Save-On-Foods makes sure that
all employees share the common purpose and it is well aligned with the broader
organizational purpose. The explicit alignment of the behaviors, goals and deeply rooted
philosophies enable the Save-On-Foods employees to put their efforts in right direction,
give best performance and ensure strong commitment with the organization.

Main reasons for understanding the organizational culture are:

 It may act as a strategic tool for understanding the Save-On-Foods willingness to
change,
 It shows how employees relate to the Save-On-Foods work culture.
 It may help Save-On-Foods in identifying the possible gaps between actual and
desired work culture.

Organizational culture in light of Hofstede model

The organizational culture model proposed by the Hofstede holds the seminal
importance as it has been frequently applied by analysts to analyze the organizational
culture of any company. Save-On-Foods organizational culture can also be analyzed in
light of Hofstede’s cultural model. The model has six dimensions, as listed below:

1. Means oriented versus goals oriented

2. Internally driven versus externally driven
3. Easy going work discipline versus the strict work discipline
4. Local versus Professional organizational culture
5. Open system versus the closed system
6. Employee orientation versus work orientation

In next section, each individual organizational cultural dimension is discussed in detail

and related to the Save-On-Foods.

Dimension 1: Means oriented versus goals oriented

What is Mean orientation and Goal orientation?
A highly mean oriented organizational culture emphasizes over ‘how’ the work is carried
out, while, the goal-oriented culture emphasizes over the results and focus on ‘what’
can be achieved. The mean orientation reflects the people’s risk avoidance behavior,
while the goal orientation shows that people’s risk orientation as they remain willing to
achieve the desired results even if they involve certain risks.

Analysis of Save-On-Foods
The Save-On-Foods has successfully attained the right balance between the mean and
goal orientation, as it emphasizes over the importance of accomplishing the goals, and
meanwhile encourage employees to take risks only if they are worthwhile.

By focusing on the mean orientation, Save-On-Foods ensures that the employees must
adopt the ethical and integrate ways for accomplishing the assigned goals because it
considers the integrity as its core value. In this way, employees are encouraged to only
promote the healthy competition.

By focusing on the goal orientation, Save-On-Foods encourages its employees to put

their best efforts for accomplishing the assigned goals. Employees are not punished for
sharing new ideas and taking risks. In this way, Save-On-Foods has successfully
reduced the fear of failure from its employees.

The analysis suggests that the successful organizations like Save-On-Foods intend to
find the right equilibrium position on the mean and goal orientation continuum.

Dimension 2: Internally driven versus externally driven

What is an Internally driven and externally driven culture?
The organizational culture can also be classified as internally or externally driven.

An internally driven organizational culture reflects the employees’ overall perceptions

about their expertise and knowledge. In an organization with highly internally driven
organizational culture, the employees believe that they know the explicit and implicit
needs of customers and act accordingly. The internally driven organizations place high
importance to the ethics and integrity, and they do not compromise over these values to
achieve the desired results.
On the opposite end, the organizations with externally driven culture tend to focus on
the results and employees in such organization believe that meeting the customers’
demands is more important than business ethics. Consequently, they adopt a more
pragmatic rather ethical attitude.

Analysis of Save-On-Foods
The Save-On-Foods organizational culture is more internally than externally driven.
Despite ensuring a quick response to the changing customer needs, the top
management openly communicates the importance of adopting an ethical attitude while
responding to the market needs. The company shares strong commitment to
embedding ethics and integrity into its business operations. The internally driven
organizational culture has enabled the organization to use its ethical brand image as a
tool to get a strong competitive edge over rival firms.

Dimension 3: Easy going work discipline versus the strict work discipline
What is an Easy-going work discipline and the strict work discipline?
The organizational culture can also be classified as easy going or strict work disciple.
This cultural dimension denotes the extent to which the organization is internally
structured, controlled and disciplined.

Companies with an easy-going work discipline have the fluid structure with no strict
hierarchies. The culture lacks the certainty and management can only exert a limited
control to ensure the discipline. Such organizational culture is deemed favorable for
promoting a creative and innovative work attitude.
On the other hand, the companies with a strict work discipline tend to have strict
hierarchies with high certainty. Management exerts the strong control and employees
work in a disciplined work environment with serious attitude.
Analysis of Save-On-Foods
The analysis of the Save-On-Foods organizational culture reveals that the company is
more closely related to the disciplined work culture with vertical hierarchy and tall
structure. It means the management withholds the decision-making authority, and
directly controls the employees’ work behavior. The creative and innovative work
behaviors are promoted by rewarding the employees with various monetary and non-
monetary rewards, but the empowerment and autonomy is limited due to organizations’
inclination towards the strict work discipline.

However, in response to the employees’ growing need for autonomy and

empowerment, the management has decided to make a gradual shift from the
centralized to decentralized organizational structure. This shift will transfer some
authority from top to the bottom, and consequently, the organization will attain a new
equilibrium between strict and fluid structure.

Dimension 4: Local versus Professional organizational culture

What is Local and Professional organizational culture?

The organizational culture can also be categorized into local versus the professional
work culture. This cultural dimension denotes the employees’ identification with either
the boss/work unit or their profession.

In companies with a high degree local culture, the employees tend to identify
themselves with their organizational units, teammates/colleagues or their bosses. The
focus remains internal and short-term and employees have high desire for association
and relatedness to the people around them. The strong social control obliges the
organizational members to behave alike each other.

On the opposite side, in companies with a high degree professional culture, the
employees tend to identify themselves with their profession or work content. They do
not desire to behave alike others and have an external and long-term focus.
Analysis of Save-On-Foods

In case of Save-On-Foods, the company promotes a professional attitude among its

employees. There is no obligation to behave in a particular way. At Save-On-Foods, the
diversity is promoted and differences are appreciated. It is done to leverage the
opportunities offered by such constructive differences. The Save-On-Foods example
shows the importance of cultivating a professional organizational culture to remain
successful in a highly diversified environment.

Dimension 5: Open system versus the closed system

What is open system and closed system culture?

The open versus the closed system dimension denotes the organizations’ accessibility
and overall communication climate.

Organizations with open system tend to welcome the new employees and create an
inclusive work culture in which employees from different demographic backgrounds can
adjust easily. The organization keeps its door open to the outsiders and integrates the
flexibility so that everyone can fit into it. Such organizations value the diversity and
integrate it into their business practices.

On the other hand, the organizations with closed-system tend to make it difficult for
newcomers to adjust and develop relatedness. People in such organizations are
generally exclusive and diversity is discouraged as only certain kinds of individuals are
encouraged to join and fit well in the organization.

Analysis of Save-On-Foods

The analysis of the Save-On-Foods organizational culture shows that the company has
a clear inclination towards the open side. In Save-On-Foods, there are open
communication lines and the organizational culture is flexible and well-diversified. The
competitive advantage of the Save-On-Foods also lies in its ability to manage a highly
diversified workforce.

The open cultural system has enabled the Save-On-Foods to ensure a high information
flow and leverage the knowledge, skills and competencies of employees from diversified
backgrounds. Both these factors are considered important by the multinational
organizations like Save-On-Foods to timely respond to the changing customers’ needs
in different geographic areas.

Dimension 6: Employee orientation versus work orientation

What is employee orientation and work orientation?

The employee and work orientation reflects the management’s philosophy, prioritization
and an overall orientation towards either employee welfare or the accomplishment of
work goals.

An organization with a clear employee orientation reflects the management’s philosophy

of putting the employees ahead of customers and shareholders. It is the management
philosophy and shares the high relatedness to contemporary era in which the human
capital has gained the strategic importance.

In an extremely work oriented culture, the organizations tend to put excessive pressure
on the staff and heavy emphasis is put on maximizing the task performance, even if it
comes at the cost of the broader employee welfare.

Analysis of Save-On-Foods

The Save-On-Foods management truly understands the value of its human capital, and
hence prioritizes the employee satisfaction and motivation. Although, employees are
assigned with the challenging goals, the management takes care of their concerns and
avoids pressurizing them that may lead the employees towards burnout. The equilibrium
between the task and employee orientation is attained by:

Assigning the challenging goals and offering rewards to maximize the task performance

Providing employees with necessary coaching, mentoring and guidance to

accomplished the assigned goals

Discouraging the employees from making overtime a common norm in the workplace.

Motivating and training the employees to manage the stress and time, which is
important for both- improving the task performance, and improving the psychological
well-being.

Overall analysis

The overall analysis suggests that these individual cultural dimensions also interact with
each other. For example, the Save-On-Foods tends to balance its means orientation
and goal orientation, and shares a closer inclination to the mean orientation, which is
interconnected with its inclination towards the internally driven dimension. Both these
dimensions emphasize over the ethics and integrity, and inclination towards one
dimension (e.g. mean orientation) automatically predicts the organization cultures’
inclination towards second dimension

Hofstede organizational culture model- strengths and limitations

The Save-On-Foods organizational culture is analyzed in light of Hofstede’s

organizational culture model. However, the model has certain limitations that must be
considered when applying this model to understand the culture of any organization:
  The organizational culture is broad and complex, and cannot be fully assessed
based on a few dimensions.
 These cultural dimensions are obtained by surveying the 20 units of 10 different
business organizations. The close-ended survey responses may not be detailed
enough to give an insightful information about a company’s culture.
 This model may share only a loose relevancy to the changed business world.

Despite these limitations, the cultural model is still applied by the analysts for following
reasons:

 The model is based on the rigorous research design, which means the extensive
research is conducted to identify these dimensions.
 The model is believed to have a high relative accuracy as most of the
researchers who applied this model offered the consistent results.
 The model is simple and easy to understand, which makes the analysis of
organizational culture easier for the general public.

Conclusion

The analysis of the Save-On-Foods organizational culture demonstrates that successful

commercial organizations do not adopt extreme cultural orientations, but rather seek the
correct balance to establish an influential culture. Save-On-Foods has built a strong
organizational culture that is firmly ingrained and universally embraced by its diverse
workforce.

When a company successfully aligns its structure, culture, and business strategies, and
understands the complex relationship between underlying assumptions, core values,
and observable behaviors, it can use organizational culture to gain strategic
advantages. Save-On-Foods is an example of an organization with a strong work
culture that secures its place in a hypercompetitive market.
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