Kudler

Introduction

Kudler Fine Foods is a specialty food store that specializes in gourmet products. Kudler offers fresh meats, fresh produce, baked goods, gourmet cheeses, and domestic and imported wines.

In the gourmet food store industry, businesses must distinguish themselves from competitors (such as regular grocery stores, restaurants, cafes) by offering unique hard-to-find groceries, or interesting difficult-to-make prepared foods. They must convince customers that the special quality of their products and service is worth the price premium they pay. Kudler’s culture, organizational structure, leadership style, and organizational performance must be lined up to support such goal in order to insure and sustain success.

Culture - Kudler Fine Foods

“Organizational culture is a system of shared values, assumptions, beliefs, and norms that unite the members of an organization. It reflects employees’ views about “the way things are done around.” Organizational culture can influence people to share values that translate into a commitment to work together to achieve goal of importance.” (Gomez, 2002, p. 244). According to leadership expert Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, there are four primary types of organizational cultures: baseball team, club, academy, and fortress culture (Gomez, 2002, p. 116). Kudler publishes its promotion guidelines in the employee handbook which explains entry level workers are encouraged to apply for internal promotions because they are given first choice.

Employees are instructed to use vacation time for rest and relaxation (Kudler website, 2007). Furthermore, employees are advised to address any concerns, especially discrimination, to management without fear of reprimand. Employees have the responsibility to record their own work time and this is a demonstration of trust and respect for each employee. All of these examples exemplify Kudler as a club culture that has been successful in rewarding employees to the benefit of their customers and its...