J. C. Penney's Organizational Culture

1. Describe J.C; Penney 's culture before and during Johnson 's time in the organization. What were the attributes that Johnson changed, and how did this impact the culture and success of J.C. Penney?
J.C. Penney’s culture was based on transparency and loyalty before the entry of Ron Johnson. In the early 2000’s the company start struggling with sales because of the high competition in retail apparel industry. The competition was rising-up fast in retail industry due to expanding in internet sales. Company was struggling with sales because of not updating its apparel according to the fashion. Many young customers of the company labelled it as old-fashioned, uninteresting, and uninspired. After appointed as a CEO at J.C Penney in late 2011,

Penney was focused on the external environment. The major goal of the company was to achieve customer satisfaction by giving discounts. Therefore, the organizational culture type that applies to J.C. Penney is market culture. Which has strong external focus and values over stability and control. As company gives values to its employee’s loyalty and never had terminated its old and senior employees before Ron Johnson. Therefore, clan another type of organizational culture is also applies. Which has an internal focus and values flexibility over stability and control. The type of organizational culture that Johnson vision brought under his regimen in J.C Penney was adhocracy. Because he changed the formal structure of the company by removing discounting and focusing on to fashionable look by applying mini-mall concept. Also, he made a quick decision of terminating the old team and appointed his new team outsides of apparel industry. By doing so he wanted to have more control therefore the type of hierarchy culture is also applied to J.C. Penney under his leadership (Kreitner, 2013,

Leadership plays an important role in managing the organizational culture. Changing an organizational culture involves strategic planning with long term vision (Kreitner, 2013, p.73). I would recommend Johnson to improve the organizational culture at J.C. Penney, provide artifacts of the company’s goals and culture. Artifacts can be easily observed, changed, and distributed. Communication and collaboration of employees is also very important. If employees are not familiar with the company’s goals and what the company is expect from them they won’t be able to perform good. Successful organizational culture requires a team work. Johnson should establish the espoused values of the company. These are the stated values and norms that are preferred by the company (Kreitner, 2013, p.63). Johnson should set the basic assumption which values employees (Kreitner, 2013, p.65). When employees see they are valuable to the company and they are secure it gives them confidence and in return they give their loyalty to the