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INTRODUCTION
This paper is prepared to analyse the organizational culture of Quinlan's, and to discuss the reasons behind the low levels of staff morale and the problem of flexibility for Quinlan's, based on the information in the case study and literature. In the first part, the organizational culture of Quinlan's is analysed; the factors explaining this culture and the extent to which the culture is responsible for the company's current difficulties are discussed. In the second part, causes of low workplace morale and possible solutions that can be applied by the Director of HRM at Quinlan's, who has become aware that the underperformance of the company has affected workplace morale, are mentioned respectively. Lastly, the meaning of flexibility in practice for organizational and management strategy is explained; and the challenges that Quinlan's faces in responding to its competitors who operate more flexibly are mentioned.
Organizational culture is a pattern of basic assumptions that are developed by a given group as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration, and that has worked well enough to be considered valuable; therefore, it is taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems (Schein, 1992, cited in Rollinson et al., 2002). There are different views in the literature as to whether culture is something that the organization has, or organization is a culture itself. However, at Quinlan's, the prevailing idea seems to be that culture is devised by management and transmitted or imposed on the rest of the organization as part of the seductive process of achieving membership and gaining commitment, w ...