S Company has for many years been a long standing household name, designing and manufacturing electrical appliances for use in the kitchen. It has developed a strong culture over the years which can be best typified as a role culture. Though, this culture is now acting as a barrier to the company's ability to adapt to become more flexible so that it is able to respond rapidly to changes in the environment and initiatives taken by its competitors in product design.
In certain, the company is falling behind its new competitors when it comes to innovations in latest product development and design. Effective latest product development needs staff to work together across functional boundaries but this is becoming hard to achieve in S Company where people now fiercely protect their functional specialism and will only work on the tasks specified in their job descriptions.
Recommend, with reasons, the type of culture to which S Company now requirements to change.
It is apparent that the culture of S Company requires to change and it is recommended that a task culture would be more suitable given the changes in business conditions. This type of culture is typified by teamwork, flexibility and commitment to achieving objectives rather than emphasising a formal hierarchy of authority.
The task culture is often reflected in a matrix structure or project teams, where the focus is on completing a job or project. A task culture tends to support greater flexibility, with people working together across functional boundaries to achieve organisational objectives, and people are not hindered in terms of their contribution by tight job explanations. This would better suit latest product development activities where people need to work effectively across boundaries.