organization culture, organizational behaviour

The False Promise of Organizational CultureChange: A Case Study of Middle Managers inGrocery Retailing*

Emmanuel Ogbonna and Barry WilkinsonCardiff University; University of Bath

The strategic importance of managing organizational culture has been acentral theme in organizational literature over the past two decades. But relativelylittle attention has been given to the impact of culture change initiatives onmanagers. This paper reports on the impact of a programme of culture change onmanagers at one of Britains leading grocery retail chains. Based on a series ofdetailed interviews with managers together with examination of company documentsand an understanding of trends in grocery retailing, we explain the purpose andcontent of change, and document and analyse the reactions of those managers whoare expected to change their own cultural orientations as well as persuade theirsubordinates to change. We conclude that in this case at least changes in managerialbehaviour, as with previously documented changes in the behaviour of shopfloorworkers, are related more to surveillance, direct control and the threat of sanctionthan any transformation of managerial values. Indeed, the situation and experiencesof managers one of reduced autonomy, close monitoring and control, andperceived career insecurity are explained less in relation to organizational culture,more in relation to organizational (re-)structuring intended to create a morecentralized form of organizational control.

INTRODUCTION

Attempts by the UKs major grocery retailers to transform the culture of theirorganizations through human resource management practices intended to instilcompany loyalty and a customer ethos among staff are well documented (March-ington and Harrison, 1991; Ogbonna and Harris, 1998; Ogbonna and Wilkinson,1988; Rosenthal et al., 1997). Previous research (for example, Ogbonna andWilkinson, 1990) identified a range of problems associated with these culture

Journal of Management Studies 40:5 July 20030022-2380

Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ,UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

Address for reprints: Emmanuel Ogbonna, Cardiff Business School, Cardiff University, Colum Drive,Cardiff CFI 3EU, UK ([email protected]).

change programmes, and concluded that the prospects for a company to trans-form successfully the values of a low paid, low skilled and largely transient work-force were poor. Behavioural changes were documented, but these related toheightened surveillance and closer direct control of employees rather than changesto values and assumptions (see Ogbonna and Wilkinson, 1988, 1990). Evidence ofalteration to employee values has been limited (for example, Rosenthal et al., 1997)and behavioural change has been related in part to instrumental motives (seeOgbonna and Harris, 1998). These findings have been echoed in several other dis-cussions of the culture phenomenon (see for example, Ackroyd and Crowdy, 1990;Hpfl et al., 1992; Legge, 1994; Ogbor, 2001; Willmott, 1993) and Anthony (1990)raised the perplexing question of why, in the face of achieving at best only aresigned behavioural compliance, managers continued to pursue culture changeprogrammes.

One answer to this question, as Anthony discusses at length, might lie in thepsychological needs of managers to engage in legitimatory activities, and to theirneed to distance themselves from shopfloors (building a cocoon). Another, whichcould be argued from the mainstream view of organizational culture (see forexample, Alvesson, 1993; Martin, 1992; Meyerson and Martin, 1987; Ogbonna,1993; Ogbor, 2001; Silvester et al., 1999) could simply be the length of time itmight take to change ingrained and embedded cultures.

However, previous studies of planned culture change have commonly beendirected at low-level employees, especially shopfloor workers (see Ackroyd andCrowdy, 1990; Harris and Ogbonna, 1998a, 1998b; Ogbonna and Wilkinson,1988, 1990; Rosenthal et al., 1997). It is possible that the ambiguous findings ofstudies into culture management might be explained by the peculiar nature ofmuch shopfloor work and shopfloor workforces. That is, relative to managerial andprofessional occupational groups, most shopfloor workers are subject to poor termsand conditions of employment, have poor (if any) career prospects, and in groceryretailing are often part-time or temporary workers for whom the job is not a centralaspect of life. Hence, in order to provide a fuller assessment of the organizationalculture paradigm, the question of whether planned culture change is more likelyto be achieved at managerial levels needs to be addressed. Put simply, if managersenjoy greater rewards and opportunities, carry more responsibility, exercise a widerrange of skills, and invest more of their identity in their work and careers, then itmight logically be assumed that they are more likely than shopfloor workers torespond positively to values espoused by their organizations.

The research on which this paper is based was designed to contribute to thedevelopment of the literature on planned culture change by exploring managerialperceptions of organizational culture initiatives, and examining whether plannedculture change is more likely to be achieved at managerial levels. It seemed to usthat while an organization-wide strong culture might be unlikely under most cir-cumstances (and certainly in UK grocery retailing) the managerial ranks within

1152 E. Ogbonna and B. Wilkinson

Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2003

the organizations might more readily identify with espoused values. Whether thiswould be the case or not, it was clear that the paucity of empirical research intomanagers relationships with, and responses to, culture change initiatives made theman important focus of enquiry. The evidence gathered was primarily a series ofin-depth interviews and detailed observation of the work of middle managers inone of the leading UK grocery retail chains, together with an array of documen-tary evidence on change programmes, organization reporting structures, and orga-nizational control systems.

Prior to the presentation of the findings of the study, we set the study in contextby briefly overviewing the literature on planned culture change and its links to thestudy of middle managers, and by describing the research methods adopted.

MANAGING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Organizational culture has become a key concept in the human resource man-agement literature, with scholars distinguishing between a personnel manage-ment or low commitment approach which emphasizes a bureaucratic, rule-basedculture, and an HRM or high commitment approach which emphasizes em-powerment and shared values (Guest, 1991; Storey, 1992; Watson, 2002). Like theorganizational behaviour literature, the human resources literature is character-ized by debate over the importance of the culture concept as well as the possibil-ity and desirability of planned culture change. Thus, although organizationalculture is now a widely studied topic, considerable conceptual difficulties continueto undermine the status of the concept. Interestingly, the spread of theoretical perspectives through which culture has been studied in organizational settings has added to (rather than resolved) the confusion and complexity surrounding the concept (see discussion by Rowlinson and Proctor, 1999). In this regard,researchers have called for an amalgamation of extant conceptualizations into an integrated theory of organizational culture (see Frost et al., 1991; Hendry,1999).

However, whilst a consolidation of existing knowledge is yet to be achieved, itis arguable that an element of convergence is emerging in contemporary organi-zational culture research. It is beyond to scope of this review to provide a full discussion, but it is important to note that organizational culture is commonly conceptualized as dynamic (see Frank and Farhrbach, 1999; Hatch, 1993; Schein,1996), multifaceted (see Harrison, 2000; Ogbonna and Harris, 2000) and layered (seeDetert et al., Hofstede et al., 1990; Pettigrew, 1990; Schein, 1992).

Paradoxically, despite the general lack of agreement amongst academicresearchers, practitioner interest in applying the concept of culture to their organizations has been growing rapidly. Such is the attractiveness of culture topractitioners that a recent survey concluded that 94 per cent of organizations ex-perienced planned cultural change in 1997 (see IRS Employment Trends, 1997). This

Organizational Culture Change 1153


level of interest is clearly premised on the assumption that astute executives cancontrol the cultures of their organizations.

Research into managing organizational culture has caused widespread contro-versy and divisions both amongst academics and between academics and practi-tioners. Previous reviews of the literature have been comprehensive and theintention is not to provide a rehearsal of these debates (interested readers arereferred to the reviews by Legge, 1994; Martin, 1985; Ogbonna, 1993; Ogbonnaand Harris, 2002). However, a brief overview of the broad tenets of this literatureis important to set the context for this research. Three broad positions character-ize research in this area. Working largely from a functionalist perspective, the firstcategory of studies consists of those writers who view culture as an organizationalvariable which, like other organizational variables, is subject to the control ofmanagement. This approach is clearly premised on the assumption that the per-formance of an organization is dependent on the strength of its culture, a view which is championed by a number of academics and practitioners (see Deal and Kennedy, 1982; Denison, 1990; Kilmann, 1982; Kotter and Heskett, 1992;Peters and Waterman, 1982). In many ways, the popularity and practical acceptance of this perspective is evidenced by the large number of organizationswhich are frequently reported to be undergoing planned cultural intervention (seeIRS Employment Trends, 1997; Worrall et al., 2000). Proponents of this perspectivehave also offered several models to assist managers in their quest to achieveplanned cultural change (for example, Silverzweig and Allen, 1976; Wilkinson et al., 1996).

Notwithstanding the practical appeal of the idea that executives can control theculture of organizations, numerous critical researchers have questioned the ethicaland intellectual foundations of this view. It is within this broad group ofresearchers that the remaining two approaches to the study of organizationalculture management are located. The most critical researchers frequently arguethat the assumption that organizations can achieve planned cultural change is bothintellectually flawed and practically impossible. In this regard, researchers havequestioned the capacity of managers (including their knowledge and information)to understand and control the basic values and assumptions of employees which,by definition, are deeply embedded in the subconscious (see Krefting and Frost,1985; Gagliardi, 1986). Furthermore, critical culture researchers have argued thatthe rich, complex and differentiated nature of culture makes it a neutral resourceand one which can equally be employed by the managed as well as those manag-ing (see Harrris and Ogbonna, 2002; Legge, 1994; Ogbonna, 1993).

Another strand of research emerging from the critical perspective argues thatthere is some scope for cultural manipulation. These researchers argue that whilstplanned cultural change is difficult, cultural processes in organizations may beinfluenced by certain (albeit rare) organizational and industry conditions (seeChristensen, 1999; Martin, 1985; Meyerson and Martin, 1987; Ogbonna and



Harris, 2002). That is, the successful implementation of planned culture changeis dependent on the context in which it is introduced. However, whilst acknowl-edging that change may be possible under certain conditions, such critical culturetheorists warn that cultural manipulation not only raises ethical dilemmas but thatit is also potentially dangerous and may lead to unintended consequences for theorganizations and individuals concerned (Casey, 1999; Ogbor, 2001; Ray, 1986;Watson, 2002; Willmott, 1993).

While lower level employees responses to culture change initiatives have beenwidely studied, managers are typically presented simply as the agents of culturechange rather than the targets. That is, managers experiences of, and responses to,planned culture change, have not been studied. Yet studies of the related topics ofquality management and employee involvement have identified middle managersas barriers to the successful implementation of such initiatives (Bradley and Hill,1983; Fenton OCreevy and Nicholson, 1994; Marchington et al., 1993). FentonOCreevy (2001, p. 26) points out that middle management resistance often takeson subtle forms, such as engaging only in those involvement activities most visibleto senior management. He goes on to argue that the context in which initiativesare introduced (e.g. the level of managerial job security; the structuring of mana-gerial roles) have a direct bearing on their enthusiastic acceptance and pursuit.Some studies have suggested that reductions in managerial layers have been asso-ciated with increased job autonomy and satisfaction for middle managers (Dopsonand Stewart, 1990; Thomas and Dunkerly, 1999). Scase and Goffee (1989) on theother hand uncovered greater insecurity and pressures to perform while Watson(2002) has detailed a high degree of ambivalence among managers towards neworganizational initiatives. Thus, studies of middle managers suggest that theirresponses to initiatives might be akin to those of shopfloor employees they arecontext-dependent, or as Peccei and Rosenthal (2001) argue with regard to cus-tomer orientation initiatives, they must be supported by human resources strate-gies that fit. Our own study provided the opportunity to explore the extent ofacceptance and pursuit of a strong culture by middle managers working in a par-ticular organizational and sectoral context.

Overall, the literature on managing organizational culture diverges regardingthe possibility and desirability of the managerial control of the values, beliefs andassumptions of organizational members. The position of critical organizationalculture and human resource management research has been particularly negative,and many scholars have raised ethical concerns regarding the inculcation oforganizational values to lower level employees who are disadvantaged in termsof their status and power capacity both to decide organizational values and todevelop appropriate and legitimate strategies of resistance. Such concerns areunderstandable given that existing studies of culture management focus on lowerlevel (frequently front-line) employees with no study directly exploring the impactof culture change on managers. This study was designed to contribute to the



literature on organizational culture by exploring managerial perceptions and reac-tions to culture change initiatives.

METHODOLOGY

The study reported in this paper was designed to explore the perceptions and reac-tions of managers to organizational culture change initiatives. The aim was touncover whether managers were more likely to share espoused organizationalvalues than employees at the lower levels of the organizational hierarchy.

The empirical evidence for the paper was gathered through an in-depth quali-tative study of a single organization. This approach was adopted for a variety ofreasons. For example, organizational culture theorists have extolled the virtues ofthe qualitative case approach as a way of achieving penetrating accounts of organi-zational change. Specifically, it is commonly argued that in-depth case studies aremore appropriate methods of uncovering the meanings that organizationalmembers ascribe to their environment as well as the ways in which such meaningsare constructed and re-constructed (Martin, 1992; Schein, 1996; Smircich, 1983).Furthermore, a number of researchers have noted that since every organizationhas unique attributes, investigators should adopt approaches that enable them todevelop insights into the patterns of values and assumptions that characterize theculture of a given group (Howard, 1998; Schein, 1990). Such desire for depth andunderstanding influenced the choice of a single case study. Similarly, the choice ofa single rather than multiple case studies follow the persuasive arguments of Dyerand Wilkins (1991) and is consistent with the precedent of many recent influen-tial studies in organizational theory in general (for example, Dutton and Dukerich,1991; Martin, et al., 1998) and organizational culture in particular (see Kunda,1992; Harrison, 2000).

Research Strategy

The research team have a collective experience of 25 years of conducting organi-zational culture research. Much of the empirical studies carried out by the teamduring this period have focused on cultural change initiatives in the UK food retailsector (for example, Ogbonna and Wilkinson, 1988; 1990). In this regard, we haveestablished good working relationship with many organizations in the industry andthis helped us to gain good access to study the cultural change initiatives of oneof the top food retailing groups in the UK.

The case study organization, STAR (a pseudonym), employs over 100,000people, of which just over a third are full time. At the beginning of the researchin 1996, the company had around 160 stores, of which most were superstores witharound 30,000 square feet of trading space. Twelve of the stores were designatedas the model stores and each of these had around 100,000 square feet of trading



space. As will be detailed later, the bulk of the empirical data for the study wasgenerated from six of these flagship stores.

Data Sources

Data for this study were gathered from three main sources. Firstly, the companyprovided access to a vast array of documented material detailing both the espousedrationales for the change initiative and the strategies for cultural change. Archivaldata were also made available and these included several internal memorandarelating to this and previous change initiatives, internal consultancy reports, copiesof staff attitude surveys, and internal records of press cuttings.

A second source of data was the observation of managerial behaviour at a seriesof training and team building sessions centrally organized for: (1) area managerswho were responsible for motivating general store managers to adopt the espousedcompany values; (2) general store managers who were in turn responsible for moti-vating the management teams in their individual stores; and (3) other members ofthe store management teams whose commitment to change was also consideredimportant for the success of the change initiative. In all, we attended seven one-day training courses and team building exercises in which over 200 managers par-ticipated. These courses provided us with a useful opportunity to gauge the overallstrength of feeling on this and previous change initiatives. Although we did notconduct formal interviews with the course participants, we had several informaldiscussions with many managers. Indeed, we regularly sat with the course par-ticipants during coffee and lunch breaks and would frequently invite them tocomment on the change programme. Their comments were recorded in a researchnotebook as soon as possible after the discussions. A total of 14 such meetings wereheld with 26 managers, of which four were area managers, nine were general storemanagers and the rest were other members of the store-level management teams.Although these discussions helped in establishing the general pattern of percep-tions which were explored in detail in subsequent interviews, they did not provideany verbatim accounts which could be reported in this paper.

The third and most important source of data for the study is the series of in-depth face-to-face interviews and observation at six of the largest stores in STAR(each store had a trading space of 100,000 square feet). These stores were espe-cially targeted because they were among the 12 stores identified in internal reportsas STARs flagship stores. Similarly, these stores were selected because they weredesignated training centres for store managers across the group and they were alsoamongst the most profitable stores in the group. In this phase of the study, a totalof 30 interviews were held with 15 managers (two regional managers in whoseregions the six stores were located, four general store managers, two deputy generalstore managers and seven departmental managers). In addition, we interviewedone head office director who has experienced several change initiatives with STAR



and who was the only director to have worked as a general store manager in thecompany.

The number of informants was deliberately kept low so as to allow detailedprobing and exploration of the issues, particularly those issues that were raisedduring the training and team building sessions discussed earlier.

The Interviews

With the exception of the director, all the managers interviewed were categorizedas middle managers by the company. An indication of the significance of the keyinformants is that collectively, the six participating stores contributed over 500million to the companys turnover and accounted for around 7 per cent of STARsfull time employees. At the time of the interviews, the average annual salary for ageneral store manager in the company was 55,000 although three of our infor-mants in this category indicated that their annual salaries and bonuses regularlyexceeded 75,000. In addition, the package for a general store manager includeda fully expensed executive car, full family health cover, paid annual holiday tripsand a range of other benefits.

Interviews were semi-structured with the intention that managers could freelyexpress their thoughts on culture change. They were asked to contrast the oldand the new company cultures, and they were asked how their roles, respon-sibilities, and ways of working and managing might be changing. They were alsoasked to comment on how they experienced and felt about these developments.Each manager was interviewed twice and each interview lasted between one andtwo hours. Interviews were audiotape recorded, resulting in a total 27 audiotapes.We also attended regular weekly management meetings in the six stores and werepresent during several meetings that managers were required to have with employ-ees as part of the change initiative. We also observed actual work behaviour duringnumerous formal and informal visits to the participating stores.

Data Analysis

All interviews were transcribed verbatim, leading to over 300 pages of transcribeddata. In addition, we collected over 400 pages of reports, change manuals andother information. The process of analysis began with the coding of the inter-views and documents into theoretically derived categories focusing on the per-ceptions of the informants on the espoused rationale for change, the changingnature of managerial roles, the level of culture change advocated, the approachesadopted, the intended and unintended impacts of change, and the tensions andcontradictions which characterized change. Consequently, we worked on the taskof developing categories, linkages, relationships and subdividing categories in amanner akin to the approach to grounded theory suggested by Strauss and Corbin



(1990). The coding and categorization were first conducted independently by theresearchers following which the results were compared and the inconsistencieswere discussed and resolved.

Following the suggestion of Price et al. (2000), we carried out internal and external credibility tests by asking an experienced qualitative researcher to reviewour coding and categories and by sending our findings to four STAR managerswho expressed an interest during the interviews. All the comments received wereconsidered and where necessary, amendments were made to reflect them.

Finally, we recognize that a key limitation of this study is that it is based on alimited number of informants in a single organization. However, our intention wasnot to seek generalizability. Instead, we sought to embrace all the richness andcomplexity of a real organizational setting to provide what Lincoln and Guba(1985, p. 359) refer to as vicarious experience. In this regard, it is anticipated thatthe wealth of contextual detail and the depth and insight that we provide willenable readers to assess our findings and evaluate the applicability of our resultsto other situations.

FINDINGS

Prior to the presentation of the findings, it is useful to provide some contextualinformation on the case company.

In the mid-1980s, in common with its competitors, STAR attempted to trans-form the way it did business to become more customer focused. A whole arrayof changes aimed at improving the offering to customers were introduced, includ-ing locating new superstores out-of-town with convenient parking facilities, extend-ing the range of goods on offer to enable one stop shopping, and enhancing storeattractiveness with changes to design and layout. A greater emphasis on customerservice also led to attention to staff interactions with customers. No longerpunters, customers were to be treated with courtesy and respect, and this was tobe achieved by a transformation of the corporate culture. Specifically, employeeswere expected to identify closely with the company and its customers, and changesto selection, training, appraisal, communications, etc. policies were introduced inpursuit of value change. Our research in this company in the late 1980s onshopfloor workers responses to culture change initiatives uncovered significantchanges in shopfloor workers behaviour (giving customers more attention, dis-playing deference), but this was more to do with behavioural compliance under asituation of surveillance and threat of sanction than with any transformation ofthe values of workers (workers did not express love of either the customer or thecompany) (Ogbonna and Wilkinson, 1988; 1990). At the time we did not seriouslystudy managerial responses to the new culture change initiatives, although on thesurface it did appear that managers were enthusiastic in their implementation ofthe policies that were associated with the culture change programme.



But a fuller understanding of managers is important. Not only do managershave to act the part; they are expected to persuade others, their subordinates, toact the part too. They are key agents in any process of change. Hence in this studyour intent was to focus on managers. How do managers, presented with the impera-tive of culture change and charged with the responsibility of diffusing that change,rationalize their experiences and actions? Given their relatively privileged posi-tions and their presumed career ambitions, are they more likely to adopt a newset of values, perhaps become evangelists themselves? The shopfloor workers westudied included many part-time and temporary workers, wages were quite poor,and turnover among their ranks was high: would the different circumstances ofmanagers make them more ready to align themselves with espoused organizationalvalues?

BACKGROUND: THE STAR WAY OF WORKING FORMANAGEMENT

As mentioned above, previous initiatives to change culture and values date backto the mid-1980s. New initiatives, some major and some minor, have been intro-duced since then. The initiative all the managers were talking about during inter-views in 1996/97 was a major one it was still being actively diffused four yearsafter its launch and it focused specifically on the expectations placed on man-agers, particularly store managers. In 1993 STAR distributed a 100 plus pagesdocument entitled The STAR Way of Working for Management (hereafter STARWOW)which prescribed in some detail what managers should do. The document wasproduced by head office personnel staff with the assistance of consultants and in consultation with the board of directors. In the document, co-operation,common purpose, trust, and mutual exchange are the order of the day, to beachieved through workforce involvement, continuous learning and develop-ment, and constant listening and appraising. It urges all managers to win thehearts and minds of subordinates in order to achieve continuous improvementfor improved total sales performance. While many of the general themes in thedocument had been proselytized since the late 1980s, STARWOW is remarkablefor its detailed explicit prescriptions for managerial behaviour. (In hindsight itappears to us that perhaps the very production of the document indicated a lackof satisfaction at the highest levels of the company with store management.) Detail-ing some of its content here will give a clear indication of the culture changethought necessary.

The STAR Way of Working (STARWOW)

STARWOW stipulates a top-down programme of culture change, using the familiar cascade approach whereby regional managers and regional personnel



managers lead and manage the process through general store managers. In turnthe general store manager persuades his or her departmental managers to adoptand internalize the desired values, behaviours and styles; change then cascadesdown through supervisors to shopfloor workers (defined as colleagues in theSTARWOW culture change manual). Most of the messages are aimed at thegeneral store manager who is presented as the key to change, though the impli-cations for other levels of management are clear. As information from officialcompany documentation shows, STARWOW provides a mix of encouragementand imperative.

The general store manager plays a key part in the process of change. Everyonein the store takes their lead from the general store manager and the generalstore manager will either facilitate it or block and delay it. It will be evident toeveryone whether the general store manager is truly behind this developmentor only paying lip service to it . . . It is important that everyone is aware of thedesired styles of behaviour for the success of STAR, and realizes the consequences of not operating in the STAR way of working. (STARWOWManual)

The STARWOW culture change initiative demands a move towards performanceresponsible teams in each department (grocery, bakery, dry goods, etc.) of eachstore, where colleagues are trained to do every task within the department, andwhere many tasks which were previously the responsibility of managers and super-visors are delegated to colleagues. Managers and team trainers are expected tocreate such teams via training in technical competencies and broadening col-leagues understanding of the business; also through motivating everyone with avision of STAR, creating a sense of group loyalty, and getting the team to takeownership.

STARWOW specifies in detail selection criteria for colleagues, induction pro-grammes for new recruits, and content and methods of training and appraisal.These are essentially the same as those in use since the late 1980s, though theyhave been further refined, and carefully justified in relation to the new way of working. Perhaps more significant innovations are new specifications for communications, and clear formal prescriptions for managerial orientations andbehaviour.

On the communications front, meetings are now specified in terms of frequency,length and agenda: the general store manager should meet weekly with depart-mental managers, who in turn should meet weekly with their teams; and on amonthly basis the general store manager should bring together the whole man-agement team. In addition, the general store manager should organize customerfeedback groups regularly, and groups of colleague representatives of the storeshould meet with their general store manager fortnightly. The latter meeting is



called a listening group, and the manager is expected to note problems and ideasraised by colleagues, and where appropriate take action to improve things. Pointsraised and action taken are displayed on a notice board which can be read by allcolleagues. In fact, interviews and observation revealed that listening groups werenot always successful, largely because regularly freeing colleagues for such meetings contradicted the simultaneous drive for efficiency and maximum humanasset utilization. Hence the introduction, with senior management approval, ofhuddles, where managers occasionally put on their huddle hats and pull colleagues together on the shopfloor for briefer and more informal listening sessions.

On prescriptions for orientations, STARWOW explains in some detail the char-acteristics and commitments needed by store managers: these are summarized ascommitted to STAR, committed to customers, committed to teams, and com-mitted to personal (self and subordinate) development. Regional managers andregional personnel managers are asked regularly to monitor managerial orienta-tions on an informal basis by talking with managers, colleagues and customers,and to undertake more systematic reviews by examining the results of role expec-tation graphs (REGs). These entail a self analysis by each manager, giving a scorefrom 1 (poor) to 10 (good) for several desirable attributes (I understand customers,I select the best people, I help subordinates set goals, I communicate informa-tion on store performance, etc.); this is then followed by subordinate assessmentsof the manager on the same dimensions and using the same scale. Discrepanciesbetween superior and subordinate assessments, as well as low scores, are cause forconcern and action.

STARWOW tells regional managers and regional personnel managers that: Itis hard to change a management style. It takes time and determination. There willbe many moments when people revert to old ways and other values. They areencouraged to adopt a coaching relationship with general store managers. Settingtimetables and benchmarks, and communicating constantly, they are expected toreport regularly to the Company Board on progress in cultural and organizationalmanagement in relation to the STAR Way of Working. They are asked to oversee,for each store in their region, the introduction of STARWOW, as the general storemanagers take their store through a specified 17-stage programme of changewhich lasts a little under six months.

Managerial Responses

The reader may now have a feel for the content of STARWOW and the methodsof introduction. Desired changes across STARs many superstores are highly pre-scribed, and responsibilities for implementation are spelled out quite clearly. Thegeneral store manager is key to introducing a new management style and organi-zational culture which is characterized by openness, delegation, learning, co-



operation, trust and mutual exchange. The questions to be addressed are: Howdid managers understand and respond to the prescriptions for a new managementstyle?. Did their values become aligned with the espoused values?; and if theirvalues were different. Why was this so?

The analysis of the interviews and other data led us to categorize findings underthree broad headings. Firstly, we discuss the views of managers on the old andnew ways of working. Second, we present the answers of managers to questionsof how change had affected the way they behave in practice: how they managesubordinates, how they relate to head office, how they make decisions, etc. Here,issues of control (in particular being controlled) were expressed regularly andstrongly. Our third category, career, was, like the second, not a topic which wasdeliberately or consciously pursued in interviews, but was one which most man-agers expressed a view on, in response to questions such as what is it like to workfor STAR?

Then and Now

The old way of working at STAR, according to most interviewees, was tell anddo (as we are constantly reminded according to one cynical manager). Generalstore managers said in the old days they were not expected to think for them-selves, it was very much head office controlled. In turn departmental managerssaid they were ruled by intimidation and position Im the general store managerso what I say goes. A deputy general store manager summed up the old way asa very dictatorial approach down from top management, you shall do it or else,if you dont like it, theres the door. However, a few managers questioned the tell and do characterization of the past (a characterization espoused at severalpoints in the STARWOW document), pointing instead to a degree of paternal-ism and a degree of independence from head office. A general store managersaid, as a manager then it was a very powerful position because people listenedto you . . . the way the company was then was that you were very much runningyour store.

Although a majority of interviewees made negative comments about the theold culture, many expressed positive views about the new, often using the termi-nology found in the STARWOW document. Interestingly, the similarities betweenthe comments of the managers and prescriptions of the STARWOW change document provide an indication of the willingness of the managers to exhibit compliance with the espoused management values. This also raises an interestingquestion relating to the extent of value internalization. That is, if the enthusiasmof managers is an indication that genuine culture change had been achieved (seeOgbonna, 1993), the managers would have been more likely to articulate the positive aspects of the espoused culture in their own terms rather than regurgitatethe language of the STARWOW document. For example:



. . . the new culture as its supposed to be is very much, well, adult relationships,feedback, cycle of improvement, give feedback, they listen, and we want you to take part, and youve got something to offer and its about responsibility and taking ownership and all these things. (General store manager, 7 yearsservice)

Well its a bit more open and honest and challenging, its treating colleagues likeyou would like to be treated yourself and its also developing people, its verymuch more a developing role the whole time. Instead of telling somebody to doit you are asking them to do it and you are also asking for ideas and feedbackconsistently while doing it. Although you are still the manager, at the end of theday they are also doing the thinking themselves so you are encouraging themto think and to take ownership of their ideas. (Departmental manager, 2 yearsservice)

Many managers (interviewed between 1996 and 1997) commented on the incom-pleteness of the implementation of STARWOW (which was launched in 1993),often and perhaps predictably blaming top management for not devoting the nec-essary resources to follow it through. A deputy general store manager commentedthat:

I think its like a lot of things that have been launched in this organization. Itstarts off with a bang and then peters off whether it be through lack of enthu-siasm or resource or whatever . . . weve had STARWOW launch one, weve hadlaunch two, and now I hear there is something coming up soon that should havebeen launched in January that hasnt appeared yet . . . (Deputy general storemanager, 8 years service)

In this regard, the extensive use of training and teambuilding strategies by headoffice change managers is one indication of the desire of top management to main-tain the momentum of the STARWOW change initiative. However, a number ofmanagers suggested that other limits to the progress of STARWOW were relatedto the nature of the work and the workforce. For instance:

I think that there will always be elements of the workforce who are quite happyto go to work, you tell them what to do, how to do it, and they do it and gohome again. Because of the nature of our workforce predominantly part-timeand still a relatively high percentage of those on relatively low wages I thinkweve probably got more of those than we recognize. I think we have to be verycareful about that because we could be seen to be ramming it down their throatsthat we want them to be involved and that could actually work as a negativeagainst us. (Regional manager, 13 years service)



But a number of comments from the informants suggested a radical cynicismtowards the new way of working. One said:

Its a bit like communism, Im telling you this is how it works we want themasses to believe it, but I want to live in wealth and have millions in the bank,but you peasants do as I say, not as I do! (Regional manager, 11 years service)

Ironically, it was the one company director interviewed who was the most scathing:

. . . most of the paternalism, if not all of the paternalism that we knew in theold company has gone and has been replaced by hard unfeeling and uncaringmanagers who compound that behaviour by actually putting the message outthat they are the opposite, that they are in fact caring and solicitous employerswhich they are not. (Director, 17 years service)

This director was one of a few long serving board members who were graduallybeing replaced by younger directors with a different approach. His comments sug-gested a battle between an old and a new generation of directors, with both sidesclaiming the moral high ground, was being won by the new generation. Such gen-erational conflicts have been documented previously (see Gouldner, 1954; Wilkin-son and Smith, 1984). In this regard, the findings of this study suggests a tendencyfor an organization undergoing change to attribute the negative aspects of changeto experienced employees and to label such employees old guard and resistantin a manner that makes their actions more visible. Such practices appear to belinked to attempts by the new generation to control organizational discourse,eliminate insurgence and encourage employees who wish to remain in the orga-nization to repress their ambivalence (see Casey, 1999; Ogbor, 2001).

During interviews managers often echoed the ideals embodied in STARWOW.However, when asked to talk in more detail about their roles, responsibilities andrelationships under the new regime, those very same managers typically indicatedserious reservations or qualifications. Negative commentaries related particularlyto loss of control (and autonomy, and respect from superiors) on the one hand,and to (fears about) career prospects on the other. Similarly to the findings of otherstudies on empowerment (see Grugulis et al., 2000; Lee, 1999), the rhetoric ofempowerment and personal development in STARWOW stood in stark contrast to managers expressed experiences which characterized feelings of selftorment, discipline and loss of identity.

Control

The issue of control emerged as significant in the study of managers and organi-zational culture change. Indeed, almost all the managers interviewed expressed



strong views on what they perceived as the tightening of organizational controlsystems. A particular source of concern was the increasing interference of the headoffice and the escalating attempts to monitor and control the work of store man-agers. As two informants note:

. . . management teams in all the stores have felt that cultural change has addedto the pressure of running the business because they were being monitored andmeasured on a lot more other things apart from pure commercial performanceof the store. (Deputy general store manager, 7 years service)

Store managers have a lot less control than weve had before without a shadowof a doubt . . . by the week and by the month a little bit more is taken awayfrom us; its literally if you over-spend you will get a call on Monday morning. . . (General store manager, 12 years service)

Indeed, the researchers were shown two memos which were received by differentgeneral store managers on the days they were interviewed. In one memo, a headoffice operations manager commented on the 1 per cent over spend on staffingin the previous week while the other memo detailed concern over the storemanagers implementation of employee communication and feedback systemunder the STARWOW change initiative. In both cases, the managers were askedto inform the head office on how they planned to improve or resolve the issuesidentified. Other interviewees commented on the psychological impact of workingin an environment wherein their power to control various aspects of their opera-tion was dwindling. For example:

Managers are being policed, theyre being told what to do . . . theyre reactingto head office wanting things done; theyre not trading managers, theyre justflying around reacting to situations that other people are creating and theyrevery very stressed out. (Deputy general store manager, 8 years service)

One manager who was interviewed shortly after a feedback meeting with an areamanager expressed his concern at the way the organization was undermining therole of store management and his dissatisfaction with the companys approach toappraising store managers. As he notes:

I just got feedback from a hundred colleagues, an upward feedback sessionwhere they fill in forms and answer various questions . . . Theyve been drawnup and designed by somebody who has very obviously had a personnel back-ground, who has never run a company store in their life, and some of the ques-tions that are in it are very very awkward for a colleague to answer, and veryvery unfair for you to take feedback on. Such as, does your general store



manager communicate with you on a daily basis?, which is unfair to ask a check-out operator or a lady on the deli counter. (General store manager, 6 yearsservice)

Such comments are typical responses to the increase in behavioural and opera-tional prescriptions and monitoring in STAR. The nature of behavioural pre-scriptions and monitoring systems (including REGs) has been summarized earlier.Operational monitoring is equally, if not more, detailed including items such ascustomer complaints, mystery shopper scores, average check-out queue lengths,scanning speeds, contract cleaning bills, turnover and absentee rates, and freecarrier bags usage, as well as sales, wastage and shrinkage measures. Performanceleague tables which list all group stores against these and other measures are pub-lished and distributed on a monthly basis. The best stores act as benchmarks;other stores are set targets for improvement; the worst stores are subject to closeattention and monitoring while their managers undergo further training.

The grounds were laid for the possibility of close monitoring and league tablesby the late 1980s. Store managers autonomy had already began to be underminedby the progressive centralization of purchasing and distribution functions, anddecisions on stock levels, range, and product offerings were increasingly beingtaken at head office. Managers could be judged simply on how well they imple-mented a recipe determined elsewhere. In addition, advances in information tech-nology and systems such as electronic-point-of-sale (EPOS) enabled a range ofaccurate information to be analysed speedily for all the stores in the chain(Ogbonna and Wilkinson, 1996). By the mid 1990s, league tables on a range ofmeasures were being published and distributed monthly, and while almost all themanagers interviewed expressed concerns over the validity of particular measuresand the ways in which results were interpreted, the consequences of the resultscould not be escaped. One regional manager lamented that:

. . . its a statistical approach to managing a multi-million pound business itsall based on statistics. (Regional manager, 13 years service)

The same regional manager went on to give an example:

So, they have this agenda about increasing rotas, you know, less colleaguesworking more hours, reducing labour turnover (but) no one ever asked me whatthe problems are, such as recruitment, retention, labour turnover, absenteeism. . . I genuinely believe that they dont want to know. (Regional manager, 13years service)

The alienation from, or even hostility towards, head office suggested in this quo-tation was repeated by the vast majority of informants:



. . . from head office, store management dont have respect, undoubtedly theydont, and I think for some strange reason they have even less respect than theyused to have . . . store management are slightly the whipping force for thecompany. (General store manager, 8 years service)

Before people were appointed to head office Id make them work in a store fora year, so they can appreciate what it is like in store and understand the effectsthat decisions they make would have on stores. (Departmental manager, 3 yearsservice)

In STARWOW its meant to be we challenge head office and they give us whatwe want and theyre the service centre and they are servicing us. Thats the wayI would like it to be, but I dont see it heading that way. (Deputy general storemanager, 9 years service)

Equally, the vast majority of managers in the study felt quite powerless against thedirectorate and, as will become clear in the next section, feared serious sanctionfor any (to use the language of one of STARs quality manual) non-conformanceto specification.

Career

The regularity of negative comment about increased prescription and surveillancefrom head office was matched by the frequent expression of fears about negativesanction, especially in relation to job security and career prospects. This point isbest illustrated by the comments of two regional managers regarding the fears andinsecurity that characterized managerial work and the ways in which the culturechange programme at STAR had accentuated these:

. . . the other thing that concerns the general store managers is this on-goingreview of general store managers and this uncertainty does not engender a greatdeal of confidence in terms of where they sit . . . you will end up eventually withpeople spending a disproportionate amount of their time looking over theirshoulders as opposed to concentrating on the job. (Regional manager, 11 yearsservice)

. . . whenever you meet certain key people you always have to project this happyand I love the company impression . . . because there is this underlying insecu-rity, because sometimes what people say isnt really what they think, there is anulterior motive, there is a bit of suspicion around . . . (Regional manager, 13years service)



The insecurity is, according to virtually all managers interviewed, not just in theimagination. Change at STAR has not been restricted to behavioural and opera-tional issues, but includes structural change. Managers described delayering, aflattening of the hierarchy in stores, taking people out when they reach theirfifties, and a shift in promotion preferences for deputy and general store managersto favour graduates in their late twenties over more experienced departmentalmanagers. According to the director interviewed there was an unwritten, but

. . . deliberate policy . . . of saying we take the 20 per cent of worst performersout in year one and replace them and in year two take the next 20 per cent whoare the bottom performers of the good ones and you work your way up . . .(Director, 17 years service)

Such practice of linking organizational rationalization with a deliberate attemptto eliminate those who are perceived to be unenthusiastic about the espoused cul-tural ideals has been documented in other studies of culture change (for example,the case of Westco Millennium change discussed in Ogbonna and Harris, 1998).Unsurprisingly, the managers interviewed in this study expressed not only theirfrustrations in terms of personal career development, but also concerns for theirjobs:

. . . we are now becoming a business of getting rid of people very very quicklywithout them necessarily seeing it coming and people do not seem to have along term career opportunity in our business, so there doesnt seem to be a lotof people being allowed to work into their fifties and towards a sensible retire-ment. I think its great if you are very highly paid and have the chance of amass-ing substantial capital but for most people who depend on their monthly paycheque its obviously a major concern. (General store manager, 12 years service)

I know that sometimes you think about security of your position and your futureand what you are going to be doing. At times of structural changes you dowonder to yourself will I still be with this company in five years time or whatwill I be doing in five years time with this company . . . (Departmental manager,4 years service)

. . . people are concerned because we are taking on over a hundred graduatesand after six months they go through managing a series of departments andround about their mid-twenties if they have performed well they go from firstline managers to general store managers. So in their mid to late twenties theseare the people that will become general store managers. The companys (non-graduate) first line managers are saying what incentive have I got to work hard



and achieve results when I know I am going to get side stepped. (Regionalmanager, 11 years service)

Our methodology precludes definitive claims about the impact that feelings ofcareer insecurity may have on the perceptions and behaviours of individual man-agers. However, most managers interviewed expressed serious concerns over theease with which the company was willing to dispense with the services of experi-enced managers whose dedication and commitment contributed to transformingthe company to its present position as a leading grocery retailer. In this regard,many managers noted that the fear of losing their jobs has acted as a significantdriver to their behaviour which now reflects compliance to top managementespoused behaviours. As two managers observe:

I would consider myself to be a bit of an animal, very experienced and veryforthright in my comments and speak my mind, but I can say hand on heartthat I would be frightened to give feedback (to head office) thats controversialor challenging what we are doing because it would be deemed as negative.(General store manager, 10 years service)

. . . we feel insecure and although it is very open and you can talk to the chiefexecutive, I think the most worrying aspect is you dont really feel you can beopen and that concerns me. A lot of the openness is really tongue in cheek . . .(Departmental manager, 6 years service)

The director interviewed was particularly lucid on the fears and anxieties of man-agerial staffs, and his comments help sum up the situation:

. . . whilst there is a genuine commitment amongst many general store man-agers and line managers for the principles that STARWOW stands for, there isno doubt that underneath it all there is a resentment and fear of not perform-ing . . . There has been an argument for many years as to whether behaviourchanges attitude or attitude changes behaviour. I think in the case of STAR thepressure is put on people to change their behaviour forcing them to changetheir behaviour whereas it means that people can act in certain ways while notbeing fully committed towards it . . . it is a behaviour change that is forced onpeople you must act in this way and do it in this format. (Director, 17 yearsservice)

Although this director is considered part of the old guard, his summary of thesituation is instructive. As a senior executive in the company, such views suggestrecognition of the difficulty of expecting people to change their cultural beliefs(described as attitude by the director) under the threat of sanctions, job insecurity



and fears. Ironically, the directors comments also suggest that top managers areaware that what is being achieved is not culture change in the sense of beliefs andvalues but rather behavioural change in the face of tight regulations and controlof work.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions and responses of managersto organizational culture change initiatives. The key issue was to uncover whethermanagers would be more likely than their subordinates to respond positively to anorganizational culture change programme. The findings suggest that managers areat best ambiguous about culture change. Managers made positive comments on STARWOW, particularly in relation to openness in communication and toseeking a greater involvement from subordinates. However, the same managers in the same interviews expressed concerns about being policed from head office and working in fear of negative sanction (appearing bottom in league tables, re-training, promotion blockage, and ultimately redundancy). This is relatedto the common notion of a tongue in cheek openness on the part of managers.Interestingly, this finding parallels that of Jackall (1988) that in some US compa-nies under conditions of restructuring, managers expressed enthusiasm for whatthey were doing while covering up the profound anxieties they were experiencing.There was a big gulf between store managers and head office (from where theprescriptions originated) and many store managers saw the directorate as hypocritical, of not acting out STARWOW themselves, but insisting everyoneelse did.

Our analysis suggests that managers were not wholly taken in, that a strongculture did not exist within the middle management ranks from departmentalmanagers through to regional managers. Their active implementation ofSTARWOW, huddle hats and other initiatives, may derive in part from the legiti-macy they attach to STARWOW sentiments about involvement, colleague devel-opment, etc., but more importantly from heightened surveillance and threat ofsanction from an increasingly powerful head office and directorate.

In the context of the literature on organizational culture change, our findingssupport the position of critical researchers who suggest that attempts to imposetop management derived values on employees are fraught with difficulties andunintended consequences (for example, Casey, 1999; Harris and Ogbonna, 2002;Ray, 1986; Willmott, 1993). Indeed, the idea that organizational members mayreadily adopt top management derived values (whether or not these are consistentwith their own individual values) may not only be nave but may also raise signifi-cant issues regarding individual identity. In the current case, the organizations previous attempts at culture change were designed to shape individual identity andconstruct them into particular corporate actors. The present change programme



requires managers to assume new identities that are in many respects different,and the difficulty that many of them appear to have in reconciling the differencesis one indication of the problematic nature of planned organizational culturechange (see Ogbor, 2001).

The finding that managers are as ambivalent as lower level employees on theissue of culture change is interesting in a number of respects. In particular, if evi-dence of planned culture change cannot be found amongst the ranks of relativelyprivileged managers, then a key question must be whether the experiences of man-agers and other employees in organizations undergoing cultural change can beconceptualized in relation to organizational culture alone. Thus, although manystudies of organizational culture change frequently describe structural changeprocesses, their conceptual frameworks and analyses continue to draw extensivelyfrom the culture literature. This issue probably explains the continuing focus ofmuch culture literature on debates of whether culture management is achievable(see Driscoll and Morris, 2001; Legge, 1994; Ogbonna and Harris, 1998, 2002;Peccei and Rosenthal, 2001). The findings of this study suggest that whilst theinterests of executives may revolve around planned culture change (see IRS Employ-ment Trends, 1997), the experiences of other organizational members may best beexplained not in terms of organizational culture alone but in relation to the com-bined impacts of cultural processes and organizational re-structuring.

Such broader analysis provides an opportunity to explore how organizationalre-structuring promoted as culture change may reveal the significant impact ofother changes which may characterize contemporary work organizations butwhich may be downplayed by the focus on culture change alone. In this regard,the finding of the impact of career insecurity on the behaviour of managers inthis study echoes the work of other studies of management work and organiza-tional re-structuring (Berkeley-Thomas, 1983; Worrall et al., 2000). In the currentcase, a deliberate policy of replacing older managers with new blood was con-sidered central to the cultural transformation process. Whilst this approach is con-sistent with the practices prescribed in the literature on managing organizationalculture (for example, Ogbonna and Harris, 1998; Silverzweig and Allen, 1976), itis this threat of insecurity that provided managers with a visible and powerfulsymbol of the likely consequences of their behavioural choices. Indeed, it has beenargued that career prospects are a key basis for organizational commitment bymanagerial employees and are central to managers sense of identity (Dunford,1999; Ebadan and Winstanley, 1997; Scarbrough and Burrell, 1996). Hence, thedesire of managers to maintain their careers can be seen as a primary reason why,like their colleagues at the checkout, managers might be smiling and sayingplease, but not necessarily meaning it.

Furthermore, the situation of STARs middle managers can be explained inrelation to structural changes and applications of surveillance technologies whichhave combined in a way that undermines the autonomy of store management in a



continuing shift of strategic decision making power to a central head office. Therhetoric of empowerment conveniently ignores such a historical and politicalcontext (see Lee, 1999; Wilkinson, 1998). Structural change relates primarily tothe centralization of decisions in areas such as buying, product range, inventory,distribution and marketing to head office, a process which brings economies ofscale and enables the grocery chain to take advantage of its market power in a situation of increasing industry concentration (Harris and Ogbonna, 2001). Hencethe comment that general store managers are being told what to do . . . theyrenot trading managers. Such a fate for store managers has been documented inother studies of retailing (Baret et al., 2000; Bramble et al., 1996; Wrigley andLowe, 2002). Thus, whilst some surveys of middle managers (across a range ofindustries) suggest a reducing number of managers with a wider range of dutiesand a greater strategic orientation (see Dopson and Stewart, 1990, 1993; Worrallet al., 2000), our own case study reveals a narrower range of duties and a greatlyreduced scope for strategic decision making in a process akin to proletarianization,providing support for Scarbrough and Burrells (1996) analysis. We would suggestthat such a process may lead to behavioural changes, but it does not lead to a situation conducive to managers buying in to the espoused culture: their heartsand minds are elsewhere.

Just as the centralization of functional activities such as buying and productrange and location have been made economically feasible by advances in infor-mation systems, so detailed control and monitoring of store level activities havebeen enabled by similar advances. Hence there is very little autonomy over jobswhich have been reduced in scope. Even carrier bag usage is measured and pub-lished, with advice from above on how to improve for those stores failing toconform to specification. And there are detailed prescriptions on how to select andmanage shopfloor staff the one commodity which (for the moment at least)cannot be bought centrally, but whose characteristics and performance can be mon-itored centrally. A range of operational measures is routinely used to assess stores,and managers can see their own and others positions in well publicized leaguetables. Poorly performing stores are subject to even closer attention and monitor-ing while the store managers are subject of further training. Close monitoring andcorrective discipline also applies to the behaviour and attitudes of store managers,with superior, self and subordinate assessments being scrutinized for low scores ordiscrepancies that may, like poor organizational performance, lead to correctiveaction. Hence detailed surveillance, which has been well documented for retailshop floor workers (du Gay, 1996; Freathy and Sparks, 1996; Smith, 1988; Wrigleyand Lowe, 2002) also applies to store managers. And this surveillance comes withimplicit threats to managerial careers and livelihoods. As the STARWOW forManagement document states: It is important that everyone . . . realizes the con-sequences of not operating in the STAR way of working. Store managers, then,experience a contradiction, reflected in their comments in interviews, between



what they hear (cooperation, common purpose, trust) and what they see(reduced autonomy, detailed prescription and monitoring, and career insecurity)(cf. Dunford, 1999). In sum, after several years of erosion of their autonomy, storemanagers, in Armstrongs (1989, 1991) terms, have little left of their agency status.Trust has been replaced by behavioural and performance prescription, monitor-ing and control. The new trusted agents, much smaller in number, reside at headoffice.

Oranizational culture change promises to improve the performance of organi-zations through transforming values and thereby maximizing human asset uti-lization. It is presented as a superior, cheaper form of control than bureaucraticcontrol (see Ray, 1986). But perhaps the promise is a false one. The purpose oftransforming culture is undermined by practices which contradict the rhetoric(Dunford, 1999). In line with Willmotts (1993) analysis, we found that not only isthere an erosion of (expensive) arrangements such as job security and career pro-gression which might smooth the conflicts of interest between the company andits middle managers, increasingly there have been real threats to the livelihoods ofmanagers who fail to conform. Our documentation of an instrumental compli-ance and a skilful parodying of corporate culturism (Willmott, 1993) makes sensein this context.

Perhaps our findings do not necessarily contradict the notion that planned culturechange initiatives are feasible in the appropriate organizational context. Indeed,the STAR case study identifies that the reduced autonomy and career insecurityassociated with organizational restructuring were major impediments to culturechange, and in theory these impediments could be removed and replaced withmore supportive arrangements. However, we find it difficult to accept any notionthat changing the organizational context would be easy, or indeed would be con-sidered suitable for systematic pursuit. This is because the broader context is oneof a massive concentration of the UK supermarket industry over the past twodecades, from which STAR has been a major beneficiary. This concentration hasbeen premised on the (well documented) centralization of activities such as buyingand marketing, the establishment of uniform best practice for store management,the central monitoring and control of detailed performance, and more generallyon cost cutting (Burt and Sparks, 1994; IGD, 1993; Lockett and Holland, 1991;Wrigley, 1993; Wrigley and Lowe, 2002). Under such circumstances the tighten-ing of head office control that accompanied the STARWOW culture change initiative appeared inevitable, and the apparent polarity of opinion between theboard room and middle management is not altogether surprising in this context.

In conclusion, the context in which culture change initiatives have been intro-duced, in particular organizational restructuring, job insecurity and detailed moni-toring and control of behaviour and performance, makes planned culture changeunlikely. Middle managers, like shopfloor workers, may be compliant, but theespoused culture has not been embraced.



NOTE

*The term middle manager, while generally understood as those managers subject to managementfrom above at the same time as they manage those below, is recognized as problematic becauseof its varying usage in different organizations. Here we use the term to refer to the levels of storemanager (store managers oversee departmental managers and functional managers within stores)and area manager (area managers each oversee several stores). This is the definition widely usedwithin the company studied and in the grocery industry generally.

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