Problem statement: Igor and Ludmilla Ivanovic, owners of Iggy's Bread of the World, have suffered a major collapse of the core culture of the organization following a fast and massive expansion. If the core values and culture that brought Iggy's initial success is not restored, the fast and sweeping changes from the expansion could result in reduced worker efficiency, total loss of worker moral, and damaged reputation from diminished product quality.
Social Model of Management
The deterioration of the company's culture and core values may have happened because of the fast paced growth and change in management structure took the company from a social model management style to more of a pure economic model. When the company was founded, Igor and Ludmilla communicated the importance of the companies mission, not only to their customers but also to their employees. Ludmilla instituted many programs and events to make sure that everyone had the opportunity to interact with each other and were treated like valuable parts of the organizations success. This could be seen with the "clean and happy hands" policy instituted by Ludmilla. It started just as a reminder for all employees to wash their hands more frequently, but she expanded it to encourage all of the employees to practice a more holistic approach to their jobs.
[...] Before, no one felt the need to for them so a lot of new people came in, they all have great ideas and want to fix the problems we're having and try different things. And all this is great. But at the same time, you need to be here for a while to really get a feel for how everything works. This became very apparent with the new organization charts, chains of command, and flashy titles that ripped apart the core of the company's culture that had been so central in the company's previous success. [...]
[...] Next, the sense of achievement has diminished and will eventually lead to reduced worker happiness and productivity. The new sense among the workers that the management team under McCrae was isolated led to much discontent. This new divide in the organization may have led to a lost sense of camaraderie that helped initially create such a strong culture. The new management team didn't seem interested in even getting to know the employees names let alone play in a soccer game with them, or celebrate a birthday with an employee. [...]
[...] This along with birthday parties and birthday cakes, free massages, cross departmental training, and food being catered in during the busy season helped build a very strong sense of involvement and interaction that focused more on worker and customer satisfaction than profit alone. This unique culture allowed for the workers to create a very high quality product and deliver a high level of service that naturally brought the company success and profitability as a secondary result. As the new management team came in and began to make rapid changes without completely understanding the “Iggy problems began to arise. [...]
[...] This upbringing as well as Ludmilla's VABE's shaped a culture that was as Ludmilla described, part is the bread and the quality of the product; two is our work the employees it's a good bakery, but it also has to be a healthy business; and three is the community, how we deal with outside customers, how we can make a difference by not treating them like a number. These VABE's allowed them to build a strong culture that helped the workers feel important and allowed the bakery to achieve amazing growth in it's first three years of business. [...]
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