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PORTFOLIO BLOCK 3
Activity 3.1 – Gender culture in Mercadona
1 - Could you describe the culture of Mercadona using the slides/ materials of
the Aula virtual?
As we know the organizational culture Is the set of shared assumptions that member of the organization (in this case of Mercadona) hold and determine how they perceive and react to their various environments. Mercadona is an organization with an universal philosophy: “in order to be satisfied, first we have to satisfy them”. Because of this Mercadona tries to focus their culture in satisfying their clients and therefore to their workers/ employees. It is possible that Mercadona culture could be represented in two main dimensions: -sociability: because it is focus on sincere friendliness and emotional non- instrumental relations. -solidarity: because they have shared goals.
2 - Is Mercadona a gender equality culture? Please, check other documents
about Mercadona in internet (annual report, labor agreement…)
The annual report of Mercadona for the year 2013 holds some interesting data about the situation of women in the organization:
- 10 out of 11 in the director committee are men.
- When talking about clients, almost always they are women.
- 55% of the promotions to directive positions were women.
These are a very few facts about the situations of women in the organizations, it tells us little else besides the glaring lack of women in the upper echelons (that is, the decision-making ones) of the organizations.
What is more interesting is the lack of data – there is little to none sex disaggregated statistical data nor gender analytical research.
All in all, this points to a lack of interest in the position of women and paints a culture that is not in any way a gender equality one.
However, there is one instance in which the organization of Mercadona pays attention to the well-being of women, and that is the article in the labor agreement that grants them the right to be transferred of they are in risk of being a gender-
based violence victim or if they already are, as well as availability of psychological counsel.
What we see, is that in none of the levels of the organizations decisions are made in order to increase gender equality.
3 - Propose potential actions to increase the gender equality culture in
Mercadona.
Expectations about attributes and behaviors appropriate to women or men and about the relations between women and men are shaped by culture. Gender identities and gender relations are critical aspects of culture because they shape the way daily life is lived in the family, but also in the wider community and the workplace.
Before and organization’s staff can genuinely facilitate others to integrate a gender perspective into their work, they must demonstrate that they do this themselves. There are 4 steps to create a gender-responsive organizational culture: sex disaggregated data and gender analytical information, women as well as men influence the development agenda, context-specific action to promote gender equality and finally, organizational capacity building and change.
Decisions made in planning an initiative shape the type of impact that it will have on culture. Even if gender quality is not explicitly consider, decisions made in the planning process will have an effect on gender equality.
The question is not whether we intervene in local culture, but how.
- (^) Establish a constructive dialogue with partners
- A gender analysis is required for all initiatives as it ensures that planning is based on facts and analysis rather than assumptions
- Capacity of project planners to be innovative
- When development initiatives start with a commitment to work toward greater gender equality, they can play an important role in increasing awareness of inequalities, in supporting a constructive search for solutions, and in enabling women to have an effective voice in this process
Some organisations explicitly define and communicate values, principles, codes and behaviours that are valued and expected in their particular workplace. To achieve sustainable gender equality, an organisation’s culture will need to foster apporpiate attitudes, values and behaviours which support and are congruent with gender strategy objectives; sometimes, this will require cultural change.
2 - Describe the specific environment: narrow and broader.
The specific environment refers to factor having an immediate relevance for the organization. It includes unions, suppliers, organization of customers, etc. It depends on the domain and activities or tasks that the organization in particular has chosen and requires the consideration of stakeholders or social groups affected by the operation of the organization.
In a narrow sense, it includes identifiable social groups on which an organization is dependent for its survival. In this way, the traditional book store must make efforts to improve the quality of their products and services, stay close with the customers and listen to the customers about their needs. The traditional book store have to ensure the steady flow of needed inputs at the lowest price available in order to maintain the effectiveness of an organization.
In a broader sense, it includes any identifiable social group or individual who can affect or is affected by the performance of the organization. Competitors in term of better pricing, new products, quality services etc. represent an environment force that the store must monitor along with the competitive scene for potential newcomers. Finally, the power of pressure groups changes with the change in social and political attitudes. Therefore, the store have to continuously monitor the major shifts in the society.
3 - Describe stability, complexity, and resource availability of the
environment. Before and afeter the change - how has the change altered
these dimensions.
Stability: Before there were no changes, the process of production and selling was set and claear, and everybody went to the bookstore to buy books. Changes were not so frequent.
Now the situation has changed. There are more people using the internet and e- books to find books. The technological development can be seen in this area.
Now authors have more control over the publishing process, they can publish and be known in a quicker and easier way, they might not even need a publisher.
The whole process is more cost-efficient and time-efficient, the readers have to spend less money, and so do the publishers. Books can be shared in a moment, so popularity of an author can increase very quickly.
There is a higher competition between different kinds of technological companies that sell reading electronic devices. Therefore, the traditional bookstores are suffering - they can't compete with the e-book industry.
Complexity: There are new stakeholders: the technological companies, there are more writers - more competition, there is a new type of author and a new type of client who use the internet for distributing and getting books.
Also, books are uploaded for free in the internet (illegally), which makes the authors (and publishers) lose money.
The traditional bookstore has no access to authors who only publish on-line.
Resource-availability: We can see that the change in technology, through making connections and communication easier than ever, has brought a greater availability of resources for everyone in the industry: be the readers, writers, publishers or distributors.
