Cancel Culture meets Organizational Culture in Corporate Retail, How it Can Help or Hurt An Organization
Over the last year, “cancel culture” has become overwhelmingly prevalent across media platforms. One specific area that has taken a beating, outside of norm of “cancelling” celebrities, influencers and politicians, is corporate retail. Personally, I believe this has a lot to do with their organizational culture. In order to make that claim, it is important to first understand what organizational culture is and how it defines an organization.
Organizational Culture is defined as “the communicatively constructed system of artifacts, values and assumptions emergent from the interactions of organizational members that constrains and guides organizational members” (Keyton, 2015). This meaning that organizational culture develops from the interactions of members of an organization and in the future, it both guides and constrains them in what happens next. Culture comes from within and acts as stepping stones that lead to transformational change, whether negative or positive, of an organization. The artifacts, values and assumptions are those building blocks that create that transformational change.
The artifacts of organizational culture are often times the tangible or visible aspects of the organization. This could mean logos or marketing, dress code or behavior of organization members, etc. In January of 2021, Amazon released a new logo for their company. This artifact of the organization lead them into a firestorm of negative backlash, as people believed the logo resembled Hitler’s face.
Whether this was an intentional move by Amazon or not, they were quick to alter the image due to the adverse reactions it received. The artifacts of a company are often times the things that seem to get them in trouble. Over the years, we can recall many instances of company marketing that was cancelled for racism, sexism and homophobia (among other things). These scandals have clouded the reputation of companies such as H&M, Dolce & Gabbana and Dove.
The next piece of the make-up of organizational culture are the values of that organization. These are the specific principles and strategies from within an organization that then guide the behavior of an organization. Often times, these can be the things that keep the organization in check and prevent them from being “cancelled”. Organizations use these values to create guidelines for how members of the organization should act. For example, many retailers have policies for how an employee should act when they suspect someone is stealing merchandise from their store. It is very common for fast-fashion retailers to be “non-prosecuting” companies. This meaning that if an employee should catch someone stealing from their storefront, they should not approach the person nor should they act on the situation. This prevents the employee from being put into danger while simultaneously keeping the company from facing lawsuits had the employee wrongly accused someone of stealing. This value is actually beneficial for companies in the era of “cancel culture” as many people believe that prosecuting companies actually fuel levels of mass incarceration.
The final piece of organizational culture are the assumptions of the organization. These are the pieces of the company that are deeply-engrained in the company, so much so that members may not even talk about them. These elements are, at the end of the day, what the organization stands for and what they are built on. It can be very basic things such as wanting to give the best customer service or providing the most organized storefront for the consumer, but these things can be more specific as well. One corporation that is frequently mentioned for their assumptions is Chik-Fil-A. Chik-Fil-A is constantly praised for their attitude for customer service within their organization. Though the organization has come under fire many times most famously for their negligence towards the LGBTQ+ community, people are generally impressed by the attitude that their employees have towards the consumer. This is something that their organization is built on and continues to be a part of their organizational culture.
Organizational culture, and what happens when that culture is brought to the attention of the public eye, can make or break a company. Though most of these companies that are “cancelled” for flaws in their organizational culture end up surviving in the end, it does make it increasingly harder to shop at, support, or work for these companies.
Organizational culture is not wholly responsible for a company’s uprising or downfall, but it can play a really big part. The promotion of positive company culture is really important to consumers in a world flushed with social injustice. Organizations that re-evaluate the three objectives of their culture and transform them/speak out in times of injustice see the positive impact of their implications.
References:
Keyton, J. (2015). Organizational Culture. In The International Encyclopedia of Communication, W. Donsbach (Ed.).
