Organizational Behavior at Kudler Fine Foods

Kudler Fine Foods

Kudler Fine Foods is a chain of upscale epicurean food shops located in San Diego, California. It was founded in 1998 by Kathy Kudler in response to her personal frustrations about the lack of a convenient, one-stop shop for gourmet cooks. The first store opened in La Jolla and was greeted with immediate success. Since then Kudler Fine Foods has expanded to include three different locations in the San Diego metropolitan area and has even more growth plans set in place.

This paper will explain the apparent culture at Kudler Fine Foods and how the organizational structure at Kudler Fine Foods impacts the overall profitability. To have an organization reach its goals the leadership style has to be effective and motivating. This paper will also examine and analyze Kudler Fine Foods organizational performances which can be traced to the leadership style evidentially reflected in the employee motivation at Kudler. This paper will also discuss what is happening external to the organization that drives change at Kudler.

Organizational Culture

"Organizational culture is a system of shared values, assumptions, beliefs and norms that unite members of an organization," (Gomez-Mejia & Balkin, 2002, p. 108). It basically describes the stated and unstated rules, how certain procedures tend to occur normally, and the overall personality of a company. There are three levels of culture in a company: the visible culture, esposed beliefs and core beliefs.

The visible culture