Do organizational subcultures matter? A case study of logistics and supply chain management

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLM-04-2021-0230
• Published date: 24 September 2021
• Date: 24 September 2021
• Pages: 141-164
• Subject Matter: Management science & operations,Logistics
• Author: John E. Mello,Hilary Schloemer

Do organizational subcultures

matter? A case study of logistics

and supply chain management

John E. Mello and Hilary Schloemer

Management and Marketing, Arkansas State University, Jonesboro, Arkansas, USA

Abstract

Purpose –This interdisciplinary investigation examines the topics of organizational climate and subcultures,

which have received scant attention in the supply chain literature, highlighting the potential importance of

these social dynamics to supply chain management phenomena.

Design/methodology/approach –The authors use a single-organization revelatory case study design,

qualitatively analyzing coded interviews and observations of participants.

Findings –The authors’findings indicate that a firm’s organizational climate can contribute to the formation

and strengthening of a subculture and that the subculture may desire to insert their own values and norms

concerning supply chain management which could run counter to those of the overall company.

Research limitations/implications –The authors theorize about the conditions under which strong

subcultures emergeand that they may exert outsized influence on the way a company approaches supply chain

management activities. Accounting for such influence may unearth important social dynamics occurring

within supply chain phenomena that will better help researchers understand behavior and outcomes within

that phenomenon.

Practical implications –Managers should be aware of the potential for subgroups to form strong

subcultures and that subcultures may influence the way supply chain activities are performed. Climate

dynamics can also affect employee perceptions and behaviors, and managers should monitor these dynamics

and adapt their policies and messaging accordingly.

Originality/value –This study examines a phenomenon that has previously been underexamined in the

supply chain management literature–the influence of culture and climate on subcultures and their subcultures’

subsequent impact on how companies perform supply chain management activities.

Keywords North America, Case study, Supplier management, Logistics services, Human resources

in logistics

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

It’s almost like instead of me going to another building in another company, another company came

to me. (Ted, participant)

Supply chains are “inherently social by nature,”implying that “a broad behavioral

backdrop ... influences supply chain decisions and behaviors”(Randall and Mello, 2012,

p. 864). This social nature casts individual behaviors and interpersonal relationships as key

considerations in supply chain research for, as Aastrup and Halldorsson (2008, p. 753)

observe, “Logistics activities are affected by agents’(firms and individuals) through their

choices and intentions; these choices are contingent and are not necessarily made according

to the systems’objective.”Failure to account for these factors limits our understanding of

supply chain phenomena to a “superficial level”(Wang et al., 2018, p. 1171). Thus, some have

recognized the need to go beyond what McAfee et al. (2002) term a “transactional”lens when

studying supply chain phenomena. One such line of research is the investigation of

organizational culture, defined as a set of values and beliefs shared among organizational

members that is used by members to make sense of organizational actions and behavioral

norms (Deshpande and Webster, 1989), as a potential influence on how individual supply

chain managers approach decision-making.

Organizational

subcultures

141

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/0957-4093.htm

Received 24 April 2021

Revised 2 July 2021

21 July 2021

27 August 2021

Accepted 29 August 2021

The International Journal of

Logistics Management

Vol. 33 No. 1, 2022

pp. 141-164

© Emerald Publishing Limited

0957-4093

DOI 10.1108/IJLM-04-2021-0230

Interest in the effects of organizational culture on individual behavior, interpersonal

relationships and supply chain collaboration has increased over the last two decades as

scholars have sought to integrate findings from the management literature about their

importance to supply chain operations (e.g. Cao et al., 2015;Fawcett et al., 2012;McAfee et al.,

2002;Mello and Stank, 2005;Shub and Stonebraker, 2009). However, these examinations have

offered limited depth in terms of the existence and effects of culture-related factors such as

climate, “how employees interpret an organization’s culture as manifested in formal and

informal policies, practices, and procedures”(Mello et al., 2018, p. 72), and subcultures,

subgroups of organizational members who share a set of values and beliefs that are distinct

from the overarching organizational culture, calling for a “multidimensional

conceptualization of culture”(Chao and Moon, 2005, p. 1128).

In an effort to address this gap and begin developing a more nuanced understanding of the

effect of organizational cultures, climates, and subcultures on supply chain management

(SCM), we answer the call from Sanders et al. (2016) to take an interdisciplinary approach to

supply chain phenomena. Synthesizing theory from the management and SCM disciplines,

we highlight the potential for internal conflicts concerning the cultural identity of an

organization to emerge (i.e. for the existence of subcultures), for these conflicts to be affected

by organizational climate, and how such conflicts may influence SCM practices through the

values, norms, and motivations of subcultural members. Though a handful of previous

studies have acknowledged that the existence of subcultures can influence supply chain

functions (e.g. Eltantawy et al., 2014;Carter et al., 2015;Mello et al., 2018), this work is limited,

failing to delve deeply into actual cases of how subcultures can influence supply chain

operations. This case study draws attention to this under-researched phenomenon in SCM by

investigating the effects of a subcultural element on the SCM policies and procedures,

focusing on logistics operations within an example company.

By recognizing that culture is not necessarily monolithic and that organizations may

house one or more subcultures, we aim to support development of a fuller understanding of

how cultural dynamics influence employees’behaviors and SCM practices. Specifically, we

employ a revelatory case study approach to answer the research question, “In what ways can

membership in a subculture affect the behavior of employees engaged in logistics

management?”Over the course of our qualitative inquiry, themes around the culture,

climate and subcultures emerged, and this work focuses on the relationships and differences

between these constructs. In this study, the logistics function of the focal organization

contains a historically-rooted subculture with values and norms that conflict with the overall

organizational culture and climate. While our case is drawn from a logistics context, our

findings have broader implications for SCM topics as well.

Inductively drawing conclusions from our interviews with members of this function and

participant observation, we find that culture and climate dynamics are complex and

intertwined, potentially leading to the emergence of strong subcultures that can significantly

impact how the company approaches SCM decisions; specifically in this case, how third-party

logistics (3PLs) are governed depends on whether the overarching culture or subculture is

more salient in the governing group. Additionally, we find that the climate experiences of

employees can influence the formation and strength of a subculture, subsequently

influencing their behaviors, including logistics management. In this case, it is manifested

in a strengthening of employees’perceptions of the subculture as a salient entity, as well as an

emergent desire to insert their subcultural values and norms in the governance of 3PLs. This

case study contributes to the literature by employing an interdisciplinary lens to highlight the

potential importance of subcultures regarding how companies may approach SCM. If such

subcultural social dynamics are left unaccounted for in research, the quality of findings could

be compromised due to their potentially significant influence.

IJLM

33,1

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