I.

INTRODUCTION
The term culture can be difficult to define and evaluate but it can be referred as the
basic organizational values, which communicates to new members the behaviours and actions
that are encouraged, the ways in which things should be done and the behaviours which are
discouraged or associated to beliefs, values, expectations and meanings that are shared among
the organizations members. Culture is divided into two forms, corporate and organizational
culture. Corporate culture of the organization is what the firm says its culture is, for example
its mission statement; while organizational culture is what is really happening in the firm, and
the way things are actually done. The concept of organizational culture is currently more
widely accepted that it was in the eighties when most of the literature defining culture and
investigating how it develops were germinated.
It is extremely difficult to construct a comprehensive definition of organizational
culture, although Hatch (2006) defined it as a way of life in an organization, it can be thought
of as the glue that holds an organization together through a sharing of patterns of meaning.
The culture focuses on the values, beliefs and expectations that members of the organization
come to share (Siehl and Martin 1984). Different definitions may point at different aspects of
the organization but they share a few things in common such as the behaviour of people in
the organization and what they share as result of working in the organization. The concept of
organizational culture can be analyzed using a variety of models. In this paper, Edgar
Scheins organizational culture model is used to conduct a cultural analysis of Cadbury and
Lewins management change model will be used to analyse the cultural change after Krafts
takeover. Our findings are based on various research methods including books, research
papers, online articles and videos, observations and talking to people at the firm.
Cadbury is a British-based leading global confectionery company. It has been a
family business since John Cadbury created it in 1824 until Kraft an American food giant,
took over in 2010. The Cadbury familys Quaker beliefs are what inspired the selling of tea,
coffee and cocoa as alternatives to alcohol. Cadbury have long and strong cultural values that
were originated from the founders Quaker beliefs of promoting human equalities and
justices. Therefore, it would be interesting to study how that original values have stood the
test of time.
II. ANALYSIS OF CADBURYS CULTURE
Edgar Scheins model of organizational culture is one of the most influential theories
of organizational culture, which originated in the eighties. According to Scheins model,
organizational culture consists of three distinct levels which are the basic assumptions, values
and beliefs and artifacts.


Source: http://www.freenew.net/windows/schein-culture-levels-mega-30/49559.htm
1. ARTIFACTS
The artifacts of a company can easily be changed as they are superficial and
considered to be part of the firms corporate culture. Artifacts consist of visible
manifestations of an organizations culture, anything tangible, overt or verbally identifiable
elements in an organization such as the logo, mission statement, dress code of employees,
factory design, machinery and furniture.
The Cadbury chocolate factory was moved from Birmingham to Bournville by
George Cabury the son of the founder in 1879. It is called the factory in the garden
thanks to its pristine village green. Not only did he build the factory, he also created a
surrounding village with brilliant facilities where his workers and their family could enjoy a
fuller life. The Cadbury factory closely links with every aspect of life in Bournville. From the
train station to the factory, visitors would easily recognize the distinctive trademark purple
colour of the Cadbury brand everywhere. A visitor to the company would notice a high
degree of informality, friendliness all around, a sense of high energy and people are very
interested in what they are doing. Moreover, there are facilities in Bournville that are
unavailable in any neighboring areas e.g. the beautiful old cricket pavilion overlooking the
Cadbury playing fields where around 7,000 people gather on Christmas Eve each year to sing
carols. Such community rituals are not easy to find in the area (Robinson, 2010).
Here comes Cadburys mission statement:
Cadbury's means quality: this is our promise. Our reputation is built upon quality:
Our commitment to continuous improvement will ensure that our promise is delivered.
This statement makes an emphasis on Cadburys determination to provide quality
products to its customers, which it has been able to do for almost 200 years. Cadbury has
continuously improved its products and expanded its product line over the years in order to
satisfy even the most difficult customers.
2. VALUES AND BELIEFS
In the middle of Scheins model are values and beliefs. These are the norms,
ideologies, charters and philosophies (Schein, 1990) of the company. A companys values
tell us what the company considers being the most important; they are the foundation on
which the companys attitude and behaviour are based.
One of the most significant values at Cadbury was employee welfare: The conviction
that every employee must be treated with love and respect mitigated against viewing labour
as a commodity (Dellheim, 1987). This value was developed by Richard and George
Cadbury, who took over the firm from their father in 1861. There were three key factors
influencing the brothers: Quaker beliefs, the experience of turning around a failed company
and exposure to the social problems of the inner city. Their aim was to create more than just a
factory; but instead a profitable company that cared for and nurtured its employees (Great
Place to work). This value is most readily seen in the buildings of Bourneville. As Delheim
noted, the mission of Cadburys was to provide high quality products at good value, and the
social, moral and physical well-being of all those connected to Bourneville.
When control of Cadburys was passed down to Richard and Georges successors, the
brothers values remained. Although business efficiency became a focus of the next
generation of Cadbury, they were clear about how important it was to ensure employee
satisfaction: When the labourer cannot maintain himself at a reasonable standard of decency
and comfort, the decline in efficiency is rapid. Edward Cadbury. So while Cadbury did
practice scientific management, Taylorism never took hold, as the human costs were seen as
being too high. Edward Cadbury described the mission of Cadbury as a combination of
business efficiency together with all round development of the workers as individuals and
citizens (Dellheim, 1987).
Hence, Cadburys core value stayed with its people. People in Bournville often talked
about it with love and respect. Generations of families used to work there and they stayed
with the company for years. For the majority of people, it was a nice place to bring up a
family. If one asks about the company, one is told that the company is a great place to work
at, everyone there is very nice and many have made life-long friendship during their time at
Cadbury. New colleagues would be told that values were not just words but something they
tried to live up to everyday (Great Place to work, 2010). The companys emphasis on
employee relationships is also presented in the way they listen and communicate with staff
through various media that suited to its business. For instance, the Tell Trevor system gave
their employees chances to speak up, expressing their ideas and questions directly to the
companys president.
In addition, according to Tony Bilsborough, who had worked in Cadbury's
communication department in Bournville for 13 years, Cadburys culture gave much
importance to caring for others. In 2009, approximately 80% of Cadburys staffs had or were
doing volunteers for charities and community projects. Moreover, the firm allowed its
employees time off to set up fundraising events.
"The Quaker ethos of understanding the role of the community and the part we need
to play is still very much part and parcel of what Cadbury stands for," said Mr Bilsborough,
who had been a volunteer for a project that helped the homeless. Plant operator Michael
Huggins, 43, who had worked for Cadbury for 22 years and regularly fundraised for charity
shared the same idea (BBC, 2009)
On the other hand, Cadbury is also a company that commits to good ethical practices
and sustainability. In 2007, it introduced the Purple Goes Green vision for 2020, which aims
to massively reduce its global environmental footprints to tackle climate change.
Furthermore, in 2008, the firm founded the Cadbury Cocoa Partnership to protect the
economic, social and environmental sustainability for farmers and their communities in
Ghana, India, Indonesia and the Caribbean (Frewin, 2008). And a year after that, its UKs
best-selling chocolate bar Cadbury Dairy Milk became Fairtrade certified, which was also
aimed to secure a better deal for commodity producers in developing countries.
Another point worth mentioning is that Cadbury is an iconic British brand with a rich
history. Therefore, there are a lot of associations with British national culture. The British
Society is more focused on group rather than individual welfare, as well as the emphasis on
communities. Lewis (2006) wrote in his book: British people regard themselves as honest,
reasonable, caring and considerate; those characteristics are reflected clearly in the
relationships and behaviours between people at Cadbury.
3. BASIC ASSUMPTIONS
The basic assumptions are on the deepest level of organizational culture. These
assumptions are usually invisible, pre-conscious, taken for granted understandings held by
individuals of the company with respect to aspects of human behavior, nature of reality and
organizations relationship to its environment. They are unseen and not easily identified in
the everyday interactions between organizational members. For example, in an occupation
such as engineering, it is inconceivable to deliberately design a product which is unsafe. It is
a taken for granted assumption that things will be safe. These basic assumptions are non-
confrontable and non-debatable.
At Cadbury, the employees who worked in the company had a feeling amongst them
about being trustworthy. No matter how the situation would be, telling the truth was
something that everyone would follow without being told. Also, George Cadbury had not
only created Cadbury as a factory but he had created a community of people that enjoyed
being together. They respected all the individuals working in the organization regardless of
their positions. It was also a taken-for-granted assumption that the product that they were
making was 100% safe and edible. Moreover, if a particular employee was in trouble while
working inside the factory, it was obvious that the other employees would support the person
in need without there being an official rule about it. There was equality between the sexes.
No woman was given more importance than the men and vice versa. Innovation was always
welcomed at Cadbury. A feeling of taking the initiative of resolving a problem, if occurred
within the organization was one of the basic assumptions of Cadbury. Finally, unconsciously
manufacturing the best quality chocolate was one of the main underlying assumptions in the
company.
III. MANAGEMENT CHANGE
In January-February 2010, Cadbury was taken over by the US food company Kraft for
$19.5 billion (11.5 billion). The hostile takeover brought about many arguments and
disagreements among stakeholders, especially Cadburys employees. It is mainly because of
the remarkable differences between these two companies cultures. This session will analyse
how Cadburys culture has changed after the integration with Kraft basing on Lewins change
management model (1947).


Source: http://www.peoi.org/Courses/Coursesen/orgbeh1/contents/frame14b.html
First of all, let us all scrutinize the major dissimilarities among the cultures of those
two. As we mentioned above, Cadburys original culture follows the Quaker philosophy,
which promotes the idea of a caring, sharing and responsible employer. As Lucas and
Rappeport stated in the Financial Times (2011), Cadbury was a cohesive workplace where
workers could have some conversations with Chairman Roger Carr and Chief executive Todd
Stitzer as they walked around. This decentralized culture of Cadbury is totally inadequate to
Krafts hierarchal structure which clearly distinguishes the roles of boss and workers. In
addition to that, while Cadbury was a pride of the British, as it was so well-known for being
socially responsible in terms of the environment or public, Kraft is a representative for the
typical US firm: profit-maximizer. Since they had different motives and values within their
organizations, merging them seems to be a significant issue for Kraft. The details of their
cultures are shown in the table below

(Source: http://www.slideshare.net/strategicorner/kraft-cadbury-cultural-issue)
The next stage is to see how Kraft changed Cadburys 188-year-old culture through
Lewins model. Lewin evaluated the change management by a 3-step model, which consists
of unfreeze, move and refreeze stages. At the first level, Kraft tried to reduce the resistant
factors and increase the driving forces for change in culture among employees i.e. trying to
convince the staff that changes were necessary. In reality, a number of senior workers and top
management did not believe in Krafts culture, as they had worked under Cadbury Quaker
philosophy for so many years. A few weeks after the takeover, 120 out of 170 managers, as
well as 6 out of 17 senior positions, announced their resignations. Furthermore, the fact that
Kraft closed the Somerdale Factory (near Bristol) right after the merger, which went against
its promise, causing 400 jobs lost and creating distrust among employees. Thus Kraft had
created a significant disagreement among the British stakeholders (shareholders, the public
and especially Cadburys workers).
The second step - also the most important one of Lewins model, is move. It is
where Kraft actually implements its own culture into Cadbury. At this point, employees in
Cadbury had to learn new attitudes and behaviors. Kraft also faced many difficulties here.
Locals and Cadburys employees claimed that Cadbury was nothing British anymore, and
they were unhappy about it. The new products were different (the percentages of cocoa was
lower, powder milk changed) so the production line had to change, leading to alterations in
workers ways of work. The company structure became more bureaucratic; hence, employees
could not easily get in touch with the top management. Those who did not respect this new
approach were fired or quit themselves and Kraft started to employ new staff for new
Cadbury.
Eventually, Kraft would move to the last stage, which is refreeze. It has to balance
the new equilibrium culture point within Cadbury. The changes are accepted and become the
new norms. People form new relationships and become comfortable with their new routines.
Apparently, saying that Kraft has reached this position seems to be optimistic. Since Cadbury
has existed for such a long time and the culture has been heavily embedded in the
organization, it would take a lot of time for Kraft to actually transform the whole system into
something completely new. Kraft is investing (17 millions) to develop the Cadbury original
site in Bournville (Birmingham) (Brown, 2012), which means that it still wants to keep all the
traditions and working environment in the village.
IV. CONCLUSION
The aim of this paper has been to analyse the organizational culture of Cadbury. We
discovered that despite numerous events have happened over nearly 200 years, Cadburys
original values and beliefs still exist in the company and people relationships remain an
important part of the firm and its community. The culture at Cadbury is what makes British
people proud and Cadbury remains a sweet part of childhood for many Britons, especially
those in Bourneville. However, due to the time and word limit of the paper, we were unable
to provide an in-depth view of the underlying assumptions of the Cadbury culture. We
suggest that future studies of this subject should be focused on the underlying assumptions,
which shall be observed over a long period of time and with a significant number of workers.


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