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ACCA Strategic Professional · Strategic Business Leader · Leadership and organisational culture

Orlin Freight's founder personally approves every decision, expects staff to follow instructions without question, and has a small circle of loyal managers around her. Staff say that who you know matters more than formal job titles. Using Handy's classification of culture, which type best describes Orlin Freight?

Power culture. Handy's power culture centres control on a dominant individual, with decisions made centrally and influence based on personal relationships rather than job titles or procedures. This matches a founder approving every decision and a loyal inner circle, unlike role, task or person cultures.

  1. APower cultureCorrect
  2. BRole culture
  3. CTask culture
  4. DPerson culture

Explanation

Handy's power culture is centred on one dominant individual, with decisions flowing from a central source and influence depending on personal relationships rather than formal structure. A role culture would stress defined job descriptions and procedures, which the staff say do not matter here. Task and person cultures focus on teams and projects or individual experts respectively, neither of which is described.

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