HRM and Organizational Turnaround at Selfridges & Co - Coursework Example

HRM AND ORGANIZATIONAL TURNAROUND AT SELFRIDGES & CO. Table of Contents Introduction 2 Organizational and Corporate Culture at Selfridges 2 HR policies and procedures at Trafford Parks 3 Recruitment 3 Training and Development 4 Compensation and Benefits 4 Leadership and management styles in Selfridges 5 Role of Team Leaders at Selfridges 5 Lessons drawn from HRM practices in terms of the diversity and equal opportunities at Selfridges 6 Conclusion 7 Reference 9 Bibliography 9 Introduction The project seeks to explore the present corporate and organizational culture at Selfridges. This is primarily done with regards to the organizations human resource management strategies and practices and their impacts on the organization. It is seen that the company’s present HRM strategies have accounted for its abilities to deliver the highest performance of services to customers. This has also accounted for its abilities to make expansion of operations and emerge as a successful retail chain in the 1990s. The company was originally a part of the ‘Sears Group’ and was described as the personification of another organization called Grace Brothers after acquiring of an old fashioned, stuffy image in 1980 and 1990s. However, the organization failed to grow stronger because of the lack of logistics support, lack of knowledge about supply chain relationships, minimum use of technology and an extremely hierarchical and complicated organizational structure. The company underwent rapid transformation since 1990, when the new chief executive Vittorio Radice was born. With this the original management team was replaced by a new senior management team. This management team was responsible for the creation and implementation of new HR practices and policies which will be discussed in the project. Special emphasis would be provided with regards to the management and leadership styles in Selfridges and the role played by the team leaders of the organization for making it successful. Organizational and Corporate Culture at Selfridges Selfridges, was established in the Oxford Street on the 15th of March, 1909 with the focus on department stores and retailing institutions (The Georgian House, n.d.). The history of the company is unique because of the history and background of the company. It began as a small shop which was designed to become a departmental store. The organizational culture of the company was such where decisions were primarily taken by the management and leaders; however, they were designed to bring the maximum benefit to the employees. The company had the vision of emerging as the most exciting and best chain of departmental stores in Europe. This would be done by meeting the requirements and needs of customers through the delivery of the best quality of services and the development of the maximum operational efficiency. HR policies and procedures at Trafford Parks Recruitment At Trafford Park, the maximum responsibility and authority was provided to the HR department. They even had the complete autonomy to create its own HR policies and procedures. The opening of the store was done with the recruitment of 650 numbers of staff and their training as well. Candidates were recruited on the basis of their knowledge about the company’s product and their abilities to create relationship with their customers and building bonds with them by gaining their loyalty. Candidates with experience in retail were recruited. However, very few of the candidates were transferred from London. A critical analysis of the situation reveals that the recruitment procedure was not sound as many people were not able or willing to adapt to the new human resource procedures in the organization. It is important that the recruitment procedure is sound in order to ensure that the right kind of staff is selected who can contribute to the organization effectively (Cole, 2002, p.172). It was seen that a number of managers and team leaders who had previously worked in the stores of House of Fraser located in the Manchester were willing to adapt the company’s rules and policies. However, they It was realized that the company’s policies and procedures did not befit the values and cultures of Selfridge. Thus is because the process of recruitment was not focused on the employees and more towards the organizations goals and objectives. It was greatly emphasized on the needs of the management and minimum account was taken with regards to the employee’s terms and conditions or their needs and requirements. This required an immediate change of focus from the management centric approach towards an employee centric approach. Greater emphasis was required to be given to the attitudes and behaviors of employees instead of their experience (Smith, 2010, p.27). Training and Development The store has been greatly committed towards the training and development of employees. It has even received an award by the Investors in People (IlP). The line managers are allocated with the maximum responsibility for the training and development of the people. However, the human resource departments were given little role to play in this regard. They were merely required to act as support functions. Emphasis was provided to the development of communication between employees for effective running of the company’s operations. This was done ten minute talk within teams before the opening of the stores regarding details f the daily targets, performance of the previous days and about the crucial events and activities of the day. This shows that the company emphasized on the strengthening of communication between managers and employees. This kind of training can also be accounted for motivating factor for employees for their career development within the organization. The company’s steps in strengthening the communication reveals their attempt to involve employees in the day to day running of the company (Buckley & Caple, 2007, p.167). Compensation and Benefits Compensation and benefit plans for the employees should be such as to motivate the employees and bring out the best in their performance. However, the organization allowed little negotiations in payments which were solely decided by the employers. Pay rates are considered to be competitive as they are based on the market conditions and industry standards. The pay rates are considered to be average in that area and the sales associates are given an annual salary which is based on the hourly rate. Overtime is also paid. This is primary effective in giving a feeling to the employees that they are being paid as per their contributions and are not being exploited. The schemes of bonus for the team leaders are especially designed to enhance their performance and loyalty in the organization. The team leaders are paid a bonus based on their departmental targets (KPIs). The staffs are also not permitted to discuss their pay which is considered to be a disciplinary offence. The company also provides a staff discount of 35% for all the staff accompanied by a favorable scheme of pension (Gitman & McDaniel, 2008, p.214). Leadership and management styles in Selfridges A study of the case reveals that the management and leaders followed a paternalistic style of management in the organization. Under this style it is seen that the managers and leaders allow employees to participate in decision making of the company. Also steps taken by the management are in the best interest of the company. As per the response collected from the employees it shows that they are quite content with the style of management incorporated and their attitudes towards the management and leaders were also seen to improve. This reflects from the fact that they were quite content about the company’s appraisal system (Adeniyi, 2007, p.47). Role of Team Leaders at Selfridges A paternalistic style of leadership also gets revealed through the case. Team leaders had adopted the role of counseling and coaching, guiding candidates throughout their career and supporting them. All activities of the team leaders were directed towards the development and benefit of the teams they were handling. They were supposed to emphasize more on the people management aspect which also reveals their paternalistic approach. Despite the fact that employees’ opinions and views were not regarded, the decisions of team leaders were ultimately objected towards their advantage and benefit. In fact the role of team leaders in the organization were also greatly assessed. They were supposed to meet in daily forums and resolve problems and issues through discussions and suggestions. The focus was to improve the role of team leaders and direct them to the goals and objectives of the organization. This strategy was able to attain a lot of success and yielded better results in terms of performance and sales. The team leaders were assessed by the managers of the company. They were also responsible for the developing the performance and skills of the team leaders. This was done through coaching and other informal means. Their assessments were done using the methods of conducting performance reviews twice in a year which were focused on monitoring the progress of the team against the key performance indicators. Assessments were also done to evaluate their training needs and requirements based on their performance. Lessons drawn from HRM practices in terms of the diversity and equal opportunities at Selfridges The case reveals the lack of adequate diversity management strategies in the company. Each store was located in a different location and had its own style of human resource management style, policies and procedures. Also people were recruited from various locations and they differed in terms of their outlook and preferences. In fact the lack of diversity management policies could have been one of the reasons why employees were not transferred from London. It was preferred that employees were recruited from local places and regions. The rules and procedures at Trafford Park were autonomous. Initially recruitment of candidates was done on the basis of their experience in the field of retail and their abilities to develop the confidence of customers and gaining their loyalty too. Many of the team leaders and managers had previously worked at the stores of House of Fraser which was located in Manchester. They were keen to adopt the policies and procedures of the House of Frasers. It was seen discovered that the lack of diversity management strategies was responsible for the lack of adaptability of people to adapt to the cultures of Selfridge. It required a change of focus towards employee attitudes and behaviors instead of their experience. From the above problems that were confronted by the organization because of the lack of diversity management policies some of the lessons that can be learnt came forth. An organization must try to capitalize on its resources by addressing its own systematic issues. This must include diversity training to employees which must be based on the aspects of corporate cultures, training and reward systems and promotional practices. Organizations practicing such policies and strategies have been able to use diversity effectively in the organizations (Finn, 1999, p.2). Diversity must be managed based on the present issues faced in the organization. Organizations might be faced with bilingual issues or job sharing issues or recruitment issues as that in the case. Organizations must design diversity management policies based on the urgency of the current issues and just incorporate training programs to remove the same. Also the predictable styles of behavior of employees must be analyzed while dealing with the problem. For example, in the present case emphasis on candidates experience did not prove to be useful while recruiting them. Rather the organization should have focused on their place of origin and considered their organizational culture in which they previously belonged to. Organizations must try and integrate individuals belonging to diverse cultures into groups and communicated how diversity goals could be used to the company’s advantage (Finn, 1999, p.4). Conclusion The organizational culture and strategies incorporated in Selfridges was one of the factors for its success in Europe. The human resource management strategies of the company played a pivotal role in the delivery of high quality of services and rapid expansion of its operations. The company reflects a paternalistic style of leadership and management in which leaders try to incorporate such decisions which are beneficial to the employees and are directed towards the attainment of organizational goals and objectives. However, the company is faced with diversity management problems in the field of recruitment. It is finally realized that recruiting candidates looking at their experience would not be beneficial. Instead training of candidates on diversity issues would be effective in enhancing their group performance and activities. Reference Adeniyi, M. A. (2007). Effective Leadership Management: An Integration of Styles, Skills & Character for Today's CEOs. AuthorHouse. Buckley, R. & Caple, J. (2002). The Theory and Practice of Training. Kogan Page Publishers. Cole, G. A. (2002). Personnel and human resource management. Cengage Learning EMEA. Finn, T. (1999). Valuing and Managing Diversity. American Society for Training and Development. Gitman, L. J. & McDaniel, C. (2008). The Future of Business: The Essentials. Cengage Learning. Smith, J. (2002). The School Recruitment Handbook. Optimus Education eBooks. The Georgian House. No Date. Selfridges. [Online]. Available at: http://www.georgianhousehotel.co.uk/london-shopping/selfridges.asp. [Accessed on July 04, 2011]. Bibliography Martin, J. (2002). Organizational culture: mapping the terrain. SAGE. Schein, E. H. (2004). Organizational culture and leadership. John Wiley and Sons. Stoner, J. A. F. (2007). Management. Pearson Education India. Read More