Human Resource Management at DIY Corporation and STAR - Essay Example

Managing cultural change Question Management of service workers at DIY Co. DIY Co. is a hypermarket chain established in Britain. Being in the home improvements retail industry, DIY’s primary aim is providing customers with efficient services. Customer service is therefore one of the key aspects of their overall business strategy. The company has a product range of over 100,000 items. Competitive pricing and widespread advertising, are also important strategies which have been adopted by the company for gaining competitive advantages. It was seen that all activities were driven by the notion of efficient customer services. Nevertheless the firm was seen to be stuck amidst size and scale of functioning. Being a small player in the market as compared with other mega stores such as Texas, Wickes and B&Q. DIY Co. did not have the required economies of scale as the other firms had. Therefore DIY posed as a weak competition for other retail giants. Moreover the company did not have adequate number of branches in Europe to attract greater number of consumers or to reach out to smaller home improvement retailers. Considering such aspects, the key to success for the company was to provide a proper range of well priced products and outstanding customer services. In order to meet such objectives, the HR department had formulated two important organizational concepts which were aimed to improve the manner in which service workers interacted with clients. These two concepts were ‘fun’ and ‘empowerment’. HRM techniques play an important role in developing a proper organizational culture which motivates workers and employees to behave in a particular manner so that the intended objectives can be fulfilled. At DIY, one of the HRM technique imposed to achieve higher customer satisfaction was the development of a fun attitude towards customer services. Managers were engaged in developing a work culture that viewed customer serving as a fun thing to do. This was considered to be an effective way for inducing the staff to be more responsive towards consumers (Holmes and Marra, 2002). The objective was to buy in staff so that the goals of the business could be met adequately. The setting up of a fun work culture is seen to enhance employee satisfaction and encourage them to perform better. It was also observed that when employees engaged with mangers in a fun way, greater cohesiveness between them could be affected. Mangers were required to exhibit their belief in the fun at work philosophy. Senior managers expected the junior managers to remain enthusiastic about encouraging employees to enjoy their work. Having fun while delivering services to customers involved a wide set of activities such as dressing fancily or singing to jingles. Managers and employees were seen to respond positively to the fun work culture concept and it was perceived to be an effective way of reducing stress, staff burnout and making days to go much quicker (Fleming, 2005). The culture also led to the development of a well-built sense of communalism amongst employees. Empty and drained employees cannot help DIY Co. to meet their objectives. The fun work culture provides employees with the extra zeal to remain enthusiastic about work. In order to ensure that employees could have fun while they worked, adequate empowerment was provided to them. For empowering employees and let them work in their own manner, many rules were disregarded. Although the fun culture had many positive impacts upon improving customer service delivery and building an enthusiastic and motivating work culture, there were a few shortcomings which the management faced. Many employees began to practice fraudulent activities and behave in unethical manners. Stock shrinkage and wastages were also seen to increase considerably (Karl and Peluchette, 2006). Additionally, not all employees displayed continuous eagerness towards having fun at workplace on an everyday basis. At times they were observed to become cynical and having fun seemed like hard work. In order to give more effect towards developing the fun work culture, employees were recruited based more upon their personality and attitude and less upon their work experience and qualifications (Bolton and Houlihan, 2009). Training provided to employees emphasized upon remaining humorous and responsive to customer needs. Career planning and promotions were also linked with the fun work culture. The potential outcomes of implementing a fun work culture is seen to be positive from the larger perspective, however management should not let employees believe that they are independent to take any decision by themselves. Adequate levels of governance are to be maintained by the HR managers. Since qualification and skills of employees were overlooked during hiring, mangers found it difficult to induce higher productivity within employees. Much of their time was seen to be getting used up in providing training and instructions. Senior management must therefore ensure that selected employees should not only possess the right attitude but also the right qualification for meeting the day to day work needs (Collinson, 2002). Question 2 Management of culture change at STAR In the middle of the 1980’s, the management at STAR decided to transform the way it functioned so as to become more customer focussed. In order to meet such objective, the corporate culture of the company required being altered. A range of changes were brought into the customer service sector. Employees were instructed to treat customers with respect and be proactive towards satisfying their requirements. A number of value change policies were introduced by the HR managers to alter the manner in which the organization treated customers and inducing a culture change. The behaviour of managers was seen to play a key role in influencing employees to become more courteous towards customers. Hence understanding manger attitude was perceived to be highly important so that the objective of changing the manner in which customers were addressed could be altered (Cameron and Quinn, 2011). It was seen that a high level of investments were required to be made in the assets of the company. The STAR Way of Working for Management (STARWOW) document was introduced so that adequate direction could be provided to managing the organizational change. The document prescribed that the common objectives of the organization should be to achieve through co-operation, trust and mutual exchange. Employees are required to be encouraged to develop a learning attitude. Winning the hearts of subordinates and influencing them to adopt changes becomes essential. Continuous improvement in the manner of functioning was perceived to be effective for inducing change in culture. It was also seen that the overall manner in which the organization developed its goals were lesser than usual for achieving changes in the total sales figures (Jones, 2010). The organizational change which was required to be achieved was implemented in a downward manner where the uppermost mangers influenced the middle level mangers to adopt necessary values. The middle level managers were required to influence lower level manger who in turn instructed their subordinates to practice necessary organization values. The cascading manner in which value adoption was undertaken was seen to influence employees in the lower levels more effectively. In the overall change process, the role of the general stores mangers was seen to be highly crucial, as they directly influence the employees of the store who interact with consumers (Alavi, Kayworth and Leidner, 2006). All employees of the store take their lead from the general stores managers; hence his involvement with the process of change is seen to be crucial. For the success of the change in the behaviour of employees, awareness in respect of the values and behavioural qualities is essential. STARWOW adequately prescribes how employees are required to treat customers. It also provides detailed instructions regarding how mangers are required to train employees. Appraisal methods were altered to make them keener on assessing the extent to which employees achieved the desired organizational values. The frequency of meetings was increased so that communication between mangers and subordinates could be enhanced. The feedback received from customers in respect of the quality of customer services was given special importance during the meetings (Cummings and Worley, 2014). The changes employed by the HR department had received positive response from most departments. Managers were observed to remain highly willing towards undertaking the changed values framework. However it was observed that the feedback obtained from mangers in respect of change of culture was similar to the objectives and outcomes mentioned in the STARWOW report. This raised concerns whether the mangers were actually content with the new culture or just pretending to be happy with the newly established norms. Few mangers were seen to be under the assumption that the new culture took away the power which they had upon subordinates. It was made clear to them that the new system was not aimed to reduce managerial power. In the new system managers were required to instruct subordinates to do work and at the same time obtain ideas and feedbacks from them in respect of improving the manner of functioning (Carnall, 2007). However, the incomplete implementation of the STARWOW policies across all departments of the company was a cause of concern. The enthusiasm in respect of culture change was also seen to be fading due to partial implementation and lack of reviews on the same. A more sequenced and planned change is considered as a better approach. Organizational culture change is viewed as a management strategy for meeting pre-established objectives. However the process of culture is not complete until and unless underlying age old practices are changed or removed instead of simply merging them with new ones (Burnes, 2004). Reference List Alavi, M., Kayworth, T. R. and Leidner, D. E., 2006. An empirical examination of the influence of organizational culture on knowledge management practices. Journal of management information systems, 22(3), pp. 191-224. Bolton, S. C. and Houlihan, M., 2009. Are we having fun yet? A consideration of workplace fun and engagement. Employee Relations, 31(6), pp. 556-568. Burnes, B., 2004. Managing change: A strategic approach to organisational dynamics. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Cameron, K. S. and Quinn, R. E., 2011. Diagnosing and changing organizational culture: Based on the competing values framework. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Carnall, C. A., 2007. Managing change in organizations. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Collinson, D. L., 2002. Managing humour. Journal of Management Studies, 39(3), pp. 269-288. Cummings, T. and Worley, C., 2014. Organization development and change. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Fleming, P., 2005. Workers’ playtime? Boundaries and cynicism in a “culture of fun” program. The Journal of Applied Behavioural Science, 41(3), pp. 285-303. Holmes, J. and Marra, M., 2002. Having a laugh at work: how humour contributes to workplace culture. Journal of pragmatics, 34(12), pp. 1683-1710. Jones, G. R., 2010. Organizational theory, design, and change. New Jersey: Pearson. Karl, K. and Peluchette, J., 2006. How does workplace fun impact employee perceptions of customer service quality?. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 13(2), pp. 2-13. Read More