DISCUSSION - JOB REDESIGN AND EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT
Case Study : What Should a New Manager Do?
Jack Deppster arrived for his first day of work as store manager at the Buzz, one of the largest and most popular retail stores at the local mall. The Buzz, operating various locations throughout Canada, sold clothing and accessories targeted to people between 18-24 years old.
Jack, taking a business administration degree, was seen as a motivated and self-directed person who got results. On the basis of his strong GPA, volunteer experience, and previous retail experience working as a salesperson for a grocery store, the management group at Buzz expected strong performance from him.
Jack impressed the HR hiring manager and district manager during the interview process and they believed he would have no problem in achieving the target of increasing store sales by 5% over the next six months. Jack also believed he could achieve this goal, and was excited about the opportunity to take on his first management role.
However, the honeymoon did not even last a few hours. During the morning Jack noticed quite a bit of chaos in the store. Some of the cashiers did not know how to operate the registers; others seemed to be circumventing (avoiding) established processes and cashing people out in unique ways. When Jack questioned them about this, they said they had discovered different, easier methods to utilize the technology that allowed them to spend more time talking to customers as they paid, and that this was their favourite part of the job.
However, the sales staff did not seems interested in helping customers and seemed very bored. Jack noticed that many of the salespeople would spend time talking to each other, even when it was apparent that customers where in need of assistance. The situation in the inventory room was no better.
The shelves were a mess, and items were pulled out of boxes by various employees in a random fashion whenever store displays begin to look empty. The employees told jack it was the job as store manager to order and track inventory, so the storage room was his responsibility. However, Jack felt that all employees should be involved in inventory management.
To further complicate matters, Jack knew that Buzz would soon be implementing new technology, which would impact the cash register and the inventory tracking and ordering system. Jack was confused and disappointed. This was not what he had anticipated!
Questions:
1. How could Jack use the job characteristics model to redesign the job of salespeople in the store?
2. Explain how Jack might utilize employee teams to increase employee empowerment.
3. Should Jack allow some cashiers to determine how they cash people out? Is this a good idea, given the new technology will soon be implemented? What are the consequences of allowing, or not allowing, this to continue?