Challenges of Managing Multicultural Teams

This article discusses the challenges faced in managing multicultural teams and provides strategies to overcome them. It analyzes a case study on the future of work and its relevance to Coles Supermarkets. The article also explores the POLC management framework and how it is used in Coles. Additionally, it examines the impact of automation in Coles and its implications for the supermarket and its employees.

Running Head: CHALLENGES OF MANAGING MULTICULTURAL TEAMS
Topic- Case study analysis of ‘future of work’ from the perspectives of Coles Supermarkets
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ABSTRACT
The paper is an explanatory paper based on the article ‘future of work’ and its relevance
to Coles supermarket in Australia. A brief summary of the company is provided in the
introduction section and in the discussion section the case study ‘The future of work: work for
the future’ is analysed and its relevance to Coles is evaluated. Various aspects of POLC
(Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling) management framework is discussed and how
it works in Coles is also mentioned. How organizing has changed in present times is critically
discussed from the case study and how Coles is using automation and AI effectively is also
discussed later on. The paper thus, brings a holistic preview of the various aspects of ‘future of
work’ of present business organizations and to support evidential instances the example of Coles
Supermarket is analysed from wider perspectives.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction to Coles supermarket...................................................................................................4
Brief introduction to POLC management framework and how it is used in Coles.........................4
Critical analysis of organizing aspects of POLC framework in relation to trends outlined in the
case study ‘future of work’..............................................................................................................7
Automation in Coles supermarket chain and its impact on supermarket and employees...............8
Conclusion and key findings...........................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11

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Introduction to Coles supermarket
Coles supermarket or simply Coles is a chain of supermarkets, retailing and consumer
service chains operating mainly in Australia (Coles 2019). It is founded back in 1914 and is
currently operating in 807 supermarket stores throughout Australia. It has more than 1,00,000
employees till date and has occupied for more than 80% Australian market (Coles 2019). Current
slogan of Coles goes like “good things are happening at Coles”. It has some private level
brandings of its own like Coles Smart Buy, Coles Green Choice, Coles Finest, Coles Organic,
Mix Clothing and Coles Simply Less and Simply Gluten Free (Coles 2019). Online retailing has
become popular in recent times and it has focused on health food and meat supply to support
healthy living in the country. It contributes around 28% towards economic prosperity of regional
Australia (Cameron 2017). Coles share around 31% Australian market share after its near
competitor Woolworths having 41% share (Coles 2019). In Australia, Coles provide around 70%
of the total value in food and grocery retailing. The marketing and pricing campaign are a
‘down-down’ approach which help Coles in increasing its market dynamics to a considerable
amount (Cameron 2017). At present it has focused on supply chain and distribution automation
and robots are coming in position of Coles staffs.
Brief introduction to POLC management framework and how it is used in Coles
P-O-L-C management framework is the acronym of Planning, Organising, Leading and
Controlling. Problem solving is one of the major functions of managers in every organizations.
As a part of problem solving the principles of management are being divided into four major
functional categories of Planning, Organising, Leading and Controlling (Lukovic 2014). They
are integrated holistically for the smooth functioning of an organisation. The 80-20 rule increase
the scope of criticism of the POLC framework and its accuracy is being judged (Lukovic 2015).

5CHALLENGES OF MANAGING MULTICULTURAL TEAMS
But in spite of its criticisms, the POLC framework is very helpful in supporting managerial
activities and is also helpful achieving overall organizational goals and objectives. Strategy is
formulated in the planning phase and is implemented in the other three phases of organizing,
leading and controlling (Edelson, Senk and Stock 2018). The basic components of a POLC
framework is provided below.
Table 1
Planning Organising Leading Controlling
Organizational
Vision and mission
Strategy formulation
Goals and objectives
Organization design
Organization Culture
Social networking
Leadership
Decision-making
Communication
Group team support
Motivation
System and process
control
Strategic human
resource management
In the planning phase objectives are set followed by determination of course of action require for
achieving those goals. Environmental factors need to be considered and decision-making plays
crucial role for future forecasting (Nicolescu, Plesoianu and Cîrstea 2017). A number of
alternatives are availed at this phase and the best option is chosen for final plan implementation.
Planning may be Strategic planning (top management), Tactical planning (mid-level managerial
planning) and Operational planning (short-termed planning supporting strategic and tactical
planning) (Brown, George and Mehaffey-Kultgen 2018).
In organizing, an organizational structure is developed and human resources are allocated
accordingly to ensure efficient accomplishment of set up goals (Noe et al. 2017). It includes job

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designing, duties and responsibility decision-making and also developing the mechanism of
performing the jobs. Organizing may be by function, geography, product and customer-based
(Kramar 2014). It also emphasis on worker specialization and need for autonomy. In organising
the organizational structure is emphasised the most where it is represented mostly by the use of
organizational charts and in some cases by graphical representation of the organizational chain of
command. Decision-making in organising is referred to as organizational design decision. It also
involves designing of individual jobs of employees in an organization, where a number of tools
like departmentalization, cluster, and unit jobs are adopted to coordinate both organizational and
individual efforts effectively. Present-day jobs through Organising are designed on principles of
job enrichment, team work and employee empowerment.
Leading mainly involves motivation and social influence for better work inspiration. Here
managerial leadership plays crucial role in supporting positive work culture among team
members and also throughout the organization (Jackson, Schuler and Jiang 2014). Persuasive
communication plays important role in the process of leading.
Controlling ensures that performances are not deviated from standards and includes financial
control, production and operational control, service delivery control, policy compliance and other
organizational activities (Lengnick-Hall, Lengnick-Hall and Rigsbee 2013).
POLC in Coles Supermarket
In the current Globalized world, the way of business performances has changed
drastically and so are the roles and responsibilities of managers and strategic decision-makers
(Gloet and Samson 2017). Managers at Coles focus on creation of high-performance
organization culture and also focus on high performance standards (Chambers 2017). The POLC

7CHALLENGES OF MANAGING MULTICULTURAL TEAMS
management framework is holistically adopted in Coles. As a part of Planning, the strategic
managers clearly state the vison and mission of the organization to it employees. They also set
up strategies and objectives that are required to be achieved by developing a clear and positive
work culture in Coles (Coles 2019). While in Organizing, targets for employees are set up by
managers as per their team and departmental needs and employees are motivated to achieve
those targets effectively in the given time frame. In recent times, Coles has tried to strike a
balance in between its worker specialization need and the job need of workers through
diversification and process autonomy. It has shifted from its traditional mode of people
management where ‘need listening’ was followed by responding. The organizational structural
complexities have reduced and a simple yet robust framework of job function is been
implemented. System automation will reduce increased pressure on workforce and as a result
work culture will improve in future. It has focused on both macro and micro level analysis for a
broader structural and cultural work set up in the organization. A sense of ownership provided to
employees help managers to lead their teams in good manner which is a crucial part of Leading.
Also, Strategic Human Resource support help in effective control of the people and workforce in
Coles (Coles 2019). While monitoring employee performance robust training is provided to them
to have increased level of efficiency. As a part of controlling, constant review and evaluation of
both system and process is done and all departments of Finance, Marketing, HR, Operations,
Production, Supply and Customer Care are scrutinized timely to increase smoothness of process
flow and people management (Alagaraja, Cumberland and Choi 2015).

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Critical analysis of Organizing aspects of POLC framework in relation to trends outlined in the
case study ‘future of work’
The various aspects of the conventional POLC framework has changed over time and in
present times the ‘Future of work’ has been drastically evolving (Lu et al. 2013). The ongoing
evolution of ‘Organizing’ in the POLC framework is considered here for discussion and is
evaluated based on the case study of ‘The future of work: work for the future’ by Simon
Stoepegeshoff. A summary of the case study reflects the fact that present data-driven and digital
economy has huge impact on the organizational decision-making aspects (Stoepfgeshoff 2018).
It is claimed that the macro trends and digital strategies are responsible for shaping the future and
are also impacting the ways in which organizations are organized or by whom work is to be
executed. Previously, traditional organizational works were generally a group of tasks that were
allocated to positions, segregated on the basis of jobs, departments and functions (Teo, Nishant
and Koh 2016). A well-framed organizational chart was common in the past Organising
strategies. The jobs were the ultimate objects of analysis. But recent study reveals a totally
different dimension where a group of specific tasks are no longer suggested as objects of
analysis. Instead, in present times the focus is on a single specific task (Stoepfgeshoff 2018).
Organizational structure approach has also drastically changed where focus on ‘differentiation’
has increased. Individualistic personal focus has been shifted to individualistic task focus and
along with it there is a major shift from internal company perspectives to external ones
(Stoepfgeshoff 2018). In this regard, it is assumed that automation will decrease job
opportunities and unemployment will increase as labours will be substituted. But automation in
reality complements labour in such a manner that demand for labour increases considerably.
Some jobs are there that can never be automated and henceforth, through AI, creation of jobs

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will outline the loss of jobs. But lack of solid data proof limited its reliability. In addition to this,
the online talent platform has increased job networking and automated work is the new talent
recognized in modern organizations. In this regard, both cost-effectiveness and speed of
accuracy are quite higher which resulted in increased productivity of organizational outputs.
Increased use of AI and automated learning has been globalized and as a result job designs are
rapidly changing (Burch, Dixon and Lawrence 2013). Consideration of the micro trends’
emphasis the impact on job tasks. Work culture need to be changed to synchronize with the
modern virtual structures. The advent of Holacracy has increased fluidity and organizations has
become less hierarchical (Zarkada-Fraser and Fraser 2015). Also, the concept of open eco-
system organizations has augmented asset leveraging scope and has resulted in development of
hybrid organizational structures. As a result, Customer-centric business model innovation is on
the rise and Design Thinking approach has gained huge popularity in recent times (Sultan, Wong
and Sigala 2018). The emerging Lean start-up has impacted current work methods where the
principle of ‘Build-Measure-Learn’ is considered which resulted in increased Intrapreneurship
culture in organizations (Stoepfgeshoff 2018). Thus, to summarize all aspects it could be said
that the time is not far when in future humans will be replaced robots and process and people
automation will be the new trend benchmark in business performances.
Automation in Coles supermarket chain and its impact on supermarket and employees
Keeping pace with the ‘Future of work’ the Australian supermarket giant Coles has
decided to automate its supply chain and has already infused millions of dollars for process
automation (Sultan, Wong and Sigala 2018). Coles has already thought of adopting a Hybrid
Cloud Model that will shift 40% of the total workload (Chambers 2017). It will also focus on
online system automation by implementing an online ordering and delivery platform (Ocado

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Smart Platform- OSP) to boost online sales margin (Jacobs 2018). In addition to these, it has
decided to develop two automated distribution centres in place of its existing warehouses. Coles
has opted for demerger from its parent company Wesfarmers and will work as single individual
business unit. A number of distribution centres will be shut down and in the next five-year
timeline it will mostly focus on process and system automation. Coles management believe that
the investment in automated distribution centres will reduce supply chain costs, provide safe
work environment and will also enhance business competitiveness in the organization (Cameron
2017). It has a $600-$800 million investment budget for the financial year 2019, though actual
proportion to be allocated in automated centre development is not revealed (Cameron 2017). On
part of the organization it is mentioned that overall productivity will improve in future and
sustainability will be achieved greatly.
Impact on supermarkets and employees
However, the automated process and system support will play a havoc on the lives of its
employees and staffs. A majority of the human workforce will be replaced by automated robots,
which is not good news for all Coles Staffs (Cameron 2017). However, the Coles management
has opined that this is a shift in terms of supply chain modernization and is looking forward to its
future success (Jacobs 2018). Though, it is also true that there will be major changes in both
organization structure and work culture in Coles in near future. Keeping employee redundancy in
mind, Cole management has already booked provision of $130-$150 million to account for
employee and staff redundancies and also for costs of lease exits (Jacobs 2018). Considering the
impact on whole Australian supermarket, it could be mentioned that Coles is not the one who is
starting automation first, its near rival Woolworths has already invested $215 million in

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automated distribution set up earlier this year and so Coles is taking this strategic decision to be
in the race of competition for future sustainability and market share (Jacobs 2018).
Conclusion and key findings
Thus, to conclude it could be said that Coles has already started to think on its ‘Future of
work’ and has smartly adopted the approach of process and system automation so that in future
the position of its business and market share remains unaltered. The way of business
functionality and work culture has seen major shifts in recent times and people-centred
businesses have now become task-centred ones. Emphasis on valuation has improved but not
from people angle but from job valuation angle. Moreover, global competition has increased
manifold and businesses are trying their level best to be in the race for future sustainability.

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