Organizational Behaviour and Leadership in Coles Group Limited

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND LEADERSHIP
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND LEADERSHIP
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1ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND LEADERSHIP
Introduction
Coles Group Limited is one of the best retailers of Australia which has over 2,500
stores all over the continent. It is a hundred-year-old company with its head office in
Melbourne. It has turned into a super-market from a variety store, thereby becoming one of
the leading retail brands of Australia. The first store was inaugurated in the year 1914 on 9 th
of April by G.J.Coles. In spite of the difficult times during the Great Depression, it did not
stop giving away a huge amount of their profit for charitable purposes to the hospitals and
even relief funds for the jobless. Also, after the Second World War, a lot of married women
joined the company. Gradually it started selling electronic appliances like irons and toasters
and even cosmetic products. By the 1950s, Coles had started becoming a self-service shop
which led it into the formation of a super-market. A series of retail outlets throughout the
country occurred in the 70s with more focus on value, innovation and convenience of the
customers. Moreover, in 1982, Coles implied the first electronic scanners to give a printed
receipt to the buyers for the very first time. In the upcoming years, Coles adopted
technological evolutions and modernized itself to begin the trend of online shopping. Over
the Time Coles group has engaged itself with various innovative ideas to expand the business
as well as to serve the shoppers with the best of the products. It also engaged into national
partnerships with various other brands like Secondbite, Little Athletics etc. Under
Wesfarmer’s leadership, Coles experienced a turnaround while regaining its pride and grew
certain value based strategies to serve the customers. At present and even in future also,
Coles is determined in consistency of delivering the best quality of fresh food, most
innovative products and a great value and service to the customers with trust. It is also
committed to make the lives of their buyers, partners, suppliers as well as team members
easier and better. Even after nine long years of cost deflation, it has succeeded in providing
value to the customers by offering more products on as low prices as possible. It ensures in

2ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND LEADERSHIP
investing in a wide range of shopping alternatives due to the fast change in consumer
expectations and demands. For this purpose, Coles has developed online and mobile shopping
applications and also several delivery facilities like Click&Collect, home delivery etc. Coles
will also continue to develop its extended national network of stores by focusing on buyer
insights, bringing up the latest technology and innovations to control the renewal programs
and also tailoring the variety of products and their costs based on the demands of the local
shoppers. The success of this company lies in the fact that it believes not only in making its
team members proud to work with, but also the customers feeling great to shop at Coles
Group. It acknowledges the importance and value of giving an inclusive surrounding for all
the team members and buyers through various self-organized programs. By adopting several
organizational behaviors, they have successfully become one of the largest and most favored
companies in the country. As CEO Richard Goyder rightly says that the key to success is
nothing but human capital. They bring a powerful performance culture which is again one of
their significant points. Organizational structure, human capital, leadership, stakeholders are
the chief features of the organizational behavior which leads to the success of companies like
the Coles Group (Burch, Dixon & Lawrence, 2013).
Organizational Issues
Coles, as discussed earlier is a retail giant who has to deal various people in the
marketplace and as a result of this, the senior level managers have to face issues related to
organizational behaviours as well as leadership. The managers of the organization are facing
a major issue in workforce diversity. It can be termed as one of the most important and
common issue or challenge faced by the organizations like Coles. They have to deal with a
lot of people who are different from each other. Organizations nowadays are becoming more
cosmopolitan or global oriented. Apart from this they are becoming more heterogeneous in
the context of race, gender and ethnicity. Workforce diversity is a wide term and possess a

3ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR AND LEADERSHIP
real challenge to the managers of many organizations. People from different races and
ethnicities work in this organization. There can be employees who can be physically
handicapped. Special need to be taken for these employees so that they can work peacefully
in the organization of Coles. The managers have to respect the diversity of all the employees
who are working in all the branches of Coles. They have to shift their philosophy, which is to
treat everyone alike, and instead of that have to recognize the differences and respond to
those differences in a structured way that will assure the employee retention forb the
organization as well as to increase the productivity so that revenue generation is not
hampered by the people (Zehir et al, 2013). An increasingly diverse workforce helps as both
opportunities and challenges for the organisation of Coles. To overcome this challenge, the
senior level management can use the theory of McGregor from the leadership background.
Here the managers have to motivate their employees, which will help to drive themselves to
perform at their best and help the company to earn more revenue so that they can be benefited
as their salaries will also be increased if the revenue generation of Coles increases
automatically, and will help the company to gain a competitive edge over others. A good
manager need to realize that leadership affects the behaviour of the employees, which will
affect the organizational behaviour as a whole. Motivation is needed because it helps to
increase the involvement and participation of the employees working out there. Diversity can
become a competitive advantage of Coles if the decision making as well as the team
performance on complex tasks is improved, and this can be done by the managers by
following and implementing the leadership theory of McGregor. It has been found in the
researches and studies that a diverse workforce is essential to provide better customer service
in the global market place. And Coles belongs from such an industry where customer service
is the first and foremost thing which needs to be followed in highest quality. Workforce
diversity can increase creativity as well as innovation in Coles if properly managed by their