Managing the organisation of Staples

Running head: MANAGING THE ORGANISATION
Managing the Organisation
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Author’s Note

MANAGING THE ORGANISATION2
Table of Contents
Q.1 Discussion of the most challenging aspects of a manager’s job at Staples.........................3
Q.2 Critical discussion of the characteristics of a store manager which would reflect on
customers’ buying experiences in a store...................................................................................4
Q.3 Comments on the current organisation structure and assessment of the advantages and
disadvantages if the structural arrangement is changed to a matrix formation..........................6
3.1 SWOT analysis of Staples, Inc.’s organisational design..................................................6
3.1.1 Strengths....................................................................................................................6
3.1.2 Weaknesses................................................................................................................7
3.1.3 Opportunities.............................................................................................................7
3.1.4 Threats.......................................................................................................................8
3.2 Advantages and disadvantages of the Matrix Organisational Structure...........................8
Q.4 Obstacles to an effective strategy implementation system at Staples...............................10
Reference List and Bibliography.............................................................................................12

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Q.1 Discussion of the most challenging aspects of a manager’s job at Staples.
In 2006, Staples performed under an organisational structure of 1500 retail units
spanning over USA and Canada. There have been several managerial departments that
handled the operations. These departments were office equipment, paper and ink, copy centre
as well as furniture. The management head have been a “general manager” whose liability
concerned management of all the internal operations of the management as well as looking
after the sales at the stores. The GM is a member of the owner managers. Other than that
there were two assistant manager and a manager atop of them who were all salaried. Initially
the management run the organisation as a superstore for the office products.
In the latter years, competition from the similar entities like as Office Depot, Office Max as
well as mass merchants like Wal-Mart and Best Buy, intensified. In order to face the
challenge the company alternated their service domain. The superstore for office products
now shifted to customer based services like outlet designing, signage, checkout processing as
well as product offering. Now the owner operators were directly responsible for the quality of
the customer service that would be provided by the company. Previously, they have been
associated with marketing and sales activities only. The customer service outcomes were not
their concern. However, in this phase, the Easy Service Model was adopted by the company.
Under this model, a clear performance standard was set out by the owner directors. This new
mode of operations posed a new challenge for the management team. They were not adapted
or trained for the new mode of operations. The executive and assistant managers had to work
hard in order to maintain the entrepreneurial spirit among the employees. Parallely, the
general manager also had to work towards leveraging the best practice from the employees
and maintain the economies of scale also.
Another challenge that was faced by the COO of the home office team of Staples,
Framingham, Massachusetts was regarding the key areas of supply chain and merchandising,
HR and finance. In this context, the issue that was faced by the management are as follows:
Creation of a brand new supply chain and manufacturing unit
Severe HR related issues included giving proper training to the employees so that they
can cope up with the new work methodology
The Finance was also a big issues as the COO and the CFO was not adherent with the
formal and primary budget of the operations that were required under the new
organisational procedure

MANAGING THE ORGANISATION4
At this moment, the organisation was in an acute need of hybridisation (Omotayo 2015).
However, the hierarchical model of organisational management made it more difficult for
the managers to handle the crisis situation at the stores of the company. Besides, in the
organisation, there were four levels of management all of whom focused on the specific
traits like customer service, developing the inventory levels and elevation of the standard
of the associates. In this context, the quotation of one of the RVPs can be highlighted:
“Managers are like Circus entertainers; we all spin plates. Our responsibility is to
make sure that the plates are spinning levelly, since then they are not going to fall. If
one does fall, our job is to pick it up and get it spinning again. The higher you are in
the management chain, the more plates you have to spin.”
Q.2 Critical discussion of the characteristics of a store manager which would reflect on
customers’ buying experiences in a store.
There are two approaches that are needed to be followed for addressing the essential
characteristics of a store manager. At first when the services of the company were confined
up to acting as a superstore for the office requirements, the mode of organisational
management would be different. As per Astami et al. (2015), the individuals who have an
endorsing attitude along with quiet experience in the retail field should find high level of
success in the field of store retail.
An important position in the organisational hierarchy of the company is the position
of the executive store manager-ship. In this case the associate full time as well as the part
time employees who have strong work ethic and a strong passion for the fulfilment of the
organisational objectives should be given preference for promotion to executive store
managers.
In the same context, the condition of the organisation after the transformation can be
highlighted. The leadership capabilities of the area managers should be adequate in order to
manage the exclusive cases of client confrontation. Again, as per Pribyl and Svitek (2015),
under the second business model, the two assistant managers and the executive chief manager
have to have the following essential characteristics in order to handle the business efficiently
and enforce efficient workplace management. The first quality of the chief store manager in
this context should be the capability to be goal oriented. The managers should understand that
previously the customers were purchasing what they offered with without choice. Hence, it
was the customer’s responsibility to adapt the goods and services with their demands. After