Organizational Behavior: Challenges and Solutions for Myer

This essay discusses the major problems faced by Myer, a leading departmental store in Australia, and recommends solutions based on organizational behavior approaches. It also explores the implementation of change process using Lewin's model.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
Organizational behavior
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Introduction
The current business scenario is posing a good number of challenges for the
contemporary business organizations. One of the major challenges is the frequent change in the
market trends and preferences and aligning the employee approaches accordingly. These
challenges are also taking a toll to the profitability of the organizations. In this case, it is
important for these organizations to initiate the proper approach of organizational behavior in
order to overcome these challenges (Lazaroiu, 2015). Myer is one of the leading departmental
stores operating in Australia. They are considered also as one of the major profitable units but in
2018, their average profitability took a hit and got reduced by about the 52 percent. This is
actually impacting in their long term viability.
This essay will discuss about the major problems being faced by Myer and the specific
problems that are causing reduction in the profit margin of them. On the basis of the identified
problems, a few recommended steps will be discussed, which will ensure the long term viability
of Myer. In addition, the solutions will be based on the two different organizational behaviors.
This will ensure that the internal management approach of Myer is aligned with the business
problems of them.
Identification of the problems
One of the major problems for Myer identified is the poor work ethics of the employees
in offering the effective services to the customers. There are number of instances identified
where the customer services of them are accused for the dissatisfaction of the customers. It is
reported that the employees especially the front line partners in the Myer stores are not
cooperative with the customers and they are not assisting in their buying process (Lee, Wang &

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Trappey, 2015). Thus, the existing customers are not coming back and retention level of the
customers is also going down for them. Another problem that is external in nature is the
emergence of the online marketplace. These online sites are offering more conveniences to the
customers, which is already affecting the offline based retailers such as Myers and this issue is
getting coupled with terrible customer service of Myer. Thus, the existing customers of Myer are
opting for the online marketplaces. Another major challenge for Myer is in terms if the
marketing factor. The major staples selling brands for Myer are the Van Heusen and Calvin
Klein but these brands are now increasingly initiating forward integration of their own in order to
gain sales revenue and market exposure (Filip, 2013). This is due to the reason that the space in
the departmental stores such as Myer is limited for these brands while having the exclusive
stores will increase their presence in the market. Thus, the more will be the forward integration
of these brands, the more will be the competition for Myer in the market along with reduction in
their product portfolio. This is reducing their competitive advantage in the market.
Contributing problems in decreasing the profits
Among all the problems and challenges being identified in the above section, the major
contributing factors are the reduction in the service quality to the customers and increase in the
customer complaints. It is reported that the uncooperative employees of Myers causing
dissatisfaction among the customers. In addition, the customers are also complaining about the
service standards in the stores (Sun & Kim, 2013). For example, complaints have received that
customers are standing in queue for payment but staffs are not there in the counter. This is also
amplifying the issues and dissatisfaction of the customers and they are increasingly opting for the
other substitutes. Thus, reduction in the customer traffic in the stores is affecting the profitability
of Myer. It is reported that the as of 2018, Myer faced the loss of US$ 486 million and sales got

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down by 2.7 percent. There are few mitigation strategies being initiated by them in dealing with
this challenge and these strategies include restructuring and impairment of assets. However,
these practices will provide the short term capital funding for the company but they will not be
beneficial in gaining the long term sustainability and viability (Medjoudj, Aissani & Haim,
2013).
Another contributing problem identified for Myer in terms of their decreasing profit is the
unhealthy organizational culture. This is due to the fact off late; Myer is facing the issues in
managing their internal workforce ranging from the top level management to the lower level
employees (Awadh & Saad, 2013). It is reported that in regards to the cost cutting approach
taken by Myer, managers and executives are getting axed from their different facilities and
withdrawing the rent of their premises from the landowners. Thus, restructuring the workforce is
creating stir in the internal management of Myer, which is also reducing the organizational
effectiveness of in dealing with the market and profitability issues.
Probable solutions for the identified issues
This section will discuss about the probable approaches that can be initiated and followed
in mitigating the above identified issues. This will be followed by the change implementation
plan in the workplace. It is recommended that decision making behavioral theory will be
applicable and suitable for Myer in terms of their identified issues. This is due to the fact that
according to this theory, functional level managers and supervisors should have more autonomy
in terms of their access to information and decision making power (Beach & Lipshitz, 2017).
This is due to the reason that functional level managers and the supervisors are having more
practical access to the business needs and challenges. Thus, providing more autonomy to them

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will help in having faster and tactical decision making process. However, this theory also states
that information available to the managers and the supervisors should be accurate and complete.
In this case of Myer, the lower level managers and the supervisors will be more effective in
dealing with the customer complaints and issues if given more autonomy. In addition, it should
also be noted that different stores of Myer are having different sets of issues being faced. Thus,
offering the autonomy to them will increase the tactical capability of the internal management of
them in dealing with the different customer issues in different facilities of them (Pageaux, 2014).
This will ensure that time consumption is low in taking the decision in managing the issues of
the employees and how to improve the service quality to the customers. Implementation of the
decision making behavioral theory will also be effective in ensuring more responsibility from the
lower level stakeholders. This is due to the reason that if the lower level stakeholders are given
more autonomy in the decision making process, then they will be more responsible towards their
job profile and they can also be held accountable for their practices.
On the other hand, it is also recommended that servant leadership behavioral theory will
also be effective in mitigating the issues being faced by Myer. According to this theory, the
upper level managers should be responsible for the determination of the needs, wants and goals
of the employees in designing the workplace processes (Parris & Peachey, 2013). In addition,
initiation of the servant leadership approach will also help in reducing the gaps between the
customers and the upper level management and the expectations of the customers from the
organization can be identified effectively. Thus, in the case of Myer, initiation of the servant
leadership approach can help in effectively identifying the reasons for customer complaints.
Thus, with the help of this theory, Myer will be able to identify the gap between the employee
effectiveness and service quality expectations of the customers and accordingly the

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organizational behavior strategies can be initiated (Liden et al., 2014). In the above section, it is
identified that organizational culture of Myer is also a major problem for them in maintaining
their profit. In this case also, the servant leadership approach will also help in enhancing the
organizational culture by meeting the needs and wants of the employees and offering the
necessary supports. Thus, it can be concluded that initiation of the servant leadership approach
theory and decision making behavioral theory will be effective and fruitful for Myer in
mitigating their identified problems and enhance the profitability.
Recommended change process implementation
Even though the organizational behavior approaches suitable for Myer are discussed in
mitigating the identified issues. It is also important to have a proper action plan in implementing
the changes. In this case, the Lewin model of change will be used. According to this model, the
first step to be followed in Myer is unfreezing the existing process and practices in the
workplace. This is important due to the reason that servant leadership is not being followed
currently in Myer and thus the existing leadership approaches and practices followed should be
un-freezed (Hussain et al., 2018). In addition, it is also important for the acting change agents in
Myer to identify the areas of improvement and where the change should be implemented.
Change in the leadership approaches will also have impact on the employees and thus they
should also be involved in the change process and should be communicated about the advantages
to be gained from the change. In the case of decision making behavioral theory, it is more
important to involve the lower level stakeholders especially the supervisors in communicating
their new roles and responsibilities (Cummings, Bridgman & Brown, 2016). All these steps will
ensure the readiness of Myer in implementing the recommended approaches without facing any
resistances.

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The next step for Myer will be the implementation of the change. In this step, separate
facilities should be taken in to consideration for the change. For instance, change in the
leadership approach and the decision making process should be implemented in a single store to
identify the practical outcome. Determining the feedback of the customers after the
implementation of the change will help to determine the utility of the change. On the basis of the
feedback, necessary changes should be made or the process should be implemented across their
entire stores (Wojciechowski et al., 2016). Necessary support should also be provided to the
involved stakeholders in getting accustomed with the change. For example, the supervisors
should be given training about the decision making process prior to offering them autonomy.
This will ensure that the implementation process will be proper and effective.
The last step involved is the refreezing of the implemented changes. The new approach to
the leadership that is implemented in the workplace should get altered according to the existing
cultural approach of Myer. Moreover, the involved stakeholders should get accustomed with the
new processes and practices in the workplace. In this case, it is also recommended that
evaluation and monitoring should also be followed after the implementation of new processes.
This will involve determination of the feedback of the customers after the change process
implementation (Sarayreh, Khudair & Barakat, 2013). Positive feedback will be denoting
favorable outcome of the change process and vice versa. In addition, evaluation process will also
help Myer in determining the challenges and issues being faced by the internal stakeholders with
the new processes. Based on the outcome from the evaluation process, the implemented process
should be modified and made more effective.
Conclusion

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This is concluded that the major two problems for Myer are the unhealthy organizational
culture and customer complaints. Both these problems are affecting the profitability of Myer in
the long term. Based on these problems, this essay recommended that decision making
behavioral approach and servant leadership approach should be followed and implemented.
These approaches will help Myer to increase the tactical effectiveness of the supervisors along
with the effective determination of the needs and wants of the employees. In addition, it is also
recommended that lewin change model should be used for implementing the change process in
the workplace. With the help of the lewin change management model, the probability of the
emergence of resistances will be less. Hence, this paper concludes that effective implementation
of the recommended approaches will help Myer to mitigate the identified problems and ensure
the long term viability in terms of customer satisfaction.

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