Employability Skills Assignment for Store Manager at Tesco Metro

This assignment explores the essential employability skills required for a store manager at a Tesco Metro store. It begins by outlining the process of determining personal responsibilities and performance objectives, aligning them with organizational goals, and evaluating the effectiveness of the strategies used. The assignment then delves into specific scenarios, such as a teamwork issue related to inventory management, and recommends solutions like cross-training employees. Furthermore, it discusses the application of motivational techniques, using McClelland's needs-based model to address employee needs. The assignment also covers a work-based problem involving cultural barriers within a team and proposes solutions for effective communication. Overall, the assignment provides a comprehensive analysis of practical skills needed for effective store management, including problem-solving, communication, and team leadership.

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Task 1.........................................................................................................................................2
1.1. Determination of own responsibilities and performance objectives...............................2
1.2. Evaluation of effectiveness of the strategy.....................................................................3
1.3. Recommendation.............................................................................................................4
1.4. Use of motivational techniques to increase performance...............................................5
Task 2.........................................................................................................................................5
2.1. Work based problem.......................................................................................................5
2.2. Communicating problems...............................................................................................6
2.3. Effective time management strategies............................................................................6
Task 3.........................................................................................................................................7
3.1. Roles played in teams and achievement of shared goals................................................7
3.2. Team dynamics at Tesco store........................................................................................8
3.3. Alternative ways..............................................................................................................8
Task 4.........................................................................................................................................8
4.1. Work based problem.......................................................................................................8
4.2. Appropriate strategy........................................................................................................9
4.3. Evaluation of potential impacts.......................................................................................9
References..................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
The employability skills are an important part of the self development process for any person
regardless of their social position or qualifications. The set or personal standard of the
employment capabilities not only include job related skills but interpersonal, social and
cooperative qualities that are based on the personal skills of the person and helpful in the
professional context regardless of the position or capabilities of the person. Therefore, the
employability skills are a vast area of expertise that is required by any job regardless of the
job description or the background of the employee. The position that has been chosen for this
case is a store manager at a medium sized store under the specification Tesco metro at an
urban location.
Task 1
1.1. Determination of own responsibilities and performance objectives
The first step that is required for the development of the personal performance objectives and
responsibilities is the understanding of the organizational goals of the store and the
performance expectation of the stores where the lower management has no scope of speaking
out in the formation of the organizational goals.
My first step as a loyal employee of the organization would be to align my personal goals and
standard in such a way so that they are coordinated with the organizational objectives that are
expected by the superiors. This will ensure that there is no conflict between the
organizational objectives and my own personal objectives and they are achievable in the
process of achieving the set targets by the organization as a whole.
The second step of the process consists of continuous monitoring of the responsibilities that is
required by the organization and the purpose that is derived by the practical goals and the
performance standards that are asked by the organization. Therefore, the monitoring will
allow me to gain advantage in the self assessment of the duties and allow for monitoring of
the practical requirements of the management (Alessandra, 2006).
The third step in the development of the personal responsibilities will be done by reviewing
the performance that is expected by the organization of me and setting the personal standards
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as a store manager and observing in the practical setting the performance achieved with the
performance standard set as a goal in the initial stage.
This step gives rise to the fourth step as the performance standards are unlikely to be up to the
expectation and thus there would be issues with under performance in the organizational
setting. This part would be to analyse the review results derives and determine the specific
areas which are responsible for the underperformance or in other words failing in the
fulfilment of the responsibilities that are set by myself. Then find the ways of improving in
the areas where the personal responsibilities are not fulfilled and acquire training, or guidance
in the areas where i am lacking according to the personal review of the fulfilment of the
objectives.
The final step is to appraise my performance in my own set goals and the improvement that is
made by the personal training or guidance that had been used to develop the skills that were
lacking and thus affecting my personal performance that is stopping me from fulfilling the
responsibilities that are to be achieved by me. Therefore, this process will not only help me
achieve the skills that are necessary by me specifically but also help me understand my own
capabilities which will help in future tasks.
1.2. Evaluation of effectiveness of the strategy
The organizational policies of Tesco as a company is quite straight forward as the upper tier
of management decide on the competitive pricing in all the stores and thus the sale of the
items is not under the control of the manager and the marketing is also done centrally which
are carried out by the store managers locally (Locke and Latham, 2012). Therefore, in the
alignment of the organizational goals with the personal ones should not be too hard, I have
managed quite effectively to make sure that the purpose of the organization to be the cheapest
store, and most popular among the retail chains is achieved in the particular store I am in
charge of. This is done by ensuring that the staffs are well aware of the customer demands
and the specific requests for different items are monitored to ensure availability (Alessandra,
2006).
The duties that are required of me by the organization also pose no problem as the
organization has set performance standards for the managers of the stores at certain locations
to perform. I simply follow the set targets as my own goal, the management of the store itself
is quite organized as the set standards, and duties of the people involved in the process are
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well defined and there is not much for the manager to do but ensure that the staff maintain the
standards of performance.
The targets that are set by me as my own performance objectives are not translated into the
performance of the store but the number of problems that are successfully faced and
mitigated. Therefore, the smooth running of the stores is the objectives that include the
financial performance of the store that is set by the organization (Locke and Latham, 2012).
The number of problems that required for me get outside advice from the superiors in the
organization is the main part of the review that I use to determine my level of success in
running the store. Therefore, the problems that affected the performance of the store are the
points that are considered by me in the review of the performance so this is also done by me
effectively.
The performance in the different parts of the organizational goals and the problems that
required outside influence to make sure that the running was smooth are considered by me
critically to determine my own deficiencies. When the deficiencies are determined, I
undertake personal approach to address the deficiency through training or guidance from
more experienced members of the organization. so I can truthfully say that the understanding
of my shortcomings and taking necessary steps to ensure that they are addressed in case
occurrence of similar problems can be solved without any outside help from the
organization .
The performance appraisal by the set company standards are carried out by me in accordance
with organizational requirements and the improvement made by me in the management of
problems is assessed so it can be said that the performance objective set by me are achieved
within time limits (Zawacki and Rogers, 2012). As they are based on practical situations as
they arise this becomes a continuous process of improvement.
1.3. Recommendation
The particular situation that arose in the store was regarding the teamwork between the
employees. The clean up and inventorying of the items and putting them in their proper isle is
done collaboratively by the employees at the end of the workday. Moreover, it is the
conventional way to ensure that the person in charge of the monitoring the isle and helping
the customers do the job at the end of their shift. Therefore, the overall scope of the
organization as far as my personal objectives go the process was a correct one as there was
clear structure of accountability. This pattern ensured that the people who were in change of a
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specific isle were more attuned to the organization of the items in the isle as they are more
aware of the exact places for the items. However, the problem arose when an employee left
of vacation and the temporary staffs who was stationed at the isle was unaware of the exact
position of the items in the location so the inventorying took too long and the person doing
the task started doing so before the store closed. This was not well received by the customers
as some of the regular customers complained that the person was not only unable to help
them he was reluctant to help them find any product they required. The recommendation if
propose is the factor of training of the employees in various tasks in the store as their duties
should be rotated in different parts of the store. This would ensure they are familiar with all
parts of the store equally at the beginning of the training and thus the capability of the staff
will increase (Zawacki and Rogers, 2012). The duties will be divided between the overall
staff and the groups should carry out the inventorying so that the members of the staff are
aware of the developments of the different sections of the store and the dependence upon a
single staff is decreased.
1.4. Use of motivational techniques to increase performance
There are many facets of motivation and many ways this affects the employee performance.
The various motivational techniques that can be applied in the scenario but the most
appropriate model that can describe the needs o the employee is the McClelland’s needs
based motivation model. The manager can satisfy the need for achievement by praising the
employees on their performance in public but critique and correct them only in private. This
is one way to ensure the participation of the employees in correcting their own errors. The
need of authority and power can be satisfied by making their rewards achievable by the
setting targets that are slightly above their normal performance but within the limits. The
need for affiliation can be satisfied by the recognition of their efforts on behalf of the store so
the Tesco can impart the knowledge that the employees are important for them and thus the
importance of the employees and their participation makes their performance rise (Locke and
Latham, 2012).
Task 2
2.1. Work based problem
The work based problem in the store that was faced by me in a team setting is the problem of
cultural barriers and thus the staff who were not from UK or any other English speaking
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country were facing problems in the team setting as the team discussions and allocation of
duty. As they did not understand English fluently, they were not understanding the job
description and the allocation of the duties properly and they were being saddled with te3h
toughest and most unsuitable jobs without any members of the team realising it. The
employees especially the Middle Eastern ones complained to me as the manager that they
were not happy the way the team was dividing the duties and they were not being asked their
opinion as they did not understand English. I solved this problem with great effort and the
solution was so simple that it eluded us all at first ((Abeysinghe, 2009)). The inclusion of all
members of a team in discussion and duty allocation needs to be done carefully to ensure that
all members are included and the peers value their opinion. Therefore, the decision that all
discussion would take place in written communication so that the people without good grasp
of English would not be excluded from the discussion and would have a chance to voice their
views.
2.2. Communicating problems
The problem communication in this case should follow the model proposed by khan and
Poole in 2000 as the model defines conflict resolutions in two categories one is distributive
and the other integrative. The integrative approach and the distributive approach are based on
the confrontational model developed by Kozen and thus the communication of the problem
would be different for the different groups of people. While handling the problem the
accusers would have to be handled in the distributive approach where the overall scope of the
problem has to be understood by the staff whose behaviour is causing a problem for the other
party. This is a irresponsible thing as the problem needed to be addressed and the assumption
that other employees did not have any opinion on the matter is selfish and centred on the
belief of self importance. The integrative approach is taken to handle the plight of the
employees facing the problem as they are being ignored because of their nationality and
language. The inclusion of the troubled employees is based on the overall theme of the
resolution (Escudeiro and Escudeiro, 2011). Thus is centred on the principle of compromise
that is main way of integrating and finding an approach to the problem that allows both
parties to be included with some compromise on their part.
2.3. Effective time management strategies
Many time management strategies are used by the organization to make sure that the time is
spent properly and all objectives are fulfilled in time. The strategies are
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 Setting priorities- the overall theme of the strategy is organize the tasks according to
their importance and thus ensuring the important tasks are done first to ensure timely
completion.
 Use of planning tool- the use of planning tool by allocating different resources to the
different tasks to ensure their timely completion is part of the strategy.
 Delegation- delegation of extra people while the tasks completion is vital is important
as this affects the overall performance level of the team on the task and the
completion is ensures even if there are some initial delays.
 Scheduling- the scheduling of the time sensitive tasks before hand is based on the
theme where who has to do what in what time to ensure proper completion of the task
which divides the work time of the employees in different segments for different takes
to ensure that the tasks are completed in a timely manner (Glenn, 2010).
Task 3
3.1. Roles played in teams and achievement of shared goals
I and my colleagues played various roles in different teams. The role that was played in
different instances was of team leader and specialist. The roles played by the team can be
summarized as below:
 Team work enables to deliver quality services to the customers
 When teams opt for group work, then the pressure is actually distributed among all
the members and the team members are able to turn up with effective solutions
 Competition is considered as the by-product of teamwork and accordingly promotes
the individual performance
 Teamwork also facilitates to build up interpersonal relationships
The role of the team leader is based on the coordination of the effort of the team members to
ensure that the effectiveness is high in the overall team and duties are allocated based on the
skills and background of the team members. In case of the specialists the special duty that is
regarding the aspect of the project that is based on the particular skills possessed by that
specific member and allocation the specific duty to the member to increase efficiency
(Conzemius and O'Neill, 2001).
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The main factor for the achievement of shared goals is the commitment of the team member
and the action orientated approach where every member of the team are responsible for
specific objectives of the whole task and cooperation between them is preset. The main factor
for achieving the shared goal is being aware of the expectation of the team from different
members and their commitment to fulfil those tasks in time (Mina, 2002).
3.2. Team dynamics at Tesco store
According to the Schultz’ model the team dynamics are the factors that influence the
performance of the team by the inter connection between different members of a team at the
workplace the atmosphere is pretty open.
 As a leader of operations I believe in the openness of communication and this has
been a great help for the organization.
 The team efforts of the person in the task are based on the personal characteristics and
it is clear that some members are better in team setting than other s and more
comfortable (Parker and Parker, 2010).
 However, the overall inclusion in the team and discussions ensure that commitment is
shared and the involvement of the team leader in setting expectations of the team
members and encouraging and observing increase the control of the operations.
3.3. Alternative ways
One of the most important ways where the coordination between the team members is based
on the overall scope of the organization allocation of duties the alternative methods of
achieving a task as the task is divided among the different people with different skills
(Education and training in Europe, diverse systems, shared goals for 2010, 2002).
Specialization among all the team members will influence the expertise of the individuals.
Practicing a decentralized policy within the workplace would improve the quality of work
assigned to the team. The coordination is not random but orchestrated to suit the purposes of
the organization. therefore the alternative ways is possible where the coordination is done by
some third party but the overall scope is limited as the people are not interconnected and the
connection has to be facilitated by a third member with enough skill to understand both
basics. Therefore, the possibility of alternative ways is endless but all of them inefficient
compared to the teamwork.
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Task 4
4.1. Work based problem
The main work based problem faced by the store is in the certification program where the
specialist skills like the butcher and fishmonger or baker are certified by the organization,
which helps them in professional life, is they open their own business. But the stores of all
sizes are present in Tesco and the demand is not same for all locations therefore the number
of a apprentices present from different locations and different sized stores are more and more
sporadic and thus the certification program is facing problems as there are not enough
applicants for the program for a specific post. Thus, the company is facing sustaining the
apprenticeship program where the number of apprentices is decreasing for some posts while
others are flourishing. This problem is a high priority for the management as the low wage
trainees were essential to profitability of the company. This problem can be addressed by
asking volunteers from the existing work force, as the acquiring of general sales staff is much
easier than finding apprentices for specific positions. This problem has been assessed using
the Problem-Based Learning Special Interest Group (PBL SIG) which is quite appropriate for
the work based problem that has direct impact on profitability of the organization (Chan,
2007).
4.2. Appropriate strategy
The appropriate strategy for the mitigation of the problem would be to ask for volunteers for
the specific specialised positions that are vacancy in the program and the process can be
justified by the supporting fact that the company applicants for general sales jobs are very
high compared to the specialised jobs (Congress and González, 2013). Therefore, this
strategy would be appropriate for the program in the organization as the people entering the
training program would not need an induction into organizational practices as they are
already familiar with the culture at Tesco so this will be a benefit both ways as the positions
will be fulfilled with the people with familiarity with the organization.
4.3. Evaluation of potential impacts
 The potential impact of the implementation of the strategy will not only provide good
career opportunity for the individuals chosen from the workforce
 The overall scope of the organization would increase along with their efficiency
compared to the time when the people entering were fresh and had no idea of the
culture or practices of the organization.
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 Another potential impact can be the organization can lose employee loyalty if they try
to force someone into a profession that is not to his liking like some person having
haemophobia into the profession of a butcher would be utter folly as the person is
bound to fail.
Therefore, the selection process can be augmented with the available recruits from the
company by making sure they are up or the job from their employment records (Corcoran,
2000).
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Parker, J. and Parker, J. (2010). Shared goals, shared knowledge, and mutual respect =.
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