An Analysis of Management Issues and Decision-Making at Woolworths

This report examines various management issues at Woolworths supermarket, focusing on staff retention, interpersonal conflicts, and unethical behavior. The report identifies key problems such as ineffective management of resources, lack of training, and inappropriate decision-making processes. The study includes primary research data collected through questionnaires to understand managers' perspectives on these issues. It analyzes the decision-making process, highlighting steps like goal identification, information gathering, consequence consideration, decision-making, and evaluation. The report recommends adopting a democratic management style and emphasizing employee training to improve staff skills and knowledge, ultimately leading to better customer service and overall performance. The findings emphasize the critical role of effective decision-making and resource management in overcoming these challenges.

Introduction to management

Executive summary
This study will cover different issues that occur at workplace like staff retention,
unethical behaviour, interpersonal conflicts, dominant behaviour of part-time staff etc. It will
also show about management related issue that is being faced by various companies. Companies
will use different strategies for solving all issues. Further this study will show step by step
process of decision-making that can help them in achieving their organizational goals.

Table of Contents
Executive summary..........................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Identification of issues.................................................................................................................1
Management related issues..........................................................................................................1
The concept of identified issue....................................................................................................2
Analysis of information...............................................................................................................2
Decision making process and their implementation....................................................................5
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
APPENDICES.................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Management can be defined as a way of handling something. It includes various
functions like planning, organizing, directing and motivating employees. This present report is
based on Woolworth supermarket that is an Australian grocery store chain which was founded in
1924. This report will show about several issues that occurs within an organization such as staff
retention, interpersonal conflicts, dominance of part-time staff etc. For solving these issues'
manager of the company makes an effective decision-making strategy which help them to the
great extent Ansoff & et.al., (2018). Further this report will show about different views of
managers which is being known by questionnaire in the context of issues which they face.
MAIN BODY
Identification of issues
Every type of organizations have to face several issues and problems that need to be
resolved on the time. Issues which ….face includes staff retention, a dominance of part-time and
casual staff, unethical behaviour, hiring the right staff within an organization, team conflicts etc.
The main problem which manager have to face is to hiring the right staff.
Staff retention: It is the main issues which is being faced by manager of Woolworth
supermarket. There are various factors that becomes the reason of this problem. Managers do not
provide fair salary, ineffective relationship among employees, ineffective communication. When
employees feel that their needs are not be4ing satisfied by managers then they do not stay in the
company for the long run, Ford & et.al., (2018).
Interpersonal conflicts: It is other main issue that is being faced by Woolworth
company. Conflicts among employees destroy working environment that directly have negative
impact on it's their overall productivity. The main reason of this issue is ineffective relationship.
For solving this problem it is important for the manager of Woolworth company to focus on
maintaining employees relationship and satisfy their all needs.
Management related issues
Woolworth is also facing various management related issues and problems According to
the article (Management issues, 2019) it is being analysed that Woolworth scored a meagre 3
stars in some areas such as value for money, food freshness, customers services, quality of
private label products and store layout. There are various factors that are the main reason of these
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issues. Management of resources is not an effective so it is important for manager to more focus
on their management functions. From the past couple of years this supermarket has gradually
reduced the variety of goods. It has also been analysed from the article (Reasons of management
issues, 2019) that customers are also not happy and satisfy with their products. They think that
the pricing strategy and availability is not as good as it could be. Unethical behaviour and hiring
the right staff is one of the main management issues that Woolworth is facing. From the
customers' perspective it has been known that employees of Woolworth do not behave ethically
and their pricing strategy is also not that much good. They try to influence customers as they are
lacking in providing the best quality products and services.
Wrong hiring decision
The concept of identified issue
From above issues it has identified that there are several factors that become the reason of
all these issues. The main reason of staff retention and unethical behaviour that decrease the
quality of products is lack of training and in effective decision-making regarding hiring staff.
Unethical behaviour and staff retention impacts on their performance and their brand image,
Customers do not prefer to shop from those companies and supermarkets who do not behave
ethically and do not play functions in an effective manner Leon-Perez & et.al., (2015).
For solving this problem manager of Woolworth is now more focusing on training
programs for their employees. The main aim of providing training to employees is to teach them
the way of behaving and providing services to customers. They also try to make an effective
decision regarding staff selection and all the activities. Manager of Woolworth supermarket has
announced a new model and according to that model, they has created more customer facing
leadership roles with the main aim of delivering te4h better services to their customers and also
to meet their changing shopping needs. Manager of Woolworth is also focusing on making an
effective decision, Gharib, Kahwaji & Elrasheed, (2017).
Analysis of information
Information related issues is being collected by primary research data. With the help of
questionnaires, informations was being collected in order to know the views of managers about
the issues which they are facing.
Questionnaire
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1.What is the major issue is being faced by your company?
 Staff retention
 Interpersonal conflicts
 Unethical behaviours
2. What is the main reason of issues which occur at your workplace?
 Management style
 Lack of training
3. What strategies is being used by your company in decision-making?
 Autocratic
 Democratic
4. What will you recommend for improvement and solving these issues?
 Using of democratic style
 Focus on training
Theme 1:
Major issue faced by Woolworth company. Frequency
 Staff retention 6
 Interpersonal conflicts 1
 Unethical behaviour 3
Interpretation: It has been interpreted from 10 managers of Woolworth company about the
question of issues faced by them. Out of 10 managers, 6 managers and majority of manager said
that they face staff retention problem, On the other hand 3 managers said that unethical
behaviour is main issue. Only 1 manager said that they face interpersonal conflict.
Theme 2:
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Reasons of issues Frequency
 Management style 3
 Lack of training 7
Interpretation: Out of 10 managers, 7 managers and majority of manager said that the main
reason of issues that they are facing is the lack of training, Whereas, 3 managers said that
inappropriate management style is the reason of issues.
Theme 3:
Strategies for decision-making Frequency
 Autocratic style 6
 Democratic style 4
Interpretation: Out of 10 managers, 8 managers and majority of manager said that they face
they follow autocratic style of management the most. On the other hand 4 managers said that
they follow democratic leadership style.
Theme 4:
Recommendation for improvement Frequency
 Using democratic style 3
 Focus on training 7
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Interpretation: Out of 10 managers, 7 managers and majority of manager said that they face
managers and the company should invest on training and development programs, Whereas 3
managers said that they should follow on democratic leadership style.
Decision making process and their implementation
Decision making process is a step by step procedure that allow managers and leaders to
solve problems by examining alternatives and by choosing a right path. Decision-making process
of Woolworth supermarket includes 5 main steps such as:
Identification of goal: The first step of decision-making process is to identify the main
goal of making decision. In this step manager of the company find out the reason of making
decision and problem that need to be solved. This aim and reason can help them in further steps
of decision-making, Waldron & et.al., (2016).
Collecting informations: After identifying the reason and aim of making decision, the
next step is to collect all the necessary informations that is related to the problem. Informations
can help them in more understanding the need to be done in solving the issue. In this step they
also seek the opinion of people that they believe and trust as it can help them with a variety of
solutions.
Considering consequences: It is an important step because this step help manager in
identifying those factors by which the final decision can have impact on all the person who are
involved in the process. In this step, manager consider all consequences that can affect them and
their future.
Making decision: After identifying goals, consequences and collecting informations it is
important for manager to make decision related to the problem. In this step manager keep all the
factors in their mind and on the basis of goal, consequences and informations they try to make
the final decision.
Evaluation of decision: It is not only important to make the final decision but also to
analyse them after implementing them. It is not possible that decision will be effective and right
all the time so for knowing the effectiveness of decision, manager of Woolworth evaluate them.
If manager feel that the decision is not effective then they try to collect new informations and
also try to find out the reason and then take corrective actions, Azadnia, Saman & Wong, (2015).
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RECOMMENDATION
From the above report, various things has been analysed and found out the reasons of
issues. It can be recommended to the manager of an organization to follow democratic style of
management by which they can take suggestions of their employees. It can make them able to
take an effective decision. It can also be recommended that they should focus on improving their
employees skills and knowledge via training. With the help of training they can easily teach them
to way of treating and offering products and services to their customers. For decision-making
process they can as well.
CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that decision-making making strategies
played a vital role. Managers faced various problems related to management of resources that
became barrier in the path of their success. Decision making strategies helped manager of an
organization to solve all the issues that they have faced. They focused on managing all the
resources in an effective manner. It has also shown different views of managers of an
organization in the context of management issues and decision-making process adopted by them.
APPENDICES
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