Assessing and Improving Employee Motivation within Woolworths Retail

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MOTIVATION AND WOOLWORTHS
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................................................... 3
ANALYSIS...................................................................................................................................................................... 3
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................................................... 6
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................................................... 7
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INTRODUCTION
In general organizational behavior is referred the study and analysis of the method by
which a company or individual interacts with other individuals in the organization. This
case is all about analyzing the different aspects of organizational behavior of Woolworths.
Woolworths is one of the biggest retail chains in Australia and it is continuously growing
with an impressive rate in domestic as well as international market (Nenycz-Thiel, 2011).
The company is having more than 800 stores where more than 30,000 individuals are
providing services to the consumers (Arli et al., 2013). So the purpose of this case is to
assess the motivation issues in the company and to provide a series of recommendations to
avoid or diminish the issues in the company. The major issue in this case is related to the
motivation of the employees in the company. In addition to this, the company is facing
some issues in the area of managing the staff of the company which direct affect the
business of the company. In the similar way, OB strategy of the Woolworths would be
analyzed and some suggestions would be provided for future improvements of the
company as well as people (Keith, 2012).
ANALYSIS
According to the annual report of the company, Woolworths has more than 30,000
employees in the company who are working on either full time or part time basis. So, it is
not easy for the organization manage the huge amount of employees in which
organizational behavior is one of the important factors to manage the same and operate the
activities of business (Arli et al., 2013). In the nation the organization is operating with
more than 800 stores in where there is mixture of full-timers and part-timers in which
company has a distinct hierarchy. In context of the hierarchy, there is center head who
manages the overall operations of the business center (Methner et al., 2015). In addition to
this, there are two managers implanted in each store that has responsibility of controlling
staff schedules, stocks and other financial stuff of the center. Following the level of
hierarchy than there are full time employees after manager and then there is tea of part
time employees in the company. The OB strategy of the company is based on this hierarchy
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of the company. The key focus of the organizational behavior strategy is on the area of
performance and production. On the contrary, very less focus has been provided to the area
of employee motivation in the company. The key issues are that the senior management
doesn’t make any communication with employees of lower level. The key reason behind
this is lack of knowledge and idea about the motivational factors and requirements of those
employees (Arli et al., 2013).
The employees who are working in the Woolworths Company have low motivation for the
economic profit and their job responsibilities. In addition to this, employees are unable to
find desirable growth in retail sector and these have become the major reasons for the
huge attention rate in the company (Methner et al., 2015). There are several employees in
last level of the hierarchy of the organizational behavior strategy and it is a challenge for
the management of the company to manage and motivate the employees. The management
of Woolworths is not able to understand the requirement and needs of the employees due
to hierarchical management in the company (Berning, 2014). The company should
understand the motivational needs of the employees for developing a motivated workforce
for the company who can provide effective services to the consumers. It has been
concluded in several studies that the demotivated employees generally product low quality
work which leads to consumers’ dissatisfaction and diminish the image of the company. In
these type of concerns, management should go through the need analysis of the needs and
wants of the employees because this directly affect the other employees on the floor along
with the overall organizational behavior in negative manner (Methner et al., 2015).
Moreover the organizational behavior strategy adopted by the Woolworths was analyzed
and it has been found that one of the major challenges faced by the company is employee
motivation. Due to this issues the business and day to day activities are getting affected and
consumer satisfaction rate id falling down (Mowday, Porter and Steers, 2013). The key
reason that has been found behind this situation is the hierarchical organizational behavior
strategy of the company because this strategy is working as a hurdle for the employer-
employee understanding. The gap between the employees and employer is getting wider
and employees are leaving the company due to inappropriate future growth (Mowday,
Porter and Steers, 2013). This reason has become the key reason behind the increasing
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attrition rate of the company. Woolworths needs to improvise the organizational behavior
strategy of the company in order to mitigate the aforementioned issues in the organization
(Mowday, Porter and Steers, 2013).
It is very much important for any organization to work openly rather than working in
isolation and it is essential for the company to identify and recognize the needs and wants
of every individual in the company. For an organization management it is always
supportive to generate or convert their structure in a way which involves managing
workforce through identifying the wants at the time of working in workplace of company.
In this situation Maslow’s hierarchy of needs would be very much effective for evaluating
the efficiency in an effective and meaningful manner (Mowday, Porter and Steers 2013). In
addition to there are also some other model that can be used to evaluate the performance
and motivation of the employees such as McClelland’s principle which could be used to
evaluate the initial care of the employee and managerial authorities. Theories suggest that,
people always need money or monetary support for fulfilling their own and family needs,
so by this theory in particular it is quite easy to assume that inclination of the worker at the
time of working efficiently and effectively in the company would turn into successful career
for him or her (Burke, 2013). According to the theory of McClelland these kinds of
employees are termed as NAch group to recognize their capability or efficiency of
providing senior level opportunities for the increment and development in the job
responsibilities and roles in the company (Mowday, Porter and Steers, 2013).
Furthermore, there are other structures under organizational behavior study which are
quite effective part time employees of the company to understand and fulfill their
requirements and demands. They are also fit into the aforementioned group as they keep
their environment of workplace more effective and clean by providing pleasant and
harmonious experiences (DuBrin, 2013). So it becomes essential for the senior
management of the company to settler out their environment of working for the staff or
workforce. In action to his the theory of McGregor which is also known as X and Y theory
McGregor plays an effective and managerial recognition role in the growth of any
organization (Hatch and Cunliffe, 2013). The theory could be effectively applied in the
current situation of Woolworths because there are several employees who could be
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categorized under the X and Y category of the theory according to the characteristics and
work habits of them. In this theory, the Theory Y character could be adopted for the part-
timers in the company or the people who perform job activities for limited hours because it
found that the part time employees majorly work for the money only and they have
financial crisis (Hatch and Cunliffe, 2013). These types of individuals are always ready to
take more responsibilities and also these people manage work in an effective and
meaningful way. Moreover in retail industry, senior management or people who are at
higher authorities delegate the jobs to the people who are equitant with both theory Y and
X for effective outcomes of the jobs (Marion and Gonzales, 2013).
Lastly, the MBO (management by objective) style could also be implemented in
Woolworths to raise the satisfaction level of the employees because it is one of the most
effective model which needs to manage employees’ theory competency and needs to gather
the important knowledge and information for the staff and employees of the company
(Robbins and Judge, 2012). This model is very much supporting to create the effective
management of the employees and effective leadership in order to manage the effective
initiatives and creativity within the company (Robbins and Judge, 2012).
CONCLUSION
Form the aforementioned case analysis and situations, it could be concluded that there are
several features such as effective channel of communication, open and fair communication
in the basic level of organizational hierarchy which makes the work environment more
effective and successful. In addition to this, it is giving motivations to the senior authorities
of the company to assess the needs of the employees and motivate them. Woolworths is
unable to understand the motivational needs of the employees due to their hierarchical
management which is affecting the business activities of the company. So the company
needs to be more emphasized towards the needs and demands of the company and should
work towards fulfilling them.
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REFERENCES
 Arli, V., Dylke, S., Burgess, R., Campus, R. and Soldo, E., 2013. Woolworths Australia
and Walmart US: Best practices in supply chain collaboration. Journal of Economics,
Business & Accountancy Ventura, 16(1).
 Berning, A., 2014. Sustainable supply chain engagement in a retail environment: the
case of Woolworths food suppliers (Doctoral dissertation, Stellenbosch:
Stellenbosch University).
 Burke, W.W., 2013. Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.
 DuBrin, A.J., 2013. Fundamentals of organizational behavior: An applied perspective.
Elsevier.
 Hatch, M.J. and Cunliffe, A.L., 2013. Organization theory: modern, symbolic and
postmodern perspectives. Oxford university press.
 Keith, S., 2012. Coles, Woolworths and the local. Locale: The Australasian-Pacific
Journal of Regional Food Studies, 2, pp.47-81.
 Marion, R. and Gonzales, L.D., 2013. Leadership in education: Organizational theory
for the practitioner. Waveland Press.
 Methner, N., Hamann, R. and Nilsson, W., 2015. The Evolution of a Sustainability
Leader: The Development of Strategic and Boundary Spanning Organizational
Innovation Capabilities in Woolworths. In The Business of Social and Environmental
Innovation (pp. 87-104). Springer, Cham.
 Mowday, R.T., Porter, L.W. and Steers, R.M., 2013. Employee—organization linkages:
The psychology of commitment, absenteeism, and turnover. Academic press.
 Mowday, R.T., Porter, L.W. and Steers, R.M., 2013. Employee—organization linkages:
The psychology of commitment, absenteeism, and turnover. Academic press.
 Nenycz-Thiel, M., 2011. Private labels in Australia: A case where retailer
concentration does not predicate private labels share. Journal of Brand
Management, 18(8), pp.624-633.
 Robbins, S.P. and Judge, T., 2012. Essentials of organizational behavior. Boston:
Pearson
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