Assignment #5 – Case: “ROWE Program at Best Buy”
Nekeysha LaMaupin
Professor: Charles Wittenberg
BUS520
March 13, 2011
Abstract
This paper is about a case study on, “ROWE Program at Best Buy” In this paper, I will describe the culture of Best Buy. I will also be discussing the approach to organizational change that the ROWE program illustrates. In addition, I will discuss the resistance, both organization and individual, that the ROWE Program had to overcome and the sources of stress that are apparent in this case. Lastly I will discuss whether or not the organizational culture has helped with the change.
1.) Describe the culture of Best Buy. Organizational culture is a system of shared
…show more content…
In a ROWE, each person is free to do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done. Over worked employees are now allowed to take the time needed whether it is to spend time with family or get some much need rest in order to create a health work life balance. There are no set schedules or mandatory meetings and as long as you meet your deadlines and the job gets done, it is okay to work at your leisure. The ROWE program has been a success dropping voluntary turnover, increasing productivity, and improving employee satisfaction.
3.) Discuss the resistance, both organization and individual, that the ROWE program had to overcome. ROWE was only implemented in certain departments because not everyone was on board with the project. Some mangers believed certain employees needed more supervision then others and would find it difficult to work in such an environment. When Thompson proposed extending flexibility to hourly workers, the managers resisted, arguing that "there are certain people that need to be managed differently than other people. When Best Buy first transitioned to this new program, they had to take baby steps because many felt that they could not do it or still felt they had to let someone know what they had going on. The company eventually
Answer – 1 Best Buy culture has changed tremendously. The company’s culture was once to embrace long hours and sacrifice, now the culture is more relaxed. The employees are now really able to run their own schedule as well as their own work progress. Before the ROWE program was introduces to the Best Buy employees would have to work until they found a solution. That means staying at work all night and day if the job or situation requires it. For example the book talks about one employee that was given a plaque for staying up and at work for three days to right a report that was due. He made a sacrifice for his job that made him end up in the hospital.
Best Buy’s History & Main Characters: Best Buy is Minneapolis-based and is North America's leading specialty retailer of consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software and appliances. Throughout Best Buy's 37-year history, the company has maintained the tradition of making life fun and easy for customers and employees, while providing a significant return to partners and investors. It has 80,000 employees and over 550 stores in the U.S., in addition to the brands Best Buy Canada, Future Shop and Magnolia Hi-Fi. Their leadership is led by Dick Schulze, Founder and Chairman, Brad Anderson, Vice Chairman and CEO, Al Lenzmeier, President and COO, and Darren Jackson, Executive Vice
Do you buy your insurance at Progressive because you like Flo? She may be the current face of Progressive as a company, but a strong cultural emphasis over the past few years has produced significant results for their customers, their shareholders and their employees. Coleman (2013) discusses building a differentiated culture and a lasting organization through the six factors of vision, values, practices, people, narrative (a historical review of the culture) and places (work environment). This paper will use these six factors to review the significant growth at Progressive in overall revenue, earnings, and employee satisfaction through a gradual evolution of the Progressive corporate culture. It will discuss particularly people and customer focused changes in culture, their impacts on the workforce, and their effectiveness. It will close with a discussion of how the lessons learned could be applied at other companies that have high turnover, a poor image, and/or a culture that detracts from their competitive landscape.
In an effort to better understand one of the main important aspects of Organisational Behaviour; Organisational culture change, one of the most important aspects of the Organisation was identified for study. This report will provide an insight on the Organisational culture of Aldi, and provide a possible methodology for organisational culture change .
In this essay about managing culture in the post-bureaucratic era, I am going to argue how the practices of managing culture have changed in this era and how they differentiate oneself from the bureaucratic era. Furthermore I describe the cultural influences especially in organizations and how the importance of those influences changed over the time. In the first section I am going to explain the content of managing organization culture to get a first insight in the topic and to express the knowledge about the influences of the culture in an organization. In the next chapter I separate between two perspectives of the cultural organizations and explain which of the both are relevant for the assignment question. The next step of my
Walmart’s organizational structure determines the company’s business activities. Its organizational structure also enforces limits on how the business discourses its problems. In relation, Walmart’s organizational culture decides the way people react to challenges in the workplace. The elasticity of the human resources of the company partly depends on the mindset maintained through the organizational culture of the Wal-Mart. Nonetheless, the long history of Walmart in progressing successfully and continually growing internationally proves that the firm’s organizational structure and organizational culture have been very positive in bringing competitive advantage and achievement. Such organizational structure interacts with the organizational culture to maintain the significant competitive advantage of Walmart.
Within organizations, large and small, there exists a sense of identity among its members that separates it from other organizations. This sense of identity is known as organizational culture. All over, managers seek to influence and change this into something that can be beneficial for the organization. In his article, “The Six Levers for Managing Organizational Culture”, Professor David W. Young defines the different elements that can influence and change the culture within the organization and how the reader can use these “levers” to their advantage. While the author does present a decent explanation for changing the culture of an organization, he leaves many questions unanswered that leaves his argument incomplete.
1. Discuss how a ROWE-type program would fit in organizations where you have worked or an establishment that you are aware of. Explain why it would or would not work.
Thank you for showing an interest in Best Buy Student Deals. I realize that the first email did not indicate the length of time that it could take to receive the coupons, we had a very unexpected amount of people sign up at the same time to cause a delay in the second e-mail being sent out. I do apologize that this is taking longer than normal. Since you have already confirmed you it can take up to 72 hours for the second email containing the coupons. Just a reminder to check your junk and spam folder for an e-mail with a subject line that reads "You deserve student deals" Within this e-mail is a button that says "View Coupons Now". Please make sure that you are checking your e-mail from a computer and not a phone or tablet, as they don not
Management researchers seem to agree that the things that companies do called "corporate culture" is an intangible concept and hence difficult to define. Among the attempts to define "corporate culture", the following definition is useful as a starting point:- "culture represents an interdependent set of values and ways of behaving that are common in a community and that tend to perpetuate themselves, sometimes over long periods of time" (Kotter and Heskett,1992,141) Peters and Watermann argue that changing a culture cannot be accomplished.
Companies everywhere have their own culture but each of them have a culture which makes them unique and different from other organization. Our focus for this paper is Publix and its culture. According to Tkaczyk (2016), Publix culture is different from others and that being, it attracts more customers because can see they have a clan type structure in their work place. Clan organization are very family like and also friendly. Publix is also very strict about customer satisfaction. They try to make their customers happy not only one time but every time they walk into the store.
In 1966, Richard Shulze opened a small business in St. Paul, Minnesota called Sound of Music. In the next 17 years Shulze's small store rapidly grew into a multi-million dollar outfit. In 1983, Sound of Music changed its name to Best Buy Co., Inc and the first superstore was opened in Burnsville, Minnesota. With the new name the store also began carrying more name brands, appliances, VCRs and offering central service and warehouse distribution. Throughout the nineties Best Buy became pioneers in offering the newest technology such as DVDs and high definition TVs. In 1999, Best Buy and Microsoft combined to cross promote each other and also offered a two for one stock split. Now in 2005, almost 40 years after the first store
In preparation for Workshop 2 of the course MSBC-660 – Change Acceleration in Organizational Culture, we were asked as a group to complete a Project Team Assignment, using the case study method. As part of this exercise, we were to read the case study Sunflower Incorporated and then critically analyze the case using the guidelines provided. In our answers outlined in the paragraphs below, we have diagnosed the problem presented, interpreted the likely causes and made recommendations for how Sunflower Incorporated should have planned and executed change within its organization.
“It’s a Sony!” Sony is one of today’s leading brand in electronics, from personal to home entertainment audio and video system, communications gadget, broadcasting and other professional electronic devices, personal computer, digital camera, to robots. Sony Corporation is a Japanese electronics giant, and has now evolved into a multinational company. This essay brings to light Sony Corporation’s organizational culture and structure. Also, it is going to analyze the extent in which organizational culture and structure impede or contribute to the effectiveness of the organization. The following paragraph shows a brief history of the work organization.
In an organization where there is a culture that has been developed through years, a culture of uncommitted individuals and selfish authorities, the harmony that is needed in accomplishing the organizational goals between the management and the rank-and-file employees cannot be attained. At this point, any person who wants to implement changes in the system for the better of the company can experience great stress and difficulty due to the resistance and developed attitudes of the members of the organization.