Question

Scenario
The client is the manager of a local retail chain that sells running shoes and apparel. There are seven stores in the region, and each store has about 25 employees. The client is concerned that sales are consistently declining due in part to new competitors of erring better prices. He feels that if employees were more engaged, they might be nicer to customers, better at promoting sales, and distinguish his store from the competitors by of ering a superior customer experience.

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Question 01: Read the scenario above and decide which will be the best data gathering source for the situation.
If you select interviews, focus groups, or surveys, explain them and identify who would participate and how, and write the questions you would ask. If you select observations, explain it and describe whom you would observe, for what length of time, and in what setting   .[10 marks]

Question 02: As the Regional Manager leading a team of 200 employees , You think of changing the location of your office to save on rent of the company, illustrate the steps you would take to implement the change following lewins model of change.

Answer 1

Question 1 answer

The situation reveals that sales is constantly declines and employees are not found engaged to serve the custoemers. Thus the inherent issues may be lack of motivation of employees, and resources unavailability but these can be known only by exploring employees perceptions and attitudes. Therefore, a wide scale data collection is required across the organization. For this purpose, interview method is found most appropriate as it allows a researcher to understand facial expression, and body gestures as well as receive quick feedback from employees. Verbal communication alone cannot provide true meaning as employees may not tell truth to the researcher. Therefore, their facial expression and body gestures are very important to identify underlying meaning of their verbal interaction. Therefore, seniors and junior sales employees as well as sales managers will be asked to participate in interview process. Employees will be communicated about the causes of poor performance as identified by management and about their feedback to improve sales. They should be intimated about the purpose of interview and venue and time of interview to obtain their prior consent. Informed consent is necessary from them to conduct interview. The questions to be asked from them are listed below.

1. How do you think management supports sales people with resources to carry out sale process?

2. What do you say about poor and declining sales of products?

3. Why the company receives fewer leads?

4. Do you think employees are overburdened with work?

5. Do you think that sufficient sales staff is present to carry out sales process?

6. What do you think about support from manager or top management to enhance motivation?

7. Are you happy with the benefits and incentives being offered by company?

8. Do you have a good relationship with sales people and manager?

9. Do you think that organizational leadership empowers employees to make decisions?

10. Do you think sales employees are sufficiently skilled or they need more training?

These questions can assist to know the root causes of lack of engagement of sales employees to improve sales.

Question 2 answer

Lewin change model for relocation of office

Unfreezing

The first stage is unfreezing where employees resistance need to be identified. Possible resistance from employees about relocation of office can be distance from home to office, question about facilities in new office, question about change in team structure and reporting, fear of losing autonomy, etc. these kinds of doubts and issues must be addressed before introducing change of relocation of office. The question about desks, phone system, equipments and physical layout needs to be communicated during unfreezing step. The purpose of reducing office rent should also be communicated to resistant employees. These steps can ensure that employees’ resistance can be minimized and change of relocation of office can effectively take place.

Change

In this stage, actual change will take place. During this time, communication about office location, workplaces, desks, computers, etc. will be communicated to the employees. They should be educated about how to use the office area. Also support to them to understand office spaces, and facilities of premise is provided during this step. Employees facing issue of reaching new office will be provided conveyance or will be paid for conveyance. Flexible work schedule is also provided to them to attend office. They should be asked to shift their home near to new office if possible. These steps ensure that office relocation can take place smoothly.

Refreezing

The final stage of the Lewin model is refreezing. In this stage, new norms of working will be reinforced. Employees will be taught to assimilate working culture with new physical structure, desks, computers, etc. they need to leave their old habits that they have in their old office and should accept new habits of using new place. New ways of working should be assimilated to sustain change. Thus, these three stages of Lewin model can facilitate to relocate office to a new place.