How can REMA 1000 develop a good work-team for constant development in their business?
MSc in Economics and Business Administration MSc in Business Studies and Communication Roskilde University, Denmark Semester project in Business Management and Leadership Total amount of characters: 86276
Submitted by: Student ID Ashik Bhujel 65135 Sudeep Gurung 64847 Tara KC Bohara 64852
Hand in date- 18 December 2018
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Acknowledgement
Firstly, we would like to thank Roskilde University for granting us admission in Master’s in Economics and Business Administration and Master’s in Business Studies and Communication programs which has enabled us to progress on our personal goals. We would also like to thank our Supervisor, Lecturers and friends for guiding and helping us during the report writing. Thank you
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...... 6
1.1 Introduction of REMA 1000 ...... 6
1.2 Problem Area ...... 7
1.3 Research question ...... 7
1.4 Supportive questions: ...... 7
1.5 Organizational structure of REMA 1000 ...... 7
1.6 Limitations ...... 8
1.6 Project Design ...... 8
CHAPTER 2: METHODOLOGY ...... 9
2.1 Analysis Strategy: ...... 9
2.2 Ontology: ...... 9
2.3 Epistemology: ...... 9
2.4 Methods of data collection: ...... 10
2.4.1Qualitative data ...... 10 2.4.1.1. Observation: ...... 10 2.4.1.2 Interviewing: ...... 10
2.4.2 Quantitative data: ...... 11
2.5 Reliability and Validity ...... 11
CHAPTER 3. THEORETICAL FRAME WORK ...... 12
3.1 Introduction ...... 12
3.2 An overview of Leadership: ...... 12 Page | 3
3.3 Team Leadership ...... 13
3.4 Situational Leadership: ...... 14
3.5 The path -goal theory...... 16 3.5.1 Leader Behaviors...... 18 3.5.2 Directive leadership ...... 19 3.5.3Supportive Leadership ...... 19 3.5.4 Participative Leadership: ...... 20 3.5.5 Achievement Oriented leadership: ...... 20
3.6 Transformational Leadership ...... 20
3.7 Employee Management ...... 22
3.8 Employee Satisfaction and employee motivation ...... 22
3.9 Complex Responsive Process ...... 23 3.9.1 Conversation and interaction: ...... 23 3.9.2 Past and Present ...... 24
CHAPTER 4: EMPIRICAL FINDINGS ...... 25
4.1 Introduction ...... 25
4.2 An Overview of Employee and Employee Relation...... 25
4.3 Work Place Environment ...... 26
4.4 Job vacancy announcement ...... 26
4.5Job Attraction ...... 27 4.5.1 Job Appreciation ...... 27 4.5.2 Support ...... 27 4.5.3 Clear Instruction ...... 28 4.5.4 Group Co-operation ...... 28 4.5.5 Flexibility ...... 28 4.5.6 Development of skills ...... 29 4.5.7 Extra arrangement ...... 29
4.6 REMA 1000 Focus Areas ...... 29 4.6.1 The Healthy Family ...... 29 4.6.2 A Happy Nature ...... 30 4.6.3 The Good Supplier ...... 30 4.6.4 REMA 1000’s Donation to Welfare ...... 30 4.6.5 The Motivating Workplace ...... 31
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CHAPTER 5: ANALYSIS OF THE FINDINGS ...... 31
5.1. Introduction: ...... 32
5.2 Analysis of the findings from Employee management approach:...... 32 5.2.1 Employee management in REMA 1000 ...... 32 5.2.2. Employee’s satisfaction ...... 33 5.2.3 Employees motivation ...... 33
5.3 Leadership style in REMA 1000 ...... 34 5.3.1 Analysis of the findings from business management and leadership approach ...... 34 5.3.2 Directive Leadership ...... 35 5.3.3 Participative Leadership ...... 35 5.3.4 Supportive Leadership ...... 35
5.4 Analysis of the findings from Stacey Perspective ...... 35 5.4.1 Interaction and Conversation ...... 36 5.4.2 Past and Present ...... 36
CHAPTER 6: ANALYSIS ...... 37
CHAPTER 7: CONCLUSION ...... 38
CHAPTER 8: RECOMMENDATION ...... 39
REFERENCES ...... 40
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Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction of REMA 1000
REMA 1000 began in Norway in 1948.It was started by the married couple Margit and Ole Reitan as the family’s first grocery store in Trondheim. As their son, Odd Reitan also was involved in the parent’s store, where he was inspired and saw the opportunities and economies of scale by building a whole chain of grocery stores. Odd Reitan took over the store in 1972 and opened his own first store. He visited Germany in 1977 and is acquainted with the Aldi chain and the business philosophy behind. Odd was highly impressed by the effective discount model and the modern and distinctive way to run a grocery store. Therefore, odd translated the German discount adventure to Norwegian which was started as REMA-a contraction of “Reitan” and “food” (food) in 1979.In REMA’s first year the product range was in between 500 to 600 item numbers. In 1980, the product range increased to 1000 item numbers and now known today and recognized throughout Scandinavia, REMA1000. In Denmark the first two REMA 1000 stores opened in April 1994.In today’s date REMA 1000 Denmark has more than 300 stores. It has the goal of opening 400 stores within 400 years. In REMA 1000 there is involvement of people both behind and in front of the cash line. The store is the symbol of common sense, publicity and skill. REMA 1000 follows the discount with attitude method where discount means the ability to sell the goods cost effectively. They do this with efficient operation, low cost, low cost calculation and large volume of goods. It will be known as the most value driven company. The company takes its customer as the top manager and their values govern what they do and define what they are. There are more than 10000 employees in REMA 1000 which is the strong values that drive the full power. REMA 1000 was launched in Denmark on August 1,1994 with its two stores and now it has more than 300 stores in Denmark. The employees are both dealing with the people both behind and in front of the cash line. The employees are given the power of decision making. In 2017 REMA 1000 had more than 126 million customer transaction, it is 10.6%increase in compared to 2016. In Denmark REMA 1000 was the first food chain to address the issue of food wastage and been leading the way ever since. The company also focusses on CSR. As we observed and found the problem of crowd during festivals and some offers period which is a serious problem. At REMA 1000 all the staffs work together with a strong culture and an efficient concept. They believe that making too many rules limit the decision-making power and creativity of the individual employee. So, they have chosen to let their culture and values guide to the individuals
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to decide right instead of having strict rules and regulations. The company believes that the best decisions are taken decentralized by the people in real life.
1.2 Problem Area REMA 1000 is one of the most value oriented departmental stores. It facilitates its customers through various products and services. As there are large number of departmental stores which is one of the challenges for REMA 1000. Large product variety, well equipped and management system and other customer related services are always the greatest assets of this company. However, from last several years, this company has been facing some problems related to their workers. Some of the major challenges of REMA 1000 are lack of experienced staffs, increment in skilled manpower turnover and unsuitable working place. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to identify the weakness in relation between REMA 1000 and their staff. To achieve this purpose, we have one major research question and two supportive questions. 1.3 Research question
How can REMA 1000 develop a good work team for constant development in their business? 1.4 Supportive questions:
1.What are the current procedures of REMA 1000 for recruiting and selecting employee? 2.What motivates people to work in REMA 1000?
1.5 Organizational structure of REMA 1000 The structure is the lookout of an organization where the work will be divided and distributed in different departments. Every organization tends to be hierarchical to control the work and know about day to day activities as well as to plan for future (Sellitto, 2011 pp 23-30). As one person cannot visit and supervise all the activities of an organization, the work must be divided in different department. It helps to make the task simple and fast. Some organization has a flat organizational structure whereas some company has a tall organizational structure. The company having flat structure needs less level of management whereas companies having tall organizational structure requires more level of management. Similarly, talking about REMA 1000 it has flat organization structure with some departments.
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1.6 Limitations
As this project is bounded by the limitation of time. We have used only relevant theories to solve our problem statement. 1.6 Project Design Chapter 1:Introduction Chapter2: and problem formulation Chapter 7: Methodology Conclusion
Chapter 3: Theoretical Project Design framework
Chapter 6: Analysis
Chapter 4: Chapter 5: Empirical findings Analysis of the findings Fig 1. Project design
In this report, the first chapter includes the description of what we hope to get through this research, and also includes the findings of a linking between employees motivation and procedures of recruiting employees in REMA 1000.The second chapter will continue with the methodological implication of the project in which all the description of the overall research method used will be mentioned with details of general ontological and epistemological approaches. Similarly, chapter 3 is theoretical framework where the concepts are explained further and the method they are related is shown. The chapter 4 includes empirical findings where it is structured based on the motivation of employees and recruitment of employees. Likewise, chapter 5 deals with the analyzed empirical findings which are related to the information found in the theoretical framework and the research questions are answered. The chapter 6 consists of conclusion where the exploration questions are answered. In chapter 7 the recommendation is included with some suggestions. At last in part 8 the limitation and reflection are included.
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Chapter 2: Methodology 2.1 Analysis Strategy: In this part we will be explaining the project’s analysis strategy based on our project design.In this research we will be using pragmatism philosophy as a methodology tool. Pragmatism have wide range of methods which will help us to get deeper into the problem. It will also help to analysis and generate outcome and practical solution too. Pragmatism asserts that concepts are only relevant where they support action (Kelemen and Rumens 2008). “Researcher values drive the reflexive process of inquiry, which is initiated by doubt and a sense that something is wrong or out of place, and which re-creates belief when problem has been resolved” (Elkjaer and Simpson 2011). We will be using our previous knowledge and get the help from literature too. Our research will follow from general to specific. Observation of different stores of REMA 1000 is the primary sources of getting data and information. “We will also be observing the real actions and open interaction including the local agents and how the power is related with each other’s from accidental design developed” (Stacey, 2006). The data and information from news, article, online survey and report will be equally important to find and analysis the problem and to get the best possible solution. Both the numerical fact or data and experience or opinion of the people are considered important so both qualitative and quantitative method are used. Similarly, we have noticed the change in staffs in daily basis, so we are curious to know why the employee’s turnover is high in REMA 1000. 2.2 Ontology: It is all about the assumption about the nature of reality. It is all about the assumption about the nature of reality. For instance, if someone is going to do a research about resistance to organizational change. For many years business and management scholars have make ontological assumption that resistance to change have highly negative affect on organization. Such situation takes place when the new program went wrong. Researcher then analyze on the types of employees and the management action that need to be change. They see such situation as a repetitive action whenever organizational change takes place, so they focus more on addressing problem aspect of change program. Their different ontological assumptions mean that they focus on how resistance to change can be harnessed to benefit organization, rather than looking for ways to eliminate resistance (Thomas and Hardy 2011).
2.3 Epistemology: It concerns assumptions about knowledge, what constitutes acceptable, valid and legitimate knowledge, and how we can communicate knowledge to others (Burrell and Morgan 1979). It concerns assumptions about knowledge, what constitutes acceptable, valid and legitimate knowledge, and how we can communicate knowledge to others (Burrell and Morgan 1979). When the ontology seems illusionary in the initial phase the epistemology assumption is
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appropriate. The different types of knowledge like numerical data to textual data, facts to stories, narratives, facts and accounts are all be considered as legitimate. Thus, various business and management researchers adopt various epistemologies in their research. It could be projects based on archival research and autobiographical accounts (Marti and Fernandez 2013), narratives (Gabrief et al. 2013) and fictional literature (De Cock and Land 2006).
2.4 Methods of data collection: 2.4.1Qualitative data We can retrieve meaning from such kind of data which is expressed through words, spoken and images. The meaning of qualitative research totally depends on social interaction. So, they are more different, elastic and complex than quantitative research. Although there are various sources of getting qualitative data we will specifically focus on observation and interview for our research. 2.4.1.1. Observation: We gather the data and information during the observation of various stores of REMA 1000 specially within the Copenhagen city. Observation method of collecting data become one of the most important method to collect primary data during our research. “We will also be observing the real actions and open interaction including the local agents and how the power is related with each other from accidental design developed” (Stacey, 2006). We can see the communication between the employees and the conversation of the gesture. The activities of gesture like raising hand to call somebody, nodding head, etc. plays a key role in the counter line employees. 2.4.1.2 Interviewing: We try to conduct semi-structured interview. We discuss about the requirement to be eligible to work in counter line. We came up with the information they post the vacant seats under the service worker where they state the age, academic qualification. They also describe the task under the vacant post. The most familiar task under our research is cash handling, stock filling, trimming the shop and cleaning. Since our research specially focus on front counter line so rather than interviewing with the high-level authorities like sales manager, Research and development and chief executive officer we mainly focus on the views and opinion of such employee who work in counter line. From them what we found out is that they make an online application for their job. They create their online profile where they register as a job agent as an applicant. The details like what kind of work you are really interested to do, and the suitable work place is chosen inside job agent. They further added age, educational background and time limit also matter in job agent. When the REMA 1000 needed an employee, they call for a final interview for the final process of either accepting or rejecting an employee.
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2.4.2 Quantitative data: It refers to all those primary and secondary data that can be range from simple to complex data. The simple data could be related to the frequency of occurrences where the complex data could be related with price, rental cost and test score. Such kind of data make only sense when it is further analyzed and interpreted. Quantitative analysis techniques like simple table or charts or graphs, indices which help to make comparisons between variables of complex statistical modelling, analyzing software spreadsheets such as Excel helps to draw a meaningful data and information from raw data. The number like REMA 1000 is providing service of 1000 items of number give clear picture that they are providing service of large range of product items. The number of items arrange in a systematic way with the price tag on it could also be relate with the quantitative data. All the daily transaction in counter line store in some computer software plays a key role in making valuable analysis and comparison at the end of the day.
2.5 Reliability and Validity Reliability: It refers to something that you present accurate, trustworthy output to something which you have an experiment that refers to the quality product over the time period (Mitra, 2012, p- 529).As per Coghlan and Brydon (2014),the research can be done by using various methods but it gives the same result even it is experimented for multiple times. Likewise, we have collected all the data and information from the relevant articles, literature, website, books, report and journals. In order to become any research or finding reliable the result must come same using various methods. We have used the tested theories and data which ensures our research to be more reliable to analyze the problem and analyze the solution as far as possible. Validity: It is an evaluative judgement that has evidence and supportive ideas with the theoretical relationship as well as action- based (Perron, E.B and Gillespie F.D, 2015).It simply refers to what extent the scientific research method has been used during research and findings. Our primary sources of data (observation, interview etc.) and secondary sources of data (literature, articles, website, report, news etc.) helps to make our research or finding more scientific. We have used references for our every secondary sources of data to ensure that the data are validated. Both quantitative and qualitative data aids to make our research to become more validated. It should also verify that our findings are based on the true data collection and should empower project has a valid research work.
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Chapter 3. Theoretical Frame Work 3.1 Introduction The third chapter of this case study thoroughly discuss about the entire framework. In this chapter the intention is to present more about the leadership and leadership theories. In this phase we have to talk about employee management, employee satisfaction, employee motivation, path-goal theory, complex responsive process and various leadership theories. Here, we will also overview some leadership styles that can be interrelated with the case. 3.2 An overview of Leadership: Leadership can be defined and introduced in a different way according to the traditional management system and modern management system. It is a process whereby an individual influence a group of individuals to achieve a common goal. Leadership is an ancient abstraction that has been discussed in different ways by different writers who have tried to define it (Stogdill, 1974, p-7).Different scholars use different strategy to define leadership, but all these findings provide a complex theory on leadership (Northouse, 2013, p- 1).Generally, leadership is a process where to achieve a common goal an individual influence a group of individuals. From 1900- 1929, leadership was defined as a control and centralization of power with a common theme of domination in the first three decades of the 20th century that helps leader to impress the will as well as persuade obedience, respect, loyalty and cooperation in the organization (Northouse, 2013, p-2). In the 1930s, the focus of defining leadership was totally opposed to previous three decades which has been discussed above. The main theme of leadership is supposed as some traits here which help them to become a good leader. It is believed as an influence rather than domination. During this discussion, it is thought that leadership is a process of interaction of an individual’s specific personality traits which influence to a group of people (Northouse, 2013, p-3). Leadership involves influence. It is also concerned with how the leaders affect followers. Leadership does not exist without influence. It occurs in groups. Leadership is about influencing a group of people by one individual to accomplish common goals. Leadership might vary according to the nature of business, culture and behavior of people. Stacey mad focus on the leadership as the interaction among people where he said that leadership is not an exact system it emerges itself according to the condition during the interaction with a group of people (Stacey, 2010).
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3.3 Team Leadership A team is a group of interdependent members who share common and each members effort are collectively coordinated to accomplish the common goal. A team could be project management team, work units, quality teams and improvement teams. ”A team has specified roles for its members with requisite knowledge and skills to perform these roles” (Levi, 2011). “ The role an impact of mediating processes such as trusting, bonding, planning, adapting, structuring, and learning are also being studied in terms of team performance and viability” (IIgen, Hollebeck, Johnson, & Jundt, 2005). “A focus of team leadership necessitates attention to the process by which teams develop critical capabilities. Contingencies that necessitate shifts in leader action are linked to task and team development dynamics that are vary within teams and over time” (Kozlowski, Watola, Jensen, Kim, and Botero, 2009, p.114). It is very important to understand the role of leadership within teams to determine success and failure. “Not surprising, the totality of research evidence supports this assertion; teams leadership is critical to achieving both affective and behaviorally based team outcomes” (Stagl, Salas, & Burke, 2007,p.172).
Figure 2. Hills Model for Team Leadership In leadership decision process the main decision that need to be make by leader is listed to improve team functioning. In the first process under leadership decision, it describes whether it is appropriate to continue to observe and monitor the team or let it stop and take needed action. In the second decision is to find out whether the team needs help or not in maintaining relationship? The final decision would be to involve in internal level (within the team itself) or at the external level (in the team’s environment.) The leader can perform action like goal focusing (clarifying and gaining agreement), structuring for results which include activities like planning, visioning and delegation, facilitating decision making which could be informing, controlling and mediating, training team members in task skills(educating and developing) and maintaining standards for managing the internal environment. For the external environment leadership, the leader could take action like networking Page | 13
and forming by gathering information, advocating and representing team to environment, negotiating upward, buffering team members from distraction, assessing environmental indicators of team’s effectiveness and sharing relevant environmental information with team. According to Hill’s Model for Team Leadership there are two critical functions of team effectiveness one is performance (task accomplishment) and the other is development (maintenance of team). Team performance is “quality of decision making, the ability to implement decisions, the outcomes of teamwork in terms of problems solved and work completed, and finally the quality of institutional leadership provided by the team” (Nadler, 1998, p.24). “Team development is the cohesiveness of the team and the ability of group members to satisfy their own needs while working effectively with other team members” (Nadler, 1998).
3.4 Situational Leadership: Situational leadership was developed by Hersey and Blanchard (1969a) based on Reddin’s (1967) 3-D management style theory. This approach has been refined so many times in organizational leadership and development. It has a close relation with the situation. This leadership believe leadership is dependable with the situation means different situation requires different leadership. This perspective says effective leader should be able to change or adapt his leadership style base on the demand of the situation. Situational leadership run within the dimension of both directive and supportive. An effective leader analysis these two dimensions and apply leadership style on the given situation. They should be able to change the degree of these dimension and take action on the given situation. This approach can be described in the model developed by Blanchard (1985) and Blanchard et al.(1985), called the Situational Leadership II (SLII) model . Directive behaviors includes giving direction, setting time lines, defining goals to the group members which will ultimately help group members to accomplish goal. Similarly, Supportive behaviors helps group member to feel comfortable with the situation, co-worker and working environment. It is the two-way communication which include social and emotional activities.
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Figure: SLII Model We can see from the above figure that Leadership style can be divided into four categories of directive and supportive behaviors. The first one is S1(high directive-low supportive) which is directing style. In this style, leader give much more attention on goal achievement communication with little amount of supportive behaviors. The second is S2 (high directive-high supportive) which is coaching approach. In this approach, communication on achieving goals and socioemotional needs of subordinates are given more important. The third is S3 which is high supportive-low directive style. In this approach. The leader give much more focus to bring out the employee skills for the goal achievement rather than focusing only on goal. The activities or supportive style like listening, praising, feedback, giving authority to control daily work decision, etc. are carried out by leader. The third is S4(low supportive-low directive) which is more on delegating approach. The leader give less task input and social support, confidence and motivation to the employees. After the delegation of the task the leader let the subordinates to perform the task as their wishes. According to situational leadership approach theory, employees can be categories into four categories: D1,D2,D3 and D4 from low development to high development. D1 employees are low in competence and high in commitment. Such kind of employees are new they don’t know the task, but they are excited to learn it and do it. D2 employees are those employees who have some competence but low commitment. Such kind of employee have just learned to do task but have lost in the initial motivation phase. D3 employees are those who have moderate to high competence but may lack commitment. Such kind of employees have developed a initial skills of doing task but still not sure whether they could accomplish the task or not. D4 employees have both high
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degree of competence and high degree of commitment to complete any task. They have both the skill and are motivated to complete it. To use the situational leadership first the leader have to identify the correct development level (D1, D2, D3,D4) then he/she have to adapt leadership (S1,S2,S3,S4)style according to the prescribed style which is presented in the SLII model. There is direct one-to-one relationship between development level of subordinates (D1, D2, etc.) and the leader’s style (S1,S2, etc.) For instance, if the subordinates are in the initial level of development which is D1, then the leader have to adopt high-directive and low-supportive leadership style which is S1 or directing. Similarly, if the subordinates are little bit more advance and reach at another level of development which is D2, then the leader have to adopt a high directive-high supportive leadership style which is S2 or coaching. In the same way D3 and D4 development level goes one-to-one with S3 and S4 leadership style respectively. In the same way the leader of REMA 1000 can also use Situational leadership in different situation. There come many situations in REMA 1000 where the training manager or leader have to train their subordinates. This leadership is very useful to those leaders. Hersey and Blanchard (1993) reported that “is has been a factor in training programs of more than 400 of the Fortune 500 companies” Situational leadership is practicality. In order to make a working team good and perfect training is very essential. This leadership has a nature of easy to understand and can easily applied in various setting. It is easy and effective leadership, so the leader of REMA 1000 can use it for achievement of their goal. Although there are many leadership styles which are descriptive in nature situational leadership is prescriptive. The prescription and guidelines provided by SLII model which has direct and one-to-one relationship between development level(D1,D2,D3,D4) and leadership style (S1,S2,S3,S4) if adopted by REMA 1000 leader accordingly they can facilitate and enhance their leadership. If this leadership style is adopted by REMA 1000 leader they can enjoy the flexibility as the leader have to change their leadership style to direct or support different sub-ordinates to accomplish the assign task for attaining company goal.
3.5 The path -goal theory It is about how the leaders motivate their subordinates to complete their designated goals. The detailed goal of this leadership theory is to increase employee’s performance and employee’s satisfaction by focusing on employee’s motivation. It also explains about how leaders motivate their followers to be productive and satisfies with their work. This theory is an appropriate theory to motivate and handle the employees which will help both the followers and the leaders to achieve their goals along the path by choosing specific behaviors. These behaviors meet the necessities of fulfilling followers needs in which employees are working by picking the appropriate behavior, leaders can achieve follower’s satisfaction as well as increase the follower’s expectation for development of business.
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According to House and Mitchell (1974),” Leadership generates motivation when it increases the number and kinds of payoffs that followers receive from their work. Leadership also motivates when it makes the path to the goal clear and easy to travel through coaching and direction, removing obstacles and roadblocks to attaining the goal, and making the work itself more personally satisfying (Northhouse, 2013, p-138)”.
The path goal theory also emphasizes on the relationship between the leader’s style and the characteristics of the subordinates and the work setting. For the leader, it is the challenge to use a leadership style that best meets subordinates’ motivational needs. This is done by selecting behaviors that complement or supplement what is missing in the work setting. Leaders try to develop subordinates’ goal attainment by providing information or rewards in the work environment (Indvik, 1986); leaders provide subordinates with the elements they think subordinates need to reach their goals. Similarly talking about the leadership theories, we get the discussion about the relationship between the subordinates and leaders but in path- goal theory we have got the argument about the ability and the need of followers. Subordinates work in an organization with various qualities, characters, intentions, beliefs, goals etc. This theory suggests that leaders will face various situations where they must change their leadership style according to the motivation of the people they lead (Northhouse, 2013, p-138). In path -goal theory, motivation is theorized from the perspective of the expectancy theory of motivation (Vroom, 1964). “Followers will be motivated if they think they are capable of performing their work, if they believe their efforts will result in a certain outcome, and if they believe that the payoffs for doing their work and worthwhile (Northhouse, 2013, p-116)”. This theory suggests four leadership behaviors that leaders can be as directive, supportive, participative or achievement oriented depending on the people who are working with them. It is considered as a leadership motivational theory which provides clear description on how leaders
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can motivate their followers to reach their goals while using various leadership styles or behaviors according to the situation.
Major components of Path Goal Theory
Leader Behaviors Directive
Supportive Participative Achievement oriented
Subordinate Characteristics
Task Characteristics
Motivation Subordinates Goal(s) (productivity) As this theory is complex it has been divided for better understanding. The path-goal theory has four major components which will help us to understand properly by breaking it down to smaller units (Northhouse, 2013, p-139). Major components of Path-Goal theory: 3.5.1 Leader Behaviors
According to Northouse, there are four different types of leadership approaches under leader behavior which helps to understand how the activities done by leader affect in his/her subordinates’ performance. The different four leadership styles are as follows: directive, supportive, participative and achievement-oriented leadership (Northouse 2013, p-139). Leader is a person who has certain responsibilities and authorities through which he/she direct his/her followers for the attainment of desired goals. Different leader applies different kind of leadership style and leader with having
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those all four leadership styles is very rare to find. Therefore, most of the leaders adopt the relevant leadership style among those abovementioned leadership approaches to motivate their followers (House and Mitchell, 1974). Good leader always influences his/her subordinates to act according to the task. Therefore, leader’s behaviors or the way he presents himself in front of his followers is very important. He should also maintain personal connection with his followers. If he completely avoids the connection with his subordinates, that could be a big mistake. 3.5.2 Directive leadership
Directive leadership is a kind of leadership approaches where leader himself work with his/her subordinates, make them clear about what the actual task is also, he analyzes their performance whether they are working as instructed or not. This type of leadership style is more useful to achieve or complete assigned task when there is not a clear path. The most important thing in this leadership approach is, the leader must initiate proper and clear rules, instructions and detailed structure of the job. These activities lead the followers towards the achievement of the desired goals (Northouse, 2013, p-139) Indeed, directive leadership approach can be applied in some critical situations where tasks are “unstructured and complex, the subordinates are inexperienced and there is little formalization of the rules and procedure to guide work.” (Yukl, 1998; p-267)
3.5.3Supportive Leadership
Like directive leadership supportive leadership also allow the leaders to work with their followers but the conditions in for leadership approach are quite different than the directive leadership. When the assigned task is not very tough but is repetitive due to which the worker might fill boring or irritating. To prevent these obstacles, the supportive leadership style is appropriate. In this style, leaders are called to support their subordinates and motivate them towards the goal. (Northouse, 2013, p-144) Employees feel more secure and confident in this kind of leadership style because their leaders are participating every time with them and encouraging them positively. The working environment in this leadership style is more productive. This leadership style also facilitates the leader and followers to know each other more closely which make a strong employee relationship. (Northouse, 2013, P-140)
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3.5.4 Participative Leadership: It is all about participating the subordinates in the decision-making process. The opinion, ideas, suggestion and participation of subordinates is very important in participative leadership as their participation activities or action decides how the organization should move onwards for the betterment. In the same way REMA 1000 believes and praises every subordinate is decision maker. They encourage the culture of decentralized decision-making process.
3.5.5 Achievement Oriented leadership: This kind of leadership is characterized by the skill of challenging the subordinates to find out the best possible result from any task assigned. Their goal is to continually boosting’s the subordinates for the betterment of their performance. The leader shows the confidence that subordinates are capable of doing and maintaining performance of challenging goals. House and Mitchell (1974) advised that leaders may show any or all of these four styles with various subordinates and in different situations. Path–goal theory is not a trait approach which bounds leaders into only one type of leadership. Leaders should be able to adapt their styles according to the situation or to the motivational needs of their subordinates. For instance, if subordinates need participative leadership at one point in a task and directive leadership at another, the leader can change his style as required. Different situations may lead to need of different types of leadership behavior. There may sometimes be appropriate for a leader to use more than one leadership style at the same time. 3.6 Transformational Leadership It is a method of leadership where a leader involves to change the entire individual through motivation where leader co-operate with their follower to find out those things where leader cooperate with their follower to find out those things where they have to change (Bass and Riggio, 2006).According to him , transformational theory prioritizes on various aspects where it gives priority on providing individual coaching and monitoring for followers where leader also allow freedom of choice to followers (Bass and Avolio, 1994).
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In general transformational leadership is a process which changes and transforms people which is concerned with emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long-term goals. It also includes evaluating followers’ motives, satisfying their needs, and treating them as full human beings. It is a process which often includes charismatic and visionary leadership. Burns differentiated leadership into two i.e transactional and transformational.He says that transactional leadership prioritizes on the principle of reciprocity where the followers are motivated by the leaders to achieve the goal at the same time in otherhand followers work hard to get something as a return.For instance, in the classroom lecturer are performing the role of transactional leader where they will provide a grade according to the students performance (Northhouse,pp172).Whereas transformational leadership focuses on the level of motivation and and morality between the leaders and followers.The leaders motivate their followers and as well as help their followers to reach the goal.for eg Gandhi. As per Bass and Riggio, transformational leadership is an extended version of transactional leadership which focuses on the exchange between the leaders, colleagues and followers.Transformational leaders try to empower their followers and focus on their individual needs as well as self awareness (Bass and Riggo,2006). In transformational leadership, the word charisma has been explained about special personality characteristic which gives an exceptional power in the person who is been treated as a leader (Conger, 1999).Charismatic leader performs in a different method that they have magnetic effects on their followers (Northhouse, 2013, pp 173).Charisma is taken as a dark side of both leadership where charismatic leaders use their capability to motivate and lead followers(Ronaldo and Riggio, 2006). According to Burns (2003), transformational leadership only can be noticed when “ leaders and followers make each other advance to a higher level of morality and motivation”. Likewise, Bass and Riggio says “ the follower has the power and information, it behaves the leader to be more individually considerate or transactional with the need to negotiate an exchange”. Page | 21
There are four factors of transformational leadership they are idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration.Similarly, there are two factors of transactional leadership named Contingent reward and management by exception.
3.7 Employee Management
Rema 1000 has serving their products and services through many branch stores. They have plenty number of employees working in different department and performing different tasks. Employee management basically mean a well-structured working team with healthy working environment. It refers to the certain rules, policies, norm and values and system of the organization that directly or indirectly influence the worker.
This company tries their best to provide a good workplace. Employees of REMA 1000 are aware of their assigned work and organizational goal. This company has also set a hierarchy of the staff which helps to know about who should responsible for what and whom should they follow. A well- managed work force has always been an asset for every company. This kind of work force aim to achieve the organization goals rather than focusing on their individual goals.
According to R. Manna (the Dean of Robert Morris University) “employee management is based on ideas and procedures developed to increase worker motivation, productivity and performance.” Employee management performs its role from the starting phase of a new personnel. The major benefit of employee management is enhancing better communication with employee.
3.8 Employee Satisfaction and employee motivation
Employee satisfaction can be said as a “sense of wellbeing” which an employee gets from his/her job. Employee Satisfaction directly related with employee performance. We can safely say that well satisfied worker performs far effectively than unsatisfied one. There are various ways to satisfy the employees as they have different interest and perception. Appropriate salary, healthy work environment, Sound employee relation, belongingness are the tools that can satisfy the employees in any organization. In the case of Rema 1000, employees of this supermarket are not totally satisfied with their job. Some of them are very satisfied but most of the workers have their own grievances. The reasons for dissatisfaction are quite different to each other. Some employees have problem with their wage rate, some have issue because of working time and some of the staff are very confuse about their everyday tasks as the tasks are changing day to day according to
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schedule. We cannot say that Rema 1000 is not taking any action to solve those burning problems. This company is using to organize staff meeting where they discuss about their individual task as well as the organizational goal. They are also providing equal basic salary and will have increment in it based on employee’s experiences and skills. Employee Motivation is related with employee satisfaction at some extent. It is a psychological factor which inspires worker to perform their job more efficiently and effectively. Since workers are the major factor for the growth and development of all the organization, therefore the organization must motivate their employees. We have found many employees in Rema 1000 are highly motivated and working very effectively day to day. The leader of this company has applied various ways to motivate them. Performance appraisal, bonus and different allowances and friendly relation between leader and follower motivates the personnel of Rema 1000. REMA 1000 believes that if the work place is motivating for their employees, it will automatically make the employees happier and healthier. Happy workers are always better workers and it decreases the staff turnover of the REMA 1000. Jorgan Nordtorp became surprise winner to win the ‘annual handicap prize’ in December 2016. He was very surprised and said he was never expecting reward like this because he has not done anything extra ordinary but only the task that he has assigned. However, municipality of Slagelse who select him to be awarded stated that he deserved that prize because of his hard work to provide better customer satisfaction and his co-workers of the store. They also told that he has been selected among 20 more stores of REMA 1000. This could be an example for motivating workplace where the performances of employees are highly appreciated by the top-level management.
3.9 Complex Responsive Process Complex responsive process makes the interpretation that interactions between humans are continuous processes which leads to the development of societal patterns. From this perspective, individuals are constructed from others namely theses interactions (Stacey, 2016). It is believed that the first key factor of the complex responsive process of the CRP of relating between human bodies is supposed to be communicative interaction, and George Herbert Mead’s (1934) theories of conversation has provide a powerful way of understanding it. We will focus on these processes as occurrences, how something happens rather than understanding the relationship (Sheffield, 2012).
3.9.1 Conversation and interaction: According to Stacey (2016), interaction is an ongoing process between human beings and entities. The decision-making process can be reconstructed as an ongoing process through these local
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interactions. Local interaction is the particularizing which involves an interplay of many intentions and values, and this interplay cannot be intended or designed except temporarily in fascist power structure and cults Stacey 2013, p 377). During the process of exchanging their experiences, one- person advices the previous one in the present time. In this way, these interactions create an impact on the construction of the present and future.
3.9.2 Past and Present A story is feeling, events, could be sequence of action. Stories, myths and fairy tales are considered as illusion which is not the fact according to modernist perspective. It is all about subjective matters of personal experience. This perspective takes stories as sense-making in the sense that they help to represent hidden subjective experience which is far from the reality, fact or truth. Postmodernists perspective believes that all human experience is all sort of certain kind of story. And it believes the influence of the stories depend on the narrator talk, expression or action. Boje (1991, 1994, 1995, 2008 ) sees storytelling as an institution’s memory, which is continually recreating the past. He considers story as an ongoing process in the form of conversation. The story of REMA 1000 started when Margit and Ole Reitan start their first grocery in Trondheim (Norway) in 1948. Then Odd Reitan during his travel to Germany, he was very impressed and influenced by Aldi chain business philosophy. In 1994 he opened two REMA 1000 stores in Denmark and the number of stores is in increasing number day by day. Narrative is more complex than story. It is addition with evaluation with the story. The addition could be reflections, comments and categorization. Bruner (1986, 1990) Narratives create a sense of temporality in experience, linking present experiences to past ones and pointing towards the future evolution of the experience. “In co-constructed narratives, the listener or audience may feed their own alternative accounts into the story that emerges or may seek clarification by asking questions. So, the act of telling a story makes available a communication structure that not only conveys a sense of a world of uncertainty and ambiguity, but also provides a means of reducing dissonance and re-establishing a sense of control and order, by assembling an account that becomes more complete or ordered through the process of being told” (McCleod, 1996, p-37). In the first year of REMA 1000, the chain could only provide product from 500 to 600 range of product numbers. With the increasing number of competitors and taking into consideration about the needs and demands of the customer they could able to expand their range of product to 1000 item numbers. This way, this chain company get the name of REMA 1000. The chain of REMA 1000 is spreading in Denmark and now there are more than 3000 stores. They have goal of opening 400 stores within 400 years. Both storytelling and narratives contribute to sense making process in organization.
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Chapter 4: Empirical findings 4.1 Introduction Empirical findings are the process where empirical data are collected from participants who are engage in social relations. In this process the researchers or participant are participant in the situation and new understanding is derive from actual experience.
Implication for methodology described as “see the situation as it is seen by actor, observing what the actor takes into account, observing how he interprets what is taken into account” (Blumer, 1969, p.56). There have been many situations where actor engage into multiple perspective in any situation. Many researchers take themselves as participants in the process of findings and research. This is the reflexive methodology (Alvesson and Skoldberg, 2009) where organization are understood as social constructions (Gergen, 1982). In the same perspective researchers are both participants and observer same time. REMA 1000 care their employee in the same way as they treat to their customer. During our interview with some of the employees of REMA 1000 what we can find out is that most of the REMA employees are guided or influenced by “REMA spirit”. One of the employee name Rasmus says they enjoy REMA 1000 working environment. The decentralize decision making power and the culture of self-making decision inside the working environment really helps worker to work in peace and harmony. He further added every employee is assign with certain task and must perform accordingly. Sometimes when the counter line become very busy or someone need for any other activities like placing stuff in right place, cleaning etc. the other employee happily tries to help. Another employee Kristain says “No one is boss here we work together and help each other”. He added that he has worked in restaurant as a chef before where he always has to work under the supervision of head chef. He further added it was harder and stressful to work if I have to compare with this job. Although we should follow certain rules and regulations in REMA 1000 it’s not that tough than my work before.
4.2 An Overview of Employee and Employee Relation Employee as a term refer to a person working in an organization with a specific job and gets remuneration. Employees refer to that type of individuals who work for money in a place or an organization (Rubinstein, 2012, p-608). While preparing this case report, we arrange to take short interview with some of the employees of Rema 1000. Among those employees some have left the job, and some are still working in the same company. We asked one of them (Sebastian) who is still working with Rema 1000. We asked him the relationship between employees. The question we raised was: “how effective is the relation between employees and with their leader?” He answered that they have good team members with Page | 25
very supportive and kind leader who always motivate them and care about their personal issues. He also said that during festive seasons like Christmas, New Year, the shop filled up with crowd of people and it is obvious to have misunderstanding or miscommunication because all the staff are extremely busy with their own tasks. But whenever they have time, they are very happy to help their colleagues. Similarly, their leader provides all the necessary resources to his subordinates to run the store in easy and efficient way. The leader also makes the staff aware of those kinds of festive season and train them how to manage time and prevent frequent errors. After this short interaction with Sebastian, we became very clear about their healthy and very effective relationship.
4.3 Work Place Environment
For the purpose to find out actual working environment about Rema 1000, we roam different stores of this company. It was very tough to analyze their working place as the store was quite busy to run their business. The first thing we notice about their working place was, the appropriate number of employees. We say around 5-6 employee in almost every store we have visited. The communication among those employees was very effective and fast, because of this they were doing smooth business transaction. In our kind request they gave us an opportunity to see their staff room where they plan for every work. A big white board with some weekly plans and individual tasks was hanged on the wall of that room. They have a tiny kitchen with some essential kitchen equipment. They share how they make schedules for individual shifts and how they analyze their sales in very short and sweet way. We also saw their security room from where they monitor the whole store through different cameras. According to them, the company has provided all the necessary thing to them which makes the work easier and satisfies their employees. After this, we get to know that Rema 1000 not only care about their customers but also consider about their staff who are working very hard for their growth and development. 4.4 Job vacancy announcement The major purpose of this report was to identify the entire processes through which this company hires an employee. The hiring processes of the companies are different from one to another. In the case of REMA 1000, we talked about this with an ex-employee of REMA 1000 name Albert Mikkelson who has worked there for more than 2 years as a sales boy. We asked him that how difficult it was for him to get that job. He answered in a very polite way and said that he went through the official website of REMA 1000 and looked on the vacancies option. Luckily, he found a vacancy for the post of service staff. He contacted them through email and after analyzing his CV and other essential documents; REMA 1000 called him for small interview where he was asked
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about his previous experiences, ability, skills. After that they arrange a trial shift and hired him as customer service assistant later. Albert also told us that this is not only the option for job, but we can also find job advertisement in different job-oriented website such as jobindex.dk
4.5Job Attraction After we got the answer for how this company find employee for different post, we furthermore asked Albert the reason behind people choosing REMA 1000 to work with. We asked what the benefits or attraction for which people like you are wanting to work there. He said, unlike other usual job this company really care for its staff. Even though they have different kinds of employees whether it is based on gender, age, race, nationalities but the company never discriminate them. Rather the diversity in work force become in REMA 1000 become a strong weapon to satisfy the customers in varieties of way. He also said employee feels friendly environment and self- motivated while working in this company. Beside these, there are some more attractions too which influences people to work with them. They are as mentioned below:
4.5.1 Job Appreciation Job appreciation can be said as job appraisal where the top-level managers or leaders evaluate and appreciate the hardworking of their employees. Appreciation mostly leads employee at the point of job satisfaction. After short discussion with some employees of REMA 1000, we got to know about how their efforts and hardworking are appreciated by the leaders as well as top level managers. There is direction communication between employees and top-level managers which makes the working place more effective. All the hard work they perform is not only evaluated by their leader but also by the top-level management. They said sometimes even if their leader could not provide all necessary tools for task, they can contact to top level management who are always ready to provide them all the resources they need. The company encourages participating them in different new trainings, sales and customer care skills and at the same time they evaluate the performances of all the employees. This process helps them to identify their own strength and weakness and teach them to minimize frequent mistakes.
4.5.2 Support In REMA 1000, the staff feels very much supported by the company. As mentioned above, the company provides them all the essential equipment necessary trainings and good working environment. To perform any kind of task, employees need various resources which the company has to provide them. By the use of those resources and other tools, employees complete certain
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task successfully. In the case of REMA 1000, they also support their employees for organizing some staff parties, festive parties which obviously make employee refresh and happy.
4.5.3 Clear Instruction When we interviewed small group of employees about how their leader instructs them while they are working there. They share their own feelings and said most of time they were instructed by their co-worker who are already working there from several months. The leader only instructs them when there is totally new task. They also told us it was very tough to them at beginning because their colleague was not free to instruct every time. Due to unclear instruction, plenty errors were frequently happened but later they were trained by the leader and got to know all their duties and how to perform them. Clear instruction is not that easy as it seems. Sometimes, we set up certain task and try to perform but we cannot get the result as expected. The reason for this is, we just understand partial information which is not enough to perform well. Clear instruction can be taken lightly, indeed providing or getting correct form of instruction is very important for sound performance of any activity.
4.5.4 Group Co-operation According to staff, the company has very healthy co-relation the employee and leader. The leader of REMA 1000 is always ready to provide all the essential skills to his/her subordinates. On the other hand, the follower or the worker are pleased to follow the given instruction of the leader. Most of them time in this company both the leader and employee work together which leads to very smooth business operation. Even if they come any issues or errors, leader is always there to take relevant action to avoid those problems. This kind of co-ordination among workers and leader facilitates the REMA 1000 to do strong business and beat the rivals.
4.5.5 Flexibility REMA 1000 has different type of workers like student, old-age people, and adults and so on. Different people get interested because of the flexibility they found in working time, working hours and geographical area of REMA1000. This company is providing full time job as well as part time job which attract both kinds of job seekers. Likewise, we can find plenty stores of REMA1000 operating well in many cities as well as in local communities which facilitates people from local
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areas to work with them. Similarly, flexible working time minimize the stress from the employees and offers them different working schedule according to plan which can be interesting for them.
4.5.6 Development of skills As we have already described above that REMA 1000 provides proper training and skills development courses to their employees. People believe that working with REMA 1000 helps them to have better careers in all fields because they gain some useful skills like customer service and develop team work spirit.
4.5.7 Extra arrangement While taking interview, we also asked employee about any extra arrangement done by the company for them. They answered that REMA 1000 provides a tiny and clear kitchen with all the necessary equipment such as coffee machine, bread toast maker, fridge and so on. The company also arrange small breaks if there is long working shift (around 6 hours).
4.6 REMA 1000 Focus Areas During the preparation of the case study, we got to know about the major focus areas of REMA 1000. They are: - a. The healthy family b. A happy nature c. The good supplier d. REMA 1000's donation welfare e. The motivating workplace.
4.6.1 The Healthy Family REMA 1000 is providing its services for large number of families. They said that the company always care about the health of their customers and always wish them for better health. REMA 1000 is trying to make better health condition of their customer in easy and inexpensive way. Especially families with children find very difficult to manage time and energy to get healthy product. For this purpose, this company set some objectives to provide healthy product do happy families and make it as an important focus area with giving the title "Healthy Family".
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4.6.2 A Happy Nature REMA 1000 has also considered about the surround environment. They are doing their best to secure sustainable future for everyone. For this reason, they are analyzing different kinds of effect on the climates and nature that coming from their business. They set this objective as their second major focus area. They are aware of the impact which comes from the consumption of products and convenience goods. Those kinds of impacts are very harmful for earth and other natural resources. The company has made different plans like more sustainable packaging, proper use of resources, recycle of products to securing climate, environment and animal life as well.
4.6.3 The Good Supplier REMA 1000 always seek for responsible suppliers who can deliver quality, health and sustainable products to their consumers. This company making the sound environment and bonding with its suppliers so that customers can get right products with better quality in given time period. REMA 1000 has corporate with Danish Ethical Trading Initiative (DIEH) for the purpose of improvement in ethical trade conditions across sectors. They have 14 principles for ethical trade which have to be signed by the suppliers if they went to become on official supplier of REMA 1000. REMA 1000 is also using local suppliers (local Danish suppliers) for their products. They select them because of their products. They select them because of their efficient work and local suppliers can be very beneficial to deliver seasonal products to the customers for these purposes, REMA 1000 becomes the co-owner of Gram Castle in South Jetland. Gram castle delivers doing products to all the stores of REMA 1000 in Denmark. Beside this they are continuously developing good relationship with other local suppliers too. In the year of 2016, they have successfully made partnership with 4 new local suppliers. They are: a. Bornholm Muster: (Cider Mill) b. Nykers (Baker) c. Bramsley Gourmet (who produce gourmet mushrooms) d. Hoser Polser (who produce tasty sausages) 4.6.4 REMA 1000’s Donation to Welfare REMA 1000 has huge number of stores all over the Denmark. They are operating their business both in city areas as well as local communities. Different stores have different owner who are their own boss and are actively engage in social activities, especially in small communities. In 2016 they were provided more than 300 sponsorships for local activities form local soccer team. As mentioned earlier, REMA 1000 is precisely promoting the healthy products for happy families or happy lives, they organize several camps related to food and sports for children and families. REMA 1000 is also donating some societal organization who tackle with different diseases and help the sick peoples. The strong collaboration with non-profit organization like Danish Cancer
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Society, the Danish Diabetes Association and the Danish Sclerosis Association are the perfect example of this.
4.6.5 The Motivating Workplace REMA 1000 has their own fundamental values with which employees are familiar. This leads the company for growth and development. Likewise, employers are very clear about their goal and the tasks which they love to perform, as a result this is a workplace with high level of job satisfaction and the workers are always will do little bit better. “We think positively and proactively” and “the customers are our highest priority” are two values of them which make this company better place to work and perfect store to be a customer. Similarly, REMA 1000 has operated KRAM program (in Danish diet, smoking alcohol and exercise) in the year of 2016. They are providing neat and clean canteen for their staff, supporting continuously to quit smoking habit of their employees. They consider very seriously about the health of their workers and motivating them to be physically and mentally healthy.
Chapter 5: Analysis of the findings
Employees Management approach • Employees satisfaction • Employees motivation
Business management and leadership • Path goal Theory approach
Stacey Perspective Theory • Local Interaction and Conversation • Past and Present
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5.1. Introduction: we have selected three theoretical approaches during the research. We have chosen employee management approach, business management and leadership approach as well as Stacy perspective theory. The main reason for choosing this theoretical approach is to overcome the need and expectation of employee of REMA 1000 on certain perspective. Moreover, we focused on this theory in order to solve the problem for the sustainability of the company and good relationship with the employee. The using of theory will help company to do better in some case but we do believe that the approach we will be discussing might not be in dept enough to support the case. We will be using empirical data which has been collected form the staffs and management of REMA 1000. In this chapter, we will be trying to find various solution on Leadership motivation theory and concentrate on how we can utilize in order to solve the shortage of staffs and motivated the staffs on the company. The main purpose of using this theory is to make employee motivated and retain them for the long run in the company.
5.2 Analysis of the findings from Employee management approach: employee management refers to the management of various activities related to the employees like selection, supervision and enrollment with the involvement of trainings, contract with long term vision or short-term vision, so do the motivation. Employee managements also focus on various strategies and plans for the employees in order to maximize the potentiality of the staffs for the company. As we all know there is recruitment, selection and supervision system in the company Reema 1000. In order to hire the new staff, we can see the accouchement of vacancy for the staffs. The person has to apply for the job and he will be interviewed and after the selection he will be provided with schedule for work. 5.2.1 Employee management in REMA 1000 Employee management approach is the way of finding the exact demand of employee for certain shops. It also helps the organization to look after its employee in closer way and organize them. It can be divided into three parts.
Employee Management Reflection on Employee Strategy for REMA 1000 Theories Satisfactions Participation efficiency, group Reducing communication work, support and gap, encouragement for good communication task performance, coordination between staffs and organization.
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Motivations Social aspects, appreciations Increase participation on task, and other improving skills. provide training to improve skills and social aspects for enhancing employee attendance.
5.2.2. Employee’s satisfaction The satisfaction is key to encourage employee to make their work efficient and effective. In this project, we will be discussing various five dimension of satisfaction which are communication quality, work assignment, participation efficiency, support and group integration. Communication quality is the first dimension which defines adequate information with clear communication with recognition followed by feedback. During the research, we came to know there is some communication gap between the employee. We often see the staffs are only depend on the upper levels and we saw less communication between the staffs. Also, we came to know the employee are not directly linked with the organization as matter of fact we can see the employee is missing personal touch with the organization. Furthermore, the staffs don’t want extra from the company as they state us that they want to get only support from the company to work efficient. They think if they can do some events like employee of the month and so on to motivate the employee, they would be happy, and they concentrate on doing good jobs also. Therefore, if these things can happen the employee can feel value and supported from REMA 1000. 5.2.3 Employees motivation An employee’s motivation is a positive outcome from the interaction between the employees and his/her managers Only a motivated employee knows the sense of achieving the goal and all his/her activities are directed towards getting it. Motivated employees have high increased employee commitment, improved employee satisfaction and improved efficiency. Such kind of employees have good bonding or interactions with the managers. REMA 1000 managers also do it’s best to motivate the employees. They have tried to make fair and good working environment, various kind of bonus and allowances, rewarding the high-level performer, etc. keeps employee motivated. They are well aware about the importance of their employees whom they treat as like they treat their customer. The company is also motivated with the concept of maintaining customer healthy by offering fresh and hygiene food. They are associated with animal welfare, food waste, sustainable fish, fur free trade etc. which directly or indirectly motivate the employees as they are also contributing for a good cause along with REMA 1000. From our interview with some of the employees of REMA 1000 we can have a sense that they have a good relationship with their manager’s. The flow of information is from the both ways so that there are no chances of
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confusion. That’s the reason although more than 1000 employees are working in REMA 1000 in different places, they all work with “REMA spirit”. 5.3 Leadership style in REMA 1000 In every organization the role of leader is very much essential. Likewise, in REMA 1000 also there is vital role of leadership in decision making. But talking about REMA 1000 there is no specific leadership style which they follow. Path goal theory also might be helpful for enhancing the employee’s participation in REMA 1000.All the employees have the right to make their own decision in REMA 1000, so they are liable for what decision they make.
5.3.1 Analysis of the findings from business management and leadership approach
Leadership Theories What does it say on Leadership strategy for employees REMA 1000
Directive leadership style Guiding, providing It will be better if they follow information directive leadership which will lead to effective communication so that there will be no confusion in the instructions. Participative leadership style Participate organization For the company to be better it meeting, training and should involve its employee’s contribute in decision making participation in their meetings, process program and decision-making process. Supportive leadership style Focus on their activities, Here, leader focus on support them, change the task employees needs like whether they are bored or not and whether they are satisfied with their jobs or not. So, that it leads to employee’s satisfaction.
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5.3.2 Directive Leadership The concept of directive leadership style is, it brings the leader with his followers to work with them and provide them the instructions about the tasks. The employees of REMA 1000, especially new are feeling demotivated due to unclear instructions about the tasks. Here in such situation directive leadership approach is very suitable for REMA 1000.Due to this, the employees get to know more clearly about their individual goals as well as organizational goal. Since, leaders and followers both will be working in the same platform there will be less chance of committing errors. Even if any errors occur, they can sort out in short time. 5.3.3 Participative Leadership Participative leadership style also can be used by the REMA 1000 to motivate their employees. According to participative leadership, it helps to make an environment where leaders will have constant contact and consultation with the followers as well as take their opinion in decision making process (Yukl,G , 1998, P-267).Hence, the employees will be motivated to work and involve with the organization as they will think themselves as a part of the organization.
5.3.4 Supportive Leadership Supportive leadership also creates an environment between the leaders and the followers where leaders will not only focus on the required activities to motivate them but also getting involved with their personal life (Northhouse, 2013, p-140). 5.4 Analysis of the findings from Stacey Perspective
Stacey Perspective What does it say on Stacey perspective on employees REMA 1000 Interaction and Conversation Employees share their REMA 1000 can use feelings, ideas through interaction and conversation conversation, interaction theory to reduce and human gestures. communication gap within the employees and customers.
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Past and Present Evaluating past to gain In REMA 1000 the past experience and make present could be evaluated so that and future better. they could know the reasons behind unsatisfied employees and increase the employee’s attendance in present and future.
5.4.1 Interaction and Conversation
As departmental store is a place where interaction and conversation take place very often. There must be effective communication among all the staffs and customers. Communication is the way of expressing their feelings, ideas and experiences which is very important in the organization. Due to lack of communication it arises many problems like what, when and how to do the things in the workplace. Therefore, people need to interact with each other so that they can communicate through the conversation. According to Stacey, interaction and conversation results the accomplishments clearing people “who they become and how they become in the organization”. In REMA 1000 also, we notice many staffs changed from shifts to shifts so there must be good communication, so the business runs smoothly. Complex Responsive process presented by Stacey can be used in REMA 1000 so that they can produce the identity to their employees at working place by analyzing and evaluating their daily interactions and conversations by them. 5.4.2 Past and Present It is the process of reflection for future which determines what, when and how to do the things. Organization can analyze the things and can correct their mistakes in the future. According to Stacey (2016) this theory is the process in which it imagines future by human interaction in present by analyzing their pasts. According to this theory, knowledge that is produced for future from the past experience from the viewpoint of present can also be imagined. Therefore, people can expect their future according to their current situations and by analyzing their past. REMA 1000 is also encountering many problems related to the employee’s satisfaction, by analyzing their employees current wants and needs the organization can make good working environment for new employees.
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Chapter 6: Analysis REMA 1000 is one of the most value driven and oriented departmental store. The number of departmental stores is increasing in order to provide the best service that REMA 1000 could offer to its customer. There are more than 10000 employees and provide more than 1000 numbers of product items which increases its value. Despite being one of the leading departmental stores there are some hurdles that is driving REMA 1000 backward. During our research and findings, we have figure out that the main reason that is holding REMA 1000 back are turnover of skilled manpower, lack of skilled manpower and inappropriate working environment. We have tried to use path goal theory, team leadership, situational leadership and transformational leadership to describe the overall leadership inside REMA 1000. They have decentralized decision making process. The culture of letting subordinates taking decision in their own task is highly appreciated and praised. The managers should have traits to change according to the situation. In order to maintain a good employee relation these traits help a lot. They should be directive, supportive, participative and achievement oriented depending on situation. Our interaction with one of the employee Sebastian assures that REMA 1000 has a very good relation between managers and the employee. The employees are much aware of festive seasons like New year, Christmas, etc. The managers try his best to make a good personal and professional relation with the employees. In order to make good working team each unit or employee that helps to make a team need to be skilled, talented and deserved one. To ensure to get the right employee they have a simple process of recruiting where the applicant should go through the official website of REMA 1000 and look for the vacancies. The detail description of what kind of employee they wanted is described over there. After that the applicant must create a job agent giving their full name and email address and other requirement and, they have the option of choosing the area they wanted to work and look for the right job they are willing do. The human resource manager of REMA 1000 chooses the best applicant based on qualification and further call for the final interview as a accept or refusal. They ensure that the best, skilled and talented employees are recruit and further training is given as per the need. REMA 1000 has a systematic hierarchy of staffs which helps to flow the organizational work in a smooth way. Every employee is aware about their task to be performed so there is no sign of confusion in performing task. There are few numbers of employees who are satisfied whether it is in terms of salary, working hours and changeable task on the other hand there are large number of staffs are not satisfied. Therefore, it is very important that a satisfied salary must be offer to an employee, appropriate working hour should assign to an employees and task should not be change frequently. REMA 100 has applied various kind of scheme like bonus, awarding for the high performer and a good relation between top managers and subordinates which are the reasons the employees of REMA 1000 work with “REMA spirit”.
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Chapter 7: Conclusion This research Emphasis on the major question “How can REMA 1000 develop a good work-team for constant development in their business?” Along with this question, we also raised couple of supportive questions which are the procedures of recruiting and selecting new employee and the motivational factors which influence the employee to work with REMA 1000. We analyze thoroughly all the available primary as well as secondary data to become clearer about our question. We tried to seek the current management structure and working scenario in different business management concept and diverse leadership approaches. Taking the major question at first, how REMA 1000 develop good work team? We find out that the company is doing all possible things to satisfy their workers. They haves been provided every kind of facilities whether it is related with their health or about the monetary benefits. As we mentioned above, during short interview with employees of this company, they said their leader often hesitate to instruct them individually especially when there is new staff. We believe that leader should equally value his/her followers rather than differentiating new staff or old staff. Likewise, for constant development, they have to formulate good team member with motivation and job satisfaction. For this purpose, they have to manage right tasks to the right person and provide them necessary tool to perform better. The leader should also be proactive to prevent unexpected errors which can damage his/her work team management. As far as we found the first supportive question which was about the procedures of recruiting and selecting process of staff in REMA 1000, this process initiated through the webpage (REMA 1000’s official website). People who want to join them can go through there and look for the available vacancies. After submitting all the essential document, the company shortlisted few numbers of people for further process which can be either interviewed as a trial shift where the top-level management assess the candidate whether he/she can perform the task or not. In this way an employee gets selected. Lastly, the things which attract the candidates to work there are better work place, good team members, attractive pay rate (in Denmark) and several other employee beneficial activities. Most of the employees of REMA 1000 are very satisfied with their job and their management team. The friendly relationship among all the staff whether they are top level employee or bottom level employee, is the major source of motivation.
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Chapter 8: Recommendation
Some of the recommendation made by our group which can be beneficial to REMA 1000 in future are: -As the employees shared their past experiences during interview most of the new staff had to learn by looking others how they work which really made them feel uncomfort. For this issue, the company should arrange some short training or practical learning class which motivates the new staff and make them very clear about the organizational goal from the very first day. Similarly, during festive season some of the stores of REMA 1000 lacks the appropriate number of employees which directly affect their customer service and create the situation of conflict in employees. To prevent this problem, the company has to manage required number of employees and use them in a proper way so that they can handle the crowd of people in a very easy and efficient manner. The leader of the company must be more supportive, and he/she should give more focus on the new staff as they are unaware about their task and duties. The leaders have to make them understand about what their actual job is and what the company expect from them. The motivational factor must be considered for the betterment of employees. The customer satisfaction must be kept in mind by the management team so that they don’t lose their customers. At present REMA 1000 has a very effective path goal leadership style approach but incase if there comes any sudden changes then it would be better to follow the situational leadership and continue the managerial function.
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REFERENCES Primary Sources: Observation by group members in various departmental store of REMA 1000 and interview
Secondary Sources: ➢ Bass, BM, & Riggio, RE 2006, Transformational Leadership, Taylor & Francis Group, Mahwah. Available from: ProQuest Ebook Central. ➢ Coghlan, D. & Brydon-Miller, M. (2014). The SAGE encyclopedia of action research (Vols. 1-2). London: SAGE Publications Ltd doi: 10.4135/9781446294406 ➢ House, R.J., and Mitchell, R.R(1974). Path goal theory of leadership. Journal of Contemporary Business, 3, 81-97. ➢ Indvik, J. (1986). Path goal theory of leadership: A meta -analysis. In proceedings of the Academy of Management Meeting (pp. 189-192). Briarcliff Manor, NY: Academy of Management ➢ Mitra, A. (2012). Reliability. In Fundamentals of Quality Control and Improvement (pp. 527- 558). Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons ➢ Northhouse P. G. (2013), Leadership theory and Practice. 6th ed. London: Sage publication ➢ Northhouse, P.G (2010), Leadership Theory and Practice. 5th ed. Sage publication. ➢ Northhouse, P. G (2016), Leadership Theory and Practice. 7. ed. Sage publication ➢ Olsen, P.B and Pedersen, K. (2011), Problem-oriented project work. Denmark: Roskilde University Press. ➢ Shaw, P.(2002) Changing Conversations in Organizations: A complexity approach to change, London: Routledge ➢ Sheffield J.R.(2012).”Understanding The Complex Organizational Processes That Help And Hinder Creativity And Innovation” PhD, University of West England ➢ Stacey, Ralph (2002): Organizations as Complex Responsive Processes of Relating. Journal of Innovative Management, GOAL/QPC [12 p.] ➢ Stacey. D. Ralph (2011). “Strategic Management and Organizational Dynamics. The Challenge of Complexity to Ways of Thinking about Organizations”. 6th edition.
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➢ Stacey. D. Ralph (2016). “Strategic Management and Organizational Dynamics. The Challenge of Complexity to Ways of Thinking about Organizations”. 7th edition. ➢ Stogdill, R.M. (1974). Handbook of leadership: A survey of theory and research. New York: Free press. ➢ Yukl, G. (1998). Leadership in organization. 4th (ed). United States: prentice Hall.
➢ Website: ➢ https://rema1000.dk/om-rema-1000/jobs-i-rema-1000/ledige-stillinger/ ➢ https://rema1000.dk/om-rema-1000/organisationen/historie/ ➢ https://www.google.dk/search?q=images+of+situational+leadership&rlz=1C1GCEA_enD K745DK745&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiIroSpjazfAhWPJ1 AKHV9AAPsQ7Al6BAgFEB8&biw=1280&bih=610#imgrc=37boborOfjnCLM: ➢ https://www.google.dk/search?q=images+of+path+goal+theory&rlz=1C1GCEA_enDK745 DK745&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjqnsjfl6zfAhWPZ1AKHZ SAADkQ7Al6BAgFEBs&biw=1280&bih=561 ➢ https://www.thompsoncoe.com/NewsEvents/Publications?find=26517 ➢ https://rema1000.dk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/REMA-1000-english.compressed.pdf ➢ https://www.google.dk/search?q=images+of+transformational+leadership&rlz=1C1GCEA _enDK745DK745&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj546ehnKzfAh XIaFAKHQCLANkQsAR6BAgBEAE&biw=1280&bih=561#imgrc=LklaQ7dN8yExZM:
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