Abstract
The thesis concerns human resource management, the relationship between employee productivity and satisfaction is explored in both primary and secondary research. The researcher has gone into the theoretical construct to establish the relationship and to understand the different schools of thought available on the subjects of productivity and employee satisfaction. In the process, the researcher has gone through the concept of satisfaction and also gone into what constitutes satisfaction and how it is measured. The researcher has also sought to explain the role of culture and perceptions on satisfaction and has also arrived at the definition of satisfaction as an attitudinal disposition rather than an emotion.
The primary research went into analyzing the satisfaction levels and the self-perception of productivity of employees from ASDA. The sample population was chosen from different levels in the company, different ages and also from the different shifts that the company operates. The significant insights from analyzing the data were that ASDA employees’ overall satisfaction is at best average, older employees display better loyalty, employees feel their full potential is not put to use by the company and the overall enjoyment at work and treatment by superiors differed according to the shift in which the employee works.
In the analysis section, the researcher has tried to ensure that the primary data and the findings from the secondary research were validated against one another and thus enable conclusion. It can be thus concluded that employee productivity and satisfaction are correlated and the increase in satisfaction can lead to increase in productivity.
The recommendations made to the company are too become more proactive in ensuring that the company is sensitive to the attitudes of employees and to become an industry leader in best human resource practices.
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Chapter 1 6
Literature Review 6
Defining Satisfaction 9
Measuring Satisfaction 10
The Role of Perception 12
The Role of Organizational Culture 13
Factors influencing Employee Satisfaction 15
The Concept of the Service-Profit Chain 16
a. Job Design 17
b. Workplace Design 20
c. Employee Selection and Development 21
d. Employee Rewards and Recognition 22
e. Tools for Serving Customers 24
ASDA, the Giant – A Case Study 24
Chapter 2: Research Methodology
Research Philosophy 32
Research Approach 32
Research Strategy 33
Sampling Technique 35
Sample Composition 36
Pilot Study 37
Organization of the Questionnaire 37
Chapter 3: Findings from the Research
Introduction 39
Key Insights from Primary Research 39
Key Insights from Secondary Research 43
Chapter 4: Recommendations 45
Conclusion 47
References 50
Appendix 1: Questionnaire 54
Appendix 2: Summary of Data 55
Introduction
This thesis is the culmination of the efforts of the researcher in understanding employee satisfaction and its relationship with productivity of an employee. In the process of arriving at a conclusion on this question, the thesis will raise a number of difficult to answer questions. Is there a correlation between employee satisfaction and productivity? Does a satisfied employee mean a more productive employee? What is productivity? What is satisfaction? Can employee satisfaction be measured? What factors contribute to employee satisfaction? What external factors affect satisfaction and performance? How does organizational culture affect satisfaction and productivity? Can managers ensure satisfied employees? How does all this add up in the retailing industry in the UK, considering all the competitive forces? These are the important questions which will be addressed in the thesis. The nature of these questions is vast and deep.
As consumers we are faced with consumption decisions every day, what to buy and what not to buy and where to buy what from. Marketing of services is to a large part people intensive and the connection with the consumer happens through their interactions with the representative of the company or brand. Retail stores form a very important part of our lives, being an important part of the family or home supply chain. Retail store spending based on our consumption decisions form a major part of our budgets and any nation’s economy, making retailing a large revenue business, also entailing huge investments by the retailer, in creating the infrastructure, supply chain and other associated structures which are necessary. This makes the retailer look out for every opportunity to improve operating margins. Added to this is the fact customer loyalty in retailing is dependent mostly on price. The price sensitivity of the customer keeps increasing with every depression we go through. With national brands and store brands competing for shelf space, price wars among retailers and innovative pricing methods are common place industry practices. With the fact that a large volume is necessary in ensuring lower prices for consumers, retailers need to expand very quickly to very high volumes. Retailing being a service industry, the significant operating expense for the retailer is the human capital. Every penny saved in human cost is a direct addition to operating margins for the retailer. This makes the dissertation very relevant – can retailers gain in productivity by ensuring better employee satisfaction and thus aim to gain better margins from their business?
The setting of the industry in which ASDA operates is important in the study because of the fact that the competitiveness of the company depends on its pricing, with customers moving away from the traditional loyalty to stores for better value and variety. The adherence to price as the competitive advantage means that the company has to minimize its costs on all fronts or better put, has to optimize costs. In a retail industry setting, manpower costs are a significant part of the overall cost structure, and hence a comprehensive dissertation on the employee satisfaction in such a setting is of paramount importance. In the past, hard discounters in the UK have come under severe criticism for their anti-employee policies, for example, Lidl has been accused of spying on its employees, forcing its employees not to join unions, forcing its employees to work without pay when they did not finish the allocated work, etc. (Pidd 2007). One of the important aspects of successful management of the brand in retailing is public relations. The perception on retailers as they grow large is adverse, with the world’s largest retailer Wal-Mart also not being an exception. Consumer activism, trade unionism and several other issues which are relevant to the human angle of retailing are significant topics for discussion, in theory and practice. Due to the importance of the retail industry in the economy, governmental regulations and interventions and public attention on the industry is heavy, with every move of the large retailer being watched by the government, the stakeholders and also the consumers. Considering its employee intensive model and its large size, retail chains are the perfect studying ground for human resources. Retail stores of this century are the factories and cotton mills of the previous century.
ASDA is a retailing giant in the UK, the second largest in retailing and the largest in food retailing. The company began as a dairy producers’ representative company, which strived to better the profits of dairy farmers by establishing their own brand and stores, thus to get a better floor price for themselves. In the aftermath of the Second World War, dairy product prices in the UK took a beating, with imports eating away on traditional strongholds, coupled with better storage and transportation infrastructure. This made the company seek out synergies in its retail and supply chain, thus diversifying into a number of food related business which could be relevant to the consumer in the North of England. Thus was started ASDA, in 1965, as the first hypermarket in the UK. Its stores were of a different format, usually found in abandoned factory sheds on the edge of town. The crowd puller for this strategy was the new found post-war automobile mobility of the Britons. This strategy proved to be an enormous success. ASDA retail eventually overtook its parent in revenues and grew to become the retailing giant in the UK. It started diversifying on its own, entering into mergers or even acquisitions and growing bigger. The company was in trouble in the early 1990s after a major acquisition, but it eventually recovered, to be finally acquired by Wal-Mart. ASDA became a solely owned subsidiary of Wal-Mart of the USA. Wal-Mart chose acquisition as the ideal way of entering the UK because of its global expansion strategy and ASDA was the ideal target with its brand equity and its long standing reputation in the British market, including Scotland and Wales.
Chapter 1
Literature Review
In an address to MIT graduates, Carly Fiorina, the legendary HP leader has been quoted as saying, “….the most magical, tangible and ultimately the most important ingredient in the transformed landscape is people” (Fiorina, 2000).
Behavior is a function of a person’s characteristics and the nature of his environment (Patterson et al. 2004). While every individual can be different, the environment he experiences is the same for all individuals in an organizational setting, with the same culture and other relevant factors. Because of variations in personal characteristics, the way the environment is perceived is different with each individual. The more conducive the perceptive environment is, the better the individual or employee’s participation in it. The participation of the employee is the basis for productivity. An employee who is not involved or engaged in the work naturally tends to be disinterested and also tends to work without full commitment.
There has been significant theoretical debate on the relationship between employee satisfaction and employee productivity. These debates have been waged on the plane of the feelings and emotions of the employee and also his attitudes and thus rely on the domains of experiences of the individual during work. There are different schools of thought that examine the relationship between employee satisfaction and productivity (Ostroff 1992):
a. Socio-technical school – employee satisfaction is a factor of both the technical and social structure. When there is a congruence between the social and technical domains, the employee is satisfied and contributes more to the organization
b. Human Resources School – satisfied workers are productive workers. How a worker feels about the organization, the relationships within the organization determine his wholehearted effort to his work.
The argument which is common to all lines of thought is that organizational effectiveness may not lead to employee satisfaction, but employee satisfaction could be a predictor of organizational effectiveness (Ostroff 1992). At the individual level, satisfaction may be a factor of just the environment and the effectiveness of the organization. While an individual can be dissatisfied and unproductive, the organization might still prosper. But large scale manifestation of dissatisfaction could lead to lowering of organizational effectiveness in the long run. The striving of every organization is to contain dissatisfaction and to spread satisfaction, as both are contagious and spread very rapidly.
In recent times, managers have to rely on more than the financial performance of an organization to strategize and ensure that the organization survives and thrives (Kaplan & Norton 1992). For example, the Balanced Score Card (BSC) considers the human element as a dimension in developing metrics for the organization. This understanding of the importance of the human capital of the organization and how it is measured and accounted for and how it is of strategic importance is critical to the effective management of human resources in the organization. The management of human resources and the human side of the business dealing with customers is a cause and effect relationship, with the betterment of one leading to the betterment of the other (Kaplan & Norton 1996).
Many firms have incorporated non-financial measures like employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction and quality as part of their management control systems, based on the rationale that such parameters are better indicators of organizational value in the long term than pure financial measures which are only historical in nature (Banker et al. 2000). The incorporation of the human capital into an organization’s financial statements to stakeholders is also assuming strategic importance because of the fact that a healthy employee satisfaction score and related human resource metrics indicate the long term survivability of the organization amidst stiff competition.
The management of human capital spells the difference between the successful organization and the unsuccessful organization, in the knowledge economy of today (Hitt et al. 2001). According to the resource based view of the organization, the differences in performances of organizations is due to their varying resources and associated capabilities. Resources can be tangible and also intangible. Human resource is an intangible resource, and hence of this forms the basis of competitive advantage for the organization, it would be very difficult for competition to replicate this, except in the long run. Intangible resources make the organization unique and superior compared to other organizations. The intangibility of human resources can be removed by the concept of human capital.
Among the non-financial parameters discussed above, the most significant is employee satisfaction. Employee satisfaction in turn can be correlated to work climate or the environment and the organization’s HRM policies and practices (Gelade & Ivory 2003). Progressive human resource practices can enhance perceptions of the work climate or the environment. On the other hand, climate can be construed as a mediating factor between human resource management and productivity. The logical sequence of thought is that progressive HRM practices create a positive environment within the organization and thus increases employee motivation and involvement, thus leading to greater productivity and organizational effectiveness, even in financial terms (Ostroff & Bowen 2000).
An unsatisfied employee may be part of the effective organization that is able to fulfill the expectations of its shareholders; he can be controlled through supervision to ensure productivity (Gelade & Ivery 2003). While this may not affect organizational effectiveness in the short term, it could affect the way the environment shapes up for the unsatisfied employee’s colleagues, which could lead to long term erosion of organizational effectiveness while efficiency could still remain the same. The perfect example of this scenario is when a worker or group of workers withholds information from managers while ensuring that they put in the required output which determines their performance. This behavior, though negative, does not lead to short term performance problems. But in the long term, the effectiveness of the manager is reduced, thus affecting productivity, like unexpected break down of machinery or unannounced stock outs in certain product categories.
Defining Satisfaction
Defining satisfaction has been attempted by a number of theorists, from different schools of thought. Traditionally, job satisfaction has been viewed as an emotional appraisal of the environment and the job, resulting in an evaluation of what the job satisfies for the employee. Job satisfaction is a ‘‘pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from an appraisal of one’s job or job experiences’’ (Locke 1969, p.317). Viewing job satisfaction as an emotional disposition towards the job and its attributes, positive or negative, has the effect of treating the employee as not very rational and thus, falls short of guiding the evolution of evaluation metrics for enhancing satisfaction among employees.
More recently, job satisfaction has been defined as “attitude towards one’s job” (Brief & Robertson 1989). The fundamental and essential property of attitude is evaluation (Weiss 2002). An attitude is not an emotional reaction, but an evaluation or an evaluative assessment with regards to an object. When job satisfaction is defined as an attitude, the means of understanding and evaluating job satisfaction comes to a scale, where an employee can relatively rate his attitude on a scale which can then be evaluated to understand his attitudinal disposition. If satisfaction were to be defined as an emotion, the result of measuring job satisfaction would be binary, with positive and negative emotional feelings being the only measures. Thus, when defined as an attitude, “a positive (or negative) evaluative judgment one makes about one’s job or job situation.’’ (Weiss 2002, p.174).
Considering that job satisfaction of an employee needs to be measured to evoke positive attitudes towards work and thus to aid organizational effectiveness, the definition of job satisfaction as an attitude enables forming metrics for measuring the same and thus, is the most commonly used definition construct for job satisfaction.
Measuring Satisfaction
Defining job satisfaction as an attitude is very broad and hence causes considerable problems in evaluating job satisfaction. But the essential characteristic of this definition is that job satisfaction is also a broad subject, as a person’s job is considered to more than just peddling papers or driving trucks or making decisions, both by the individual and also by the organization. Apart from his own work, an employee is expected to cooperate and form relationships with colleagues, follow the rules and the policies of the organization, adapt to and manage the working conditions and also meeting the performance standards set for him. The attitudinal definition enables us to measure job satisfaction on a scale, thus, satisfaction can always be stated in relativity, to that of other employees. This helps in the development of a mechanism where the relative score of an individual can be used to relate to the satisfaction of a department or for the organization as a whole.
The following two methods are used to measure job satisfaction very widely (Robbins 2002):
a. Single Global Rating
This is nothing but asking an individual a general question like “considering all factors, how satisfied are you with your present job?” employees or respondents then reply to this question by selecting anything between 1 and 5, with 5 standing for the highest satisfaction and 1 for the lowest satisfaction.
b. Summation Score Rating
This rating method is more sophisticated and evaluates a number of criteria which form the actual work of an employee. Typical factors would include nature of work, supervision, pay, opportunities, etc. These factors are then rated on a standardize scale to arrive at an overall job satisfaction score for an employee. The sophistication of this method means that the individual scores can be used to better the responses of the organization towards those aspects which are bringing the overall score down and consolidating those factors which are already strong.
While a single global rating process may sound very simplistic, the efficacy of the process when compared to the summation method is more or less similar. This is because of the fact that job satisfaction is too broad and deep to be covered by any number of questions or scales and hence can be equally well represented by single item scales. Hence, any review of job satisfaction which considers a single scale of evaluation can be termed acceptable and cannot be treated as a major flaw in the measurement of job satisfaction (Robbins 2002 & Wanous et al. 1997). Thus, this is a unique situation, where the simple and the complex are having an equal efficacy in the measurement of an abstract and difficult to measure attribute. But the summation rating helps the organization to determine the problem areas and the strengths of the human resources function and thus gives many insights into bettering employee satisfaction levels.
The Role of Perception
The role of the perceptive process of the individual cannot be discounted from the understanding of satisfaction, because perception is how the environment is viewed and understood. Perception leads to the formation or the emergence of work related emotions to employees (Griffeth et al. 2000). The first response to any stimulus is evaluation and evaluation is central to the perceived meaning of the causes and the evaluated effects of a construed response. Although perceptions can be described factually, an individual cannot avoid forming connotations which are evaluative in nature (Patterson et al. 2004). Evaluations and forming of connotations to augment these evaluations form the core of an attitudinal disposition of the employee, which is primarily aided by perception.
While a negative work related emotion can lead to reduction of performance (Jamal 1984), positive emotions determine (Staw et al. 1994):
a. Subsequent performance
b. Education or skill development level
c. Age and Gender
Perception is passive and as such does not impel action, but adds to the body of awareness of an individual. The main role of perception for an individual is in understanding or for forming opinion about the environment within the work setting. Perceptions do vary according to the level of the individual within the organization. Managers tend to develop more positive perceptions than non-managers, apparently due to the power of determination which managers possess over the environment and the wide ranging awareness on which their perceptions are based on, compared to non-managers whose world view is restricted to their work related areas within the organization (Payne & Mansfield 1973).
The Role of Organizational Culture
Organizational culture is a system of shared meanings, where members of thee organizations develop a system of understanding the environment and to interact with it (Robbins 2002). Culture is a common perception held by different individuals within the environment considered. Culture differentiates one organization from another.
The major point to be noted here is that culture is descriptive in nature, used to describe and understand the institution by an individual, whether he like it or not. While job satisfaction is evaluative in nature, culture is merely descriptive. The meeting point of culture and satisfaction lies in the fact that culture is also a part of the formation of the employee attitude towards his work. While culture is used to describe, satisfaction is used to assess (Robbins 2002).
Culture helps the employee form opinions, in line with the thoughts and emotions of the other employees. The culture of an organization is a legacy which is carried forwards for years, though it could remain undefined for many years or decades. The culture of the place determines the person-organization fit. The person could fit into the organization through change. But the organization’s culture, though realized, cannot be changed. Managements agree to go in for a cultural change only when the company is in a dire strait or in survival struggle (Robbins 2002). In such situations, top management will is necessary to change the culture or to remodel it and it is a long and laborious process of many years and may or may not be successful.
Within the organization, the culture of the place sets the tone for the experiences of the employee and influences his perception, through the collective wisdom of everyone which is institutionalized within the organization. Thus, the institutions and rituals in the company may be enjoyable for some or even many and may be not agreeable for some individuals. This makes it imperative on the part of the HR and the management to build a sense of tolerance and acceptance within the organizational culture to ensure that the employee, or for the matter, any employee is able to fit into the organization, to settle down, establish and start performing in the shortest possible time. In the organizational culture, tolerance and acceptance form the two dimensions which are keys to employee satisfaction within the organization.
The rituals and institutions within the organization influence the perception of the employee and also affect his work related attitudes. An existing employee could behave in a certain manner to his manager because of the culture of the organization. Usually, culture of an organization is evolved from the vision of the founders of the company and gets handed down with time and minor changes to the next generations of workers.
Factors influencing Employee Satisfaction
The employee does not consider himself to be dependent on the organization any more. Change in employment is a common thing in the careers of many employees. The onus is now on the management of the organization to ensure that employee stick to the company and are satisfied enough to be not looking out for better opportunities. Satisfaction is imperative to retaining an employee and to avoid the costs and implications of hiring a new employee and ensuring efficiency of the work unit.
Employee motivation, though clichéd and over used, is very difficult to plan and develop in employees. Motivation is a byproduct of the work climate, work-life balance, culture and more importantly, on material benefits for the individual. The real use of a motivation development initiative of an organization is improved productivity, effectiveness and efficiency of employees. Motivation is what makes the employee strive to do his work better. Motivation is often wrongly conceived to be the rush for money or power.
It is not only important to know how much a person is motivated, but also how his motivation is oriented. A person need not always be motivated by money, power and material aspirations. An employee could do something well because he likes or enjoys doing it. This is intrinsic motivation. Extrinsic motivation is trying to motivate people by a carrot and stick approach, rewarding and unrewarding based on performance. Intrinsic motivation can lead to superior performance, creativity and innovation and excellent value creation for the organization (Ryan & Deci 2000) because of the high quality and intensity of the work being put in and the lessons that are being learned by the individual.
Individual responses to work can be different because a job that may be motivating to one individual may not be for another individual. An employee’s job related needs are satisfied when the job design allows it to be so. Job design is a critical factor in employee satisfaction. A very innovative individual may find it very restricting in a job which involves little autonomy or variety in work. This brings to focus the importance of the role the individual plays within his work setting – job design – how the job is able to become relevant to the individual in satisfying his work related aspirations.
The Concept of the Service-Profit Chain
The ultimate objective of striving for employee satisfaction is to increase performance of every employee, thus aiding the overall effectiveness of the organization. The effectiveness of an organization is not dependent only on the physical and financial aspects, but also on the human aspects.
The service-profit chain (Figure 1) establishes relationships between the above factors. Profits and growth arise out of customer loyalty. Loyalty arises out of customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction arises out of value of the service provided to customers. Value is created by satisfied, loyal and productive employees. Employee satisfaction is due to the superior support and policies of the organization which employs them (Heskett et al. 1994). This model directly correlates employee satisfaction and productivity and value creation.
In the service-profit chain, employee satisfaction is a function of Internal Service Quality. Internal Service Quality comprises of Job Design, Workplace design, Employee selection and development, Employee rewards and recognition and Tools for servicing customers.
Figure 1: Service Profit Chain
Source: Heskett, J.L., T. Jones, G.W. Loveman, W.E. Sasser and L.A. Schlesinger. 1994. Putting the service-profit chain to work. Harvard Business Review 72 (March/April): 164-174.
a. Job Design
Job design can be defined as “organizing tasks, duties and responsibilities into a productive unit of work” (Mathis & Jackson 2003, p.171). Job design is concerned with the content of the work allocated to an individual and also on the effects it has on the individual. Job design is critical because of the following reasons (Mathis & Jackson 2003):
i. Job design can influence performance in jobs which require high employee motivation
ii. Job design can influence job satisfaction – some jobs for some individuals are considered to be the best fit. Identifying the right job for an employee is very critical or so is finding the right individual for the job.
iii. Job design can influence the physical and mental health of employees – a physically unfit employee, if put to tiring work, can hurt himself. A stressful job may affect the mental health of a person not able to cope with the pressure.
The two fundamental concepts in effective job design are Job Enrichment and Job Rotation. These two concepts help human resources to ensure that a job which is designed actually appeals to the individual and thus creates satisfaction and thus eventually performance.
i. Job Enrichment
Enrichment of the job means broadening the scope of the job to involve a number of different tasks for the employee. This helps against over simplification of the job in search of efficiency. A manager could design a job to be more appealing by assigning more responsibility, encouraging innovation and giving control to the employee in planning and executing the work. Merely adding more of the same task in the name of responsibility is not going to help. Some examples of job enrichment are:
- Assigning someone the entire job rather than just a piece of it
- Freedom for the employee to finish the job as he sees fit, trusting the skills of the employee
- Increasing accountability for the work by reducing external control
ii. Job Rotation
This is the movement of the employee from one job to another to effectively take away the monotony of the repeat job, usually a job which involves repetitively doing the same thing every day. The advantage of this practice is that while it enriches the work experience of the employee by giving him variety, it also develops the skills of the employee in many areas related to work. Thus, an employee who is into accounting may be moved into auditing for a month to ensure that he is developing a new skill set, and also ensures that the employee gets a new environment to work in, within a different department.
A job can be designed very ineffectively where employees struggle to accomplish the work assigned to them, either due to the complexity of the work or due to the mere sense of inequity in the job they do. Work can be designed to be motivating for employees, by taking into consideration the difficulties in the job and designing control and metrics appropriately and also by ensuring that the person who is doing the most difficult job knows why he is doing that job and what he gains by doing that job specifically. Organizations in recent times have used workers themselves as feedback in designing jobs for them, thus creating an atmosphere where workers themselves design jobs which they would do (Raimy 2000).
One of the ways in which jobs in modern organizations are designed is the emphasis on team work. Organizations realize that teams or groups of employees are able to perform more and better than individual employees (Mathis & Jackson 2003). This has led to workers not being called employees, but as associates, partners, crew and mates. One of the most recent developments is the entry of the “virtual” team, where members from different parts of the world collaborate as part of a team to accomplish a specific task. Such teams have become possible because of communication technology advancements.
While the advantages of team work in job design is that it can improve productivity, improve employee involvement, more learning and greater ownership by the employees, the disadvantages of the team orientation is that it leads to group think and also selfishness of some team members can affect the outcomes. Many jobs may not require team work to be effectively accomplished, thus, indulging in team job design must be used with discretion. Team work in some settings can affect productivity and also reduce the efficacy of the decisions made in such situations. Also, it is difficult to measure the performance of teams, because not all members contribute equally and hence everyone in the team cannot be rewarded equally (Kirkman et al. 2001).
b. Workplace Design
The physical setting has an effect on the way the work is done, the effectiveness and the efficiency because of the fact that an individual gets affected by the physical surroundings he is occupying. Employee satisfaction depends on the extent to which the workplace ambience meets the expectations, personal and job related, for the individual. The important aspects of the workplace design which can affect employee satisfaction are (van der Voordt 2004):
i. The extent to which the environment fits with the daily activities.
ii. The functionality of the workplace
iii. The extent to which the design stimulates communication
iv. The extent to which the employee can concentrate on his individual work
v. The extent to which the workplace satisfies the psychological needs of the employee, such as privacy, territorialism, identity and expression of status
vi. Accessibility of people (physical, telephone, digital)
vii. Climate (lighting, temperature, etc.)
It must be noted here that the safety and the security of the employee with respect to work related hazards and other environmental factors is considered to be a hygiene factor in workplace design. The safety of the employee or the hazards which he faces when at work, particularly in risky jobs,, is a matter which needs to be considered during the job design stage itself and effective means of mitigating the risk of the employee by automation or by effective use of technology.
c. Employee Selection and Development
The recruitment policies of the company and the process the company uses to select the right person for the right job and in developing the required skills for a particular job are critical to the person-job fit that is eventually achieved. Internal recruitment process involves the selection of an employee who could be suitable for a particular job and moving him to the new responsibility. The key lies in the analysis of the requirements of the new job and the process of the internal selection which happens.
In employee selection, HR can utilize two approaches: external and internal. While external selection can give the company resources from competitors and can be very useful in some industries or some skills required, the most effective and efficient way of selecting a person for a job is internal (Mathis & Jackson 2004). The advantage of internal recruitment is that the person is already accustomed to the culture and the environment of the organization and does not need a slow start to the new responsibility. Also, the new job could add to the satisfaction of the employee, which results in job rotation and thus aids employee satisfaction for the company.
The most important part of selecting the right individual for the job lies in good job analysis. Job analysis is the process of understanding the requirements and the nature of the particular job. HR managers can perform job analysis in a number of ways like interviewing personnel in the work floor or the same department or through understanding the nature of the work through qualitative studies of the inputs and skills needed for the job. Right job analysis will help in identifying the right person for the job, with the necessary skills which will help in ensuring job-person fit, resulting in job satisfaction for the incoming employee, external or internal.
d. Employee Rewards and Recognition
Rewards are an important constituent of the satisfaction of the employee. The financial reward or the recognition the employee gains forms the core of any employment for any individual. More important than rewards and recognition is the fact that employee has to know his goals or the expectations from him very clearly. Edwin Locke developed the Goal Setting Theory in the 1960s, one of the most important management theories of the 20th century. This theory has shaped our careers and workplaces in every way. This theory is the basis of all performance metrics being set for employees and the employees’ motivation to achieve these metrics.
The core of the Expectancy theory is that when an employee knows what is expected out of him clearly, he puts in his best efforts to deliver the results. Clear goals can improve results; difficult goals once accepted produce great results. The theory appeals or acclaims the commitment of the individual to the organization, to contribute and be rewarded appropriately. The limitation of this theory is that it does not account for the sense of doubt which can creep up within every individual on whether he can achieve a tough goal. The theory places great importance on feedback in clear terms. Feedback with transparency and a clear view of the associated rewards can go a long way in ensuring that the individual remains within sight of the goal (Ivancevich & McMahon 1982)
Rewards which are designed for the success of an individual at work must be based on actual studies on what could be attractive for the individual (Mathis & Jackson 2004). Though such customization may not be possible for every worker, the idea would be to make the rewards appealing by giving the worker a number of choices in the reward process – cash or other benefits or a job rotation, etc. This will help the employee stay focused for his personal goals and also for the organizational goals on the whole.
e. Tools for Serving Customers
In a service industry setting, serving the customer is an everyday affair for the employee at the ground level. In a retail environment, the floor executive faces hundreds or even thousands of customers every day. In such a scenario, the employee has to be equipped with the right tools to service the customers. Such tools include the right job fit, empowerment, training and skills and also the physical infrastructure to perform the job well (Jackson & Mathis 2004). The face the employee presents to the customer is what the customer sees of the organization. For example, an employee who has to welcome customers, needs the appropriate space, training, process definition, adequate flowers and other paraphernalia and also the right attire to do so. Without any one of these, the employee will feel handicapped in welcoming customers in a hotel lobby, for example, in the best manner possible or expected.
ASDA – The Giant – A Case Study
ASDA is a retail giant in the UK, competing in the market through price. It is a hard-discounter in the market. Founded in 1965, it became a subsidiary of Walmart in 1999. It is the third largest retail supermarket chain in the UK. The history of ASDA can be summarized into distinct phases in its existence (Grant 2005):
a. Pre-1965 – Incorporated as Associated Diaries and Farm Stores Ltd. In 1949, the company originally started off as milk and dairy producers’ representative company. The success of the dairy venture saw the company diversifying into meat and even quarrying lime. The financial success of the dairy company spurred the parent company into many diversification attempts, of which many died a logical death, but the company was never shy of experimenting with new projects, which eventually led to the starting of the food retailing business, ASDA in 1965.
b. 1965 – Saw the company starting off a food retailing business named ASDA, as a small venture which eventually turned out into a major success. It was incubated like many other diversification projects, with the expectation of the parent being the profitable operation of the business and no other major expectations. But ASDA eventually led to the eclipsing of the parent company itself, with the resounding success of its unique store format and business model in the UK. ASDA was the first company to start a retail hypermarket in the UK, with large stores offering limited variety at very low prices in edge-of-town warehouses and dysfunctional mills, leading to success till the late 1970s.
c. 1980-2000 – Saw ASDA reviving itself to combat stiff competition of more scientific retailers who started off the same retail format. The changes made by the company include branding (for the first time), including designed stores rather than abandoned warehouses and electronic inventory management, etc. In the late 1980s, it bought rival Gateway, thus increasing its floor space by 50% over night. But this move also turned risky for the company, as it faced severe financial strain. This led to another major restructuring within the company, ultimately recovering, the company merged with Safeway Plc., creating the largest food retailer in the country in 1997.
d. 1999 – Saw Wal-Mart making a successful bid for ASDA, which ASDA was eager to accept. ASDA then grew from strength to strength, eventually dislodging Sainsbury from its No. 2 position in the British retail market. It has diversified into many other sectors in the retail format other than foods, with photo processing, electronics, home improvement, furnishing, etc. being proactively added to the portfolio in stores, in continuance with the Wal-Mart strategy in the USA.
Wal-Mart is the largest company in the world, across all industries and segments. It is three times the size of the No. 2 retailer in the world – Carrefour of France. Wal-Mart is the most admired company in the USA and also the most hated. The company through its market clout has remained anti-union oriented throughout its history (Business Week 2003). The company pays very low wages to its employees and as any other retailer across the world, is accused of discriminatory practices and injustice to workers on their rights and wages. This sets an interesting setting to study the human resource practices at ASDA after Wal-Mart took over.
Wal-Mart’s expansion strategy in the global arena is handled by Wal-Mart International, which started off from scratch in 1992 is worth $63 billion a year. International operations form the fastest growing part of the business for the company, with a 30% addition in sales every year this century (Landler & Barbaro 2006). The strategy for global expansion for Wal-Mart has been international acquisition, with the company making large buys of retail chains in target markets, with the particular focus being Asia and Latin-America. The company has also struggled and failed with these international acquisitions more than once.
The perfect example is the German venture, which was shut down after a decade of loss making in 2006. The major problem with the acquisition was the way the company handled the human factor in business and management – consumer behavior and personnel relations.
a. While the stores were distinctly modeled like American stores in terms of merchandise, geography and the parent brand was used in Germany too. This led to low sales, as customers did not see value in traveling to the edge of the city to buy goods which were cheaper at the local grocer.
b. Personnel Relations – the company tried to bring in the characteristic Wal-Mart culture to the German venture. While in Germany, unions and organizations are close unlike the USA, Wal-Mart never understood this and continued its untrusting attitude towards unions. The company can be accused of hubris, of the giant American corporate imposing its values in a different cultural setting. The company started with American executives manning stores, who were trying to run the store and build relationships in the American way.
The debacle at Germany led the company to realize its mistakes and successfully avoid them in their other expansion ventures across the world. These learning’s were predominantly on studying the buying behavior of customers and understanding the importance of the local culture and the realization that all of Wal-Mart’s strategies may not be relevant to other cultures (Landler & Barbaro 2006). The importance of the personnel relations function is better understood in the context of ASDA because of the fact that learning’s from the then ailing German subsidiary were applied in the UK.
In contrast to the subversive allegations made against the parent in the USA, ASDA started fairly well in the public eye in terms of employee relations. Before Wal-Mart took over, the managers of ASDA had the good practice of linking HR policies with key metrics, like quality of service and customer satisfaction, and the informal working environment and unlimited access to senior management ensured that the innovative culture at ASDA got cemented before the acquisition itself, and then most of the senior management team left the company after 1999. ASDA won the Best Employer Award in 2002, was the No. 7 in 2003 and then slid to No. 31 in 2004, by which time it had more than 127,000 employees. By 2006, ASDA was out of the top 100 in the best employer category (Whitehead 2006). This marks a significant change in the fortunes of the company being the most preferred retail employer in the country, which coincides with the rapid growth, product line additions and the global strategy of Wal-Mart, the parent.
In 1999, ASDA wanted to open a store in Hulme, Manchester, an under privileged neighborhood, with high levels of unemployment and ethnic diversity. The ASDA store was not received with open arms, as the locality had suffered from business shutting down and emerging businesses recruiting from outside, with people not being able to reap the benefits from incoming trade and industry. The community feared a prejudiced white enterprise, but ASDA decided to recruit locally and had a drive to recruit local people. It advertized only in the local newspaper and not the Manchester Evening News. As a result, 90% of the employees recruited for the store were from the locality, with a good mix of the ethnic groups residing there. The HR department went to great lengths to ensure success of this initiative, with a special confidential hot line number to a senior HR manager, if any employee faces discrimination or unacceptable behavior (Stredwick 2006, p.98).
The company was in a legal battle consequent to its changing the employment contracts without the consent of many employees in 2009. Though the changes were made after extensive employee consultations, the changes which were actually made were not representative of the sentiments of the employees. The mutual contract of trust between the employer and the employee was breached, when the company made the changes despite resistance and discontent stating a clause in the employment contract which stated that the employment policies which are contained in the employee handbook can be changed at any time by the management (Bunch 2010).
The HR strategy of ASDA can be divided into the following dimensions:
a. Recruitment & Selection – the company hires about 7000 to 10,000 employee every year, with the underlying moral in the recruitment process being to hire for attitudes and not skills. It has its own management development programs, in which graduates are hired and out through a yearlong training in various departments including retail. The managers who opt for retail also get to do a stint with Wal-Mart. This management development program applies to the people who are groomed to become managers in the future. The development program ensures employee loyalty at the middle management level. This is proven with 70% of all managers being developed in-house.
b. Retention – the company has an attrition rate of 25% annually, and this is one of the lowest in the industry. At the managerial level, 70% of all positions are held by home-grown managers, showing the strength of the management development program of the company. 20% of all employees in the company are aged above 50, and the company is very specific about not-discriminating on the basis of age.
c. Training and Development – the company has 15 Stores of Learning, where employees are sent to be trained at a very high cost. While all staff gets basic two day orientation training on joining, the specific role of the joinee determines the length and breadth of the training provided. The company runs a feedback mechanism for its employees and does a monthly appraisal of the trainees at all levels. Every employee who joins the company will be trained and assisted in the quest to move up to the next level of employment within ASDA.
d. Performance management – the company has detailed metrics for performance measurement and management for every level of employment. Managers are judged by their results and also on the softer aspects of management like their people management skills and other non-financial parameters. The key performance indicators for managers include team handling capability and also financial or business results, as the case may be. The non financial aspects of the managers are assessed by taking 360 degree feedback regarding every manager or a senior person within the organization (HR Leader 2005).
e. Employee Welfare – the HR function engages employees with a number of welfare initiatives, which receives a significant budget annually to be implemented. For example, the company has invested more than 2mn Pounds to ensure that its colleagues are well cared for. The program handles the occupational health of the workers and thus aims to reduce costs to the company by reducing absenteeism and also reducing medical costs for the company (ASDA Press Center). The company has many initiatives like this to promote the well being of the employees and also the society at large, like the youth training program which helps them to recruit young people with retail as a career choice.
The company has a well established human resource policy pool. The implementation of the HR policies happens from its head quarters, where there are more than 200 HR associates who run the human resource and personnel management department in ASDA. The sheer size of the company, the geographical spread of the stores and also the large number of employees means that every department in ASDA must be well equipped with technology and relevant efficient processes to be able to work smoothly. The company has automated its initial stage screening of candidates and also many of its other HR functions, like outsourcing payroll processing and also an outsourced HR senior lead in the Board of the company. These measures ensure that employees are able to interact more effectively with the HR department.
Despite all the allegations of being anti-union and anti-employee, ASDA prides itself for the retention rates of employees, which 10% lower than the industry average. Considering that the allegations made were serious, ASDA would be the worst employer in the UK, with the worst employee retention rates. The key to understanding the retention of employees at ASDA is to understand the culture at ASDA. ASDA promotes a culture of openness, where the management is more accessible to the average shop floor worker. As a policy, ASDA delegates more power to employees compared to other retailers, thus giving them some power to do their work well. Thus, even though ASDA pays its shop-floor workers lesser than its competitors, and works them ever harder, it is still able to retain its employees better than the better paying competition (Salaman et al. 2005, p.262).
Thus, the original culture at ASDA has survived even after a decade after the takeover by Wal-Mart, which again goes to prove that the culture of an organization exists for the life of the organization and cannot be changed easily without a conscious effort.
Chapter 2
Research Methodology
Research Philosophy
Interpretivism is the epistemology in research, especially management research, which advocates that it is important for the researcher to understand the difference between human beings and that the role of the researcher is as part of the society or phenomenon under observation and not an external observer (Saunders et al 2007, p.106). To understand employee satisfaction and its impact on productivity, the researcher has to study something as variable and intuitive as human attitudes and behaviors. This calls for an understanding of the behaviors of people, which are guided by their perceptions (Saunders et al 2007, p.116). Interpretivism also helps the researcher to analyze the relationships and connections between individuals (Walliman 2005, p.204). As we are dealing with human perceptions and attitudes which determine satisfaction rather than mere objects and their implications, interpretivism is the epistemology which is used in this thesis.
Research Approach
Management research or, more broadly, social sciences research can be approached in two ways – deductive and inductive. The deductive or the quantitative approach involves testing a theory on whether it is right or wrong, by placing rigid hypotheses on the research environment (Saunders et al 2007). Deductive approaches can be called scientific, but they can accurately test effects and not the causes behind the effects. Thus this approach will not be suitable to study the underlying factors which affect the attitudes of the individual and thus his work effectiveness and efficiency.
The Inductive or the Qualitative research approach uses the research to develop hypotheses on a progressive basis to develop a theory or to understand the impact of the theory. Qualitative approach lets the researcher gather data, analyze it and arrive at possible ways to improve the hypotheses. Hence, the research approach that is used here is Inductive or Qualitative.
The qualitative approach adopted here enabled the researcher to arrive at conclusions and modify the research and the questions associated as per the developments which were happening in the field study. Also, the findings of the researcher which were qualitative in nature, like the environment in the stores and the discipline among the employees and the supervision techniques employed were studied by the researcher, which ultimately form the pool of the knowledge developed during, for and in course of the research
Research Strategy
According to Myers (2009, p.8) ‘qualitative research methods were developed in the social sciences to enable researchers to study social and cultural phenomena. Examples of qualitative methods are action research, case study research and ethnography. Qualitative data sources include observation and participant observation (fieldwork), interviews and questionnaires, documents and texts, and the researcher’s impressions and reactions’.
The researcher used the case study approach in studying the human resource function and employee orientation of the company, its culture and its social impact. Thus, a case study on the employee aspects of the company was created, using secondary data, to be compared and evaluated after the collection of the primary data, to arrive at a conclusion. The case study approach helped the researcher study the cultural and historical aspects of ASDA over time and also enabled him to identify the major human resource issues which are evident in the company. Also the human relations part and the perception of the society on ASDA were also studied. The attitudes of the employees which will be found using the primary research will be ultimately evaluated along with the case study done to arrive at meaningful conclusions with regards to the influence of satisfaction over productivity.
The researcher relied on both secondary and primary research to develop the thesis. Throughout the thesis, secondary research has been employed in understanding the concepts of employee satisfaction and productivity within the environment of an organization. The researcher relied on a variety of sources for the secondary research, including text books, periodicals, peer reviewed journals and the internet.
Primary research was carried out on employees at ASDA to understand the impact of satisfaction on productivity. According to Hutton (1990, p.77 cited in Coleman & Briggs 2007, p. 125), ‘survey research is the method of collecting information by asking a set of pre-formulated questions in a predetermined sequence in a structured questionnaire to a sample of individuals drawn so as to be representative of a defined population’. The survey approach that was used in the study was structured interviews. The researcher, after developing the interview questionnaire, administered it to employees at ASDA after getting the proper clearances from the HR department. The researcher considered all ethical concerns while interviewing people and gathering highly sensitive information from them.
The questionnaires were personally administered by the researcher within the premises of many ASDA stores and the researcher actively assisted the employees in filling the questionnaire, after assuring them of full confidentiality. All employees who take part in the interview will remain anonymous. The names and the identification of the employees may not relevant to the research, but the level of the employee in the hierarchy of the organization were noted and used in the analysis. The researcher will not be using the names of the respondents at any point of time and thus the protection and the confidentiality of the respondents is ensured with the researcher’s personal integrity.
Sampling Technique
The primary research tried to gather information from a vast cross-section of the large employee population at ASDA. The researcher interviewed employees from various levels in the hierarchy and simultaneously from the different shifts the company operates – morning, day and night shifts. This helped the researcher understand the dynamics of the environment at various points during the day and also helped in the final recommendations on improving the employee satisfaction at ASDA. The people who were interviewed were between the ages 19 and 62 years, to ensure that the older employees who form more than 20% of the workforce at ASDA are also accounted for in the research.
As stated by Saunders (2009, p.228), stratified random sampling is ‘a modification of random sampling in which you divide the population into two or more relevant and significant strata based on one or a number of attributes’. Here, the division of the population (ASDA employees) into the times they work in the company or the shifts and also the various employee levels from within the organization, from various departments. Thus, the sampling technique used in this thesis is Stratified Random Sampling.
Sample Composition
The sample population of the primary research was employees of ASDA. These employees were chosen from a cross-section of the employee population, being representative of the various levels in the organization and also from the different shifts and from different ages. The sample population was arrived at after studying the proportion of workers in each of these categories, for example. 20% of all employees in ASDA were above 50 years old, and hence the sample has 20% respondents more than 50 years old.
In summary the sample population comprised of the following characteristics:
a. Total – 60
b. Number of colleagues (shop floor employees) – 40
c. Number of supervisors (shop floor) – 10
d. Managers – 10
e. The sample also comprised of 33% each from the morning, day and the night shifts in the company
f. The sample also had 20% of the population above 50 years of age
The sample population had the principle of stratified random sampling technique applied and thus the cross-section of the multitude of employees in ASDA was effectively covered. However, the responses were 5 respondents were ignored, 1 from a manager, 1 from a supervisor and 3 from colleagues because the respondent seemed uninterested and awarded 5 or 1 to all questions, thus disqualifying them from the analysis. So, the number of samples which actually qualified for the analysis was 55 only.
Pilot Study
Pilot studies enable the researcher to fine tune the approach adopted in the research by testing the intended research on a small sample within the chosen population (Saunders et al. 2007). In order to avoid inconveniences, the researcher used the pilot study feedback guidelines as specified by Bell (1999):
a. Time taken to finish the interview
b. Instructions’ clarity
c. Unclear or ambiguous questions
d. Comfort of the respondents in answering all questions
e. Checking for inclusion of all major questions
f. Clarity and attractiveness of the questionnaire
The researcher used the feedback obtained from the pilot study to ensure that the interviews went smoothly, by ensuring that the feedbacks and suggestions which were valid in the opinion of the researcher were incorporated in the interview process and the instrument administered. This process helped in establishing the reliability of the data gathered and ensured the smooth flow of the information gathering process on the floors of ASDA.
Organization of the Questionnaire
The questionnaire was designed to gather homogenous data, which will help in the easy analysis of data. To enable this, close ended questions were used, which ensured that every respondent answered in the most objective manner possible, without subjectivity on the part of the interpreter (the researcher) biasing the actual data itself (Malhotra 2004). The scale adopted would enable the researcher to aggregate the attitudinal responses in a relative scale.
Also, by rating every parameter relatively with the most suitable and most unsuitable, the respondent will be able to connect and express his emotional connect or likeability to a particular parameter. This also brings in objectivity into the perceptual, with encouraging respondents to relatively consider each question against their own perceptions.
See Appendix 1 for the full questionnaire used in the interviews. The questionnaire used a rating scale for each question, from 1 to 5, with 5 being complete agreement to the statement and 1 being complete disagreement to the statement. In summation, the questionnaire comprised of the following major factors:
a. Enjoying the job
b. Perception about own performance to potential
c. Relationships with superiors
d. Satisfaction with the rewards and incentives
e. Outside factors affecting the job
f. Opinion on long term job prospects at ASDA
g. Overall satisfaction in the job
h. Suggestions for improvement of satisfaction
Chapter 3
Findings from the Research
Introduction
The dissertation comprises of both primary and secondary research. The secondary research was used to understand the conceptual background of productivity and employee satisfaction in the organizational context. This forms the core of the literature review. Also, a case study has been developed to understand the history and culture of the organization and also to study the current human resource policies of the company and the image of the company in the public eye. The primary research was used to understand the attitudes of real ASDA employees on their jobs and how they perceive their environment at work and also its climate.
The findings from the researches are distilled from both the approaches and boil down to theoretical background provided in the literature review which is justified by the primary research and vice versa. Thus, the researcher has involved his understanding and knowledge in assessment of human resource management to come to conclusions, thus making the study purely qualitative, which is essential in studying human dimensions of management functions.
Key Insights from Primary Research
The relationships between the various parameters by which an employee forms judgments and connotations about his work and thus forms his attitudes are examined through the primary research, by analyzing the coefficients of correlation of the different responses and by other techniques. The snapshot of the responses is available collated into an analyzable form in Appendix 2.
Figure 2: Responses Frequency Snapshot
As detailed in Figure 1 above, the overall number of responses which are below the median rating of 3 is much more than those of 4 and 5, which indicate higher satisfaction among employees. Thus, it is clearly evident that the employees of ASDA are primarily dissatisfied with their jobs and overall, with the employer. In the suggestive improvement question in the primary research (R8), most number of people noted that they would like to change or improve their pay, incentives and benefits from the company more than the working conditions and the relationship with the employer. This view seems to be leading the way in the other responses, where the perception of the relative pay clouding all other responses against ASDA as a good employer and a company to stick with in the long term.
1. There were distinct satisfaction replies or sets of replies which became characteristic of the shift the employees were which influenced their perception of enjoyment at work. While the day and morning shifts experienced lesser enjoyment at work (See Figure 2). This shows the level of stress which an employee goes through in the particular shift. Also, the employee would not be satisfied with the same shift and seeks to be employed in all the shifts on a rotation basis, with the night shift being the most preferred.
2. Most employees were of the opinion that their full potential was not being drawn out by their work and they are effectively working at less than their 100% with an average of 3. This shows that the employee would be able to contribute much more to the organization if he were more motivated and better utilized by better understanding by the management. This also shows the level of facilitation that is done by the company to equip its employees to perform their jobs better, in terms of training, skills and recognition, all of which lead to ownership and responsibility of the employee.
3. The perceived treatment of employees by their superiors also varied as per the shift in question of the respondent. While the night shift has the best rating for treatment by superior, the day shift was rated the next best, with the morning shift being rated the worst. This is an indicator again of the stress levels in the various shifts which can be directly correlated to the number of customers who walk the floors of the shop in the three shifts in which the employees work.
Figure 2: Treatment by Superiors – across Shifts
| Shift |
Avg.Satisfaction |
| Morning |
3.05 |
| Day |
2 |
| Night |
3.68 |
4. In terms of the rewards and incentives, most employees feel they are underpaid and under-rewarded for their hard work. Some of the subjective feedback the researcher received during the interviews was that ASDA is thrifty at best at pay hikes and is not a very great pay master. This goes to show that the company is able to somehow retain its customers better than its competitors, and thereby able to sustain in the market.
5. Most employees feel that outside factors do not influence their performance. This shows the discipline and control the company is able to enforce and manage successfully within the shop context. The personal problems and other employee issues are usually not allowed to affect work by the employee himself. These shows a culture of discipline and tolerance which translates to a warmer work environment for the employee.
6. Older employees feel they may remain with the organization till retirement. There is a positive correlation of 0.58 between the age of the employee and the agreement to the question of retiring from ASDA. This shows that the older employee are bound to be more loyal to the company, thus vindicating the stand of the company that it will not discriminate on the basis of age within the company between employees. Also, older employees may find lesser number of career options than younger people and thus their loyalty could be higher than the younger employees.
7. In overall satisfaction, 55% employees are satisfied, while 45% are not. This makes the line of segregating satisfied and dissatisfied employees very difficult, as the difference between the two are minor. This makes the employer very strong, with the employer being a large organization, it can dictate terms to the unsatisfied employees to comply and contribute because it has the support of more than half the employee population in terms of job satisfaction.
8. In terms of suggestions to improve working for ASDA, most employees rated benefits, pay and incentives as what they would like to change, with a few respondents choosing working environment (See Figure 1 above). This shows that the employees may be aware of the discrepancy in their pay as compared to counterparts in competitors and want to be paid better. This shows that ASDA’s employee retention is very good compared to its competitors even though it pays less, even according to its own employees.
The key learning for the researcher other than the data gathered during the primary research expeditions to ASDA stores is that the employee spirit is fairly high, with senior employees being available on the floor to act as guidance and mentors to the juniors. This makes the working more enjoyable for the newer employees. This also exerts an informal control over the behavior of employees and their skills’ improvement by working with very senior people on the floor. Also, employees have quick access to their managers and senior people in the store and it is not considered to be wrong to escalate an issue or to bring attention to a problem. The culture of the core of the company remains truly ASDA, with the Wal-Mart part of the culture being just in the controls and the policies of the company with respect to employment. The cultural influence of the company rubs off on its employees, thus creating a synergy between the old and new, with better coordination, communication and commitment.
Also, the primary research corroborates the view that job satisfaction of an employee is an attitude of the employee. Here, pay, incentives and benefits seem to be most worrying factor for ASDA employees, and hence this is leading the perception of the employee towards a dilemma where the overall benefits of working with ASDA and the actual moderate pay and incentives are at conflict.
Key Insights from Secondary Research
The major take away from the secondary research is that employee satisfaction is an attitudinal inclination of an employee. When job satisfaction is defined as an attitude, the means of understanding and evaluating job satisfaction comes to a scale, where an employee can relatively rate his attitude on a scale which can then be evaluated to understand his attitudinal disposition. If satisfaction were to be defined as an emotion, the result of measuring job satisfaction would be binary, with positive and negative emotional feelings being the only measures. This has been applied in the primary research, with employee attitudes towards their jobs are measured in relativity and also compared in relativity to understand a particular parameter.
The researcher has used summation score rating method to measure satisfaction, with many continuous scales being used to get aggregate data more concentrated and comparison being possible after that and so is correlation and analysis.
The employer has to understand the expectations of the employees tacitly in terms of rewards and recognitions to ensure that employees are satisfied. This is the core of the expectancy theory. If the employee is motivated to intrinsically accept the goals assigned by taking ownership of the goal, he can be a very good contributor to the company. From the primary and secondary research, it is evident that ASDA is not the best in the industry in this parameter.
From the case study developed on the genesis and the human resource practices at ASDA, it is clear that after the takeover by Wal-Mart, employee welfare and the original culture of the company have been threatened. This is attributed to the rapid scale up of operations by the company and also the efforts to bring in a unified Wal-Mart culture across all global ventures. The stand of ASDA towards unions is a case in point. Its attitude to unions is very similar to that of its parent in the USA.
Chapter 4
Recommendations
From the primary and secondary research it is clear that a satisfied employee is a better performing employee. Employee satisfaction is a function of the satisfaction with the specific job of the employee and also the satisfaction with the employer, the environment and also the people who are part of the environment. This shows that the company has to work at a lot of factors other than just better job design and description.
ASDA has to pay attention to the image it portrays to its employees and also to the outside world. In the age of consumerism, large corporations are increasingly being accused of exploiting their employees, suppliers and also their customers, by being meaner, larger and yet fitter. Social activism against Corporates is a common thing now, with every large corporation facing suits and protests from across the globe. The mantra of the employer being supreme is gone and the age of the employee and the consumer has arrived, which calls for sensitivity and commitment on the part of the employer. The company has to engage in confidence building within its employee ecosystem by being proactive in ensuring employee welfare and also community welfare.
The starting point of the proactiveness is the tolerance towards national cultures. The Wal-Mart way may not be the best people management method across the world and the parent has to form eco-systems in the different countries it operates to ensure that the local employees are enthused and proud to work for the company. The hubris on the Americanism of every store across the world has to change to a distinct accommodation for national and regional cultures and ethos.
The cultural orientation of every country the company operates in must not only consider the consumer behavior of the country, but also the general human or employee behavioral aspects as well. The chanting of the company anthem in the morning was not received well by German workers because they felt embarrassed by singing in public, a cultural misreading. The value systems within the culture of the organization have to be sensitive to the local culture and ethos.
The proactiveness of the company must be visible in the way the company handles personnel relations. The company has to change its stance on trade unionism. In many countries unions are considered to be a part of the ecosystem and work very closely with the managements of large organizations. In the USA, the scene is completely different, with Wal-Mart being very cautious about unionism and even tries to put it down through subversive measures. The company has to ensure that it has very relationships with employee bodies which will save it the cost of staffing, strikes and also smooth functioning in the long term.
The company has to analyze its human resources policies across the various countries it operates in and has to ensure that it removes or modifies for the better every policy which can affect its long term employee relationships. This applies to discriminatory policies which may be available, on race, age and gender, for which the company has been accused of in the past. This move will ensure that employees develop a sense of trust on the company in the long term, thus reducing employee turnover and also costs associated with staffing.
ASDA has to be proactive and progressive in how it handles rewards and incentives. Owing to its size it enjoys considerable clout in the market over its suppliers. The largest retailers obviously get the best prices. This principle must be applied on the most important supply for a service business – manpower. The company must stop to some extent the application of procurement theories on human resources. Employees are much more than goods and commodities and must be paid as per industry standards. The cost savings for the company from its scale of operations on the business side must also make the company the most attractive company to work for in the long run.
The good policy in the company is the practice of not discriminating based on age. This means that older employees tend to stay with the company, thus giving the company the experience it needs on the floor and also reduces attritions as these employees are found to be more loyal than younger employees.
The company has to hence pay attention and remember that the human capital of a service firm is the most significant part of its organizational worth. This realization has to be translated into action in terms of its policies and practices which will enable the company to develop the satisfaction of its employees, and thus ensure that they are more productive in their work and thus contribute more to organizational effectiveness.
Conclusion
Motivation of workers has been a critical factor in ensuring employee well being, and it has also been a factor which has been least understood. Mere increases in remuneration may not be always the right approach to in motivation because it forms the motivating employees, because the needs from the job of every individual vary. Hence, it is important to know how to motivate an employee. The concept of employee satisfaction is relevant job related attitudes of the employee. Thus, the employee perceives and reacts to the environment he is surrounded by through the job satisfaction he has from his job and also the overall satisfaction he has with the organization.
When employee satisfaction is studied empirically, it is very clear that it is directly related to employee productivity, and thus very important to be understood. Productivity ultimately determines the overall organizational effectiveness in the long run. The study of productivity has been always with respect to how much an individual can do of a particular job. In recent times, the focus has also been on understanding productivity at the level of employee effectiveness. Employee effectives determines the overall contribution to the organization by the employee throughout the term of the employment and not only in the particular day or even the weekly production or service schedules.
Thus, when employee satisfaction is a factor for productivity of an employee, the understanding of employee satisfaction and how it is defined by theory is important as this will translate into action by managers in the industry. The definition which is most relevant and appealing to the time is the attitudinal definition, which states that satisfaction from a job for an employee is an attitude of the employee towards the work he does. This has significance because of the fact that attitudes can be measured in relativity and hence employee satisfaction can be measured on a continuous scale for many employees, whose scores can be compared and relevant action taken. this ensures that managers in human resources can measure and take corrective measures or encourage to ensure that employees are satisfied.
The researcher has tried to form a correlation between employee satisfaction and productivity in an organizational context through the theoretical body of knowledge available on the subject matter. The main correlations lie in the fact that an employee’s satisfaction is an attitude and hence can be measured and therefore can be compared with the actual productivity of the employee. The perception of the employee on his productivity and his feeling of worth within the organizational context can be understood through this.
The researcher has tried to corroborate the theoretical linkage between employee satisfaction and productivity through primary research. The result is that, the theoretical linkage is confirmed to be existent and the two factors go hand in hand in the long term. Even if an unsatisfied employee is productive, he cannot contribute to organizational effectiveness in the long run.
It has been made clear from the combination of the primary and secondary research that ASDA has slid from its position as the best employer in the industry in the UK for some time and this slide coincides with the takeover by Wal-Mart. The parent company may be imposing its way of working and culture on its subsidiary in the UK – ASDA. The company has to look for ways to develop the trust of its employees and also to ensure that it is the industry leader in best human resource practices.
The ideal way ahead for the company would be to ensure that it is able to engage the employees and the society at large in many more social initiatives and thus to ensure that it has the right perception in the minds of its employees and the society. The Americanization of the company would only result in employees feeling outside the culture of the company which has been till now based on openness, respect and dignity. This must not be compromised on any account by Wal-Mart and ASDA.
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.
Appendix 1:
Questionnaire
|
|
Completely Disagree |
Disagree |
Neutral |
Agree |
Completely Agree |
| Response No. |
Statements |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
| R1 |
You completely enjoy your job. |
|
|
|
|
|
| R2 |
You are able to perform 100% to your potential at work. |
|
|
|
|
|
| R3 |
Your superiors treat you well. |
|
|
|
|
|
| R4 |
The rewards and incentives for your hard work are sufficient. |
|
|
|
|
|
| R5 |
Issues outside affect my quality of work. |
|
|
|
|
|
| R6 |
You are a potential ASDA pensioner. |
|
|
|
|
|
| R7 |
You are completely satisfied with the overall aspects of the job. |
|
|
|
|
|
| R8 |
If you could change one thing about working for ASDA, what would it be? |
|
| Store: |
|
| Shift: |
|
| Age: |
|
| Department: |
|
| Designation: |
|
Appendix 2:
Summary of Data
| Res. No. |
Age |
Level |
Shift |
R1 |
R2 |
R3 |
R4 |
R5 |
R6 |
R7 |
Improvement |
| 1 |
19 |
Colleague |
Morning |
2 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
Incentives |
| 2 |
23 |
Colleague |
Morning |
3 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
Benefits |
| 3 |
54 |
Colleague |
Morning |
3 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
3 |
Pay |
| 4 |
37 |
Colleague |
Morning |
2 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
Conditions |
| 5 |
55 |
Colleague |
Morning |
2 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
3 |
Benefits |
| 6 |
51 |
Colleague |
Morning |
3 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
Conditions |
| 7 |
51 |
Colleague |
Morning |
3 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
3 |
Pay |
| 8 |
19 |
Colleague |
Morning |
2 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
Benefits |
| 9 |
55 |
Colleague |
Morning |
2 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
5 |
3 |
Incentives |
| 10 |
45 |
Colleague |
Morning |
3 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
Incentives |
| 11 |
22 |
Colleague |
Morning |
3 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
3 |
Pay |
| 12 |
27 |
Colleague |
Morning |
2 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
Pay |
| 13 |
28 |
Colleague |
Morning |
2 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
Incentives |
| 14 |
33 |
Colleague |
Day |
3 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
Incentives |
| 15 |
21 |
Colleague |
Day |
3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
Benefits |
| 16 |
27 |
Colleague |
Day |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Pay |
| 17 |
29 |
Colleague |
Day |
2 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
Conditions |
| 18 |
31 |
Colleague |
Day |
3 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
Benefits |
| 19 |
34 |
Colleague |
Day |
3 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
3 |
Conditions |
| 20 |
51 |
Colleague |
Day |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
1 |
Pay |
| 21 |
20 |
Colleague |
Day |
1 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
Pay |
| 22 |
24 |
Colleague |
Day |
2 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
Incentives |
| 23 |
55 |
Colleague |
Day |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
Incentives |
| 24 |
55 |
Colleague |
Day |
2 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
Pay |
| 25 |
56 |
Colleague |
Day |
1 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
Pay |
| 26 |
52 |
Colleague |
Day |
2 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
Incentives |
| 27 |
52 |
Colleague |
Day |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
Incentives |
| 28 |
56 |
Colleague |
Night |
1 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
Benefits |
| 29 |
56 |
Colleague |
Night |
1 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
Pay |
| 30 |
46 |
Colleague |
Night |
2 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
2 |
Conditions |
| 31 |
23 |
Colleague |
Night |
2 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Benefits |
| 32 |
28 |
Colleague |
Night |
1 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Conditions |
| 33 |
29 |
Colleague |
Night |
1 |
2 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
Pay |
| 34 |
29 |
Colleague |
Night |
1 |
2 |
5 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
Incentives |
| 35 |
22 |
Colleague |
Night |
2 |
2 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
Incentives |
| 36 |
28 |
Colleague |
Night |
1 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Incentives |
| 37 |
30 |
Colleague |
Night |
1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
Pay |
| 38 |
35 |
Supervisor |
Morning |
2 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
Pay |
| 39 |
35 |
Supervisor |
Morning |
2 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
Incentives |
| 40 |
52 |
Supervisor |
Morning |
3 |
3 |
4 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
Incentives |
| 41 |
21 |
Supervisor |
Day |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
Benefits |
| 42 |
25 |
Supervisor |
Day |
2 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
Pay |
| 43 |
56 |
Supervisor |
Day |
3 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
Conditions |
| 44 |
56 |
Supervisor |
Night |
3 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
Benefits |
| 45 |
57 |
Supervisor |
Night |
4 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
Conditions |
| 46 |
53 |
Supervisor |
Night |
3 |
3 |
5 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
Pay |
| 47 |
53 |
Manager |
Morning |
3 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
Incentives |
| 48 |
57 |
Manager |
Morning |
4 |
5 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
Benefits |
| 49 |
57 |
Manager |
Morning |
4 |
5 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
Incentives |
| 50 |
47 |
Manager |
Day |
5 |
5 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
Pay |
| 51 |
24 |
Manager |
Day |
4 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
Incentives |
| 52 |
29 |
Manager |
Day |
4 |
4 |
3 |
5 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
Incentives |
| 53 |
30 |
Manager |
Night |
3 |
2 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
Incentives |
| 54 |
30 |
Manager |
Night |
4 |
5 |
4 |
5 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
Benefits |
| 55 |
23 |
Manager |
Night |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
4 |
Benefits |
