Based on our interview with Kirsten, Marshalls seem to have an open door policy. Employees are encouraged to communicate their ideas or concerns to whomever they feel comfortable within the management level. The leadership seems open to feedback and willing to help employees create a comfortable and positive working environment. This is a good approach because if employees feel that they and their ideas matter to Marshalls, it will increase their job satisfaction and positively affect their citizenship behavior. Kristen also told us that “employees can make a lot of decisions” on their own. Showing employees that the company trusts them enough to make their own decisions is another factor that is likely to affect citizenship behavior and job performance positively.

During our interview with Kirsten, we also learned that at Marshalls there aren’t many team or individual bonuses, especially for the associates level. Even though, Marshalls tries to motivate employees by promoting from within (generally) it appears that there aren’t many financial incentives to keep employees motivated and driven. They do, however, offer full time employees benefits such as health insurance, 401k plans and paid vacation. Kristen told us that when hiring new retail associates management is looking for “somebody who is punctual, somebody who is organized... has got customer service skills, somebody that is friendly and wants to work with public.” Being punctual and organized are aspects of conscientiousness personality, which is believed to be the best predictor of job performance. Extraversion is another personality trait they are seeking, which is necessary for positions that require constant human interaction. It is important to note that we organized our group’s Marshalls visit in two smaller teams. One of our teams, which visited Marshalls on February 18th, met with a