...Harvard Business School 9-191-002 Rev. October 15, 1999 Nordstrom: Dissension in the Ranks? (A) The first time Nordstrom sales clerk Lori Lucas came to one of the many “mandatory” Saturday morning department meetings and saw the sign—”Do Not Punch the Clock”—she assumed the managers were telling the truth when they said the clock was temporarily out of order. But as weeks went by, she discovered that on subsequent Saturdays the clock was always “broken” or the time cards were not accessible. When she and several colleagues hand-wrote the hours on their time cards, they discovered that their manager whited-out the hours and accused them of not being “team players.” Commenting on the variety of tasks that implicitly had to be performed after hours, Ms. Lucas said, “You couldn’t complain, because then your manager would schedule you for the bad hours, your sales per hour would fall, and next thing you know, you’re out the door.”1 Patty Bemis, who joined Nordstrom as a sales clerk in 1981 and quit eight years later, told a similar story: Nordstrom recruiters came to me. I was working at The Broadway as Estee Lauder’s counter manager and they said they had heard I had wonderful sales figures. We’d all heard Nordstrom was the place to work. They told me how I would double my wages. They painted a great picture and I fell right into it. . . The managers were these little tin gods, always grilling you about your sales. . . . You felt like your job was constantly...
Words: 6969 - Pages: 28
...For the exclusive use of Z. YUAN Harvard Business School 9-191-002 Rev. October 15, 1999 Nordstrom: Dissension in the Ranks? (A) The first time Nordstrom sales clerk Lori Lucas came to one of the many “mandatory” Saturday morning department meetings and saw the sign—”Do Not Punch the Clock”—she assumed the managers were telling the truth when they said the clock was temporarily out of order. But as weeks went by, she discovered that on subsequent Saturdays the clock was always “broken” or the time cards were not accessible. When she and several colleagues hand-wrote the hours on their time cards, they discovered that their manager whited-out the hours and accused them of not being “team players.” Commenting on the variety of tasks that implicitly had to be performed after hours, Ms. Lucas said, “You couldn’t complain, because then your manager would schedule you for the bad hours, your sales per hour would fall, and next thing you know, you’re out the door.”1 Patty Bemis, who joined Nordstrom as a sales clerk in 1981 and quit eight years later, told a similar story: Nordstrom recruiters came to me. I was working at The Broadway as Estee Lauder’s counter manager and they said they had heard I had wonderful sales figures. We’d all heard Nordstrom was the place to work. They told me how I would double my wages. They painted a great picture and I fell right into it. . . The managers were these little tin gods, always grilling you about your sales. . . . You felt like your job...
Words: 7737 - Pages: 31
...The second recommendation for Nordstrom is to redesign and improve the compensation system. In order to foster a higher level of intrinsic motivation, the problematic current compensation system needs to be redesigned to better boost extrinsic motivation as well as improving intrinsic motivation steps discussed in the previous management recommendation steps. First, Sales-per-hour (SPH) should be modified to Sales-per-week as incentive evaluation metric while keeping the same 40-hour per week normal schedule and paying bonus for extra hours. SPH is the key factor that caused Nordstrom employees to manipulate work hour report that ultimately leads Nordstrom to face the King County Superior Court lawsuit. By using Sales-per-week metric, employees will no longer focus on manipulating work hour report to gain higher SPH since everyone will have the same time frame - “1 week”, no matter how many actual hours one works. Thus, employees are motivated to report actual work hours instead of shorting work hours to achieve high SPH. This step will effectively reduce the pressure of employees on detailed time management and motivate them on sales productivity. In addition, it not only rewards the extra hours of work that employees deserve to keep them more engaged, but also prevents the similar salary lawsuit from happening in the future. Second, work shift should be equally assigned to each employee. By eliminating the link between SPH to work shift, each employee will have balanced amount...
Words: 411 - Pages: 2
...Carlos Albizu University Nordstrom: Dissension in the Ranks? Margie Lee Romero GEEB-517 Organizational Diagnosis and Change Management Dr. Antonio A. Bosque Nordstrom Nordstrom is a leading fashion specialty retailer which originated over 100 years ago. The company is very well known for their emotional connection to customers treating them like loyalty. Department stores have magnificent and elegant settings. Nordstrom offers high fashion clothing, shoes and accessories for women, men and children at any price. The business is around 36 different states and they count with 117 full-line stores. Their business objective is to increase frequency of visits and control new fashion lines. Their main strategy is to play to the target customers’ that are craving for friends and fashion. Problem The main problems that the company presented was that employees were complaining about two different issues; one focused on employees working ‘off the clock’ and the other on the over demanding treatment by management. Through out time the number of employees complaints kept increasing. Management implemented a performance evaluation strategy to monitor sales per hour. The performance of sales was evaluated on the basis of sales volume and the strategy had proven effectiveness for over 20 years. Nordstrom management uses SPH (sales per hour) for compensation or even promotion but at the same time SPH was also used for identifying non-performance making employees anxious about their...
Words: 1341 - Pages: 6
...Nordstrom Analysis Nordstrom uses a sales per hour (SPH) program to rate their sales employees. The more the employee sells in the total hours they work, the more their SPH. Nordstrom management uses this SPH figures for remuneration, compensation and promotions but again this was used as a tool for identifying non-performance as well. If an employee had a low SPH, they are ought to have a bad time shift, scheduled fewer work hours, or even terminated. The integral part of the problem was also identified in poor differentiation of “non-sell” and “selling” time. In order to sustain the tradition and their competitive advantage of superior customer services, the sales team would have to write thank you notes, deliver purchases timely, participation in mandatory meetings, and the likes, on “off the clock” time, because they were coerced by the existing performance evaluation system to keep their” sales per hour” ratio high. If they booked those hours, their SPH would go down because they weren’t actively selling anything and would most likely be penalized for it in the end. But there really wasn’t a clear definition as to what was “selling time” and “non-sell” time. The employees struggled with this because they weren’t exactly sure how the types of activities they did would impact their SPH. Nordstrom intended the SPH to be an incentive and a way to reward top sellers through commission, but they were really using it as a tool to force employees to work off the clock as to not...
Words: 1265 - Pages: 6
...* ------------------------------------------------- HOME * ------------------------------------------------- MBA RESOURCES * ------------------------------------------------- GWSB * ------------------------------------------------- MBA PREPARATION * ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- PART-TIME MBA IN DC * ------------------------------------------------- SIDE NOTES * ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- * ------------------------------------------------- BUSINESS SCHOOL CASES * ------------------------------------------------- BEST MBA TEXTBOOKS * ------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIBE Part-time MBA Degree in DC Blog on in and out of class experience of part-time MBA student at GWU School of Business Deloitte & Touche Consulting Group Case Analysis APRIL 12, 2011 The presented case of Deloitte and Touche Consulting Group engagement with SKS Manufacturing is offering invaluable lessons in team and project management. It briefly touches upon all major facets of the consulting company involvement with client projects, such as: • Engagement planning • Team selection • Roles and responsibilities of team members • Background and qualifications...
Words: 1640 - Pages: 7
...Chapter 1 The Evolution of the Modern Firm Chapter Contents 1) Introduction 2) The World in 1840 • Doing Business in 1840 • Conditions of Business in 1840: Life Without a Modern Infrastructure Example 1.1: The Emergence of Chicago 3) The World in 1910 • Doing Business in 1910 Example 1.2: Responding to the Business Environment: The Case of American Whaling • Business Conditions in 1910: A "Modern" Infrastructure Example 1.3: Evolution of the Steel Industry 4) The World Today • Doing Business Today • The Infrastructure Today Example 1.4: Economic Gyrations and Traffic Gridlock in Thailand 5) Three Different Worlds: Consistent Principles, Changing Conditions, and Adaptive Strategies Example 1.5: Infrastructure and Emerging Markets: The Russian Privatization Program Example 1.6: Building National Infrastructure: The Transcontinental Railroad 6) Chapter Summary 7) Questions Chapter Summary This chapter analyses the business environment in three different time periods: 1840, 1910 and the present. It looks at the business infrastructure, market conditions, the size and scope of a firm’s activities and a firm’s response to changes. This historical perspective shows that all successful businesses have used similar principles to adapt to widely varying business conditions in order to succeed. Businesses in the period before 1840 were small and operated in localized markets...
Words: 81132 - Pages: 325
...ELEVENTH EDITION Management LEADING & COLLABORATING IN A COMPETITIVE WORLD Thomas S. Bateman McIntire School of Commerce University of Virginia Scott A. Snell Darden Graduate School of Business University of Virginia MANAGEMENT: LEADING & COLLABORATING IN A COMPETITIVE WORLD, ELEVENTH EDITION Published by McGraw-Hill Education, 2 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121. Copyright © 2015 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Previous editions © 2013, 2011, and 2009. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education, including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning. Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers outside the United States. This book is printed on acid-free paper. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 DOW/DOW 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 ISBN 978-0-07-786254-1 MHID 0-07-786254-6 Senior Vice President, Products & Markets: Kurt L. Strand Vice President, Content Production & Technology Services: Kimberly Meriwether David Managing Director: Paul Ducham Executive Brand Manager: Michael Ablassmeir Executive Director of Development: Ann Torbert Senior Development Editor: Laura Griffin Digital Product Analyst: Kerry Shanahan Marketing Manager: Elizabeth Trepkowski ...
Words: 87010 - Pages: 349
...62118 0/nm 1/n1 2/nm 3/nm 4/nm 5/nm 6/nm 7/nm 8/nm 9/nm 1990s 0th/pt 1st/p 1th/tc 2nd/p 2th/tc 3rd/p 3th/tc 4th/pt 5th/pt 6th/pt 7th/pt 8th/pt 9th/pt 0s/pt a A AA AAA Aachen/M aardvark/SM Aaren/M Aarhus/M Aarika/M Aaron/M AB aback abacus/SM abaft Abagael/M Abagail/M abalone/SM abandoner/M abandon/LGDRS abandonment/SM abase/LGDSR abasement/S abaser/M abashed/UY abashment/MS abash/SDLG abate/DSRLG abated/U abatement/MS abater/M abattoir/SM Abba/M Abbe/M abbé/S abbess/SM Abbey/M abbey/MS Abbie/M Abbi/M Abbot/M abbot/MS Abbott/M abbr abbrev abbreviated/UA abbreviates/A abbreviate/XDSNG abbreviating/A abbreviation/M Abbye/M Abby/M ABC/M Abdel/M abdicate/NGDSX abdication/M abdomen/SM abdominal/YS abduct/DGS abduction/SM abductor/SM Abdul/M ab/DY abeam Abelard/M Abel/M Abelson/M Abe/M Aberdeen/M Abernathy/M aberrant/YS aberrational aberration/SM abet/S abetted abetting abettor/SM Abeu/M abeyance/MS abeyant Abey/M abhorred abhorrence/MS abhorrent/Y abhorrer/M abhorring abhor/S abidance/MS abide/JGSR abider/M abiding/Y Abidjan/M Abie/M Abigael/M Abigail/M Abigale/M Abilene/M ability/IMES abjection/MS abjectness/SM abject/SGPDY abjuration/SM abjuratory abjurer/M abjure/ZGSRD ablate/VGNSDX ablation/M ablative/SY ablaze abler/E ables/E ablest able/U abloom ablution/MS Ab/M ABM/S abnegate/NGSDX abnegation/M Abner/M abnormality/SM abnormal/SY aboard ...
Words: 113589 - Pages: 455
