...[pic] Case Abstract Lisa D. Spiller, Ph.D., Christopher Newport University Carol Scovotti, D.P.S., University of Wisconsin-Whitewater It was a wintry morning in early 2005. Pat Overton, Marketing Director for McDonald Garden Center (MGC), had arrived early to review this year’s marketing plan. As she surveyed the greenhouse adjacent to her office, she saw rows of dirt filled trays coming to life with tender, green seedlings. The first buds of spring also triggered the arrival of the customers. Pat couldn’t stop thinking about all the decisions that had to be made … allocating the media mix … the future of the rewards program … growing the customer base. She decided to take a walk through the network of greenhouses and clear her mind before meeting with her promotions coordinator, Sherry Connell, and the team of associates that assist with marketing activities. Decisions would have to be made soon to be ready for the spring selling season. This case provides an opportunity for students to deal with the variety of strategic and tactical issues faced by small retailers that continue to compete with the big box chains. Local and regional retailers’ marketing and media budgets are dwarfed by monies spent by Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart, the three top retailers of plants and garden supplies. To compete requires strong relationships with current customers and a commitment to ongoing innovation to keep existing customers and obtain new ones. Retail sales of...
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...Vetements Ltee Case 5.1 Vetements Ltee 1. There are many symptoms in this case that suggest that something has gone wrong. The performance of the sales staff started to decline and senior management started to receive complaints from store managers. Store staff began to bombard customers and argue over ownership of clientele. They also began to neglect other store duties such as restocking inventory and completing order forms in a timely manner. Because of these actions there have been stock shortages and store sales have suffered. Staff has began to feel resentment and morale has declined. Store managers have begun to threaten sales staff with dismissal in order to make staff perform their duties correctly. The trust between employees and managers has also suffered in that employees do not correctly do their jobs once the manager leaves. All of these examples suggest that something has gone wrong at Vetements Ltee. 2. In this case Vetements Ltee was using money as a motivator for the managers and staff. Reinforcement theory tells us that people alter their behavior in order to maximize positive consequences or minimize adverse consequences. The staff was being positively reinforced with money when they made sales. The employees therefore continued to try to make sales (at the cost of not fulfilling other duties) in order to continue making money. The problem for the company became that though employees were making bonuses, they were not giving...
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...CASE STUDY 5-1:158 VETEMENTS LTEE Case Synopsis Vêtements Ltée is a chain of men's retail clothing stores located throughout the province of Quebec, Canada. Two years ago, the company introduced new incentive systems for both store managers and sales employees. However, the sales employees began to engage in activities that had an adverse effect on inventory management, employee cooperation, and customer relations. The store managers have tried, with limited success, to correct these problems. Discussion Questions with Suggested Answers 1. What symptom(s) exist in this case to suggest that something has gone wrong? • Employees stand near the store entrance, creating customer service problems, • Occasional conflict among employees over ‘ownership’ of customers • Some parts of store are left unattended, • Employees are unwilling to restock and reorder inventory • Employee morale has fallen, particularly in terms of poorer relations with the store manager 2. What are the underlying problems that have led to these symptoms? In other words, what theories explain what went wrong in this case? Expectancy theory Expectancy theory can be applied to this case to explain employee motivation to hoard customers at the store entrance rather than (a) attend to lower traffic parts of the store and (b) complete inventory duties. The E‐to‐P expectancy is likely least important because it is almost certain that any employee can stand near the front of the store to hoard customers. However...
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...HRM Case 4) Are incentive programs good for a company or bad for morale? This all depends on whether the rewards support corporate goals. These incentive programs could enhance the goals and increase profits and customer loyalty, or the incentive programs might create competitiveness and back-stabbing among employees, and that is not best way to run a company. Vetements Ltee encountered competitiveness and back-stabbing among employees when it introduced its new incentives program. Vкtements Ltйe is a chain of men's retail clothing stores located throughout Quebec, Canada. In 1993 the company introduced a new incentive system for store managers and sales employees. Each store manager would receive a salary along with an annual merit that would increase if store sales exceeded the targeted goal regarding store appearance, store inventory management, customer complaints, and other performance measures. Sales employees were paid a fixed salary plus a commission based on their percentage of sales. Commission was about 30% of their pay. Senior management believed that this new incentive system would improve service and sales volume. However, it did not. Soon after the program was brought into effect, senior management began to receive complaints from the store managers regarding the performance of sales staff. Sales staff would stand by the door and “tag†customers as theirs when the customer would enter the store. Staff began to argue over customers, became overly aggressive...
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...EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION IN A GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION" 1. Discuss the long-term relevance of motivational techniques used by Baheti in the light of prevailing environment in the organization. Answer:- Baheti used good techniques to motivate their employee to overcome the current situation. a. Announcing the performance of the month was very good strategy to keep the performance up and also to sweeten the good relation with customer. b. To improve attendance he also introduced the compulsory attendance of 20 days with the alignment of 200 calls per day. Going ahead it could be used as a strategy. c. To dig out the root cause of the problem Baheti started talking with operators regarding the problem they face on the floor. Going forward this could also made as a strategy in terms of one to one talk with the employees periodically, if needed. d. Introduction of the yearly or half yearly performer was another best strategy, which could be followed continuously as a strategy. e. Introducing prizes of employees’ choice. f. Identifying and recognizing the best employee and keeping their name on the board of honor was another best strategy what was followed. g. Issuing the appreciation letter was another technique what helped organization and management to earn the faith of employees. If above points were practiced regularly as strategy, would have resulted greatly from the beginning itself. Indeed the used motivational techniques were long-term relevance of motivational techniques...
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