Introduction
Build-A-Bear is featured in the episode of “Undercover Boss” that will be analyzed in this report. The CEO rotated around various roles within the company to ensure she understood the positions and the employees’ perspectives on the company. The art of managing and coordinating activities and individuals is known as management. Good management practices benefit all aspects of a business, including executives, staff, and consumers, while bad management practices bring distress to all shareholders in the company and lead to low productivity (Mol & Birkinshaw, 2009). In this report, it is essential to analyze the good and bad management practices witnessed in this episode and give recommendations on how to improve on the bad management practices. Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. is an American retailer based in Overland, Missouri that sells stuffed animals and characters such as teddy bears.
During their visit to the shop, customers participate in an immersive process in which the stuffed animal of their choice is assembled and customized to their tastes. These interests include having a variety of stuffed animals to choose from, as well as various scents, smells, and outfits. (Build-A-Bear Workshop, 2017). The largest chain that follows this model is Build-A-Bear Workshop. From 1997 to 2013, the company’s slogan was “Where best friends are made,” before it was changed to “The most fun you’ll ever have.” Sharon Price John is the company’s president/CEO since April 2019. Employees at Build-A-Bear are enthusiastic about their work, friendship, confidence, and comfort are all values that the organization aspires to embody. Adults will feel the thrill and joy of infancy at a Build-A-Bear Workshop. Many decisions go into recruiting the best people to represent Build-A-Bear’s vision and core values to achieve the magical atmosphere.
Even as its operations continue to be adversely affected by the pandemic, Build-A-Bear Workshop posted adjusted fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that exceed expectations. According to reports, the quarter ended Jan. 30, the company earned $8.84 million, or $0.57 per share, compared to $6.16 million, or $0.42 per share, a year earlier (Build a Bear Workshop, Inc. Reports, 2020). For the quarter, adjusted earnings were $7.32 million, or $0.47 per share, comfortably exceeding analysts’ expectations of $0.16 per share (Build a Bear Workshop, Inc. Reports, 2020). This report is going to analyze an episode of Undercover Boss: Build-A-Bear for good and bad management practices then give recommendations and possible implementations to counter the bad management practices witnessed in the episode.
Analysis
As witnessed in the episode, it is learned that relationships are established not only with customers but also with the organization’s employees. When Sharon goes to the warehouse she meets Solomon the cherry picker operator. In this encounter Solomon stresses safety first. This impresses Sharon as she sees that the warehouse is in safe hands. This incident in the show shows one of the good practices happening in Build-A-Bear as it shows that the employees have been trained well and are well versed with the safety measures of a workplace. Solomon the cherry picker operator also happens to have another job sorting and stacking up the loaded boxes. Jessie, the CEO in disguise finds this particular task hard for her. The boxes are too many and come in different sizes, this makes it really hard to sort them as the conveyer spend moves the boxes too fast. Sharon realizes that there is a problem in one of the most important sections of the company and she suggests later that something needs to be done about that.
Leney, a bear builder at Build-A-Bear, has a strong emotional connection to the organization because she has been going there with her sister since she was a child. As a result, she felt attached to the company and as if she was growing alongside it, which is beneficial to the organization because she devotes all of her emotion and hard work to make their customers happy. Sharon, the CEO of Build-A-Bear, who goes undercover as Jenny, tries to interact with Leney by telling her about her family history. As a top manager, it is important for her to inquire about her employees’ backgrounds or personal details because top managers do not often communicate with their employees in charge of their divisions. They will communicate with them through a medium, which is not two-way communication. The relationship drivers are between goods and services as learned in Chapter 6. Sharon tries to talk to every employee she meets in her company to learn about their background since Build-A-Bear is a family more than just a workplace for employees according to Solomon the cherry picker.
Kendal, a manager in the company, does not follow some basic company protocols when dealing with the books. When Jenny, who is Sharon, the CEO in disguise, asks about this, Kendal shrugs it away jokingly, which is not such a nice managerial practice, especially for a company as big as Build-A-Bear. Finally, when Sharon revealed her true identity, none of them (Leney, Nick, Solomon, and Kendall) knew she was the CEO of Build-A-Bear. That proves that there is no relation from top to bottom. Sharon, as a CEO, has seen and endured all of their struggles and challenges, and in order to keep them, she offered them a reward as a token of her appreciation. It is learned from that clip that in order for a company to have a good reputation, it must have a strong foundation. Sharon, for example, has seen their hard work and, in order to keep them, she has solved all of their problems by providing them with what they need, it is a fundamental marketing precept. Sharon disguises herself as a frontline worker, gets to know them, learns about their needs, and seals them to the company because of the incentive. Overall, having positive interpersonal relationships within organizations will often reduce stress (Bertelsen, 2012). They are a family, as Solomon said, they consider Build-A-Bear to be a family since they were regarded as customers rather than employees.
Recommendations and implementations
The value of listening is clearly shown in this episode of Undercover Boss. Every encounter demonstrates how workers want to be heard but have few opportunities to vent or share ideas that could help their businesses develop. When bosses question staff about their careers, struggles, and personal lives while undercover, they get a frank answer, employees discuss their health issues, financial struggles, their children’s disabilities, work pressures, and their worries of getting fired for stuffing a bear incorrectly.
During the incident with Solomon at the warehouse, Sharon found it particularly hard to sort and stack up the boxes perfectly at the same time trying to beat the time. Having different sizes of boxes coming down the conveyer belt at different times would prove really effective and time-saving. One extra conveyer or even two more would be great as it would save even more time and stress for the cherry picker as he will not have to worry about sorting the boxes and rearranging them every time a different size box comes.
It is noticeable from the episode that the workers have never had the opportunity to vent before, and when the undercover supervisors force them to do so, a dam bursts. The problem of lack of empowerment seems to be relatively simple to address. Build-A-bear should create an “Employee Bill of Rights” to communicate, for example, that all workers have the right to be treated with dignity by their employers and to a 30-minute lunch break and two 15-minute breaks during their shift. All new workers should be given an Employee Bill of Rights, which should be posted in break rooms (Stewart & Brown, 2019).
Another measure businesses can take to encourage employees’ empowerment is to provide a confidential 1-800 number that workers can call to report unfair or inappropriate treatment to the HR department at corporate headquarters. In the company it is seen that there are employees with disabilities like Nick the bear builder. All workers should be aware of their rights in the company and what safety regulations should be put in place to cater for all employees. All new workers should be given the hotline number, which should also be posted in break rooms. It is not easy to be in control. Running an organization necessitates in-depth business experience, a realistic understanding of logistics, and leadership qualities that combine several different personalities and skills into a single force that is greater than the sum of its parts. Those that are good at it will make life inspiring and satisfying for their subordinates. Those that are bad at it irritate others and will lower the organization’s chances of success. They can even sink the boat completely.
By all counts and proven results, findings show that good management practices have a major impact on labor productivity, especially when multiple management practices are combined (Salazar-Elena & GuimĂłn, 2019). This should involve the above-mentioned implementations and recommendations for Build-A-Bear to be even more productive.
References
Bertelsen, B. (2012). Everything You Need to Know About Job Analyses, Descriptions, And Specifications. [Newmarket, Ont.]: BrainMass Inc.
Build-A-Bear Workshop. (2017). About Us. Web.
Build a bear workshop, Inc. Reports. (2020). Business wire. Web.
Mol, M. J., & Birkinshaw, J. (2009). The sources of management innovation: When firms introduce new management practices. Journal of business research, 62(12), 1269-1280.
Salazar-Elena, J. C., & Guimón, J. (2019). Management practices and small firms’ productivity in emerging countries. Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal.
Stewart, G. L., & Brown, K. G. (2019). Human resource management. John Wiley & Sons.
Undercover Boss. (2016, December 21). Undercover Boss US S08E01 – Build-A-Bear Workshop. YouTube.