Introduction
Best Buy Electronics ‘ organizational behavior in the recent past has had a negative impact on its operations. The firm has faced several organizational behavior issues namely: poor decision making, obsession with results and poor leadership, which have made the firm to have a poor public image.
These organizational behavior issues need to be resolved to enable the firm regain its status in the market. This paper will analyze organizational behavior issues in the firm and propose recommendations on how these challenges need to be resolved to enable the firm reclaim its market share.
Key Challenges
Best Buy’s decision making processes are slow and ineffective which have made it lack a clear focus in the market. The firm’s was slow to adopt to several market trends and this had a negative impact on its growth.
Best Buy failed to implement proper internet strategies in its internal operations which made the firm to lose its market share to competitors. The firm did not react to the shift to e-commerce by many businesses, where many financial transactions and business processes were being done through the internet.
The firm did not change its workplace policies to allow employees to serve its customers through the internet (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 122). Therefore, the inability by its management to change internal work systems made the company lose its competitive edge in the market.
Best Buy’s reputation was ruined by leadership scandals involving one of its senior managers. Former C.E.O, Brian Dunn, was accused of having an affair with a female worker in the firm.
The scandal shows leadership problems which the firm faces because Dunn, who was entrusted with serious responsibilities in the firm, misused his authority. This sets a bad precedent because any unethical action done by a CEO makes junior employees doubt if the firm’s managers have any integrity at all.
This scandal has ruined the firm’s reputation because it shows senior managers’ inability to observe workplace ethics (Hitt, Ireland and Hoskisson 125). This unethical practice has contributed negatively to the firm’s stability in the market.
The firm made many mistakes when it entered the Chinese market. Its managers did not take note of cultural differences the firm was going to face in this new market environment. The firm’s business strategies were not effective in evaluating differences in consumer behavior between Western countries and Asia.
Therefore, firm lost a lot of money because its employees did not use the right approach to sell the firm’s products in the market. The firm’s sales staff in China were paid fixed salaries instead of performance based commissions.
This approach was wrong for the firm because it had not yet established itself in the Chinese market. The firm needed to pay its employees flexible wages based on sales each one of them has made to motivate them to perform better.
Moreover, the firm’s employees in China had to sell products on fixed price terms without allowing customers to bargain (Griffin and Moorehead 116).This pricing strategy affected the firm’s performance in a market which is well known for its sensitivity to prices.
The management’s obsession with results has weakened employee relationships at the workplace. Employees in the firm’s headquarters work in a “Result Only Work Environment “ (ROWE); a system that values workplace productivity over employee satisfaction.
This system has made many employees to get dissatisfied with their workplace duties. This system has made it difficult for employees to get free time to do personal activities away from work. It also makes it difficult for workers to collaborate with each other on crucial work tasks because the system encourages individual results.
This system does not encourage cohesion and unity between employees in the firm. The system does not recognize other aspects of employee motivation which contribute positively to the firm’s organizational culture.
This approach does not accommodate different personality traits at the work place which is detrimental to the company’s long term outlook (Hersey, Blanchard and Johnson 98).
Recommendations
Best Buy needs to institute strong policies to make all employees accountable to the firm and its stockholders. This will make all managers and employees avoid any form of misconduct that may tarnish the firm’s image and reputation in the market.
The firm needs to reform its internal operations to make it well prepared for changes happening in its market environment. Best Buy needs to encourage its employees to use information technology to perform crucial workplace functions.
Best Buy needs to study unique attributes of each foreign location it intends to operate in. Before moving to any foreign destination, the firm should take time to understand consumers’ behavior, culture and consumption patterns.
Best Buy needs to reform its workplace policies to make all workers feel that they contribute positively to the firm’s progress. Employees need to be encouraged to collaborate with one another to perform crucial workplace duties to create unity and cohesion in the organization (Nelson and Quick 118-120).
Works Cited
Griffin, Ricky W., and Gregory Moorehead. Organizational Behavior. Mason: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
Hersey, Paul H., Kenneth H. Blanchard, and Dewey E. Johnson. Management of Organizational Behavior. New York: Prentice Hall. 2012. Print.
Hitt Michael A., R. Duane Ireland, and Robert E. Hoskisson. Strategic Management Cases: Competitiveness and Globalization. Mason: Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
Nelson, Debra L., and James Campbell Quick.Organizational Behavior: Science, the Real World, and You. Mason: Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.