Personal Observation in a Supermarket

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Introduction

I visited a supermarket that was located in a shopping mall to make my observation. During the exercise, employees did not notice my presence, and, as a result, they continued with their regular duties. There were no visible conflicts witnessed when I was making the observation; however, there was much consultation between the employees. This indicated that if any disputes arose during the regular working hours, the employees could solve them without management.

SWOT Analysis

Strength	Weakness	Opportunity	Threats
Strong teamwork Better conflict resolutions	Poor communication strategies Limited new skills	Good customer relations Mastery of work	Poaching of employees No personal growth

The information covered so far is crucial for life experience, as demonstrated by the supermarket’s observation.

Ways that the Company Could Increase Efficiency or Effectiveness

Every company desires to increase efficiency or effectiveness to better their service delivery to the customers. Clients are an essential stakeholder for any company to succeed in whatever venture they’re engaged in; hence, the customers’ needs should be satisfied. During the observational period, it was evident that the workers were willing to perform their tasks efficiently by attending to every customer’s needs as soon as possible.

The workers seemed to have mastered their role; hence there was no confusion when listening to the customers. For instance, employees in the supermarket located in the mall were performing their duties with a high level of expertise. For example, the cashiers were receiving payments from the customers, and there were also some attendants directing the customers to where the products were located. Supermarket attendants embraced teamwork because every employee was working in a team to ensure that good services are tendered to the clients. However, throughout the observational period, it was not clear for me to identify the team leader or boss. Therefore, there was an indication that the supermarket had employed teamwork.

Another way of promoting efficiency or effectiveness is by reducing the boredom of working in the company. During the observation, employees seemed reluctant to experience new issues. They had little concentration on their work, deducing from interacting with their phones and colleagues. In most cases, they were either having informal communication with their friends or stuck to their phones when they should be performing other tasks that can enhance efficiency in the company. Their actions were attributed to their work boredom since they performed the same tasks daily; hence there was nothing exciting in their duties.

According to Shin and Grant (2019), boredom in an organization can be relieved by continually rotating the employees from their duty areas. For instance, cashiers become bored when they only receive money during their shifts but become active when they are turned to other departments. As a result, they experience new challenges and interact with different people; hence, they can feel the excitement and perform the new tasks with enthusiasm, thus enhancing their efficiency. Therefore, the company should embrace team rotation to eliminate the monotonous that come with performing the same duties every day.

Signs of the Hawthorne Effect, Suggestions, and Theories

Hawthorne Effect is a type of reactivity that employees perform when they realize they are being watched or observed by their superiors or people conducting research. On most occasions, they act to please their employers or in line with what the investigators are examining. According to Purssell et al. (2020)., the Hawthorne effect refers to a tendency where some employees to perform their duties better when they know that they are involved in an experiment.

Therefore, it always misleads the result of the investigation being conducted. However, when the observation was being undertaken, there was no Hawthorne effect since the employees who were monitored were not aware that they were involved in a study. As a result, they conducted their duties usually without developing any form of suspicion. Therefore, the activity’s effects can be deemed accurate because the results did not change their behavior to suit the expectations.

Next, Fredrick Taylor is a renowned researcher whose organizational theories have been used to enhance modern society’s business success. He believed mainly in two principles, namely authority, and incentives. Regarding the authority, he demonstrated that organizations should have a properly defined communication channel, and everybody should be aware of these networks (Kitana, 2016). Additionally, the lines should be direct, short, and uninterrupted during operation. However, he suggested two modes of persuasion to convince the personnel to be effective in their duties. The proposed ways include tangible and persuasive incentives.

By considering these Taylor’s principles, he would have suggested numerous improvements in the supermarket to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. For instance, during the observation, it was impossible to identify the communication channel the employees were using. The colleagues were seen to be chatting in an informal way that indicated that the channel of communication was not clear. On several occasions, the cashier consulted with her colleagues instead of talking to the superiors to receive guidelines. Moreover, he would have suggested boosting the morale of the employees by providing them with incentives. Therefore, Fredrick Taylor illustrates that incentives are crucial for encouraging employees to perform better.

Chester Barnard’s theory illustrates that managers can only be relevant if they accept their authority and right to give orders and expect compliance. Employees believe that their bosses can give instructions that they should reasonably follow; however, workers should comply because they will be rewarded, punished, or respected by the manager’s experience. Institutions are typically composed of groups of individual workers. Logically, the individual employees organize themselves in informal social groups that become part of the business (Őnday, 2016). In other words, informal groups occur within the bigger formal organization.

For instance, informal organizations have a clear policy, and there is an efficient flow of information. The top managers reward their employees for duties accomplished while those that do not perform as expected are punished. However, there are no rules in informal organizations, and it is mainly common among the employees. Regarding the observation made, Chester Bernard’s theory classifies the relationship between the employees and their bosses as informal. It isn’t easy to establish who is the boss in the company as everybody is interacting with each other in a friendly manner.

Types of Motivation The Management Team Can use to Increase Productivity or Reduce Conflict

Employees should always be revitalized by providing them with incentives. Motivations can be informed of monetary value or long-term rewards. For instance, staff who perform their duties effectively should be rewarded at the end of the month. This will encourage the employees to work hard to win the rewards given. Through incentives, conflicts that usually arise in the business will be minimized. This is mainly because every employee will be preoccupied with their activities as they strive to emerge the best hence eliminating idleness that usually causes conflicts.

According to Naoum (2016), when employees concentrate on their work and act as they compete against others, their full potential is realized, thus increasing productivity levels. Additionally, they can formulate their own mechanisms of solving problems if faced with such issues when they are performing their duties. Therefore, providing the employees with incentives will enhance productivity while reducing conflicts because the employees will be engaged in their duties, trying to achieve the best.

Another way of motivating the employees in the organization would be through recognition. Most people feel happy and inspired if their efforts are recognized in the business. Through distinction, the employees will become creative and innovative; hence they can develop simple tasks. For instance, employees put a lot of effort into completing their errands, but why should they continue providing their services if they are less recognized? It is not just a matter of recognizing employees’ work, but how they are recognized has a tremendous impact. Neither should it be a monthly or annual event, but a continuous activity to appreciate the employees.

Ways That Can Build a Creative Work Environment

One of the ways that can be used to build a creative work environment is by celebrating the staff and their work. According to Taylor and Littleton (2016), they continuously remind the individual employees that they are valued and form an essential part. Their contributions enable the business to achieve its goals. Through this, the business creates a supportive work environment that allows creative ideas to thrive. For instance, the business should reward those who reward and laud those who present innovative ideas.

Customer Departmentalization

During the observation, there was high customer departmentalization witnessed in the shopping mall. Customer departmentalization entails grouping the customers into specific groups to serve them better. Therefore, the system was highly used in the supermarket since attendants were placed at strategic points to attend to customers with different needs. For instance, there was a department of electronics, and an attendant was located in that area to attend to the customers.

Signs Of Social Loafing

There were signs of social loafing among the employees in the company. Social loafing makes a person underperform when working individually instead of when they perform their duties individually. During the observation, there were actions of laxity among the staff working in groups as they could be witnessed talking and laughing with each other all the time. As a result, their full productivity potential was unattainable.

Diversity

Diversity was witnessed during the observation activity in both the composition of the employees and the customers. Customers who visited the premises were from all races, age groups, and religions. However, the majority were middle-aged females and they mainly visited the section cosmetics. In terms of staff members, various races were employed in the organization; however, it was dominated by whites. People from different religions were also part of the team; for instance, female employees dressed in hijabs were witnessed, indicating that Muslims were present in the organization.

In conclusion, the observation made at a supermarket in a shopping mall reveals the connection between the textbook’s lessons and real-life situations. Employees are a crucial part of an organization; hence they deserve to be rewarded for the contributions they make towards achieving the company’s goals. Several theories studied in the course were also witnessed in the mall; hence the textbook is relevant for real-life situations.

References

Kitana, A. (2016). Overview of the managerial thoughts and theories from the history: Classical management theory to modern management theory. Indian Journal of Management Science, 6(1), 16.

Naoum, S. G. (2016). Factors influencing labor productivity on construction sites. International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, 1(1), 1-30.

Őnday, Ő. (2016). Neoclassical organization theory: Fom incentives of Bernard to organizational objectives of Cyert and March. Global Journal of Human Resource Management, 4(1), 83-94.

Purssell, E., Drey, N., Chudleigh, J., Creedon, S., & Gould, D. J. (2020). The Hawthorne effect on adherence to hand hygiene inpatient care: a systematic review. Journal of Hospital Infection, 106 (2), 311-317. Web.

Shin, J., & Grant, A. M. (2019). Bored by interest: How intrinsic motivation in one task can reduce performance on other tasks. Academy of Management Journal, 62(2), 415-436. Web.

Taylor, S., & Littleton, K. (2016). Contemporary identities of creativity and creative work. Routledge.

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