Verified Document

Organizational Behavior - Case Study Term Paper

Most retail environments are plagued by high turnover. While some of this has to do with a lack of motivation, much of the problem lies in the company's inability to create high-performance teams capable of taking on challenges and making decisions with peers to help solve problems within the company (Janis, 1972). In any environment, when a successful team is lacking, so too is motivation and consistency of performance. None of these traits are evident however, within the Container Store's case study. Escalation of commitment - the Container store adopts the ideal of escalation of commitment as stated by the store's managers who follow the McGregor Theory Y This theory suggests that employees are not by nature "lazy" and will often perform in the best manner possible and commit to the company if given an opportunity to feel empowered to make decisions without the need to "check in" with members of the management first. Employees at the Container Store also receive cross-training so they are able to understand other people's jobs so that jobs "become more interesting." If managers at the store did not work to engage employees in a way that escalated their level of commitment, they would likely face much greater turnover and conflict within the corporate culture. They may even experience a lack of culture because no one person would devote their work or time to realizing group and organizational goals as much as personal goals (Wittke, 1994).

Personality conflicts - There is not much in the way of evidence suggesting there is any personality conflict within the Container store. Quite the opposite is true. According to the case study, all members of the store, including employees of varying ranks, are encouraged to work with each other to develop long-term solutions and create an environment that welcomes customers in a warm and caring manner. If the store did not promote the ideals of empowerment and open-channels of communication, personality conflicts would likely arise.

Formal and informal communication channels - There are formal and informal communication channels at the Container Store. According to the vice president of logistics at the Container Store, employees receive daily coaching thus are continually learning. Managers must work daily and weekly with employees so they are able to...

The president and CEO also supports this supposition, stating one of the primary factors motivating employees at the Container Store is indeed, proper channels of communication. Employees receive formal education and communication from managers, but also engage in informal communication with their peers no matter the position they hold.
Empowerment - There is not doubt the Container store utilizes the concept of empowerment (Witte, 1994) as the store co-founder states that "great services requires motivated employees who are empowered to exceed customer expectations. Because the store adopts this philosophy they are able to sustain a team of motivated and empowered employees, thus there turnover rate is much lower than it might be if the interests of employees were not considered.

Transformational Leadership - Typically one may associate transformational leadership as a form of leadership that elicits positive change within an organization (Wittke, 1994; Weiner, 1986; Ahlfigner & Esser, 2001). Transformational leadership is the type of leadership that is not reactive to the environment around it, but rather proactive in nature, a trait the Container Store demonstrates. Without this grounding, the organization would likely succumb to conflict and disintegration of unity among employees and managers. The Container Store indirectly supports transformational leadership as it encourages a new paradigm or model for systems operations, one that considers the needs of the employee and the customer directly, rather than one that considers the needs of the organization as a foreign or separate entity.

References

Ahlfigner, N.R. & Esser, J.K. (2001). Testing the groupthink model: Effects of promotional leadership and conformity predisposition. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 29(1): 31-42.

Janis, I.L. (1972). Victims of groupthink. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Vroom, V.H. (1964). Work and Motivation. New York: Wiley

Weiner, B. (1986). An attributional theory of emotion and motivation, New York:

Springer-Verlag.

Witte, K. (1994). Fear and danger control: A test of the extended…

Sources used in this document:
References

Ahlfigner, N.R. & Esser, J.K. (2001). Testing the groupthink model: Effects of promotional leadership and conformity predisposition. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 29(1): 31-42.

Janis, I.L. (1972). Victims of groupthink. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Vroom, V.H. (1964). Work and Motivation. New York: Wiley

Weiner, B. (1986). An attributional theory of emotion and motivation, New York:
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Value of Organizational Behavior
Words: 656 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

Organizational Behavior in a Criminal Justice or Security Agency Organizational behavior refers to the study of an individual's behavior in any business setting. This field focuses on the impacts of structures, groups, and individuals on an institution in relation to their conduct and the impact on the effectiveness of an organization. It is indisputable that leadership is one of the organizational behavior factors that mostly affects criminal agency institutions more than

Organizational Behavior Terminology Organizational Culture and Behavior:...
Words: 1022 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

Organizational Behavior Terminology Organizational Culture and Behavior: Author Edgar H. Schein, professor of management at the Sloan School of Management, MIT, believes that organizational culture has in the recent past embraced themes from a number of disciplines, including sociology, social psychology, anthropology and cognitive psychology as well. And although all of these fields of study feed into today's concept of organizational culture, Schein asserts that organizational culture "has become a field

Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts
Words: 913 Length: 2 Document Type: Research Paper

Communication Communication in the organizations cover all the means and modes, be they formal or informal, by which information finds its ways down, up or even across the organizational network of employees and the management in a given business setting. These modes of communication may contain important information for instance between employees and the managers, to more trivial issues like passing rumors or hearsay from one employee to another as noted

Organizational Behavior Like the Individuals
Words: 983 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

Communication occurs at an inter-organizational level, an intra-organizational level, and between the organization and the community or society at large. For example, inter-organizational communications include the one-on-one discussions between coworkers. These communications can be purely related to the daily operations of the organization or they can be casual, to stimulate a friendly environment in the workplace. Intra-organizational communication occurs between two or more organizations. For example, an environmental group

Organizational Behavior Managing Organizational Change and Innovation...
Words: 781 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

Organizational Behavior One of the most immediate changes that happened in my college just recently is the introduction of online library services that allows me to access important resources I need for my studies more easily anywhere I go. Similarly, technological change has brought about significant changes that made my tasks at the firm more manageable and faster, allowing me to perform optimally. Evidently, environmental forces greatly influence changes among organizations

Organizational Behavior and Management Concepts
Words: 531 Length: 2 Document Type: Essay

The personnel performance and human motivation components of the study of organizational behavior also date back to the late 19th and early 20th century work of theorists like Max Weber and to the 20th century works of Douglass McGregor and Abraham Maslow (George & Jones, 2008; NAU, 2010). Weber outlined the most productive breakdown of organizational hierarchies, elements of working groups, and the relationship between individual employees and their supervisors.

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now