Analyzing the Organization (Cabela's)

Analyzing the Organization (Cabela’s) for Chapters (3,5,6,7,10,14)

Chapter 3:

1).

2). Cabela’s has a medium degree of environmental complexity. While some of the forces are interconnected, such as firearms and hunting, many are not. Fishing and clothing, are not seasonal like firearms and hunting, and do not fluctuate as much as they do. I would say that Cabela’s environmental dynamism is relatively high. Since a big portion of their sales come from hunting and firearms, they experience rapid changes that come and go along with hunting seasons. Cabela’s can predict when their sales will rise, solely dependant on when customers are planning their hunts around specific seasons. Cabela’s is an extremely rich environment. They have a great deal of suppliers. As a result, if a couple suppliers fell through, it would not affect their sales very much.

3). Cabela’s does a relatively good job at managing its environment. Having departments such as fishing and clothing provide revenue during the slow, non-hunting seasons. They also have a large amount of vendors and suppliers, that provide consistencies in getting products to its customers. If a few vendors or suppliers don’t provide products, Cabela’s will still be able to keep its sales. It could be suggested that Cabela’s finds a way to generate more sales during its off seasons, to prevent having a big difference in revenue depending on seasons.

Chapter 5:

1. Cabela’s Inc. had a total of 19,100 employees by the year 2016.

2. In the hierarchy of Cabela’s Inc., there are three levels (The Official Board, 2017). The first level and top level comprises of the Chairman James Cabela, the CEO Thomas Milner and other eight members of the board of directors. Directly under the CEO is the second level which is made up of the chief financial officer, the president, the chief information officer and the heads of marketing & e-commerce, procurement, World's Foremost Bank, Administration, Supply chain, club marketing and merchandising & strategy. The third level in the hierarchy begins with the Planning & analysis department directly under the CFO; diversity & talent, learning & development and talent & acquisition under administration; logistics, retail supply chain and supply chain operations under the supply chain; and digital marketing, customer relationships, e-commerce technology and digital marketing under club marketing.

3.Cabela’s organization structure is relatively tall. Employees at the lowest levels answer to heads who answer to the CEO. The CEO in turn answers to the chairman (The Official Board, 2017). Despite the relatively tall structure, Cabela’s experiences issues that are problematic and rising from the tall organizational hierarchy, just like most tall organizations. For instance, excessive management has led to confusion about responsibilities of employees and who to answer to.

4. 11 people answer directly to the CEO at Cabela’s Inc. this span of control can be said to be appropriate for the CEO because they are manageable. It is neither too wide nor too narrow. 5. Adopting a centralized structure has helped Cabela’s in setting goals and communicating ideas across Cabela’s Inc in a clear and concise manner. as it has ensured smooth flow of communication as well as easy coordination and planning. Employees answer to corporate only which makes it easy to execute plans fast and avoid wasting time when making important decisions im a crucial timeline since there will be no hesitation. At Cabela’s there are standard rules and values which employees follow and uphold. Which helps the employees have a clear way to work and achieve corporate goals. Cabela’s is horizontally differentiated within it’s different departments and interests in the store. Cabela’s offers a wide array of options in equipment and merchandise available for sale from fishing to camping to boating among others which helps Cabela’s maintain its large and ever-growing customer base.

6. Cabela’s Inc. can be said to be doing a great job in managing its structure of authority. This is attributed to the growth evident in Cabela’s. If it were not for such good management of authority, there would be conflicts of interest and a lot more confusion which would imply bad business thus no growth or a limited one. In fact, such growth is what led to the acquisition by a larger firm Bass Pro for a great price tag of $4 Billion.

Chapter 6

1. The company has for this reason adopted a product organizational structure (also called division organization structure). In the product division organization structure, the Cabela’s Inc is organized into smaller departments based on the products (Hunting, Music, shooting, fishing and dog training). Each of these product lines falls within a reporting structure headed by an expert. The expert leads the product ambassadors and other employees, and directs all the operations related the product line.

Music artist Expert

Music atirst ambassadors

Hunting Expert

Hunting ambassadors

Fishing Expert

Fishing ambassadors

Shooting expert

Shooting ambassadors

Dog training Expert

Dog training ambassadors

2. The company uses this structure because it enables staff stick to the roles that they are specialized in (Cabral, 2017). With this structure, each product line leader shares equal rank with the others, and there is increased specificity of the tasks. The product leaders meet regularly to discuss the progress and contribution of their departments to the overall progress of the organization. It is also possible for the departments to share jurisdiction on companywide projects.

The divisional structure is advantageous to the companies that have a wide variety of products in a vast geographic area such as Cabela’s. The structure offers greater operational flexibility to the company. In addition, if one division is not performing well, this does not directly threaten the other divisions. For a multidivisional structure such as Cabela’s, the subsidiaries benefit from using the brand name and capital of the parent company.

The product divisional structure has some disadvantages. There sometimes arise some operational inefficiency due to separated functions in the organization (Cullen & Parboteeah, 2014); for instance, sales personnel in one product line may not communicate well with those in other product lines. The company may also suffer from increased accounting and tax implications.

3. The structural challenges faced by the company are those related to the disadvantages of the product division structure, and discussed above. These can be solved by adopting a functional organization structure. This permits greater operational efficiency because it involves grouping together the employees with shared skills and knowledge.

Chapter 7:

1). Managers and employees do use certain words and phrases to describe the behavior of the people at Cabela's. Every employee that works there is called an outfitter. Each employee is hired in a field that they have more knowledge on. An outfitter is expected to guide the customer in whatever they need. If a customer wanted to go hunting, an outfitter will gear them up and get them ready for their adventure. They will find all the proper clothing and equipment needed to have a successful hunting experience. Another phrase would be ‘It’s In Our Nature’. “We don’t invite our employees in as guests, we adopt them as family”(Cabelas.com). They make sure each customer feels comfortable and respected.

2). Cabelas socializes employees by having training programs. Every employee goes through this training to get the best knowledge about the company. The training goes through all the core values and the way Cabela’s expects you to behave as an outfitter.

3). Cabela’s has many beliefs and values that characterize the way people behave in the organization. One of them is that Cabela’s is committed to building a diverse and inclusive workplace with Outfitters of different backgrounds, perspectives, experiences and cultures. “If we were all alike, what a boring company, what a boring world it would be”(Tommy Millner, Chief Outfitter). Having integrity and honesty is a huge fundamental in how they deal with others and operating their business. They believe in doing what is right when nobody's watching. Also, having superior customer service is the center of everything they do. They always listen to the customers to provide personalized service that is focused on their needs.

4). Cabela’s culture is characterized by their diversity and customer service. By having diversity they include all characteristics and experiences that define each as individuals. It encourages collaboration and fairness for building a culture of inclusion. Having superior customer service unites everyone and inspires pride and ownership in everything they do. I feel the culture could be improved by integrating employees in every department.

5). “We consistently provide our customers with quality, innovation, and value in our products and services when, where, and how they want them” (Cabela’s.com). This statement is one of the core values Cabela’s provides. I feel like this is the organization’s stance on social responsibility. Customers know they can come here and get the best service for their exact needs.

Chapter 10:

1. An evolutionary change best describes the alterations that have been taking place at Cabela’s. Notably, the organization is dedicated to showing significant value to their consumers by making them feel like part of Cabela’s family. To attain this, the organization was initially characterized by centralized governance and differentiation at different organizational level. Specifically, the distinction of its services meant that the outfitter was specialized in handling a specific task. For example, the hardliners were mandated to manage firearms, archery, and fishing while the soft-liners had the responsibility to manage clothing and footwear. Despite the fact that this enabled the form to attain efficiency in service provision, the outfitter did not possess comprehensive knowledge about the store. This called for a gradual transition through cross-training of the outfitters so that they could possess an understanding of the different departments to help their broad consumer base.

The change is slow as the employees have to be trained on handling consumers from other units and enhancing effective communication across the departments. Additionally, centralized type of management means that the company relied on the decision from executive management. In this regard, the subordinate staff felt sidelined as they were not involved in the decision-making process. Despite this, the organizational change was focused on being more decentralized. This approach will allow the retail outfitter to be included in the final decision-making process. Therefore, the evolutionary change that was gradual enabled the top management to interrelate with the subordinates by permitting their participation in the decision-making process.

2. Specifically, Cabela’s is involved in the structural change of decentralizing their management system and cross-training of the outfitter to abandon both vertical and horizontal differentiation. Initially, the organization depended on a centralized type of management whereby they relied on one individual make a decision and provide direction for the firm. Everything in the firm vas formalized as highlighted by the vast number of strict regulations used. However, this approach was not practical thus calling for structural change. Mainly, the outfit retailers wanted to be involved in the decision-making process for instance on the displays to be used by the firm. Therefore efforts were enhanced don involving more employees in the decision-making process, an aspect that has proved to be useful as the employees feel the art of the Cabela’s family. Additionally, a structural change evident was in the form of cross-training outfitter to abandon differentiation. Notably, the distinction of its services meant that the outfitter was specialized in handling a specific task. However, the structural change meant that the outfitters would possess the desirable skills in working across the different departments, an aspect that enhanced customer satisfaction and ultimately increases sales.

3. The drivers for change in the organization include business needs and threats. Notably, Cabela’s was moving for increased collaboration between the staff and the customers to enhance both efficiency and customer satisfaction. In this regard, the business needs to heighten the need for change. Significantly, threats of reduced motivation from the outfitter retailers drove change for their involvement in the decision-making process. Additionally, the evident obstacles for change include resistance to change and complexity of the organization's processes. Initially, the outfitters from the different department were reluctant to adopt change as they had specialized on the various segments. Considerably, the complexity of the organization processes impacted the firm’s ability to adopt changes in incorporating the outfit retailers quickly. Cabela adopted a change in management strategy that provided direction for the informed decision-making process such as the impact of the desirable changes in customer satisfaction.

Chapter 14:

1. The likely sources of conflict that could arise in Cabela’s organization are that everything is based off the higher management. Since all the rules and regulations are based off what the CEO/board says that could create conflict. It doesn’t give much leeway to change things up to help the organization if need be. There really hasn’t been a history of conflict between managers or stakeholders. Since Cabela’s is getting bought out by Bass Pro Shop, that scared some stakeholders because they didn’t know if they were going to lose everything. It was said though that “ Cabela’s shareholders are receiving $61.50 per share in the merger. The remaining company will be privately held” (Richard Simms).

2. The most central subunit would be the managers of the whole store. The most non substitutable subunit would be the managers of each specific department. I feel that the non substitutable subunit controls the most resources. They are constantly aware of what is happening in their department and what they are going to need. The central subunit would handle the main contingencies facing the organization

3. The most powerful subunit would be the non substitutable subunit. This subunit allows first hand changes. The managers know what needs to be done to better their department, so they can help the customers right there and then. They are able to make decisions right away that will allow great customer service and allow everything to flow better.

4. The organization’s strategic and operational decisions are affected by conflict and politics by a slight degree. “Cabela’s always evaluates its relationships with suppliers on a continuous basis to ensure compliance with this policy, and reserves the right to request additional documentation from its suppliers regarding the source of any Conflict Minerals included in its products”(Cabela’s.com). All of Cabela’s suppliers must be legitimate and follow all the rules and regulations for their products. “Suppliers must maintain and provide to Cabelas upon request traceability data for a minimum of five years. Suppliers who do not comply with these requirements shall be reviewed by Cabela’s supply chain organization for future business” (Cabela’s.com).

References

Cabral, L. M. B. (2017).  Introduction to industrial organization. MIT Press.

Cullen, J. B., & Parboteeah, K. P. (2014).  Multinational management: A strategic approach. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.