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RUNNING HEAD: CASE STUDY, CABELA INC 1

Case study: Cabela’s organization

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Introduction

Cabela is an outdoor retailer specializing in fishing, clothing, firearms, and hunting. The business operates in the specialty retail industry with 82 stores in the United States and Canada. The organization originated from Sidney Nebraska, where their corporate offices are located. The retail organization does not only specialize in outdoor services but also offers exceptional customer services. Cabela's customers are individuals in need of first-hand expertise before their adventures. Attendants at Cabela's stores are referred to as outfitters, they not only help customers find what they are looking for but also give customer advice on items they might need for their adventures. The business prides itself on treating its customers as part of the Cabela’s family and encourages the employee’s especially the outfitters to make sure customers feel part of the company regardless of what they are purchasing. Cabela strives to attain a healthy relationship with all its employees and customers (Cabela, 2014). The case study outlines the current design of the organization, organizational changes in Cabela, conflict, power and conflict within the organization, organizational structure, and culture within Cabela and challenges in structure and design that may impact on the stated areas.

Cabela’s Current Organizational Design

An organization structure design can be either vertical differentiation, horizontal differentiation, decentralized, or standardized. Vertical differentiation takes place into two accounts the hierarchy is either tall or flat. Tall organizations have hierarchy with many levels relative to the organization's size; on the other hand, flat organizations have fewer hierarchy levels relative to the size of the organization. Horizontal differentiation involves adding the relationship in a horizontal manner. Lastly decentralized and standardized involve eliminating difficulties in making communication between managers and employees as organization grow (Jones, 2013). Cabela retail is differentiated into hardlines, softlines, and operations. The business has both vertical and horizontal differentiation, with the vertical differentiation hierarchy involving managers and leads. Horizontal differentiation involves separation of interest in its different stores. Hardlines entail fishing, firearms, archery, and hunting. Softlines handles footwear, clothing, and camping and bargain cave. Operations handle customer service and warehouse. The primary challenge associated with differentiation in the business is lack of knowledge and skills among outfitters in specific areas such as hunting and fishing which make it difficult to help customers on several occasions.

The vertical and horizontal differentiation structures are obstacles in creating a healthy relationship between the senior managers and the outfitters. This aspect is attributed to the fact that the three level of management have specific tasks which result in reduced morale among the outfitters and the administration.

Organizational changes in Cabela

Organization changes involve moving from the current state of business to desired future status to increase effectiveness. The targets for organizational change in an organization include human resource, technology capabilities, functional resources and organizational capabilities. Forces for change in an organization include ethical forces, demographic and social forces, political, economic and global forces, and competitive pressure. However, efforts to bring change can be resisted at different levels including at the organizational level, group level, and individual level. They are types of change that most organizations go through evolutionary change and revolutionary change. Evolutionary change is gradual, incremental and minor changes while revolutionary changes involve sudden, drastic, and broader changes. An example of evolutionary change in an organization can involve focusing on small issues such as waste management, improving productivity, and increasing efficiency. Revolutionary change can entail innovation resulting in creation of new products, new processes, and devising new ways to respond to customers’ needs. Revolutionary changes can also involve restructuring to changes task and authority relationship, putting in place a new organizational structure and culture to improve organizational efficiency (Jones, 2013).

Cabela organizational change over the years has been evolutionary; the organization has put a lot of efforts to help maintain new clients and ensure customer loyalty. Customer satisfaction has been possible due to changes resulting from centralized governance and reforms in differentiation at different levels. Specifically, the changes have taken place in the roles allocated to the outfitters; they now handle duties that they have expertise and knowledge. The organization also has cross-training programs to ensure that all the outfitters have skills and knowledge on the different services and products provided in the retail stores. In addition, the organization has made changes from the vertical and horizontal differentiation to a decentralized management system. The former method only left decisions to be made by one person; most outfitters want to be included in the process of decision making especially on matters concerning the retail store where they work. Positive outcomes have been associated with including most outfitters in the decision-making process, and they also get to feel they are part of Cabela's family.

Despite the organizational efforts to make changes and increase its efficiency, it has been met with various resistant forces. Mainly, reduced motivation among outfitters due to lack of involvement in the decision-making process necessitated the need new reforms. Besides, other obstacles to change include resistant to change and complexity of the organization. Outfitters who specialized in the specific department were reluctant to adopt changes. However, the organization complexity made it possible to impact changes and see outfitters go through cross-training to make it possible for them to specialize in different departments. Adopting a new management strategy made it possible for Cabela to incorporate outfitters in the process of decision making it possible to guarantee customer satisfaction.

Conflict, power, and politics

Organizational conflict is inevitable in the day to day operation of any organization. Conflict mainly occur due to lack of understanding between two groups or between an organization and a particular individual. Conflicts can be beneficial and can result to change and learning. Conflicts take place in five stages, the latent phase is the first stage of the conflict, and it entails mere disagreement but can develop into a massive confrontation. Secondly, the step is referred to as perceived conflict; subunit becomes aware of the conflict and begins to analyze it. The third stage is felt conflict, where the cooperation among units decreases. Manifest conflict is the fourth stage and interferes with organizational effectiveness. Lastly, conflict aftermath involves identifying a solution to address the conflict. Conflict resolution in many instances calls for the use of power to end the conflict and provide a solution (Jones, 2013).

Possible causes of conflict in Cabela are likely to emerge due to all decision and issues been dealt with the higher management. The rules and regulation created by the chief executive officer and board of members, employees who fall below the two positions may find this unfair and create conflict out of it. Conflict rarely occurs in the organization, and there is no history of conflict between managers and stakeholders. Subunits that are likely to put an end to disputes are managers at the retail stores. The Likelihood of conflict occurrence in the organizational are minimal, in case of an event of conflict operational and strategic activities will be affected with minimumal damages. Cabela ensures compliance with policies and regulations with the government, suppliers and its stakeholders. Furthermore, the corporation only works with suppliers who meet the right qualification and have the proper requirements which reduce chances of any conflict occurring. Time to time, the organization reviews its contract agreement with its suppliers to make sure no conflict arises in the course of working together (Cabela, 2014).

Organizational structure

Organizations have different types of structure which vary from one organization to the other; they include functional structures, divisional structures, product team structures, matrix, and network structures. Function structure involves grouping employees according to the area of expertise; one of the significant advantages of this structure is increasing employees motivation. However, measurements of performance under this form of the structure are hard to measure. Divisional structure falls into three categories, product structure, geographical structure and market structures. Product structures entail grouping products in different division based on their similarities and difference to increase control. Product team division occurs when companies come together with the purpose of producing a new product. Matrix structure happens when people are grouped simultaneously into two ways, function, and product. Network structure entails different organization that comes together to work (Jones, 2013).

Cabela Corporation uses product division structure to carry out its operation. Businesses under Cabela are divided into small departments such as fishing, hunting, clothing, firearms, and music. Every department has a lead that is in charge of product managers and employees and gives direction regarding the product line. Product division structure entails location of duties according to the specialty of each staff. The structure poses some benefits to the corporation by ensuring a product variety is available for their customers in a wide geographical area. Due to the existence of various departments, the company ensures excellent operation flexibility since the performance of one department cannot affect the whole corporation. However, the presence of many departments also results in insufficiency in operations primarily due to lack of communication between the different units. Keeping track of various activities such as tax payment and accounting is also made difficult.

Organizational culture

Organizational culture refers to the set norms, values and beliefs that control interactions among individuals in an organization. Strong cultures tend to have more control than weak culture. Mainly, culture is incorporated in an organization through socialization and orientation among new employees. Organizational culture emerges from different sources within an organization including organizational ethics, the structure of the organization, characteristics of the employees within an organization as well as property rights are given to the employees. Corporate culture in Cabela is diverse and focuses on making sure customers are satisfied with their services. Diversity entails incorporating experience and characteristics that define each individual. Cabela's culture encourages fairness and collaboration to provide inclusion of every individual from the staff to the customers. In addition, the organization has many beliefs and norms attributed to behavioral of individuals. The organization shows commitment in building a culture that takes into account the different background of outfitters, cultures, perspective, and experience. Values such as integrity and honesty are crucial to the operations of the organization. Providing quality customer services is the core value of the business, and this is one of the factors that comes the organization stands out from the rest. Culture is learned through training of new employees and the process of socialization (Cabela, 2015).

Conclusion

Cabela is the leading retailer of outdoor specializing in fishing, hunting, firearms, and clothing. The corporation puts a lot of effort into making sure they deliver exceptional customer services which has attributed to the excellent performance of the business over the years. Apart from customer services, the corporation has made changes in its design moving from vertical and horizontal differentiation to a more decentralized which have resulted in the inclusion of outfitters in the process of decision making. Organizational changes can be either evolutionary or revolutionary; Cabela has over the years taken an evolutionary approach to increase efficiency within the organization and to ensure their customers satisfaction in its different services. For change to occur in an organization they must be forces, one of the major changes that have taken place in Cabela is inclusion of outfitters in the process of decision making. Conflict is likely to occur in an organization, Cabela rarely finds itself in a position that can result in conflict and case of conflict, the organization has the right mechanism in place to deal with it. Lastly, Cabela's culture has been associated with the success of the business has over years especially in customer service and employee satisfaction.

References

Cabela. (2014). Company History. Retrieved November 13, 2017, from Cabela's: http://www.cabelas.com/content.jsp?pageName=CompanyHistory

Cabela. (2015). Diversity and Inclusion. Retrieved November 13, 2017, from Cabela's: http://www.cabelas.com/custserv/custserv.jsp?pageName=diversityinclusion#diversity-tab1

Cabela. (2014). Social Responsibility. Retrieved November 13, 2017, from Cabela: http://www.cabelas.com/content.jsp?pageName=SocialResponsibility

Jones, G. R. (2013). Organizational Structure Design: Specialization and Coordination. In G. R. Jones, Organizational Theory, Design, and Change. Boston: University of Pearson press.

Jones, G. R. (2013). Organizational Theory, Design and Change (7th Edition ed.). Boston: Pearson Education Limited.

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