BUS 520 ASSIGNMENT 3

Task Force Committee Report: Issue and Solutions

Melissa Miller

Professor: Dr. Andrea Banto

Strayer University

Global Campus

BUS 520: Leadership and Organizational Behavior

April 30, 2018

Family Dollar is an American store chain that deals with a variety of products. The firm has expanded in major cities in the United States of America with over 8,000 locations in all states except Alaska, Hawaii, Oregon and the greater Washington District of Columbia. Family Dollar (FDO), is the among the most abundant retailer dealers of its types in the United States. Family Dollar deals with products such as clothing, cleaning supplies, home decor and various kinds of grocery. The industry has its headquarters in Matthews, which is a suburb of Charlotte, North Carolina. The firm has employed several people to work in the stores. It has hired 1,400 employees who take part in the daily activities of the organization to ensure that the customers are satisfied. In the year 2004, one of the investors and one of the major shareholders of the firm demanded that the firm is immediately put up for sale. This was because the firm was not doing well regarding its growth and productivity.

Family Dollar Stores (FDO) has been affected by significant problems, and this has led to poor performance of the industry. One of the major issue affecting the firm is the inadequate wages that the company offers to its employees. The employees of Family Dollar Stores work for long hours and in return given low wages. The employees always complain about the poor working conditions in the company, and this has discouraged them. They are not motivated well by the management. It is essential for every organization to understand the importance of driving its employees. Motivated employees are more productive when compared with the less motivated employees. Family Dollar lacks a sound wage system, and this makes its employees less motivated. This makes them less productive, and this has led to the failure of the firm. In many occasions, the employees say their managers struggle with tight budgets as the managers themselves are working for more extended hours to cover the store’s extended extra hours.

As a task force leader, I have discovered that the main organizational issue affecting Family Dollar Stores is the issue that pertains employee payments. The employees of the firm are subjected to long working hours and in return paid low amounts of wages. The employees of the company report to work very early in the morning and leave the industry very late in the evening. In many occasions, the employees work for extra hours, and they are not paid according to the number of hours they have worked. The employees are paid low wages, and this has made them less productive in the organization (Alvesson, & Sveningsson, 2015). They are not willing to work towards the success and growth of the industry because they feel less motivated. In reality, the employees should work for regular hours and for those who are interested in working for extra hours, the management of Family Dollar Stores should pay them according to the number of hours they have worked. This will make the employees feel motivated. Highly motivated employees ensure the growth of the organization, and this leads to the success of the company

Long working hours and low payments have negatively affected the growth of the industry because most of the time which was supposed to be used for other activities of the firm is lost. The time is used by the customers in complaining to the management on the state of poor working conditions which they are subjected to. Resolve this problem; the organization should develop a human resource team which shall be given the responsibility of ensuring that the employees’ issues are well taken care of. The human resource team should ensure that the employees working at Family Dollars Store are compensated somewhat for them to provide the labor required. The organization should develop and implement a sound wage system, which ensures that the employees are rewarded relatively throughout the firm.

Well-motivated employees have less or no complaints, and this makes them work hard in their job to ensure that the goals of the organization are met.

The organizational culture of Family Dollar Stores affects the way people work towards the growth of the company. In many cases, various businesses have different ways of doing things in their organizations. All the managers of Family Dollar Stores wear uniforms during the working days in the company while the district managers wear suits despite the kind of work they are doing. For example, the district managers of the company dress in suits when they are stocking the shelves and transferring the merchandise. The employees of the firm are not supposed to talk to one another when carrying on with the daily duties of the company. The employees should only concentrate without communicating with their colleagues in the workplace. No individual is supposed to talk to the other during the working hours in the company.

The company does not hire any single mothers or men with families because they do not pay enough wages that can sustain them and their families. The management thinks that the women and men having families to take care of will steal from them to pay for their needs and maintain their families. The clerks of the company take home a small number of wages at the end of every single day. The managers are hired at 50 hours a week, but within six weeks, they have to work for 64 hours per week. Each store in the company is run with a skeleton crew having only two employees working at any given time unless it is on a truck day where all the employees are working without too much talking.

The employees’ morale is usually very low in the firm since they are paid minimal wages and salaries. They feel less motivated, and this has led to low productivity in the organization. Family Dollar Store tends to fire people when it is not able to pay for their salaries. This is not desirable since there is no job security in the company. The employees do not receive any form of bonuses for the work they do for the company. This makes them feel less motivated hence low productivity in the company. The employees enter and leave the company at a higher rate, and this leads to low productivity in the company.

Family Dollar Stores has a mission statement, which gives essential information to various people in and outside the organization. The mission statement of the company is “For our customers A compelling place to shop by providing convenience and low prices for our associates a compelling place to work by providing exceptional opportunities and rewards for achievement for our investors a compelling place to invest by providing outstanding returns “The mission statement of the company provides a broad aspirational image of the company in the future. Family Dollar Stores has a slogan, which is very concise and is used to advertise the products of the company to the customers to increase the level of sales (Benschop, 2016).

The slogan of Family Dollar Stores is “My Family. My Family Dollar”.This has helped in selling the brands of the firm to the customers who are interested in the products. The firm has an official corporate website where vital information regarding the company is posted for easy access. The website is www.familydollar.com .This site has been beneficial for the company since it is used for making several essential inquiries, which are necessary for the company. Every company should have an official corporate website where vital information regarding the activities of the company is posted for easy access.

Family Dollar Stores faces many problems arising from various factors in the company. One of the company’s sources of problems is the poor management of the organization. The managers of the company are not able to lead the team to perform towards the success of the organization. They do not have the right leadership skills, which is required for the success of an organization. The other major problem is competition. Family Dollar Stores faces a lot of competition from other supermarkets in the region. Many companies have emerged, and this has limited the growth and performance of the company. Lack of motivation on the employees has also been the cause of problems for the firm.

The employees enter and leave the organization because of the low wages and salaries they get for the work they do in the firm. They are usually paid small amounts, which is not enough to sustain them and their families. Poor working conditions for the employees in the firm has also led to several issues in the firm. The employees are expected to work for long hours and in return get low wages (Bratton, & Gold, 2017). This has led to the rise of many complaints among the employees. Less motivated employees are less productive as compared to the employees who are well reasoned. Through employee motivation, the morale of the workers is raised. The firm has poor ways of motivating its employees, and this leads to low productivity.

Managing people from different cultures in an organization can be very challenging for the success of the organizations. The management of Family Dollar Stores should define the culture using an expanded definition that covers more than the race, color, sex, national origin, and religion to ensure that the workers have been managed appropriately in the organization. The firm should hire people from all diversity to ensure that the company achieves the desired outcomes. The firm’s management should develop and implement a sound wage structure, which provides that all the employees are rewarded relatively according to the kind of work that they do for the organization (Cascio, 2018).

The company should hire the human resource team to oversee the working conditions of the employees in the working environment. The company should conduct an employee survey to learn more about employee choices and preferences regarding work styles and the way the managers provide feedback and working conditions for the employees.

There are several things which the management of Family Dollar Stores can do to resolve the issues that have been identified. One of the solutions is to develop and implement a sound wage structure, which will ensure that all the employees in the firm are rewarded appropriately according to the work they do for the organization. The management should put up a human resource team, which shall overlook at the issues related to the employees in the organization, for example, the working conditions (Miner, 2015). The employees should not be subjected to long working hours without paying them for the overtime. The human resource department should work together with the managers to ensure that the employees are hired without any form of discrimination. It is crucial for the management to offer employment for both men and women without considering who has a family and who does not. The employees should be promoted and given bonuses to make them work more for the company. This will lead to an increase in the level of productivity for the firm.

Several problems have affected the performance and growth of Family Dollar Stores. Among the issues, including such things as lack of appropriate salaries and wages to the employees in the firm, lack of motivating employees, poor working conditions that the workers are subjected into and the poor management practices in the organization. According to these findings, the management can take several steps to avoid such problems from affecting the performance of the company. The administration of Family Dollars Stores should appoint a human resource team which will have the responsibility of ensuring that all the workers in the firm are well taken care of.

The human resource team will work with the manager to ensure that the employees are hired without any form of discrimination. This will ensure fairness in the way people are treated in the organization. The firm’s management should develop and implement a sound wage system which will ensure that all the employees in the organization are rewarded according to the work they do for the company. The sound wage system will ensure that the employees are paid for the extra hours they work in the company. The firm should motivate its employees well to attract and retain them in the workplace (Pinder, 2014). The company should not allow its employees to leave the firm at higher rates since it is not desirable. Family Dollars Stores should ensure that it rewards all the employees through such things as bonuses to make them feel motivated. When the employees feel motivated, they can work actively towards the accomplishment of the firm’s objectives.

References

Alvesson, M., & Sveningsson, S. (2015). Changing Organizational Culture: Cultural change Work in Progress. Routledge.

Benschop, Y. (2016). The Dubious Power of Diversity Management. In Diversity in the Workplace (pp. 35-48). Routledge.

Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2017). Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice. Palgrave.

Cascio, W. (2018). Managing Human Resources. McGraw-Hill Education.

Miner, J. B. (2015). Organizational Behavior 1: Essential Theories of Motivation and Leadership. Routledge.

Pinder, C. C. (2014). Work Motivation in Organizational Behavior. Psychology Press.