Clearly, Zappos is an innovative online retailer with an ambitious and effective strategy. Apparently, Zappos is well positioned to have a competitive advantage due to the tactics and techniques it has employed. The company has employed steps to ensure that its employs are always motivated, engaged and enthusiastic, which are aspects required to make the company highly productive. However, the company could have its apparent competitive advantage curtailed due to the various negative forces. The company could lose its competitive advantage if it fails to maintain the levels of investment it has put into developing its current culture. Additionally, Zappos could lose its market advantage if it does not invest in modern and current technologies to make it remain competitive in the face of new and innovative competition. The human resource department at Zappos needs to keep on investing in research and practices that will maintain the levels of motivation, dedication and employee productivity that current define the company.
Do you think employees of Zappos have high levels of engagement? Why?
I think that the employees at Zappos have high levels of engagement. The case gives a detailed view of the way the employees relate with each other, with the company’s customers and with the senior managers at the company. Engagement is the ability for employees to express themselves freely on issues regarding the working conditions and their duties. The employees can award other employees bonuses of up to $50 dollars for exemplary performance. The working offices are described as areas that are ever full of talkative employees and regular movements. Such are the aspects required to ensure that the employees are always motivated and free to speak up on ways that could improve the delivery of services to the customers of Zappos. The company should still research and find out other effective ways that can improve the levels of employee engagement given its benefits.
Which of Zappos` core values can human resource practices influence the most?
Deliver WOW through service, create fun and a little weirdness and do more with less are the three main values that the human resource department at Zappos can influence the most. The reason for this view is that the company controls all the resources to ensure that these values are implemented fully. The values do not require the direct skills and talents of the individual employees. On the other hand, being passionate and determined, being adventurous creative and open-minded and being humble are the values that the human resource department lacks significant control over among the employees. Apparently, the values require the innate skills and talents from the individual employees. Therefore, the human resource can only provide activities and learning resources to enhance the ability of the employees to improve on those values (Joo, 2010). All the values mentioned complement each other to enable Zappos to attain its culture of focusing all its services to enhancing customer satisfaction.
How might the change to the holocracy management style undermine the core values and cause employees to have lower levels of engagement?
The change to the holocracy management styles could lower the morale of employees, and consequently reduce their engagement levels in the company. It is apparent that the employees have fully conformed to the management styles that have defined the Zappos culture since it was started. The company allows employees to have increased interaction among themselves and the management teams. The employees are allowed to follow their ambitions in a way that makes their job more enjoyable and fun to undertake. However, the introduction of the new management styles could be detrimental to the steps that the company has taken for several years now. Introducing the holocratic management styles could lead to employees losing their morale, their levels of engagement and their general determination to undertake the company duties that they may be assigned.
How does the case describe Dell`s transformed strategy over the years in terms of where to compete, how to compete, and with what to compete?
The case describes Dell as a company that started out as a small entity with a limited market share and not so many competitors. The company had a two-in-a-box leadership style where it had two main leaders at all times in its early years in the market. Dell had a strategy that outlined a relatively not so competitive market as its strength for growth. Initially, the company had a significantly large market share but the emergence of Apple and HP had it contemplate of its standing in the market. Dell had an initial sales level of $3 billion but with its market growth it had increased its sales levels up $60 billion, an aspect that led it to require an urgent change of leadership given the expectations that its shareholders had. Therefore, the company had its shareholders as the motivation behind its competing with other companies in the market.
What are the major people issues that exists as Michael Dell retakes the reins at Dell?
The people issues that exist as Michael Dell takes over the reins at the company include the lack of experience operating in the new market that Dell had found itself in at the time of the change. Dell had not been active in the management scene for quite some time and there were some worries about his abilities to deliver the expectations that the shareholders had at the time. Additionally, the company needed to change its management techniques and its operating culture. Effectively, there were several people issues that had to be balanced to ensure that the company lived up to the financial success that many people expected (Khan & Khan, 2011). Therefore, the company had people issues within its management, within the market that it operated in and among the shareholding fraternity that expected it to grow.
How would HR help in addressing the issues that Dell faces?
The approaches that the HR of Dell was to implement could have a significant effect on the expected outcomes. Apparently, the HR had the obligation to ensure that it hired people who understood the transformative agenda that the company was ready to implement with its new CEO Michael Dell. Additionally, the HR had to ensure that it trained the employees who were working at the company at the time to ensure that they understood the new vision that Dell was about to implement. The HR was also supposed to intervene and adjust the workforce systems as per the technological and financial demands of the time. The need to downsize the human workforce was apparent and the need to adopt new technologies was unavoidable, and it was the role of the HR to make such determinations.
References
Joo, B. (2010). Organizational commitment for knowledge workers: The roles of perceived organizational learning culture, leader-member exchange quality, and turnover intention. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 21(1), 69-85. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.20031
Khan, A. & Khan, R. (2011). The dual responsibility of the HR specialist. Human Resource Management International Digest, 19(6), 37-38. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09670731111163527
