Introduction
Businesses are meant to earn economic profit and enhance the strategic consequences accordingly. Organizations always want to increase their financial belongings accordingly and effectively and for the sake of the same thing, they may consider different provisions.
Operations Department is the one who used to keep the operations of a going concern in an effective and well organized manner. It is more than important for an organization to keep their operations in a perfect manner from which they can enhance the financial and strategic prosperity of the company (Brown and Lamming, 2014, pp. 41-45). An organization should be looking forward to different tools and models from which they can strengthen their operations. Some of the major models used for the same purpose are Total Quality Management (TQM), Lean Management and others. It is required to select an organization and identified two problems prevailing in the company. The company that has been selected for the same is John Lewis and the problems which have been selected for the same are Ineffective Customer Service and De-motivated employees of the company. It is also required to pen down the solutions related to these problems.
John Lewis: London
John Lewis is basically a Chain of Supermarket departmental store which operates throughout the Great Britain. The chain was specifically owned by a partnership of John Lewis. The first store of John Lewis was opened in the year 1864 specifically in the Oxford Street London. England and Scotland are two of the important markets from the standpoint of John Lewis as there are around 43 stores located throughout England and Scotland. John Lewis is known as the founder of the organization and the current quantity of employees of the company is more than 38,000. The company earned net revenue amounting to £3330.0 million in the fiscal year (FY) 2012. The company has a remarkable approach towards maintaining their operational cost and increasing the financial belongings accordingly and effectively at the same time. There are two problems that have been identified in this particular analysis, and both of the problems should have been highlighted along with its remedial solutions.
Analytical Framework
The two issues which have been identified in the analysis relate to customers and employees in particular. With the help of effective strategies, an organization can enhance their productivity in an effective and well organized manner. The problems identified for JL pertains to its operations and there is a model has been associated with the same with the name of Total Quality Management (TQM). Total Quality Management primarily consists of organizational based wide efforts merely to install and make some permanent changes in the climate to improve the operations of the organization. The core focus of TQM lies on the fact to deliver high quality products and services to its major customers (Collier and Evans, 2009, pp. 15-21). There are certain tools that comes under the ambit of TQM including improving the customer based services and employee’s based services, as well. After the year 1980, the model of TQM had received extra attention merely because of its propensity to enhance the productivity of the employees of the company, and to enhance the productivity of their consumers. Developed countries like the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Germany and others would like to use this particular technique to strengthen their organization in an effective and well organized manner. Let’s now move towards the issues and solutions to overcome on the same.
Customer’s Problems for John Lewis
Customers are the end users of an organization and no organization can enhance its productivity and active recognition without motivate and fulfilling the needs of their customers. In order to become economically active in particular, organizations have to cater their consumers to become economically active and strategically fit and prosperous.
Customers are the one who pays the salaries of the employees of the company, and they should be treated in an effective and well organized way otherwise problems could have been associated with them. Customers should be positioned in an effective way for a long span of time; otherwise, it would create numerous problems for the companies because, without customer, there would be no business for the company. Whatever an organization does is to enhance their productivity of their consumers along with increasing the power of attraction towards the consumers (Lewis and Slack, 2003, pp. 33-37). Retail Business has some sort of problems in terms of their customer recognition, and John Lewis is one of those retail companies which are having a tough time as far as maintaining their customers perfectly. One of the major problems lies with John Lewis (JL) is the high time in the waiting queue merely because of low amount of trained employees.
It has been seen that the customers herein JL, are not in the favor of having the wait in the queue. Most of the retailing companies faced the same problem in a given fiscal year and they have to bring new effectiveness in their operations to overcome on these challenges accordingly and effectively at the same time.
Apart from this problem with the customers of JL, there is yet another problem related to lesser communication among the management and consumers. The consumers of the company are somewhat dissatisfied with the products they are having from the company. Customers of JL wants customized solutions and customized based products for their needs but due to lack of communication among the consumers and the company, their operations are not well organized and defined. In order to bring best practice in the operations of the company, the company has to apply the techniques of TQM in particular.
Apart from this particular problem, there is a need to enhance the level of communication among the upper management and the consumers as it is the only way from which an organization can bring effectiveness in the operations of the company. Due to a high tendency of communication among the management and consumers, organizations can enable them to provide customized based solutions to their consumers and on the basis of that would also enhance their productivity that certainly helps them out to manage their operations in a perfect and well organized manner. The company will assist its consumers by adhering with these provisions in a perfect manner.
De-Motivated Employees Problem in John Lewis
Employees are known as the backbone of an organization, and no organization could be in the sake of economic prosperity without maintaining their employees and giving them the right thing at the right time. It is the duty of an organization to provide all sorts of effectiveness to their employees otherwise companies cannot drag them in the field of economic prosperity. For an organization, the stances of motivated and de-motivated employees are more than important, and companies have to make such strategies from which they can motivate their employees effectively and accordingly.
According to the theories of motivation, an organization should motivate their employees with the help of different strategies and functions and all of the functions should be in line that associated with the employee’s productivity. There are two different types of motivational rewards from which an organization can enhance the productivity of their employees and could also motivate them. Intrinsic Rewards and Extrinsic rewards are the ones which the companies have to use in order to enhance the productivity of their employees accordingly (Mahadevan, 2010, pp. 29-32). Intrinsic rewards are the ones that are non economical and the examples of the same are appreciation, motivation and positive feedbacks. Apart from the intrinsic motivation, there is an extrinsic motivation as well, which includes perks, benefits and high salaries.
There are two different issues which have been associated with JL, one is having low communication with the employees and management and de-motivating factors.
It has been a consensus that decision making could be extremely important and vital for the sake of the organization and management has to include the employees in the decision making process in order to increase their productivity and increase their level of motivation, as well. There is a model with the name of Management Bi Objectives (MBO), which John Lewis has to use in order to motivate their employees to investigate the best practice for the company. In MBO approach, the level of communication among the employees and management would enhance which will bring positive impact over the company.
The other problem is having low motivational factors like appreciation, positive feedbacks along with Fringe Benefits. The company has to increase these factors in order to enhance the level of motivation among the employees in particular, and JL has to give an extensive amount of fringe benefits to its employees for their prosper operations.
Conclusion
Organizations have been termed as a place wherein people belong to different demographics and mindset work together merely for the achievement of a single and pre-specified goal. Apart from this definition, there is yet another important definition related to this particular term, like organization is a place that has a number of departments in it and among them, the name of Operational Department is one of them. It is required to select an organization and identified two problems prevailing in the company. From the entire analysis of JL, it is found that there are two different problems related to the company in terms of their consumers and employees and JL has to overcome on these issues in order to become effective.
Reference List
Brown, S. and Lamming, R. 2014. Strategic Operations Management. 2nd ed. Miami: Routledge.
Collier, D. A. and Evans, J. R. 2009. Operations Management. Glasgow: Cengage Learning.
Lewis, M. and Slack, N. 2003. Operations management. London: Routledge.
Mahadevan, B. 2010. Operations management. Upper Saddle River: Pearson.
Murthy, P. R. 2005. Production and operations management. New Delhi: New Age International (P) Ltd. Publishers.
