Craig Jelinek has been working with Costco Wholesale since 1984. During this period, he took a variety of tasks and positions. However, in 2012, he took over as President of the organization from Jim Sinegal. The two travelled together visiting all the newly opened stores years before Jim Sinegal decided to retire as the President. It is clear that Craig Jelinek can be trusted with responsibilities. Craig’s personality can as well be described as a man of great patience, tolerance and hard work. It takes the above three traits to earn promotions and win trust of the entire organization (Courtemanche & Carden, 2014). As a manager, it is clear that terminal and instrumental values such as happiness, openness, honesty, hard work, leadership and ambition are of great importance to Craig Jelinek. Craig succeeds with his employees as well as customers. In order to succeed, Craig needs to lead by example, motivate employees, trust them and open up to them and have vision.
Costco’s organization culture began with the organization’s first president Jim Sinegal. The culture of the organization affirms that there is only a single culture with no divisions since organization leaders and employees are on the same level matters aligned with meeting the customer’s desires and Costco’s operations. The organization invests much of its efforts and money on the employees to ensure that they are contented and engaging in their duties. According to the recent survey, Costco pays its employees slightly higher wages when compared to most of its competitors. Additionally, the organization promotes within, therefore, leaders have worked in the stores leaving very minimal gap between the employees and their managers (Courtemanche & Carden, 2014).
Jim Sinegal and Craig Jelinek have done a lot in ensuring that the organization’s culture remains stable and is adhered to. For instance, Jim Sinegal’s office had neither walls nor a door. His main aim was to make himself approachable and to make employees feel on the same page with him. Moreover, he mentored Craig Jelinek and taught him skills of management. He wanted to retain the organization culture of promoting within. Craig on the other hand has maintained Costco’s culture of heavy investment on employees. He understands that motivated employees are a secret to enormous production (Gibson, 2011). He has also shown his appreciation for the $1.50 Costco hot dog deal. He found it to be a good culture and therefore retained it.
If I was to manage, the specific value that will be clear in my way of management will be humility. A humble manager motivates employees and makes them feel to be part of the whole team. Humility is said to be the greatest recipe in leadership. A humble leader is always willing to lead with examples, demonstrate how the tasks should be done and this greatly motivates employees. Humility blended with good employees’ compensation plan can greatly motivate workers. Motivated employees tend to perform more than their unmotivated counterparts. Another specific value that can be very evident in my style of management will be diligence. In most cases, employees’ efforts will reflect their leaders’. A leader who is not hard-working will not have time and vigor to manage and follow up the entire process and progress of production. Therefore, diligence is one important value that I have to embody in my way of management.
References
Courtemanche, C., & Carden, A. (2014). Competing with Costco and Sam's Club: Warehouse Club Entry and Grocery Prices. Southern Economic Journal, 80(3), 565-585.
Gibson, H. (2011). Management, Skills and Creativity: the Purpose and Value of Instrumental Reasoning in Education Discourse. Oxford Review of Education, 37(6), 699-716.
