A Brief Description of the Organization, Its Domain, Its Employees, and Its Challenges
A Brief Description of the Organization, Its Domain, Its Employees, and Its Challenges
Fit Stop Ltd is an upcoming business that is aimed at specializing in selling a variety of equipment for training, conditioning, fitness, and exercising. Other than selling these pieces of equipment, Fit Stop will also have customer services that will include personalized advice. That is, the customers will receive different guidance on particular conditioning and training needs. The guidance/advice will not be limited by age. In other words, the organization will be better prepared to offer the relevant advice to all. The Fit Stop will have more outlets. In order to fulfill its customer-specific advice, the organization also targets to employ a wide range of specialists to each of its stores. These include; physiotherapists, kinesiology expert managers, sales persons and other staffs. Each of the specialists will have specific roles and responsibilities thus different academic qualifications. For instance, the physiotherapist will help in advising on problems such as injuries and chronic pains while the kinesiology expert will offer advice on training on various sports activities. Together, the kinesiology expert and the physiotherapist will also provide training to the other employees regarding the use of different types of equipment and how/why to use rehabilitation. Upon training the staffs will be expected to guide customers on how to use certain equipment as well as identifying their needs. The Fit Stop stores will operate on a daily basis from Monday to Sunday. Since the stores are located in a malls they will be open from9.00 am to 9.00pm on weekdays, 9.00 am to 6.00 pm on Saturday and from noon to 6.00 pm on Sunday. The organization targets to expand its services to the major cities in Ontario as well as to the western provinces. Later, the services will also be extended as far as to Quebec and Atlantic provinces. Nonetheless, the Fit Stop has one outstanding challenge which is the employees’ compensation. The organization’s head has little knowledge in this field thus posing a threat to the organization considering that employee’s motivation and compensation is key to the success of any business.
The Goals for the Organization’s Compensation System
There are some goals that the Fit Stop organization compensation system should consider achieving. Firstly, the system should focus on attracting the potential employees. An organization that has better employees’ compensation system tends to attract the most qualified and skilled employs thereby improving the overall organization’s performance. Secondly, the system should be aimed at motivating the employees. A competitive compensation system ensures the retention of the employees (Hameed, Ramzan & Zubair, 2014). When workers are motivated, they have no reason to turn over their duties.
The third goal should be facilitating the employees’ satisfaction and morale. Fourthly, the organization must comply with the state’s pay laws. Dissatisfaction on the employees’ side does not only lead to massive turnover but also contribute to poor quality of work of performance among the retained employees (Hameed, Ramzan & Zubair, 2014). Additionally, a better compensation system influences the employees’ loyalty to the organization. A proper compensation system has a direct impact on the organization in that the employees are happy hence deliver quality services to the customers (Hameed, Ramzan & Zubair, 2014). Consequently, the organization tends to grow, expand and even meet the competitive advantage against other competitors.
The Goals for the Organization’s Compensation System
Other Employee’s Needs Except for the Intrinsic and Extrinsic-Related Awards
Other than the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, there are several other needs for the employees. While both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards are financial in nature, other employees’ needs are non-financial. These include; career development, opportunities for recognition, excellent opportunities and better working environment and conditions (Gupta & Shaw, 2014). In essence, the employees’ non-financial needs can be classified into two broad categories. These are according to the job description and the working environment (Gupta & Shaw, 2014). Employees’ need related to former include but not limited to praises, authority, and autonomy, advanced opportunities, motivating duties and responsibilities, feeling of achievement, giving chances to deal with challenges and opportunity for recognition (Malik, Butt, & Choi, 2015). The working environment needs are such as job leaves (sick leave, paternity leave, maternity leave, schooling leaves, etc.), compatible and capable co-workers, modified retirement, fair and consistent working practices and policies, alternative working arrangements, competent and fair supervision, flexible schedule, and comfortable and safe working environment.
Fundamentally, employees have to balance between work live, and family lives. In this case, an employee may not require much of the intrinsic or extrinsic rewards to balance the two. Therefore, these other needs are essential as the intrinsic and the extrinsic needs. Nevertheless, all the rewards, intrinsic, extrinsic or other related needs are important to any employee. An employee who receives the awards can overcome work related or home related stress hence improving his/her productivity at work, and the result is that the organization’s success is guaranteed (Gupta & Shaw, 2014). It is also important to note that to ensure sustainable organization’s success the awards received by the employees should be equitable. In other words, all the awards should be distributed equally and accordingly without favoritism.
A Discussion of the Contextual Variables for the Organization and how these Variables will Influence the Organization
Task Environment and Domain
The task environment involves all the sectors that an organization works with directly. These sectors, usually, impacts an organization directly especially in the achievement of its goals. Thus, the task environment and domain includes an organization’s market sectors, international sectors, products and services, raw materials and the human resource. The Fit Stop task environment and domain are well defined such that there is high prospect for the organization’s success. For instance, First stop has specific products and services for its customers such as selling the equipment and offering specialized personal customer services. The organization has also secured funding from the private investors and a target to the potential consumers.
Business Strategy
Business strategy refers to the means by which an organization plans to meet its desired ends. Typically, business strategy involves the long-term business planning that helps it meet its goals. The Fit Stop organization has strategies such as; employees’ recruitment and training, securing funding and business expansion to large cities and provinces. These are the strategies that the organization feels that will drive it towards success as well as attaining competitive advantage.
Other Employee’s Needs Except for the Intrinsic and Extrinsic-Related Awards
Organization Size
The size of an organization is key in determining not only its success or ability to achieve goals but also its sustainability (Demerouti, Bakker & Leiter, 2014). One can argue that the Fit Stop is such a promising organization considering its size. For instance, the organization will have many stores of which will all be located in malls. Additionally, the organization targets to be established firstly in large cities of Ontario and the Western provinces and later be established in Quebec and Atlantic provinces. This will ensure that they reach to wide range of customers thus compete effectively with the other competitors.
The Workforce
A reliable workforce is required in any successful business undertaking. The workforce helps in connecting with the customers besides satisfying their specific roles and responsibilities (Demerouti, Bakker & Leiter, 2014). The Fit Stop’s workforce includes the manager, physiotherapist, kinesiology expert and sales persons. While the organization has not provided academic qualifications for the psychotherapist, the kinesiology expert should be in possession of a bachelor’s degree in the field, a manager with a bachelor’s degree in commerce while the sales staff should have at least high school diplomas. The academic qualifications, skills, and experience ensure that the employees are productive and provide quality and knowledgeable services to the customers.
Technology
While technology is essential in the modern day businesses, the Fit Stop organization has plans to keep up with the latest equipment and training services. The use of specialized equipment, new products and techniques have been proposed
A Discussion of the Six Structural Variables as they relate to the Fit Stop Organization
Job Design
The Fit Stop has various jobs which will be executed by the relevant experts. The physiotherapist role will be offering health-related advice to the clients. Among other pieces of advice, the physiotherapist will provide guidance on problems such as injuries and chronic back pain. The kinesiology will give advice on various sports activities and other physical activities. Another member of staff will provide personalized or conditioning program to the customers thus he/she must aim at satisfying the customers’ needs. Additionally, the physiotherapist and the kinesiologist will provide training to the other employees concerning the use of certain equipment. The employees will work on full-time basis.
Coordination and Departmentation
In relation to the details mentioned above on the job design, it is evident that each employee will have a specific role to play. Additionally, one can assume that there will be several departments which will be subdivided according to the organization’s services. Presumably, there will be physiotherapy department, employees’ training department, sales department, clients’ training department and managerial department.
Decision-making and Leadership
The founder of the Fit Stop maintains that collaboration and cooperation among the employees is paramount. Nonetheless, the decision-making process in an organization may be from top to bottom although the decisions made must not affect the organization negatively.
Communication and information
Whilst the founder had not openly commented on communication and information she advocates for teamwork and proper employee-customer relation. She also stresses on the employees’ innovativeness in order to meet the customers’ needs.
Control system
However, the case study does not mention on the control system. On the other hand, regarding the reward system, the organization’s founder is not well informed on the employees’ compensation system. She contemplates doing what her competitors do.
A Recommended Managerial Strategy for this Organization and why the Strategy was Chosen
The project management system is a better strategy for the Fit Stop organization. The rationale for this kind of management strategy is informed by the fact that the company is just at its initial stage of establishment. Hence, for it to achieve its goals including competing with the other related businesses the organization has to critically think about the manner of executing its plans. Additionally, indirect compensation will help the organization in attracting and retaining highly competitive employees. The employees’ loyalty and satisfaction are also enhanced hence improving the roles input and output.
Recommendation of two Compensation Strategies for this Organization and why they have been Chosen
The two compensation strategies for the Fit Stop are merit pay and indirect pay. The merit-based compensation improves the individual employee performance. In other words, merit pay ensures that the employees work at optimal level. Hence, merit pay acts as the driving force in the job performance in that the high performing employees receive higher compensation compared to the poorly performing ones. Indirect pay, on the other hand, motivates the employees. Entitlement to the indirect pay is an indication that the organization considers the wellness of its workers. Similarly, indirect pay boosts the workers’ morale thereby improving the organization’s general performance.
References
Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., & Leiter, M. (2014). Burnout and job performance: the moderating role of selection, optimization, and compensation strategies. Journal of occupational health psychology, 19(1), 96.
Gupta, N., & Shaw, J. D. (2014). Employee compensation: The neglected area of HRM research. Human Resource Management Review, 24(1), 1-4.
Hameed, A., Ramzan, M., & Zubair, H. M. K. (2014). Impact of compensation on employee performance (empirical evidence from banking sector of Pakistan). International Journal of Business and Social Science, 5(2).
Malik, M. A. R., Butt, A. N., & Choi, J. N. (2015). Rewards and employee creative performance: Moderating effects of creative self?efficacy, reward importance, and locus of control. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(1), 59-74.