Running head: Workplace Change
Workplace Analysis:
A Case Study On Troy Super Valu
Jon Sherman
Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville
Abstract
This analysis demonstrates how a workplace’s mode of production can
be simultaneously viewed through multiple perspectives. This analysis
utilizes metaphorical concepts in order to illustrate more clearly multiple
perspectives on workplace structure. The workplace structure analyzed
is a family owned grocery store, Super Valu, located in Troy Illinois.
Four metaphoric perspectives were found to be relevant in the analysis
and are discussed and applied using Super Valu as a case study example.
The concepts utilized in the study were the machine, psychic prison, cultural,
and political metaphors. In analysis of the organization, weaknesses
and problems in Super Valu’s system of production arose and an alternate
metaphor was suggested for workplace change. Applying concepts from
the organismic metaphor assisted in developing policy recommendations.
The policy recommendations offered, in theory, would support a more suitable
working environment.
Workplace Analysis:
A Case Study on Troy Super Valu
This study was conducted
at Troy Super Valu. Troy Super Valu is part of a five-store chain,
owned and operated by the Schuette family. The Schuette family opened
their first grocery store in 1863 in the small town of St. Rose, IL.
Eventually the Schuette family founded Schuette Stores Inc. and progressed
into owning a five-store grocery chain, small food market, and a fleet
of trucks, multiple warehouses and an Internet service. The small
food market is based in St. Rose and is the actual store that opened in
1863. The Schuettes own and operate five Super Valu’s purchased from
the corporate name. Corporate Super Valu is the largest food retailer
and wholesaler in the United States. Area Shop n’ Save, another local
grocery retailer, are divisions of corporate Super Valu (Schuette Stores
2001).
The Schuettes integrate
both corporate and family ideologies into their Super Valu working environment.
Wholesale prices and wholesome family work are common goals for Schuette
Stores, Inc. Their Super Valu’s attempt to replicate a family oriented,
small town atmosphere by maintaining smaller stores and providing friendly
customer service. The owners of this chain also take pride in having
donated over $83,750 to local schools and other charities within the surrounding
communities. The Schuette’s strive for an image of a family-oriented store
that has an interest in the community, as well as the customer and the
employees’ well being (Schuette Stores 2001).
Super Valu’s goals
for the future consistently focus on improving customer satisfaction.
As competition increases from other stores that increasingly sacrifice
customer service for lower prices, the Schuettes attempt to provide both
while placing great emphasis on customer satisfaction. Increasing
customer feedback, product quality, store appearance, and employee service
are all aspects of Schuette Store’s current goals (Schuette Stores 2001).
Troy Super Valu labor
is divided into different departments: grocery, meat, produce, deli and
bakery. Each individual department has a separate head manager. A
fresh foods manager supervises fresh food departments, and the store manager
supervises over every department. The grocery department can be divided
up into assistant store manager, dairy Manager, frozen food manager, customer
service manager, assistant customer service manager, health and beauty
aid manager, night managers, cashiers and stockers. Managers tend
to be more full-time orientated whereas stockers and cashiers tend to be
more part-time orientated. A total of twenty-nine people are employed
at Troy Super Valu. Nineteen of these are considered full-time and
ten are considered part-time employees. The demographics portray
almost equal male/female ratio, however the top management positions are
heavily skewed to the males. All employees are white Caucasians.
The author’s position in the company holds the title of one of the three
night managers at Troy Super Valu (See Appendix 1).
The night managers
responsibilities include insuring job productivity amongst subordinates,
mediating employee conflicts, ensuring customer satisfaction, providing
experience assistance to employees, balancing employees drawers and end-of-day
accounts, customer service desk responsibilities, and locking up store
at closing.
Analysis of Organization
Machine Metaphor
The machine metaphor
as applied to an organization integrates all aspects and concepts of what
can be defined as a machine. When structuring an organization and
approaching it with a mechanistic frame of mind, many characteristics surface
that are common to this type of organization. Similar to the way a machine
employs precision in it’s timing of it’s internal workings a mechanistic
organization employs precision in the workplace through various means.
These precise means often include routines, hierarchy, company policies
and regulations, and strict schedules. Each of these characteristic
means can be explained and then applied to Super Valu.
Machines are typically
built to produce one particular good in one particular fashion. Machines
are not programmed to be flexible in the production of goods. They
lack creativity and innovation and only do what they are built or programmed
to do (Morgan 1989). Routines and task specialization is the organizational
counterpart of this ideology in the mechanistic metaphor. The employee
is subjected to following the same method in order to provide a specific
good or service. Similar to the way a machine is controlled through
programming the hierarchy of a mechanistic organization is utilized to
maintain control over the workers. Management at the top of the hierarchy
may implement company policies, regulations, and strict schedules to further
maintain control. Control is extremely important in a mechanistic
organization so that the employees as “cogs in the wheel” produce exactly
what they are “programmed” to produce exactly the same way. Because
the workers are just “cogs in the wheel” they are easily replaced, similar
to the way a machine is able to be replaced (1997).
Routines, resembling
a machine, employ the same procedure to a particular task or goal indefinitely.
The task is structured to be completed in a particular fashion in order
to maximize task efficiency. At Super Valu, stockers and cashiers
tasks are predominately routinized with little margin for autonomy.
Stockers for instance, in order to stock shelves according to company policy,
must follow particular guidelines. A stocker must begin by loading
product from a pallet onto a cart while being sure to lift with legs instead
of back when it is appropriate. The stocker then proceeds onto the
sales floor with the cart of product cases. One case is opened at
a time. The individual product’s UPC is then matched to the shelf
and all products in the case are stocked. The product is then pulled
to the front of the shelf as well as the products to the left and the right
of the product just stocked. The empty box is placed on the cart.
The process is repeated until all of the stock is completed. Stockers
are even required to use box cutters in a particular fashion, smile at
passing customers, and move their carts by pulling them and not pushing
them. Stockers are overwhelmed with routines and procedures to dictate
their behavior.
Cashiers are presented
with their own routines and guidelines to follow. Cashiers must follow
a policy defined by the company termed HATS. HATS is an acronym,
which stands for in its simplest terms: hi; ask; thank; smile. A
cashier must always follow this procedure when checking out a customer.
Cashiers also use machines. Machines inherently routinize the task
for the employee. The registers are only programmed to assist employees
in one fashion and employees must therefore employ the machine in that
fashion. The UPC laser scanning, button punching, and order totaling,
all necessary aspects of ringing out a customer, are constantly processed
by the register machine. Cashier’s tasks are therefore routinized
not only by fixed company procedures but also the machines their job specifications
must utilize.
Company policies,
routines, rules, and regulations are all tools put to use to control the
workers. A mechanistic organization will often display hierarchical
characteristics in order to maintain and govern this control. Governing
this control commonly uses threats of demotion, decreased pay, job termination
or other negative consequences in order to maintain employee order.
Because the worker in a mechanistic organization is usually just a “cog
in the wheel” replacing a worker for a routinized and easily trainable
job is often a trivial issue.
Super Value employs
a hierarchical management structure. Consequently, as a solution
for dissatisfactory performance in the stocker and cashier job spheres,
negative threats and actions have in the past been utilized. Because
Super Valu is union supported, threatening job termination for the most
part does not exist. However in two instances since the author has
been employed one stocker and two checkers, due to unsatisfactory performance,
have been forced to quit by being scheduled the minimum amount of hours
permitted. The minimum amount of scheduled hours is four and is usually
sufficient in forcing the unsatisfactory employee to seek alternate employment
in order to obtain livable wages.
These mechanistic
aspects have dehumanized at least two specialized positions in Super Valu.
The job specifications that have been imposed onto cashiers and stockers
in this instance have been the indirect result of a higher turn over rate
for these positions (Foster). Job satisfaction is consequently at
a minimum or even non-existent. It is rare for a stocker or cashier
to stay with the company for longer than one year. The author has
noticed that the most common reason for leaving these positions is boredom,
lack of job importance, little pay, and routine. All of these characteristics
are frequently associated with mechanized tasks in an organization.
Psychic Prison
The psychic prison
metaphor attempts to explain an organization using the psychoanalytical
principles of consciousness and unconsciousness. Sigmond Freud, a
famous and one of the first psychoanalysts first hypothesized these concepts.
Freud theorized that two aspects, the consciousness and the unconsciousness
govern personality and behavior Consciousness pertains to human psyche
awareness and dictates a minor portion of behavior. On the other
hand the unconsciousness is an accumulation of past experiences repressed
by the human psyche that involuntarily and without awareness heavily influences
a larger portion of human behavior and personality (Morgan 1997).
Organizational decisions
are often claimed to be founded on the rational decision making process,
consequently making the assumption that every influence on the outcome
on the decision was made in complete awareness and therefore was as logical
and rational as possible. However when an organization is viewed
using the psychic prison metaphor, it is evident that organizations, in
certain decision-making circumstances, are restricted from possible alternate
beneficial decision outcomes due to their own limiting unconscious psyche
(1997).
When analyzing possible
psychic prisons within the Super Valu organization, two fundamental principles
emerge. The principles of patriarchal family and organizational dolls,
and teddy bears are all relevant in analysis of this organization.
For example, in regards
to the labor structure of Super Valu, the patriarchal family concept of
psychic prisons is very relevant. The patriarchal family concept
refers to organizations as male domination or utilizing stereotypical male
behavior to structure the workplace. For instance the hierarchy management
structure mimics male behavior by applying force and coercion to maintain
employee control. Women may also be organized into submissive positions
with little room for advancement to further perpetuate patriarchal male
dominance (Morgan 1997).
The Super Valu labor structure
blatantly demonstrates both of these attributes. The hierarchical
labor structure of Super Valu commonly classifies females into cashier
positions and males into stocker positions. This gender job segregation
is apparent male dominance patriarchy when job potential promotion is analyzed.
The stocker is presented with more job opportunities because of the likelihood
of being cross-trained in multiple job specializations when stocking is
not an option for productivity. Checkers are not presented with this
opportunity on account of there always being a customer to check out.
Cashiers generally only have the opportunity to reach the position of customer
service manager whereas there is theoretically no ceiling on the potential
promotional advances provided to the average stocker. These circumstances
perpetuate patriarchy at Super Valu and due little to promote equal gender
opportunities. It has therefore manifested an interesting psychic
prison in which the male dominated management unconsciously perpetuates
their gender’s power in this organization.
The concept
of organizational dolls and teddy bears further demonstrates the limitations
imposed onto the decision making process due to psychic prison principles.
The organizational dolls and teddy bears perspective, in relation to unconscious
decision-making restraints, demonstrates how an organization can cling
to a particular idea, belief or symbol even when it is illogical to do
so (Morgan 1997). Much like the way a child clings to a teddy bear
in order to assist in associating himself with environmental realities
a corporation may cling to a particular idea in order to assist in associating
itself with a new environment. That idea or way of doing things becomes
so ingrained in the minds of an organization that change is not seen as
an option even when environmental change endangers the organization’s survival.
Super Valu has recently employed this irrational clinging to beliefs and
ideas in the face of a serious environmental stressor.
Recently a new Wal-Mart
Supercenter opened for business in the Highland area in direct competition
with the Highland Super Valu, moderate competition to Troy Super Valu,
and indirect competition to the existence to all Super Valus owned by Shuette
Stores, Inc. Wal-Marts focus, especially in the midst of competition,
is lower prices, whereas Shuette Stores focuses more on family store values
and service and less on lower prices. This difference in approaches
in attracting customers has had negative results for Schuette Stores.
Customers, seemingly more interested in lower prices, have vested their
consumer interests in the new Wal-Mart. Schuette Stores in response
continues to focus even more on family orientated stores and raised prices
due to loss of customer activity. This clearly demonstrates this
concept of organizational dolls and teddy bears. Super Valu is obviously
clinging on to ideas and beliefs that more and more customers find little
value in. Consequently Super Valu will more than likely suffer the
results unless alternated action is taken.
Cultural Metaphor
Culture pertains to behavior and norms shared by a group of people in a
society. Culture inadvertently limits experiences and ways of thinking
to individuals to whatever is common in that culture. Experiences
and ways of thinking are passed on from generation to generation unintentionally
guiding behavior and limiting allowance for innovation. Perspectives,
goals, thoughts, and daily events are all ingredients in the concept of
culture. Just as society develops a culture as does an organization
(Morgan 1989).
Super Valu’s culture for
instance is even apparent in the designing of its buildings. Super
Valu’s are generally small to more easily mimic a family like atmosphere
for the customer. The Super Valus also have a more traditional looking
building plan utilizing wood floors and wooden ceiling beams to portray
a more old-fashioned environment, which once again demonstrates the Schuette’s
attachment to old-fashioned family values and beliefs. Many Super
Valu attributes also affect employee culture and beliefs as well.
For instance, there are no chairs except for head of department mangers’
offices and the breakrooms. This suggest to the employees that unless
it is breaktime it is worktime, there is no in between.
Interestingly enough employees
also practice rituals. A ritual is a repeating procedure that occurs
time and time again. A ritual that Super Valu employees engage in
is clocking in and out. For the last three years the store manager
uses the posted scheduled hours to determine pay, and fails to ever look
at the time card slips. They are often ignored. The employees
know this but are forced to use them anyway. This ritual of clocking
in and out has lost its organizational significance. However it suggest
to the employees that they are under Super Valu’s control and that they
forfeit their own time for Super Valu as soon as they clock in. This
ritual is a constant reminder of that notion.
Political Metaphor
Because of different interest,
goals, beliefs, ideas, and personalities the emergence of conflict is a
sociological certainty. These conflicts can only be resolved through
political means. Simply put politics is a methodological tool utilizing
compromising and communication to settle conflicting disputes between two
or more contrasting interests. Politics exist in any setting in which
there is more than one individual in a particular environment. Conflict
can be direct or indirect, latent or completely surfaced depending on the
context in which the conflict is situated (Morgan 1997).
In a workplace setting,
politics is much of an issue as it is in other aspects of society.
An organization can be viewed and analyzed using the political metaphor
as an instrument to dissect and more fully understand its structure and
means of production. For example when the metaphor is applied to
Super Valu, latent and overt conflicts emerge. These conflicts are
resolved through hierarchal power implemented by Schuette Stores.
However there have been instances in which the lesser power pool of employee’s
has organized in order to resolve an overt conflict.
Almost one year ago, around
the time for union contract renewal, employees within the Schuette Stores
chain presented the union with a list of demands for the new contract.
After the employees’ conflict surfaced, the Schuette’s immediately shot
down the demands and offered less than what the current contract offered
citing the new Wal-Mart Supercenter as its basis for the reduction in benefits.
The employees, outraged by the return proposal, threatened a strike.
As a consequence the Schuette’s were forced to comprimise and offered the
full-time employees more beniftits while reducing part-time benefits even
more. The Schuette’s realized that the bulk of their employees were
full-time and a smaller portion was part-time. Consequently the contract
was passed in the final vote because the majority was satisfied while the
minority’s benefits were compromised even more. This has in effect
strengthened a latent conflict between full-time employees and part-time
employees. This conflict from time to time presents production and
service problems. Unfortunately the part-time employees are politically
suppressed in power hierarchy that will more than likely never be completely
resolved.
Policy Recommendations
In analysis of Troy
Super Valu, two main threats to the organization’s survival surfaced.
Those two threats are the Wal-Mart Supercenter as an environmental stressor
and the political conflict between part-time and full-time employees.
If Super Valu implemented organism metaphor ideologies it’s survival would
be more likely.
The organismic organization attempts to find the “best fit” for
it’s surrounding environment and maintain a homeostasis. It would
also, since it recognizes employees as people with thoughts and emotions,
possible utilize human resource management techniques to better control
employees by keeping them happy and satisfied. Both of these concepts,
if used by Super Valu, would further increase it’s chance for survival
given it’s current circumstances. Super Valu would then recognize
that consumers want low prices with less emphasis on family values.
Realizing this “best fit” would cause Super Valu to be more competitive
against the Wal-Mart Supercenter. Consequently Super Valu’s longtivity
would be increased.
Super Valu could also
implement human resource management programs in various ways.
Understanding that part-time people play a major role in the organizations
success would be a first step. Super Valu could reduce tension
from part-time employees by offering them different benefits that are not
necessarily costly. For instance the part-time employees could be
given more flexible hours. This would most desirable to part-timers.
The reason that most people are part-time is because they have other spheres
in their life that take up a large portion of their time. By better
working around part-timers schedule, tension is more likely to be reduced
because part-timers will feel important as well.
Conclusion
After analyzing Troy
Super Valu it is evident that this organization can be viewed through multiple
metaphors. After doing so it is also evident that there are problems
threatening the survival of this organization. If this organization
does not engage in some type of workplace change, such as applying organismic
views, it’s survival is fairly limited. This company has been established
for a very long time. Unfortunately the organization has not as of
yet realized that sometimes change is necessary and the organization should
not always be viewed or run with the same frame of mind or reference.
Works Cited
Foster, Ken. (2001) Interview (Store Manager). April 14, 7:30
A.M.
Morgan, Gareth. (1989) Creative organizational theory. Sage Publications.
369 pg.
Morgan, Gareth. (1997) Images of an organization. Sage Publications.
485 pg.
Shcuette Stores (2001) www.onlinegrocer .com : April 7, 2001, 9:45
P.M.
Appendix 1
Organizational Chart for Troy Super Valu’s Labor Hierarchy
Store Manager
Assistant Store Manager
Fresh Foods Manager
Night Managers
Deli Dept. Manager
Deli Dept. Clerks
(Total of 3) Bakery
Dept. Manager
Bakery Dept. Clerks
(Researcher Included)
Produce Dept. Manager
Produce Dept. Clerks
Meat Dept. Manager
Meat Dept. Butcher
Meat Dept. Clerks
Dairy Manager
Frozen Foods Manager
HBA Manager
Customer Service Manager
Assistant Customer Service Manager
Cashiers
Stockers