Rowe Program at Best Buy

Rowe Program at Best Buy

Over the last several decades, globalization has been having profound impact upon the way many organizations will deal with employees. As the large amounts of competition have meant that an emphasis would be placed on increasing profits as much as possible. This would lead to shift in way many businesses would interact with employees, as they would see them as nothing more than tools to achieve this objective. Over the course of time, this would have a negative impact upon a company, with it causing high amounts of employee turnover. In the case of Best Buy, they were facing similar kinds of situations. As they were dealing with severe challenges from a number of different competitors and they were being squeezed, by the constant amount of employee turnover. To address this issue, the company would embark on a bold new initiative (the ROWE program). This was designed to provide employees with: more balance in their free time and it helps to increase productivity, by giving them greater control. This is important, because it would highlight how they were seeking to address these unique challenges, while maintaining high profit margins. (Hitt, 2009, pg. 310) To fully understand how this program works requires: examining the culture of Best Buy, the approach to organizational changes that the ROWE program illustrates, the levels of resistance in implementing these transformations, the source of stress and if it has helped to create a positive change within the organization. Together, these different elements will provide the greatest insights, as to how the organizational culture at Best Buy changed.

Describe the culture of Best Buy.

The culture at Best Buy has changed from: one that pushed employees to work long hours for the benefit of the company, to an environment of flexibility. Where, the overall emphasis has been on how the company can be able to allow employees, to have work schedules that are flexible, with an emphasis on achieving their production goals. What happened was a culture of working long hours, became common at Best Buy. As managers would encourage employees to work more hours, in an effort to increase productivity. This is problematic because, it would help Best Buy be able to achieve its production goals, but it would do nothing to help the individual employee feel a sense of satisfaction from their work. As they were forced to chose between working at Best Buy and spending time with their families. This would create a rift in the organization, as the staff wanted to be loyal to the company, yet had obligations outside of the work place. At which point, many valuable employees would leave the company. To mitigate these effects, Best Buy would begin to implement the Results Only Work Environment Program (ROWE). This is an initiative that was launched in 2003, to address the issue of pushing employees to work longer hours for the benefit of the company. Where, the main focus is on bringing a balance between: the life individual and how much they are working. As the company would seek to give employees greater flexibility in the time they spend with their families / friends, while being able to achieve their objectives at work. This is significant, because it shows how the culture at Best Buy would change, by evolving from one of long hours to greater amounts of flexibility for employees. (Kurtz, 2009, pp. 316 -- 317) (Hellriegel, 2011, pp. 524 -- 527)

Discuss the approach to organizational change that the ROWE program illustrates.

The ROWE program meant that there would be a radical shift in the environment of an organization. Where, there would be an emphasis on how productive the employee is, based upon the results vs. looking at other factors such as: how many hours someone worked or the total amount of time they would spend working on the project. Instead, it would look at how productive an employee was at reaching their objectives. Those who could work with the increased amounts of flexibility and achieve their objectives at the company would be able to maintain their positions. This represents a radical shift, when it comes to addressing various organizational changes, as the approach would refocus Best Buy on what issues were impacting productivity and what activities were wasting time. At which point, everyone can begin to engage in actions that would contribute to improving productivity, while enriching the overall levels of happiness among the staff. (Hellriegel, 2011, pp. 524 -- 527)

Discuss the resistance, both organization and individual that the ROWE program had to overcome.

Inside the organization many managers were resistant to the changes being proposed by the ROWE program. As they felt that this would undermine the ability of the team and the people they are supervising, to achieve their objectives. This is problematic, because managers would have to do advance planning for the various goals of the team. Where, they could no longer give employees last minute deadlines, due to the unique scheduling situation. For the individual, this meant that they would have to change the way they are interacting with people. In case of many executives and supervisors, this would mean that they would have to stop treating the staff like children. Instead, they would focus, on giving everyone objectives and then monitoring how effective they are at achieving their goals. (Hellriegel, 2011, pp. 524 -- 527)

Discuss the sources of stress that are apparent in the case.

The largest sources of stress were: the inflexibility of the old work schedule and the increased amounts of pressure that were placed on the staff. These two factors are important, because they would allow Best Buy to be able to achieve its organizational objectives over the short-term. However, over the long-term is when the company would face more severe challenges. As the inflexible schedule would cost employees time with their friends and family. Over the course of time, this would force employees to make a choice between working for the company and spending more time with their families. At which point, talented employees would often leave the company, because of these frustrations. Evidence of this can be seen by looking at the total amounts of employee turnover, with it being down 75% to 90%. As the total amount of employee issues and frustrations would decline dramatically. At the same time, the total amount of productivity was up 35%, since the program was introduced. This is significant, because it shows how Best Buy was able to address the sources of stress. As this would increase productivity and it would reduce the amount of employee turnover that was taking place. (Mathis, 2008, pg. 172)