Rowe_Program_at_Best_Buy

Running head: BUS520 Assign 5 ROWE Program at Best Buy ROWE Program at Best Buy Myrna L. Hunt-Young In Partial fulfillment of BUS520 Professor Danette O’Neal 06/09/2011 Abstract The work force has become a stressful place to work. Employees have found it hard to balance jobs and personal life. Employees have been looking for businesses that promote a balance of work and personal life. To the same token Employers are realizing that turnovers are costing them money also. Employers are looking for ways to improve morale within their company and reduce turnover. Best Buy has implemented a program that will treat their employees with a perfect balance of work and personal life. Background Best Buy corporate culture was to solve problems no matter how many hours it took to finish the problem or project. The employees were expected to work long hours and a sacrifice their personal life, for the benefit of the company. In 2003 Best Buy adopted a new work environment policy called Results-Only Work Environment ROWE. Describe the culture of Best Buy Best Buy has had two types of cultures. The first culture of Best Buy was working their employees without giving interest to the employees’ personal life. Best Buy would give assignments with deadlines to their employees without regard for the amount of hours that it took for completing the job. Best Buy understood that this was not the best way for the company to survive in keeping their seasoned employees. The second culture of Best Buy was Results-Only Work Environment program, or ROWE. Best Buy decided to change their culture to a more personal life friendly atmosphere. Prior to 2003 Best Buy’s focus was to get the job done. Best Buy only thought about the success of the company without regard to the success of the employee. A number of employees would work themselves to complete deadlines and their personal lives would suffer. This type of environment caused employees to feel ill or stressed. Employees would also feel guilty about leaving early from work as management expected you to say long hours. Best Buy decided that they would change their work place environment. There was a study done and the program was called work-life balance. Organizational Ethics, Hellriegel and Slocum (2010, pg. 553) “Best Buy rethought the very concept of work. Under the Results-Only Work Environment program, or ROWE employees can work when and where they like, as long and they got the work done.” This type of culture allows employees to put their personal life first. It removed the feeling of guilt when an employee had to leave from work early; as the employee was able to complete their work outside of the Best Buy building. Discuss the approach to organizational change that the ROWE program illustrates. The approach that Best Buy used for the organizational change to the ROWE program was demonstrated by implementing within their headquarters located in Minneapolis. The company quietly exposed their employees to the program. In 2009 Best Buy started introducing the ROWE program within their retail stores. Best Buy is still trying to strategize how to apply ROWE to their retail stores, as they are set-up with time clocks and schedules. Best Buy knew that all departments needed to apply the change; however, there needed to be a structure built around the program. So, that when the program was rolled out to other groups there was a framework. Each department would still need to modify the program to fit its needs. Also the departments were able to determine how their time would be used productively. Discuss the resistance, both organization and individual, that the ROWE program had to overcome The resistance that both the organizations and individuals faced at Best Buy with the ROWE program was change. A number of organizations within Best Buy did not think that they could set-up the ROWE program and make their department successful. Individuals felt their way of getting ahead had been changed and they needed to figure out another way to get ahead. The organizations had to change their ways of producing. No longer were managers able to set-up work without proper planning. Organization now had to come up with ways to get work assigned to employees. Then get the work accomplished without having employees working long hours. Managers felt they needed to keep their rigid managerial process, to keep their organizations productive. With the hours now being flexible both managers and individuals had to trust their fellow colleagues. Colleagues would now work together on completing tasks. This trust needed to be based on being able to contact each other when work needed to be completed. Also that work would be completed this goal. Discuss the sources of stress that are apparent in the case The primary source of stress is apparent in this case. Employees were not able to balance work and their personal life. Without this balance, the employees’ work and personal life were negatively affected. The work stress that the employee felt was that they had to work hard to get ahead. If the employee did not work long hours or appear to work hard their job was in jeopardy. Management enforced this behavior by awarding those that were the first one in to turn on the lights and the last one out to turn off the light. The personal life stress that the employee felt was guilt. Employee’s felt guilty for not spending time with their family. This caused stress as one employee stated she would avoid their family so that they could get to work early. Discuss whether or not the organizational culture has helped with the change. The organizational culture has helped change the work environment at Best Buy. Best Buy began to understand the importance of employees having a balance with personal and work life. When the ROWE program was implemented at Best Buy, they saw a number of improvements; the morale within the company increased, and a number of departments experienced a decrease in voluntary employee turnover. Along with the increase in morale and decrease in employee turnover productivity increased at Best Buy. Summary Best Buy realized that their company needed to change the work environment. Best Buy needed to improve employee morale and reduce employee turnover. Best Buy researched and adopted a program called ROWE. The program changed the culture of Best Buy. With the ROWE program Best Buy improved the work environment, productivity, and more importantly balanced the employees’ personal and work experience. References Hellriegel & Slocum, Jr., D, J.W, Jr. (2010). Organization behavior, 13th edition South-Western Centrage Learning Marquez, J. (2008). Changing a company's culture, not just its schedules, pays off. Workforce Management, 21. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Gresham, L. (2007). A new dawn. Employee Benefit News Canada, 4(2), 28-29. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. Appendix SMARTHINKING's E-structor Response Form (Your marked-up essay is below this form.) HOW THIS WORKS: Your e-structor has written overview comments about your essay in the form below. Your e-structor has also embedded comments [in bold and in brackets] throughout your essay. Thank you for choosing SMARTHINKING's OWL; best wishes with revising your paper! *Strengths of the essay: Welcome back to Smarthinking, Myrna. My name is Misty T., and I will be your writing tutor for your discussion of Best Buy’s development of a personal and professional environment. I really think that you have done a great job pointing the essay back to the thesis statement on several occasions, Myrna. This helps the essay stay focused. Nice work. Let’s get started on the rest of your essay!