2. An Introduction to Retail Management & Marketing

3. Managing Retail Stores
Book 2
Managing Retail Stores

4. Introduction to Book 2 Session 2: Aspects of a retail manager's role
Session 3: Managing the workforce
Session 4: Managing customers
Session 5: Managing a retail store

5. Session 2: Aspects of a retail manager's role Outline
What are we managing?
Some skills of the store manager
Job design
Conclusions

6. What are we managing? For decades retailers have focused on managing P
Thus, importance of buying, logistics (getting G to store) & merchandising (store layout)
As retail industries began to expand, more competition
Retailers became strategic in how they manage operations
Differentiating retail offering by improving a customer's experience in the store
Shift in focus from P to customers: Modern retail stores

7. Book 2: Actual management implications & how retailers not only manage P but also workforce
Providing additional services associated with P sales & creates unique customer experiences
Mgt strategy for staff should ensure a good customer experience, retaining customers

8. What do you think are the most important skills to manage the store
Organize the staff, the stock & the store
Make decisions
Communicate with staff
Motivate staff
Be self motivated
Be a good leader
Whatever size of retail operation, mgt, P, workforce what counts is to succeed by delivering right customer experience

9. Some skills of the store manager
Managers role: organizing HR (staff) & physical aspects of the store (such as stock) in effective ways to meet strategic & tactical objectives.
For this, managers need skills such ability to make decisions, build teams, communicate & take an overview of wider impact of changes on store.
Considering impact of changes at local level & respond to any reactions to the changes.

10. Types of skills (retail) managers need
Administrative
Decisional (problem-solving)
Communication
Motivation

11. Administrative skills
Planning & organizing events in advance
Having sufficient & appropriate merchandise
Plan stock requirements & frequent replenishment
Manage workforce & able to delegate specific tasks
Monitor compliance, check that instructions have been understood & implemented correctly.
Administrative elements are in most parts of a retail manager's role.

12. Decisional (problem-solving) skills
5 key problem-solving skills in retail management:
Judgment: take appropriate decisions & conclusions using available information resources.
Problem analysis - Identify source of problems & assess their nature & scope.

13. Decision making - Select most appropriate option from a range of choices.
Innovation - Think outside the box & identify new ways to solve old problems.
Creativity - Being aware of what is happening in store & in sector, watching for changes, respond & formulate general management principles.

14. Communication skills Communication: sending & receiving messages
To be effective, understanding has to occur between sender & receiver of the message.
In retailing, internal communications can take place on ≠ levels. For ex; down & up communication

15. Four key skills a manager needs to communicate effectively:
Actively listening & interpreting messages
Participate in a dialogue when communicating with small groups of staff & customers
Present ideas in a clear & appropriate manner.
Effective writing skills

16. Four main types of communication
verbal and oral - face-to-face, live online discussions, tutor group discussions
written - handouts, lecture notes, books
Visual - videos, posters, PowerPoint
Non-verbal - body language

17. Various barriers to communication
Poor communication - messages should be clear, understandable. Vague messages lead to confusion.
Information processing - we process, interpret messages & store them in memory for later use.
Filter & block things that are not meaningful to us
Selective distortion - when shaping info to fit our existing experiences &beliefs
Selective retention - Only remembering messages that fit our existing experiences and beliefs
Communication structures - as organizations grow, gaps can occur in lines of communication.

18. Motivational skills
Motivational skills are important when managing a retail operation
It encourages & guide workforce towards achievement of common goals
Matching the right person to right job & making that job as interesting as possible.
Clear link between effective staff management, high levels of job satisfaction & loyalty

19. Maslow linked needs of humans to way they behave
Maslow linked needs of humans to way they behave. Five categories of needs
Physiological needs - if we are hungry or thirsty we will actively seek food 
Security needs - feeling safe, job security
Social needs - friendship and to feel we belong
Esteem or Status needs - make valuable contribution to a group & being recognized as having done so.
Self-fulfilment needs - develop our fullest potential.
Physical & social needs met, we are then motivated by 'higher level' factors such as creativity or autonomy in job

20. Maslow presented his ideas about motivation as pyramid or hierarchy as shown in figure 2.1.
Low-level needs have to be satisfied before then individual will be motivated to pursue next level need.
Fig 2.1 Maslow's hierarchy of needs shows a progression of motivating factors

21. Frederick Herzberg motivation theory
Work connected to job environment 'hygiene factors'
These factors include pay, working conditions, company policies & physical work environment
If hygiene factors are poor, workers are dissatisfied with their jobs & suffer from demotivation.
Improving hygiene factors (increasing pay) reduce demotivation but would not succeed in motivating
Motivators were aspects of job itself, ex: increased responsibility, interesting & challenging work

22. Hygiene factors are most likely to act as dissatisfiers
Fig 2.2 links together Maslow's needs theory & Herzberg's motivational theory
Hygiene factors are most likely to act as dissatisfiers
If pay & working conditions are not to a level employee expects, outcome will be dissatisfaction
Figure 2.2 Needs, motivations and hygiene factors

23. Following these theories, managers focus on how to align motivators with higher-level needs
Setting objectives appropriate to the skill level of the individual should allow achievement of goals.
Increased responsibility
Creating interesting & challenging work

24. McGregor: 's Theories X and Y
Theory X: individuals avoid work & without intervention by management, workforce resist. Managers persuade staff, reward, even punished
Management style: authoritarian.
Theory Y: Individuals take responsibly. Managers seek organizational conditions & methods so people can best achieve their goals by directing their efforts towards organizational objectives.

25. Job design
Socio-technical approach to job design: equal attention to design of tasks as to needs of people.
Hackman & Oldham: a job characteristics model
To enhance feelings of responsibility, employee's job needs to involve freedom, autonomy & choice on how it is carried out.
When all 3 of these are present employee feel outcomes are result of own efforts & thus personal responsibility

26. Psychological contract
Between retail manager & staff: contract
From a formal point of view: written job contract setting out terms and conditions
In addition, implicit, unwritten understanding both parties have of each other: psychological contract.
Ex, a retail manager might expect that people come to work on time and are appropriately dressed
Employees expect a safe working env with no discrimination in terms of recruitment & promotion

27. If psychological contract is broken by either party there is likely to be a negative impact on job satisfaction & on commitment of employee to the organization.

28. Conclusions
Management Approaches of workforce are evolving with ever-changing environment.
In retail sector there is high staff turnover
low wages, long working hours & poor working conditions
Not in all retail organizations, ex: Marks and Spencer
Retailer has to make decisions under HRM umbrella
Working patterns changes ex; opening hrs & Sundays.
Thus, part-timer; less job security; technology is changing nature of the work & organizational structures