1 Do you think Costco’s relational approach would work for other types of organisation, such as manufacturing and public sector organisations? Costco Wholesale Corporation is the seventh largest global retailer (as of 2012) and the largest wholesale chain in the US. Costco sells bulk packaged goods through member-

only warehouses in the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, Korea, Taiwan and Japan. Costco applies a distinctive approach to employee programmes and benefits. In contrast to major competitors such as Walmart, who pay employees significantly less and offer minimal benefits, Costco attempts to develop a relational contract with employees in addition to paying higher wages. Costco aims to foster employee trust and loyalty. Among the HR strategies that serve that goal are attempts to fill vacancies from within and a benefits and wages programme that increases the longer an employee stays with the company (Costco, 2012).

Costco strives to make employees feel they can have a long career at the company.

Company policy has been to fill over 80 per cent of openings by promoting from within, and most of the top management staff started with entry-

level jobs. Senior vice president of human resources and benefits, John Matthews, makes the following claim (quoted in Mass Market Retailers, 2009):

Every one of our managers today started doing something else in the warehouse . . . And a lot of them started as hourly people pushing carts and stocking shelves and ringing registers and putting hot dogs in buns. And when they start from that perspective and come up through the organisation, those folks have earned a certain respect, as well as a respect for the issues that they face and the concerns that they have.