Best Practices at Best Buy

Do traditional workplaces reward long hours instead of efficient hours? Wouldn't it make more sense to have a workplace in which people can do whatever they want, whenever they want, as long as the work gets done?" Well, that's the approach Best Buy is taking. And this radical workplace experiment, which obviously has many implications for employee motivation, has been an interesting and enlightening journey for the company.

In 2002, then CEO Brad Anderson introduced a carefully crafted program called ROWE Results-Only Work Environment. ROWE was the inspiration of two HRM managers at Best Buy, Cali Ressler and Jody Thompson, who had been given the task of taking a flexible work program in effect at corporate headquarters in Minnesota and developing it for

everyone in the company. Ressler and Thompson said, "We realized that the flexible work program was successful as employee engagement was up, productivity was higher, but the problem was the participants were being viewed as not working." And that was a common reaction from managers who didn't really view flexible work employees as "really working because they aren't in the office working traditional hours." The two women set about to change that by creating a program in which "everyone would be evaluated solely on their results, not on how long they worked."

The first thing to understand about ROWE is that it's not about schedules. Instead, it's about changing the work culture of an organization, which is infinitely more difficult than changing schedules. With Anderson's blessing and support, they embarked on this journey to overhaul the company's corporate workplace. The first step in implementing ROWE was a culture audit at company headquarters, which helped them establish a baseline for how employees perceived their work environment. After four months, the audit was repeated. During this time, Best Buy executives were being educated about ROWE and what it was all about. Obviously, it was important to have their commitment to the program. The second phase involved explaining the ROWE philosophy to all the corporate employees and training managers on how to maintain control in a ROWE workplace. In the third phase, work unit teams were free to figure out how to implement the changes. Each team found a different way to keep the flexibility from spiraling into chaos. For instance, the public relations team got pagers to make sure someone was always available in an emergency

Some employees in the finance department used software that turns voice mail into e-mail files accessible from anywhere, making it easier for them to work at home. Four months after ROWE was implemented, Ressler and Thompson followed up with another culture check to see how everyone was doing.

So what's the bottom line for Best Buy? Productivity jumped 41 percent, and voluntary turnover fell to 8 percent from 12 percent. They also discovered that when employees' engagement with their jobs increased, average annual sales increased 2 percent. And employees said the freedom changed their lives. They don't know if they work fewer hours, they've stopped counting but they are more productive." ROWE reduced work-family conflict and increased employees control over their schedules. As Ressler and Thompson stated, "Work isn't a place you go, it's something you do."

Source: Robbins, S. P., & Coulter, M. (2012). Management (11th ed.). Pearson Education.

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Questions Answer ALL questions.

ROWE requires both a personal and organizational mindset shift to succeed. It involves changes in both procedural structures and management activities in organizations. In some cases, unfortunately, there will always be employees who are going to take advantage of working hard for their personal development. Slackers will continue to exist in a ROWE model, so employers must be on the alert for such abuse of the system. Given that you are in a managerial position in Best Buy, answer ALL questions below:

1. By adopting the concept of Management by Objectives (MBO), explain in full detail how MBO may apply in this ROWE program. (15 marks)

2. As managers reduce face-to-face interaction with staff under ROWE program, the Early Theories of Leadership may not work, what do you suggest as the most feasible leadership theory/approach to guide employees under this contingency and why? Provide detailed explanation to your suggestion. (20 marks)

3. Elaborate ONE contemporary theory of motivation that could be applied in the given case. Explain explicitly how this theory might work at Best Buy and how it leads to job satisfaction and employee motivation. (20 marks)

4. On the other hand, ROWE can be difficult to manage. It is often harder to communicate with remote employees who work varying schedules. Apart from what Best Buy is currently practicing, discuss and suggest how communication can flow more effectively at Best Buy.

   (15 marks)

5.

6. ROWE workplace inevitably creates a challenge for the more traditional managers to evaluate the performance of their subordinates. Which performance appraisal method will you suggest to the managers to evaluate the staff performance more adequately? Provide detailed explanation to your suggestion. (15 marks)

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