In Italy, a nationwide strike was called by trade unions in the retail (fashion) industry against big organisations that fail to fully implement the recently amended labour law. The trade unionargued that employees' work environments are hazardous, pay compensation is way belowother industries, the workload is excessive, leading to long work hours and discrimination is seen at the workplace, all resulting in low motivation at workplace.

The board of Piamana retail stores which is among the biggest retail (fashion) stores in Italy decided to revisit its organisational policy and set out to amend it to be in line with the amended labour law.

1. Piamana retail stores has 100 stores in Italy and 250 stores across Europe. All their administrative activities are performed in one place e.g. centralized record management program & records of all functional areas are stored in one central place. The board is planning on decentralizing the process. Identify and discuss the benefits of such a move, and what the drawbacks could look like.
2. The employees of Piamana retail stores have constantly argued that there is no clear set standard from the management for them to be able to perform their work efficiently in order to be duly compensated. The board is planning to introduce a quality control program, to ensure that quality standards are met, while flaws and inconsistencies are identified and employees' potentials fully utilised. Identify four potential quality control programs that the body could use and discuss the benefits of each of these approaches.
3. The information system in the company has not been evaluated properly the 2014recession in Italy'. This can beseen as a major factor that contributes towards the excessive workload. The company is planning to strengthen its external information system, suggest ways in which this could be done.