Designing interventions for enhancing organizational performance an application of human performance technology in supermarkets

DESIGNING INTERVENTIONS FOR ENHANCING ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE – AN APPLICATION OF HUMAN PERFORMANCE TECHNOLOGY IN SUPER MARKETS By S.HEMALATHA Degree : Doctor of Philosophy in Agribusiness Management Chairman : Dr. R.VENKATRAM, Ph.D., Professor Department of Agricultural and Rural Management Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Coimbatore 641003 2012 The aim of any business organization is to achieve its defined goals. Many techniques like Total Quality Management by Deming, Kaizen concepts, Business Process Reengineering, Business Process Improvement etc. are being used for improving the performance. Besides, the business environment is witnessing cultural and human oriented issues and any lacunae will hinder the organizational performance. Human Performance Technology (HPT) based models are found to be more appropriate tools for assessing and improving the performance of an organization by duly fulfilling the environmental huddle. This study thus aimed at diagnosing the performance of an organization using one of the HPT models. The specific objectives of the study were to conduct the organizational analysis of the selected retail outlets, to perform the environmental analysis comprising of employees and customers through emotional intelligence, job satisfaction and retail service quality, to perform the cause analysis and to suggest suitable interventions for enhancing the organizational performance. The study was conducted in four retail stores of a popular supermarket (“More”) in Coimbatore city, Tamil Nadu. The respondents consisted of customers (240) selected randomly and all the employees (55) who performed the front-end and back-end operations of the retail store. Structured pre-tested interview schedules were used to gather the primary data from the sample respondents. The traditional HPT model developed by the International Society of Performance Improvement (ISPI) was used in this study with suitable modifications. The ISPI model consisted of five analytical phases namely performance analysis, cause analysis, intervention selection design and development, intervention implementation and change and evaluation. Considering the time availability and other limitations, the study analyzed only the first three phases. Performance analysis consisted of organizational and environmental analysis. Organizational analysis measured the desired performance of the organization where as the environmental analysis assessed the present level of performance and the factors responsible for it. The environmental analysis also comprised of analysis of organizational environment, work environment, work and the employee. Besides, customers, competitors and employees were studied in the environmental analysis. More specifically, the attitude of the customers towards the store was captured in the study by analyzing the Retail Service Quality of the stores and the major competitors were compared with “More” through attributes like price, offers, service, quality and availability of the product. A modified version of the Retail Service Quality Scale was used. The modified Retail Service Quality Scale was validated further using confirmative analysis of Structural Equation Modeling. This modified scale had six dimensions namely physical aspects, inspiring confidence, courteousness, problem solving, policy and product related services. Garrett ranking technique was used to compare the competitors with “More retail outlets. The attitude of the employees towards the job (Job satisfaction) and their emotional status (Emotional Intelligence) were also studied. The Job satisfaction and emotional intelligence of the employees were measured using Job descriptive index (JDI) and Deepa Krishnaveni Emotional Intelligence Test (DKEIT). JDI measured five facets of job satisfaction namely job itself, pay, promotion, coworker and supervision. The impact of all the three environmental variables namely emotional intelligence, job satisfaction and retail service quality on organizational performance was finally tested by framing a theoretical model linking them through confirmative analysis. The study results on organizational analysis indicated that the retail stores had a mission to deliver superior value to all stake holders. The vision of the stores was to provide a different shopping experience to customers. Values were integrity, commitment, passion, seamlessness and speed. The environmental analysis based on demographic factors of the customers like age, gender, educational status and occupation were examined. Customers belonging to varying age groups visited the store for buying groceries and for purchase of skin care products. The old age customers (56-75) expected better services like helping in identifying the product. Free home delivery was preferred by most of the customers. The retail service quality scale indicated that among the different dimensions of retail service quality, the product related services like all product range, required size etc. varied across the stores and this dimension found to be crucial to improve the retail service quality of all the four stores. It was also found that customers preferred a particular store for its wide range of products and other amenities provided. The result of the confirmatory factor analysis for validating the retail service quality scale yielded a χ2value of 9.8, RMSEA 0.02, NFI 0.966 and CFI value of 0.997. This confirmed the dependency of retail service quality on the six dimensions and the result further confirmed the strength of product related services dimension in improving the retail service quality of the stores. Similarly, based on the rankings, the competitive stores were ranked first for the products they sold and “More” was ranked first for the quality of the supplied products. Analysis of organizational structure indicated that each store had to have a Store Manager, Customer Service Supervisor (CSS) and Customer Sales Assistants (CSA). The analysis further revealed that except in one store, all the other three stores had no CSS for the past six months. Two of the stores were managed by fresh retail trainees, instead of Store Managers. Majority of the CSAs were educated only up to school level. The front-end employees had less store experience and quit the job frequently. The job descriptive index indicated that 63 per cent of the front-end and 10 per cent of the backend employees were dissatisfied with pay. Deepa Krishnaveni Emotional Intelligence Test (DKEIT) indicated that only 43 per cent of the front-end employees and 75 per cent of the back-end employees were having medium high to very high level of emotional intelligence. About 17 per cent of the frontend employees were having low level of emotional intelligence. This was not a good sign as all the frontend employees must have high level of emotional intelligence. Moreover the level of emotional intelligence was significantly different among the male and female employees. The confirmative analysis for measuring the impact of the environmental variables namely emotional intelligence, job satisfaction and retail service quality on organizational performance showed a χ2value of 328.71, CFI 0.676, NFI 0.505 and a RMSEA value of 0.036. This result indicated that these environmental variables influenced the organizational performance of the retail stores. The second analytical phase namely cause analysis revealed issues like no home delivery, lack of freshness in fruits and vegetables, over and under stocking of inventory, presence of more dumps, poor maintenance of the machineries, frequent change of employees etc. The third analytical phase and also based on the overall analysis, this study suggested major interventions like training of front-end employees, work design, job design, work methods, staffing, compensation and benefits and organizational communication at store level in order to improve the overall performance of the retail stores.