July

2015

Bhumi

Staples Canada

7/22/2015

Management Analysis - Staples

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Executive Summary

The purpose of this report is to analyze the management approach and leadership

styles of Staples managers to determine how it influences the behaviour of their

employees.

Throughout the course of the summer co-op program in July, certain management

styles and leadership styles of the managers were observed by co-op students. The

Staples managers use an administrative management style to engage and lead their

employees. This style includes factors from a combination of administrative principles;

the Henri Fayol Principles, and the Mary Parker Follett Principles.

The Henri Fayol Principles are focused around the idea of employees knowing their

specific duties, and knowing who holds the authority. Whereas the Mary Parker Follett

Principles focuses around the idea of employees working together. From the Henri

Parker Follett Principles, the Staples managers follow the ideas of creating equity for the

employees and keeping order in the workplace. The other ideas of keeping a unity of

command, following a scalar chain, and dividing work amongst each employee are

also followed in Staples. However, there are slight altered. Staples employees do have

divisions they work in, but their work is not officially divided to certain departments as

they are cross trained to work around the store, yet they mainly focus on just one

department.

The Mary Parker Follett Principle is followed by Staples managers as they are constantly

working to make their employees follow participative leadership by working together

with them for tasks. Including employees in store decisions also lets the managers have

a people oriented management style as they are also getting the input of their workers.

Thus, using a group network approach allows the managers to let employees from all

the different departments come together to accomplish a certain task.

The leadership style used by Staples Managers is mainly democratic, with a mix of

autocratic leadership. The managers mostly allow the employees to make decisions on

their own and take responsibility. They attempt to build a tram which is able to work

together to accomplish their goals and get work done.

It is recommended that the Staples managers continue to follow their administrative

style of management by making a few alterations in order to keep the business

successful. They can change their management style by making sure that each

employee has to only report to one manager, rather than two. This will result in less

confusion for the employees and will boost their performance. The managers should

also continue to provide incentives for their employees through various compensation

methods, such as offering chances to enhance their career by offering more

promotions to exceptional employees, rather than just providing salary based

compensations which don not always motivate the employees. Changing their method

will lead to a boost in productivity as the employees will be motivated to work if they will

be rewarder by things such as promotions. The leadership style of the managers should

also focus more on staying as democratic leaders, as they allow the employees to take

more responsibility and feel that they a part of a team. Therefore, by making some

alterations to their management style, and continuing to be democratic leaders, the

Staples managers will be able to continue making the store be successful.

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Table of Contents

Purpose ................................................................................................................................................................ 3

Discussion ........................................................................................................................................................ 3-7

Management Approaches ...................................................................................................................... 3-6

Henri Fayol’s Principles ..................................................................................................................... 3-5

Mary Parker Follett’s Principles ....................................................................................................... 5-6

Leadership Styles ........................................................................................................................................ 6-7

Democratic Leadership Style ......................................................................................................... 6-7

Laissez-Faire Leadership Style ............................................................................................................ 7

Recommandations ........................................................................................................................................ 8-9

Conclusion .......................................................................................................................................................... 9

Endnotes ............................................................................................................................................................ 10

Works Cited ...................................................................................................................................................... 11

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Purpose

The purpose of this report is to analyze the leadership styles and management

approach of Staples’ managers and determine how it influences the behaviour of their

employees.

Discussion

In order for Staples to succeed as a business and positively direct its workers, the

managers must use a mix of a different management approaches and leadership

styles.

Management Approaches

Administrative principles of management are used by Staples’ managers and

supervisors. This type of management approach creates a formal structure that

describes the roles of each employees and shows the separation of power and

authority over a workforce. Managers in Staples use a combination of the Henri Fayol

Principles and the Mary Parker Follett Principles to manage the store and their

employeesi.

Henri Fayol Principle

This principle focuses on clearly distinguishing tasks for employees and make sure the

line of command is clearly defined. From the 14 principles of Henri Fayol’s Theory,

Staples managers only focus on a fewi.

Below is a description of how some of Henri Fayol’s Principles are used by Staples

managers:

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Division of Work – Staples managers believes in cross training its employees so

they can work in any department in the store, such as working in Tech, Copy

Center, the aisles, and in Receiving. However, from daily observation, it was

concluded that the majority of Staples employees have a set work responsibility

and mostly stick to doing work in their department. For example, the employees

are assigned different departments, and usually only switch between one or two

department, rather than doing every single in the store. Therefore, this principle is

not fully followed by Staples’s managers.ii

Unity of Command – Following this principle is not frequent by Staples managers

due to the presence of different shifts. For the course of one day, there are

usually two managers present in the building; one during the morning/afternoon

shift, and one during the afternoon/evening shift. Therefore, employees working

in the building may be reporting to two managers and may also have to take

instructions from two different managers. This may cause complications for

employees as they may get two sets of instructions. For example, one manager

may give an order to be completed within three hours, but another manager

may come up and also ask the same requestii.

Scalar Chain – The presence of a scalar chain is not seen in the management

styles of Staple’s managers. This is due to the fact that the managers do not act

as if they are in a hierarchy and hold power over their employees, thus creating

a line of authority that is unclear. For example, the managers do not show power

over supervisors. In fact, they both have very similar work duties, such as opening

and closing the store, and being in charge of processing daily/weekly reports.

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Therefore, employees are able to report to the supervisors or the managers of

their work as they both hold similar authorityii.

Equity – This is a principle that is strictly followed by Staples managers. It is

focused on the basis of treating every employee, supervisor, manager, and co-

op student fairly and equally. Managers do not give preferences to certain

employees and departments, and they also make sure that no other employee

is treating anyone unfairlyii.

Initiative – Staples employees are always being encouraged by the managers to

show initiative in their work and take on new responsibilities. The managers

motivate the employees to take initiative by providing them with incentives, such

as bonuses, or employee of the month awards. Weekly sales are also tracked,

which encourages the employees to work harder and make more sales, which

they are then gifted for with verbal encouragementii.

Order – Staples managers ensure that all the employees from each department

are being treated fairly and equally. They believe that no job or role in the store is

considered superior to another. For example, the managers make sure that the

Tech Center, Receiving department, the Aisles, and Copy Center workers are all

treated equally and no special attention is given to just one department or

workerii.

Mary Parker Follett Principle

This principle is based around the idea of all the employees working together to get

work done. Staples managers follow all three of these principles to help their store

succeedi.

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Below are descriptions of how managers use the principles to their advantage:

People Oriented Management – The Staples managers attempt to be people

oriented by giving their employees a change give their input in store decisions.

This makes the employees feel as if they also have a responsibility in the actions

of the storeiii. Coactive power is used by managers in order to give power to the

employees, rather than force power upon them with their authorityi.

Participative Leadership – Along with employees, co-op students are also

encouraged to work together with the managers and supervisors to accomplish

tasks in the storeiii. By enforcing group power rather than personal power, the

managers are able to create high performance levels and high productivity as

the work is being done in a team, rather than just one individuali.

Group Network – By allowing employees to contribute their ideas for a decisioni,

the managers are able to use integration to their advantage by getting input

from employees in every department, thus providing a variety of opinions rather

than one opinioniii.

Leadership Style

The democratic leadership style is mainly followed by the Staples mangers, along with a

mix of a laissez-faire leadership style.

Democratic Leadership

The leadership style used by Staples managers is a democratic leadership style. The

managers use a hands off approach when handling their employees. They allow the

employees to take responsibility upon themselvesi. This type of style encourages

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discussion amongst the employees and urges them to share their ideas and opinions

with others in the workplace, thus attempting to build a team that can work together to

finish projectsiv. Staples managers also follow the leadership style of a democratic

manager by providing feedback to the employees on the work they have done.

Laissez-Faire Leadership

This type of leadership style is also used by some managers in Staples. It focuses on

allowing delegationi. The employees get a chance to handle responsibilities and

problems that managers may face. However, this type of style is only done in certain

departments, such as the Tech department in Staplesv. The employees in the Tech

department have a high level of knowledge of what they are doing, thus it is useful to

use this leadership style because by attempting to face problems, the employees are

able to develop their skills.

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Recommendations

It is recommended that the Staples managers continue their basic approach to

management by following the administrative management style. However, it is also

recommended that they alter some of the principles being followed. The unity of

command principles should be put into effect because each employee should have

only one manager to report to, rather than two managers. This will make situations

easier for the employees as they will only have one set of instructions for tasks, which will

lead to an increase in productivity. The Staples managers should continue to follow

Henri Fayol’s principles of equity and order in the workplace. This will ensure that every

employee is being treated fairly and no role seems superior to anotherii. The Mary Parker

Follett principles should also be followed as it was proven that they motivated

employees to work harder, which lead to high productivity within the storeiii. Therefore,

the managers should continue to put efforts into training the employees to work in a

team to accomplish tasks as they will be more successful.

The leadership style this is recommended to be followed for the managers is the

democratic leadership style, rather than the laissez-faire style. By giving the employees

a chance to give their input into decisions and training them to develop their skills will

be more effective as it will allow for a motivated and responsible workforceiv. It is

recommended that the laissez-fare leadership style no longer be used in the Tech

department because even if the employees get a chance to take upon many

problems, it may lead to lower productivity levels if some employees are not as

experienced to deal with issues or if they do not have sufficient knowledge of all of the

servicesv. Therefore, it is recommended that the Staples managers focus on using some

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of the Henry Fayol principles, putting more effort into enhancing the methods of the

Mary Parker Follett principles, and by following a democratic leadership style by

encoring group work in order to make their Staples store successful.

Conclusion

In order for the Staples managers to make their store successful, they should continue to

take an administrative approach on management and follow a democratic leadership

style by focusing their efforts on making their employees to work together in a team.

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i Schermerhorm, John R., and Barry Wright. "Human Resource Management." In Management

Fundamentals, 37-40. Canadian Edition ed. Mississauaga: John Wiley and Sons Canada, 2007.

ii "HENRI FAYOL'S 14 Principles of Management." MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS.

<https://managementinnovations.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/henri-fayols-14-principles-of-

management/>.

iii "Mary Parker Follett: People-Oriented, Group-Network Management." Study.com.

<http://study.com/academy/lesson/mary-parker-follett-people-oriented-group-network-

management.html>.

iv "The Democratic Leadership Style." Leadership Toolbox. <http://www.leadership-

toolbox.com/democratic-leadership-style.html>.

v Cherry, Kendra. "What Is Laissez-Faire Leadership? The Pros and Cons."

<http://psychology.about.com/od/leadership/f/laissez-faire-leadership.htm>.

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Works Cited Cherry, Kendra. "What Is Laissez-Faire Leadership? The Pros and Cons." Web. 20 July

2015. <http://psychology.about.com/od/leadership/f/laissez-faire-leadership.htm>.

"The Democratic Leadership Style." Leadership Toolbox. Web. 20 July 2015.

<http://www.leadership-toolbox.com/democratic-leadership-style.html>.

"HENRI FAYOL'S 14 Principles of Management." MANAGEMENT INNOVATIONS. 4 Dec.

2008. Web. 22 July 2015.

<https://managementinnovations.wordpress.com/2008/12/04/henri-fayols-14-

principles-of-management/>.

"Mary Parker Follett: People-Oriented, Group-Network Management." Study.com. Web.

22 July 2015. <http://study.com/academy/lesson/mary-parker-follett-people-

oriented-group-network-management.html>.

Schermerhorm, John R., and Barry Wright. "Human Resource Management." In

Management Fundamentals, 37-40. Canadian Edition ed. Mississauaga: John

Wiley and Sons Canada, 2007.