Home Depot stores used to be known for customer service. A host of friendly employees would help customers navigate a huge inventory, find exactly what they needed, and even provide detailed instruction.

Home Depot stores used to be known for customer service. A host of friendly employees would help customers navigate a huge inventory, find exactly what they needed, and even provide detailed instruction. Those days seem long gone, though. Under the leadership of the former CEO, the company shifted its focus away from customer service and toward reducing inventory and cutting costs. Stores that once had an employee in nearly every aisle are now being manned by just a handful, even during the busiest times. Customers who were used to getting help and personal attention can no longer find even a cashier, much less someone that can answer their questions on how to use a reciprocating saw.

Marvin Ellison, promoted to CEO in 2008, saw the disastrous results of Home Depot’s lack of attention to customers. In the last three months of 2009, the company lost $54 million. To make matters worse, the company’s reputation took tremendous hits. For many years, it routinely ranked near the bottom of the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index, which measures consumers’ evaluations of all major retailers. Even after Home Depot recovered in these rankings slightly, it still lagged far behind competitors like Lowe’s and Ace. Ellison had to listen to countless stories of how consumers would drive an extra 30 minutes, even an hour, to avoid going to Home Depot.

To turn things around, Marvin Ellison has committed to a new company vision—a culture dedicated to meeting three goals—clean warehouses, stocked shelves, and top customer services. He wants employees to set aside a portion of their shift to do nothing else but take care of customers. He wants to revise evaluations so that employees’ performance is reviewed primarily on the basis of customer service. He wants to give financial incentives to employees who provide great service. He wants to reduce the number of messages that stores and employees get from headquarters so that they can focus on customers. In short, he wants to restore Home Depot’s reputation for providing the very best in customer service.

Ellison has appointed you to a management team that is in charge of setting up a training and evaluating a program that will get the entire company focused on his vision of customer service. You and your team face the difficult task of changing the entire company’s culture so that the entire organization is focused on the customer. How will you do it?

Question:

What kind of training and evaluation program would you institute to change Home Depot’s culture? (Please include and describe two training and evaluation programs you would implement).

 In your post please provide at least two APA references to support your answer (You can utilize the textbook). You can utilize the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) (Links to an external site.) website for the correct way to reference the articles used.

DQ2 The Nature of Management and Ethical Considerations

Prior to the completion of this discussion board post, please review:

Reading: Chapter 4 Ethics and Social responsibility pg. 68

Chapter 4 PowerPoint Presentation Preview the document

 Background: Organizational cultures reinforce employees’ behaviors—for better or worse. The ways in which an organization doles out rewards and punishments can also indicate to employees about what is desirable behavior and what is undesirable behavior. For example, Enron rewarded risk-taking and generating high returns. It tended to sanction those who raised concerns or expressed doubts. Also, organizations have authority structures that, at times, can move swiftly and powerfully to address unethical or irresponsible behavior. At other times, of course, authority structures can ignore or even condone such behavior, with predictable devastating results.

Question: How does the nature of management jobs create the possibility for ethical abuses? (Please explain the nature of management jobs and the relationship they may have with ethical abuses, provide an example of ethical abuse that has been present in management).

In your post please provide at least two APA references to support your answer (You can utilize the textbook). You can utilize the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) (Links to an external site.) website for the correct way to reference the articles used.