Question

Question 1

Case Study Read the case below and answer the questions that follow. Nordstrom Departmental Store The key to Nordstrom’s success over the last 100 years has been attributed to the employees and in particular, the salespeople. Nordstrom prides itself on customer service and has a culture in which pleasing the customer is very important. The Nordstrom family, who still runs the business understands this and treats their employees well so that they will treat the customers well. Nordstrom have been consistently selected as one of the 100 best companies to work for in America and more than 3,000 of Nordstrom’s employees have been with the company for more than 10 years. Nordstrom uses an inverted pyramid to illustrate its structure. On this pyramid, the customers are on top, the salespeople are next and the board of directors are at the bottom. Salespeople are encouraged to make their own decisions and do whatever they think is appropriate to best serve their customers. Nordstrom has done an excellent job focusing on programs aimed at retaining employees. At Nordstrom, the focus is on hiring the personality and the attitude and training the skill. They focus on hiring nice people with a positive, motivated and committed attitude. Previous work experience and qualifications are not important for succeeding in Nordstrom. Nordstrom makes a great effort in the hiring process to understand the potential employee’s personality, how that employee feels about themselves and their attitude towards serving customers. Personality and attitude are keys to success at Nordstrom. (Source: adapted from JC Quick and DL Nelson, Principles of Organisational Behaviour (2011), 7th edition, South-Western Cengage Learning, pg 73 (a) Explain the Big Five model of personality

(b) Based on the Big Five model of personality, describe the personality traits that Nordstrom would consider as important when hiring salespeople.

(c) Describe the kind of attitude that is expected of the sales staff of Nordstrom and explain why these attitudes are important.

(d) Do you think Nordstrom employees demonstrate organisational commitment? Provide reasons for your answer.

Answer 1

Answer is Running

1. Explain the Big Five model of personality

Answer:

Big Five model of personality:

• Openness to Experience:

Openness can bring various level of intellectual curiosity, creativity and creates more variety and novelty within a human being, further It is considered as the scope to which an Individual can become independent and Imaginative, and carry varieties of task over scheduled routine, further an Individual is enough experienced and willing to take up more risk for the allotted task

• Conscientiousness:

It is regarded with becoming steady, standardized, self – disciplined and doing duty on time, focusing on the goal for achievement purpose, Prioritize the planning instead of spontaneous behavior, It further can go with organized behavior and easy going behavior, further people can be careful, cautious and honest,

• Extra version:

Positive Energy, Positive emotions, Social Approach, Confidence and Tendency to Explore in the Organization with others, Becoming Outspoken or Talkativeness also regarded as Extraversion, It contradicts outgoing Nature with Reserved Behavior,

• Agreeableness:

This can be regarded as tendency of becoming compassionate and cooperative, instead of suspicious and becoming antagonist towards other people and each other, It can measure trust and helpful nature of someone, whether the person is tempered or not, such also can be measured by this,

It can distinguishes friendliness with the analytical behavior

• Emotional stability:

It can contradict sensitive and nervous people with the confident people, experiencing unpleasant emotions like anger, anxiety, depression and negativity can tell about the degree of emotional stability and Impulse control for a human being,

B. Based on the Big Five model of personality, describe the personality traits that Nordstrom would consider as important when hiring salespeople.

Based on the case study, it is clear that Nordstrom will focus on hiring the personality and the attitude and training the skill. They will focus on hiring nice people with a positive, motivated and committed attitude. So, they will hire people based on the personality traits like Conscientiousness, Extra version, Agreeableness, Emotional stability

C. Describe the kind of attitude that is expected of the sales staff of Nordstrom and explain why these attitudes are important.

For the sales staff of Nordstrom, the attitude would be like they can take their own decisions and think in such way to best serve their customers, the hiring would be based on the people those are having quite positive, motivated and committed attitude, however work experience and qualification is not such important for the Nordstrom, as Nordstrom employee feel themselves that personality and attitude is key to success and bring more satisfaction in the customers,

(d) Do you think Nordstrom employees demonstrate organizational commitment? Provide reasons for your answer.

Yes, Nordstrom employees demonstrate organizational commitment, cause Nordstrom departmental store already got success over hundredth years and such particularly attributed to salespeople, they pride themselves for the best customer service, and further they brought good culture in giving better pleasure to the customers, further this company treat their employee better, so Sales people can treat their customers very well, further they have been selected as one of the 100 best companies to work within United states and more than 3000 employee still associated with the company for more than 10 Years,