Running head IMPROVING FIRM BEHAVIOR THROUGH EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT .docx

Running head: IMPROVING FIRM BEHAVIOR THROUGH
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT 1
IMPROVING FIRM BEHAVIOR THROUGH EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT 19
Improving Firm Behavior through Employee Engagement
Name
Course Number
Professor
Date
Table of Contents
Overview of the organization3
My position and role within the organization6

Problem statement7
Research question9
Literature review9
Terminal course objectives15
Solution
s16
Reflection17

Overview of the organization
The corporate culture of Sobeys is clear with a focus on
excellence in fresh food, a commitment to customer service, and
highly engaged employees. Sobeys owns and operates more than
1,800 corporate and franchise locations in the Canadian Market.
These stores are across all regions of Canada and include
numerous banners such as Sobeys, Price Choppers, and Thrifty
Foods to name a few. These different banners allow Sobeys to
deliver different strategies of having the right products at the
right prices determined by whom they compete with such as
Wal-Mart as a discounter or Loblaw as a conventional grocery
retailer. Sobeys owns 41.6 of Crombie REIT as of 2014, which
allows Sobeys to have a strong partnership with a real estate
company and continue to develop areas of expansion through
capital growth by adding square footage sales. This paper will
expand on further details of the real estate resources Sobeys
has, what the firm’s plans are for future growth, and how
Sobeys are maximizing their store formats to maintain and grow
market share (Chevalier, 2015).
The main aim why individuals set up the business organization
is to generate profits. Sobeys store has been able to conquer the
market structure across Canada, and it can compete favorably
with other stores including Walmart incorporations. Sobeys is
the second largest food retailer in Canada having more than 260

supermarkets. The company is evolving occasionally as the
technological landscape changes. Good management and the
ability to retain customers has been one of the major focus of
the Sobeys store and the secret of their success that spurns since
the 20th century. The food industry is a very tricky industry to
invest in, if the operations are not well connected, it can lead to
massive losses. The regulations governing food industry are
also many that the company is supposed to comply with. The
authorities are very strict in implementing these regulations
mainly because they have a direct impact on general human
well-being.
Sobey's chain of stores is stocked with products that consumers
easily relate to. The food industry is customer-based industry
thus the need for customer feedback is very high. Without
consumers, of course, the company will seize to exist. Ensuring
customer satisfaction is one of the key priority of the Sobeys
store. Customers always dictate what they want, and before
opening a new store in a place, there is the need to conduct
effective market analysis to identify the basic preferences of the
local individuals to avoid cases where produced food stuff are
not consumed. In any given population, the number of
individuals who prefer exploiting new options is usually very
because most people consider their usual tastes and flavors.
The company has been able to undergo successful transition
over time while remaining a big market player. The foodstuffs

that were preferred in the 20th century are different to the ones
that are being consumed currently. It is always very difficult for
a company that enjoyed success in previous years to change
their strategy and remain relevant.
The organization is a major player in the retail business, and it
is one of the best preferred in the region. The organization has
since developed important strategies that are likely to propel it
to greater heights especially by reaching new markets. Every
organization, therefore, implements policies that are likely to
foster its growth and propel it to greater heights within the
retail sector. It is important for an organization to consider
employee relationship as they strive to achieve success by
increasing the number of sales by navigating through new
markets.
The organization, therefore, depends on its strong recruitment
strategy and strong rewards and compensation strategy to
bolster and have the much-needed employee retention that many
organizations struggle with. The recruitment strategy that is
adopted by the organization focuses on skills and experience
rather than mere academic qualification which does not always
reflect on the ability of an employee to perform effectively to
improve performance and promote positive engagement. The
presence of diverse skills within the organization has been a
major boost on how the organization has been able to perform
above their rivals since employees exhibit varying skills and

level of experience, which ensure that employees are highly
integrated into improving organizational success (Binkley and
Connor, 2008).
The benefits and rewards strategy that has been adopted by the
organization is much higher and includes more benefits for
success achieved by any employee within the organization
occupying different positions within the organization. The
benefits and compensation strategy that has been implemented
by the organization promotes both individual and group
employee engagement since it highlights the importance of
individuals efforts as well as teamwork since employees are
compensated depending on how well they help in achieving the
organization's goals and target. The organization has two levels
of target setting where the first target is much dependent on
individual performance while the other focuses on a wider
organizational perspective through teamwork.
Sobeys Company is committed to continuing producing quality
products to all of its 1296 stores in Canada. The company has
plans to expand even further to reach international recognition
as the best grocery retailer with highest customer satisfaction
levels. Due to this fact, the company is entirely focused on
improving the quality of their products, service delivery within
each format by specifically realigning and renovating their
current store base to meet the current regulations. The company
has a strong market presence in Canada and is one of the

companies that have greater market power (Binkley and Connor,
2008).
Sobeys Company is considering using its influence to
incorporate new products in the market to boost its revenues
levels. Having made a name by producing quality products in
the market, incorporating new products to the market is likely to
boost its relevancy and improve its adaptability standards. Many
companies tend to avoid introducing new products to the market
because of fear of the levels of customer satisfaction as it may
influence other products in the market.My position and role
within the organization
I have ben privileged to work with the management of the
Sobeys Stores as assistant chief finance officer. As the assistant
chief finance officer in the organization, my responsibilities
revolves around how well the organization can link between
profit maximization and while restricting the total costs that are
incurred by the organization. Therefore ensuring that the
organization remains profitable at the targeted levels is one my
key responsibilities. I work closely with the organization's chief
executive officer since there is the need for a close working
relationship to foster better organizational strategies that can
help improve the organizational performance and help the
organization remain one of the best performing companies with
a good employee structured relationship.
Therefore, responsibilities also revolve around ensuring that

financial risk within the organization is managed to prevent any
incidences of negative influence on the organizational
profitability. The increasing economic uncertainties, increased
regulatory requirements, and increased investor scrutiny are
among the factors that have led to an increased spotlight on the
role of finance officer within numerous business organizations.
Ensuring that employee are also compensated effectively
depending on how they can influence organization productivity
in increasing the company sales. Thus, in general, a finance
officer within an organization is tasked with ensuring that the
organization has smooth run by ensuring total control,
efficiency, performance and execution of organizational
functions (Binkley and Connor, 2008).
However, in ensuring that the organization remains productive,
ensuring that employees are well compensated plays a
significant role and ensuring that employees remain positive
and focused on achieving the organization goals. Improving
employee morale within an organization is directly related to
the organizations increasing profitability. Highly motivated
employees mean that they are well focused on achieving the
organizational objectives.
Thus with the aim of ensuring having highly motivated
employees, developing an effective rewards and compensation
strategy has a significant positive impact on the organization, as
it can focus on more productive issues of the business instead or

ensuring that the organization spends most of its time
convincing high performing staff members. The rewards and
compensation strategy that is employed provide a
straightforward solution to employee queries regarding
compensation and rewards for their performance within the
organization. Therefore, business organizations thrive on
perfectly developed rewards and compensation strategies.
Problem statement
Ensuring that all employees within the organization are satisfied
is one of the most complicated things that organization is
striving to achieve its objectives. In recent times, the
organization even though has been having average profits, there
has been a lower employee morale regarding their interest in
various tasks within the organization. The change in morale can
be attributed to numerous elements. The employee engagement
strategy within the organization has been considered rigid since
it has been operational for quite some time. This change in
morale can normally be accredited to the attitude employees are
having towards their job on the compensation strategy that has

been outlined which employees think that it deserves changes
and be flexible to accommodate the changing working patterns
that employees are subjected to.
The organization, however, has made several steps in addressing
the issue, especially through employee engagement with an aim
to create a more understanding method that can help the
employees and the organization in general to ensure to restore
the much-needed motive for employees for employees to have
the hunger to succeed.
Some of the factors that are inhibiting full organizational
performance include the changing business, and economic
landscape is making difficult of the organization to satisfy
employees effectively through better compensation and
engagement strategies. Competition in recent times is also
among the increasing factors that are influencing the
organizational performance. In recent times, Sobeys store has
been forced to close some of its stores to develop a clear
general strategy that can be adopted to provide the organization
with an upper hand over its competitors. These are some of the
common factors that have led to reduced employee participation
in the organizational operations.Research question
Research question provides the clearest idea of what is ailing
the organization or what the organization is considering
implementing to change the trend and resume the previous
profitability status with a high level of employee engagement.

Therefore, in this case, the most probable research question will
be,
What are the factors or strategies that can be adopted to have
high performing employees with the best level of morale? This
is the research question that will provide important information
that the organization will act upon in developing new policies
and strategies to ensure that employees are satisfied with the
business cultural environment and general benefits and
compensation. Some of the factors that will be considered in
this case include reviewing the benefits package and also to
realign the existing benefits and compensation strategies to
ensure that they conform to the latest changes within the
business world. This will also ensure that employees can reach
their full potential concerning their ability to perform
effectively within their preferred position within the
organization.
Literature review
Julie Abbott (2003) developed a study that sought to establish if
there exist employee satisfaction within business organizations.
Thus, the main aim of the study was to create an effective
understanding of the impact of low employee morale on

customer satisfaction and profitability of an organization in a
business-to-business environment. The author wanted to have a
clear picture on the existing theories that link employee morale
with the quality of organizational performance. The business
organization strives to ensure that employees within their
environment are effectively taken care of to have better
production levels. This connection has received several reviews
from the different organizational environment while also
acknowledging the difficulties involved in striving to develop
better and favorable strategies that will ensure employees are
highly satisfied (Abbott, 2003).
The study included exploratory research in the business-to-
business sector within the United Kingdom. After a thorough
analysis of the data, the results showed that there was an
inverse relationship between employees’ morale and the
productivity. The study thus showed that employee morale
could be very low, but they still work extremely hard to fulfill
their objectives. However, the study also highlights the need to
have a successful organization where there are equal employee
morale and the productivity. A business organization in most
cases assume that the two variables correlate effectively in
ensuring that the organization performs better among its rival
companies.
Morale of an individual plays a significant role having a better
working environment. When employee morale is low, it is very

difficult to engage in better organization engagement and better
teamwork performances. Low moral employees as outlined in
the study tend to focus on their work as allocated by the
organization but does not have significant importance to general
employee performance regarding teamwork. The study,
therefore, concludes that employee morale has an impact on
quality of employee performance although the impact is not that
huge that can cause disharmony easily within organizational
performances (Abbott, 2003).
Schminke et.al (2005), conducted a study on the effect of leader
moral development on ethical climate and employee attitudes.
In the documentation, the authors focused on examining the
effect of leader moral development on a given organization's
ethical climate and employee attitudes. Leaders in the business
organization include the management who monitors how the
organization is progressing regarding achieving the set
objectives. The strategy that is employed by these business
leaders to their employees in seeking to evaluate their services
has a significant impact on the employee morale and general
development within the organizational setting. A leader should
be in a position to know exactly how to approach employees
whenever they are seeking to enquire about information. It is
important to understand that employees are very vital for
pushing forward the organization's agenda a poor treatment will
mean that they lose the moral support from the management,

which is supposed to spur them to perform even harder
(Schminke et.al,2005).
Results from the study showed that the existing relationship
between leader moral development and ethical climate and
employee attitude depend on two important factors which
include the extent at which the leader utilizes their cognitive
development and the age of the organization. The study found
out that leader’s moral development was found to be stronger
for high utilizing leaders whose moral actions were much in line
with their moral reasoning. Thus, a leader is expected to be very
reasonable and make key decisions that can improve on the
organization's general acceptability and not the other way
round.
The study also established that relationship between the leader’s
moral development and the employees’ moral development was
positively associated with the job satisfaction and the
corresponding organizational commitment while it was
negatively associated with turnover intentions. Therefore, the
authors concluded that for better employee engagement and
positive attitude towards their work, it is important for business
leaders to consider having positive moral development
(Schminke et.al, 2005).
Tsui et.al (2007) focuses on the existing alternative approaches
to the employee-organization relationship with the main
research question of whether employee investment pays off. An

organization that decides in their employees has to ensure that
all the important elements that may be detrimental to the
organization development are well outlined. Investing in
employees as an organization can have a varying level of
results. The researchers, in this case, decided to investigate this
development to have a clear and suitable answer on whether
investing in employees pays off. The study incorporates the
empirical study of employees from ten companies to provide an
honest opinion regarding the research problem (Tsui et.al,
2007).
The authors outline the importance of trust in any development
between employees and the organization. Trust plays a
significant role in helping the organization or employees to
know if they can invest in one another for better organizational
development. Employee-organization relationship is supposed to
be mutual where every party benefits without any massive
challenges. This situation in most cases develops into a very
solid relationship between the organization and employees but
only if there exist trust and honesty between each other.
The results from the study found that investing in employees
can pay off but if there is a clear outline on how the whole
process is supposed to be undertaken. The study showed that
employees could perform better on key tasks within the
organization, which is demonstrated by citizenship behavior and
expressed as a high level of commitment to an employer more

especially when they work in overinvestment or mutual
investment relationship. These results were very consistent even
after the researchers controlled some of the critical variables
that they thought would have a significant impact on employee
performance and attitude (Tsui et.al, 2007).
Lawler Edward (2006) develops some important strategies that
can help improve employee morale and performance for the
wellbeing of the organization. The author focuses on high
involvement management as a participative strategy for
improving organizational performance. The high-involvement
approach that is discussed in this case focuses on involving
employees and all stakeholders in the organizational activities
but with limited engagement. The author highlights the need for
the organization to focus on important organizational activities
that can negatively influence the organization's performance and
devise a mechanism on how to handle each. The author asserts
that to have a well outlined organizational performance, it is
important for an organization to implement strategies that can
be able to detect any changes in employee performance or
organizational behavior to address the issues as fast as possible
before they are reflected in the organization's performance.
Engaging employees regularly is also among of the function of
the high involvement management. Engaging employees boost
the employees moral since they are assured of their significant
role that they play in helping the organization perform

exemplary. The author, therefore, acknowledges that for an
organization to be successful, employees have to be treated with
respect and dignity they deserve since they form the backbone
of the organization and play a critical role in improving the
organization's performance. Employees have the power to make
or break the organizations thus the management should also
consider employees as such and be in a position to respect them.
Bruce McAfee and Paul Champagne (2013), developed a study
on performance management as an employee strategy that the
can be employed to improve overall employee organizational
behavior including performance and morale to work extra
harder. The authors focus on performance management since the
strategy contains three important components, which include
performance planning, performance management, and appraisal.
Monitoring employee situation within the organizational setting
is an important step that management should undertake if they
have any chance of succeeding through employee integration.
The authors also highlight the importance to understand the
existing organizational structure and be able to know the place
of employees within the organization.
Performance management, therefore, help in understanding the
overall strategy that is employed by the organization to be able
to develop a better counter claim that the organization can base
upon when making critical changes in the organizational
behavior. The author highlights the need for the organization to

be in a position to detect any changes in employee morale by
focusing on other factors since it is evident that employee
change in morale cannot be easily reflected on performance but
rather on employee behavior and the ability to participate in
teamwork for better and successful organizational performance.
Moshe Davidow and Peter Dacin (2007), provides an interactive
study that seeks to understand and influencing consumer
complaint behavior through improving organizational complaint
management. Employees are always on the spot when dealing
with employees and organization seeks to employ individuals
who can be able to seal a deal effectively while also having a
high sense of confidence. The authors thus focus on the
situation when an employee is unable to perform affectively
when called upon to and how the organization management
views and handles the whole issue. An employee who has low
morale is likely to have low self-esteem thus there is the need
for the organization to focus on ensuring that employees within
the organization are well managed thus being in a position to
feel that their presence within the organization is felt through
better employee engagement.
Terminal course objectives
The research problem highlights some of the elements that have
been developed in the course outline. Some of the terminal
course objectives that are reflected in this organizational

behavior include B, C, and G and F. The terminal course
objective describes each behavior and how it is impacted in the
organizational setting and how better the condition can be
managed to avoid having a negative effect on the organizational
performance. The B terminal objective focusses certain factors
that play a significant role in the organization including
decision-making skills and focusing on the individual attributes
including values, attitudes, beliefs, feelings and personality.
These important factors influence the organizational
performance thus putting into perspective. This terminal
objective is reflected in this organizational setting because
employees within the organization who are having a lower
moral. Employee morale is influenced by various factors within
the organization, which have been effectively highlighted in this
terminal course objective including management behavior,
attitude, and workplace engagement. Terminal Objective B
focuses on different factors that influence the organization's
decision-making process as well as individual attributes.
Terminal Objective-C is another objective within the course
outline that has been outlined within this research project.
Terminal Objective-C focuses on both individual and team
organization and how motivation affects organizational behavior
and employee engagement and how employees can be motivated
to achieve the set organizational goals. In this research project,
the organization is trying to evaluate different factors that the

organization can put in place in order ensure that the
organization can achieve success at both individual and team
level. These factors have been exclusively highlighted in the
course outline under the terminal objective C.
Another terminal objective that has been highlighted in this
project is the terminal objective G. this framework highlights
the need to manage change within the organizational that can be
able to help in formulating better human resource policies and
practices. These practices can be employed to ensure that the
organization remains profitable and considers employees as
important members of the organization thus being able to put
their interests at the top of organizational agendas. In this
research project, the organization seeks to create better
strategies that can be used to create a better understanding
between employees and the management to develop a proper
organizational engagement. The terminal objective F has also
been highlighted within this research project. This terminal
objective focuses on the organizational culture and how it
influences organizational performance.

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