Question

CASE INCIDENT 1: You Are All Fired, but You Are Hired! John Lewis, a leading retailer in the United Kingdom, launched the John Lewis Partnership scheme with the stated intent of promoting both action-taking (e.g., executive posts) and fact-finding (e.g., administrative and middle-management posts) on a partner level. It actively seeks to promote middle managers to executive positions due to their ability to identify issues and bring them to the surface. This approach goes against the argument which claims that conflicts are generated between action-taking and fact-finding responsibilities, risking team performance, and company effectiveness. In reality, effectiveness depends on a combination of fact-finding and action-taking tasks that need to be well managed, well delegated, and well assigned. In a group setting, these tasks can be assigned to middle managers and executives accordingly, but not always. In addition, we need to factor in efficiency and consider the trade-off between effectiveness and efficiency in the light of group performance. John Lewis has recognized the importance and the strengths of diversified group input on effectiveness and are thus promoting heterogeneity in organizational decision making. People are differ not only by gender, culture, race, and social traits but also in their perspectives, prejudices, skills, and abilities. Thus, by promoting middle managers to executive positions and thus utilizing their creativity and research skills they are also increasing motivation, enthusiasm, and encouragement at work. At the same time, through its partnership scheme, John Lewis opens up diversified opportunities by engaging individual partners in fact-finding and act-taking initiatives and then sharing the profits. The vision is to lead to more widespread acceptance of solutions and increased performance that promotes wellbeing and social impact. Firing and hiring should not be decisions solely driven by the final outcome but also based on the distribution, delegation, and the combination of fact-finding and action-taking skills and responsibilities within teams.

9-28. Can fact-finding and action-taking duties polarize the individual and thus the group's dynamics? If so, why?

9-29. What are the weaknesses in group decision-making in the case of John Lewis?

9-30. How could diversity assist with group performance based on fact-finding and action taking duties?

Answer 1

9-28. Yes, the fact-finding and action-taking duties can polarize the individual as the individual's focus becomes very constricted. Thus, loosing the creativity in the process and ultimately the group dynamics is lost.

9-29. In the case of John Lewis, the weaknesses in group-decision making is the availability of critical thinkers. All the members think alike and thus there is not innovation or creativity. Thus, they fail to see and alternatives towards resolving the problem. These alternatives may even be more beneficial than the one which is proposed here.

9-30. Diversity is having people from different cultural backgrounds, genders, race, etc. come together at a workplace to achieve a common objective. As a result, they each can provide different ideas to resolve the issues and achieve break-through results. Further, they contribute towards higher innovation and enable the firm to earn unexpected growth.