CASE SUMMARY:

The case talks about flockmann's, an exclusive department store in centre of Helsinki,Finland which is family owned and highly successful. It has many departments and most of them are experiencing slowdown in sales. According to structure of department the sales associates are accountable to supervisor, headed by assistant manager which in turn reports to store manager. Here,Esa Lindholm is the store manager whose characteristics can be described as: skilled ..merchandiser,creative,ambitious,bearer of work ehtics,impatient,rude,targetoriented,arrogant,egoistic,Teflon man,selfish,obnoxious. Coming to Anna poiketa who is the assistant manager, her characteristics are:meticulous,intelligent,caring,supporting,sensitive,dependable,creative,nonauthoritaria n,adept,open to ideas.

The case roams around Esa and Anna who have different personality which influences their decisions and behaviour in the organisation. To combat the problem of declining sales, Lindholm introduces a new computerized registering system so that employees could put in organization and their behaviour alters due to this. The same is reflected in dealing with the customers. There arises internal conflict among employees as when there are more customers in any department, the employees migrate to that particular department. Gradually problems like unloaded carts lining the aisles of stockroom is seen and the shelves on the sales floor were poorly stocked. Ultimately the decision made due to one's personality hampers organization as a whole creating dissatisfaction among employees. We also see how their different working style impacts the working of employees and organisations as a whole. We will also see how employees react to the changes in organization and their behaviour alters due to this. The same is reflected in dealing with the customers. Ultimately the decision made due to one's personality hampers organization as a whole creating dissatisfaction among employees ending up loosing one of the talented employee to the competitor and decreasing productivity.

PROBLEM IDENTIFIED:
The underlying problem in the case is described below: Declining sales volume in the store to which consensus reached was that the level of customer traffic had not been adequate to achieve high sales volume. Whereas Lindholm pointed out that some of the other departments in the store had experienced a 12% gain over the previous year despite the recession. So it was concluded that efforts of sales associates in each department must be increased.

Q.1. How do you account for the change in the sales associates' behaviour, and what does it say about the effect of personality? Solution:

With the introduction of new assessment system in the organisation where employees would enter his/her sales with ID number and at the end of the day, a new computerized register would total every individual's sales which would enable the organization to determine who the 'slackers' were. This altered the behaviour of employees completely. These changes can be seen as below along with the effect of personality:

1) Sales people became much more aggressive in their sales efforts due to which they often approached customers more than once by different associates in each departmental - here we see the achievement oriented personality of the employees.

2) The friendly conversations among sales associates and between supervisors and customers were shortened - here the employees showed introversion as contrast to extroversion earlier.

3) When sales activity was slow in one department, the associates would migrate to other department where there were more customers we can see the machiavellian personality of employees as they indulge in game playing for snatching the 'big ticket sales'. 4) The shelves on sales floor were poorly stocked and often customers were told that the item they desired was not in stock - here we see the low conscientiousness of employees as they neglect the responsibility.

Over all we see the low self- monitoring personality of all employees as they were not able to adjust themselves according to change in internal environment.

Q.2. To what extent would you say that Esa Lindholm's personality is reflected in his approach to improving sales at Flockmann's?

Solution:

Esa Lindholm took various steps in order to improve the declining sales in the department, we can see various glimpses of his personality affecting his decisions as below:

1) First of all we see the Authoritarian personality of Lindholm as he took the decision of introducing new computerized system without full consent of supervisors from all the department.

2) Type A is personality shown by Lindholm where he impatiently implements the new computerized registers without waiting for Anna to return from her vacation.

3) We also see the Conscientious personality of Lendholm as he was organised and achievement oriented while thinking about improving sales in the department.

4) There is glimpse of Thinking personality of Lendholm as he applied rational cause-effect logic while deciding that the employees working hours will be reduced if sales did not improve.

5) Judging type of personality is also reflected in Lendholm where he wants to resolve the problem of declining sales quickly as he believes no delay could be tolerated. Thus we can say that, Esa Lindholm's personality is significantly reflected in his approach to improving sales.

Q.3. What might our study of personality tell us about how Anna poiketa reacted to the situation?

Solution:

Anna Poiketa had a completely different personality than that of his superior Esa Lindholm, due to which she faced cognitive dissonance. She was very extrovert and had a agreeable personality as she was good natured, cooperative and soft hearted toward her employees. She was open to experience and provided enough space to employees to work. We also see feeling personality of hers as she worried about the effect if new system on employees In the end when Anna decides to leave the organization and takes up a management position at the rival store, we see the feeling type of personality in her where she weighs the option of staying in the organisatin with her personal values more rather than rational logic.

Conclusion:
From the above case we conclude that in an organisation personality fit with the job as well as with the organization is crucially important. Esa Lindholm perfectly fit his earlier job of sales supervisor but as his personality traits were misfit for the job of store manager, he failed to increase the sales of the department. He lacked the human skills required to motivate the employees to work better in order to increase the sales as a result his new method of computerized records failed. Not only that, they fought internally with each other for customers and this ultimately had an impact on customer also. In place of co-ordination, there was a race like situation where all wanted to snatch more number of customers. Not only that there was neglect in terms of unpacked stock waiting in the stockroom which resulted in loosing potential customers. There was loss in terms of a talented employee Anna as her suggestions were not taken into account by the store manager.

S.R. LUTHRA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT F.Y.MBA- SEMESTER -1 ORGANISTIONAL BEHAVIOUR

TOPIC: Case Study On Personality

Sr.No. Name 1. 2. 3. 4. Srishti Narang Khushboo Mehta Payal Bansal Priyanka Chugh

Roll No. 90 118 70

Submitted To: Roshni Mam Submitted On: 2nd September 2013