Focus

Understanding organizational behaviour has never been more critical for the manager and employee as the workforce market leaps into the 21st century. An organization that desires success in these times will find it necessary to continuously upgrade and adapt the features of the NEW MODEL. The following report details the organizational behaviour of the McGill Bookstore; a small organization that in the last couple of years has tried to adapt its characteristics in order to align itself at the new era demands.

McGill bookstores initiative is to hire only McGill University students for nonmanagerial positions. Work Study is a program at McGill that was implemented in order to help financially needy students meet their educational costs with financial assistance through part-time employment on campus. Aside from helping the students meet their financial needs, work-study also helps the McGill Bookstore by eliminating the need to actively search for new employees. This is extremely important since the Bookstore has a relatively high turnover rate for part-time employment. With the work-study system in

place, the McGill Bookstore has little problem meeting its need for large numbers of parttime employees during the seasonal rushes with minimal effort. We begin the report with an evaluation of the three lenses. The strategic design lens deals with the formal structure and organizational architecture. It is about designing strategies that fit between the environment and the structure of the organization. Hence the manager can design the organization and give the organization some time to evolve with the design. The political lens is more about the people and their impacts on the structure or vice versa. It focuses on the power structure, influence of people in the organization and the conflicts occurring and how they are resolved. Here managers just need to leverage power and keep an eye on the negotiations and conflict resolutions occurring within the organization. They need to know who is affecting whom and how the confidence is building up. Time will tend to fix the positions and alter them too. The political lens is about the structure affecting the people and the people affecting the structure.

The 3 Lenses
STRATEGIC DESIGN Critical to the dissecting and understanding of the behaviour within an organization are three lenses with organizational analysis and action. The first of these three lenses to be discussed is that of strategic design. When combined with an analysis of the other two lensespolitical and culturalwe obtain three different insights into the working of the same organisation hence we have what may be looked upon as a 3-dimensional vision of the working organisation.

The strategic design perspective emphasizes the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization. As we work through the analysis, we will better understand the strategy, the formal structure, job design, the coordinating and rewarding system and the environmental needs of the Bookstore. The strategic goals of McGill Bookstore do not follow the same pattern as those of other commercial bookstores. The reason is that McGill Bookstore is owned by McGill University and is a nonprofit organization. Obviously the main goal is to sell books. Although the books are often sold at astronomical prices, the beginning of school year invariably leads to a flooding of the bookstore with students who have little concern for prices. Their main concern is to purchase their books in a timely manner, which brings us to the second goal of the organization, namely to make sure textbooks are available throughout the semester to students and professors. September and January are the peak months of activity with sales reaching $750 000 daily, while the rest of the year is far below these levels. A third goal that is most closely related with the initiative being discussed is the fact that McGill University wants to create a sense of belongingness by selling paraphernalia such as T-shirts, bags, photo frames and other goods emblazoned with the McGill logo. According to the initiative, the non-managerial positions (sales, cashier etc.) are held by McGill university students. When these students begin the job they are given products from the bookstore with McGill logo on it (as key chains and ID card holders) to emphasis that they work for the McGill University Bookstore, and after a certain period (in most cases 3 months) they are also given discounts to buy Bookstore products. Hence the employees are encouraged to market the Bookstore products and the

non-managerial employees being students this gives the bookstore a rather strong marketing policy to market to their potential clientele without incurring any costs.

Job Design Firstly, the jobs given to students are low wage jobs (stacking books, cashier, sales representative), which are not based on commissions. Students receive their schedule via the Internet at www.schedulesource.com for the week every week. Secondly, employees are rotated from job to job within the bookstore, therefore requiring a great deal of multitasking from each employee. After interviewing the employees we realized that there is no formal training and anyone who qualifies for work study can apply for a job with a good chance at working for the bookstore. Obtaining and performing a part-time position at the McGill bookstore does not require a complex skill set, and in fact the skills that are required are skills that are learned on the job or known from day-to-day activities. The initiativehiring university studentshas helped shape the job design. Anyone coming from any field of study (music, science, economic, etc.) can fit into these jobs as the skills are easily learned on the job or previously known.

Coordinating and Reward System The McGill bookstore does not implement a reward system per se. The only incentive that employees receive is the discount on books. Given the unreasonably expensive nature of textbooks, this small reward goes a long way for the students who work there.

Using the informal network we find out that certain practices regarding rewards exist but are based on favouritism. For example, students that are liked by management receive more options on the job. For example, we found that the management is very stringent with the punctuality of the employees (they have to be present 15 minutes before their scheduled time). However one employee who is favoured by the management is repeatedly late and still is not warned by the management where as we found examples of employees that were fired and humiliated in front of other employees for repeating the same act three times. We have also found other examples where favoured employees receive their discounts before the usual three month period. We have found that employees not liked by management for their appearance, behaviour or clothing are fired and replaced without explanation whereas those favoured are given contracts. These practices have a negative effect on the work habits of the students and on the perception of their job because they work at the bookstore with the frustration generated by the feeling of being instantly replaceable.

Environment McGill Bookstore sells mainly to students, professors, staff and any other persons related to McGill University. The sale of promotional goods marked with the McGill logo represents a small percentage of total bookstore sales and the main target for these goods is also the student population (who mainly purchase these items as gifts for themselves, their relatives, friends and so on). This ties to the initiative in that the employees are university students as well and so are able to relate with the customers on a similar level of understanding and communication.

POLITICAL LENS Organisations are a strategic structure built in order to accomplish a task (may it be selling books, auditing, teaching). If structure alone was enough to accomplish the task then strategic lens would be enough to analyse an organisation. However the points that make the structure are not robots or commodities without flexibility they are human beings. And human beings are more than a commodity, the workforce is not predictable, the workforce of an organization is an investment in its future. The workforce can change the organisation and make it the best and most competitive to the worst and not considered in the competition. The political and cultural lens explores the people in the organisation, their effects, motivations, conflicts, loyalties and flows of information and power within and between them. The political lens focuses on the people and their impacts on the structure of the organization. By looking at the interests of the different stakeholders in the organization, interested parties like managers are able to identify the supporters, the blockers, the other potential stakeholders and any existing coalitions that can affect the achievement of the mission and objectives of the organization. For an organization to successfully achieve its objectives, it must identify its stakeholders so as to determine from those stakeholders, who are going to be supporters and who are going to be the blockers. Within an organization, there are clearly identified stakeholders, usually the management or ownership of the organization, the workforce of the organization, the suppliers to the organization and if applicable, the clientele of the organization. The stakeholders of this organization are external stakeholders (the customers, suppliers, the McGill university management. The suppliers and the McGill

university management are handled by two distinct managers and we did not have access to either one. We however did observe the relationship between the customer and the internal stakeholders (the managers and non-managerial employees). We have seen that the external stakeholders in this case customers want the books to be available to them (all throughout the semester which is not efficient for a inventory practice), a price reduction on products, availability of products with McGill university logo and stationary all throughout. All most of the interests of the customers are met in this case with the exception of the price (which the management tells us they have no control over as the publishers usually set the price). The powers set by the external stakeholders are high as the bookstore was built in order to satisfy the need of the university and the students are a great part of the university. We can see the influence when we see McGill University enforcing the bookstore management to hire only student employees as part-time help and enforce the flexible schedule rules. Now for the internal stakeholders, first there is the management. The management we have found is very powerful. Mostly it is the formal position as a source of power. We have observed that the management uses unexplained firing procedures. This power is magnified by the absence of firing procedures. The employees receive their work schedule for the week on Sunday before the start of the week. The person to be fired is not informed and when (s)he finds no schedules for sometime and gets curious and asks the management the reason they let the non-managerial employee know that their service is no longer required. The initiative being to hire university students as employees this firing procedure is talked about in the inner groups of the non-managerial employees and hence it is circulated and known. The flexible schedule is set by one manager and the same manager also decides on where the non-managerial employee will work for that specific time. All

though schedules can be swapped with the permission from the same manager, this gives the manager the power to give employees easy or hard jobs making this particular manager very powerful for the non-managerial employees. Hence non-managerial employees are frustrated and scared of this which gives the managers power over the employees. As for the interactions between the managers we found once again structure as a power and we found that the conflicts they have to be resolved according to positions. Even though the organization is flat there lies a totally different structure informally between managers. As they would allow us with limited time and information we could not find the whole structure. But from the interviews we concluded one of the managers as a more source of power then the rest. The other internal stakeholders are the non-managerial employees and we found their informal networks to be very interesting. We found there existed many types of relationships

The Trust networks We found these between non-managerial employees only as one non-managerial employee only trusted another non-managerial employee. They all had the feeling that management is the bed wolf. Also the employee that was more close to the management was the least trusted. Even friends as other students not working at the bookstore looked to be more trusted by the non-managerial employees then the management or the friendly-tomanagement non-managerial employee. The advice network

The non-managerial employees are seen to go to another managerial employee for advice at first and when this fails and only when this fails they turn to the friendliest manager they can find. We asked the non-managerial employee and they said they find a manager with a common problem and try to identify with the manager there that is how they get advice. When no common problem exists they go to the friendliest manager and request for advice.

The communication network The non-managerial employees mostly talk between themselves. Through all the hours of observation we have noticed that they socialize between themselves and they talk and communicate between themselves. The manager to non-manager communication network was very minimal except during one employee interview that was conducted in the bookstore. We found another network that seem to give power to some non-managerial employees over others. Some of the non-managerial employees seem to be well liked by management (to the point where management turns a blind eye towards them), these employees seem to have an informal power over the rest of the employees. We have found that other employees have a tendency not to socialize or trust these liked individuals. These individuals also exercise their powers. We saw an example when one liked employee wanted to swap schedule with another normal employee and the normal employee did so reluctantly. Hence the next time the liked-employee tried another swap with the same employee, the normal employee refused. Hence the liked employees shift was not covered. In a normal circumstance this would have earned at least a warning but on complaint the

employee reluctant in swapping got a public warning about the issue and not the liked. So we even observed the usage of informal-power in employees. Hence we have observed imploded relationships between the non-managerial employees and irregular

communication patters when it came to non-managerial to managerial employees. There are many holes in the whole employee network. From the political lens point we felt two other things needed to be looked at, Conflict management Leadership roles

Conflict management: As for the minimal information available in the field of management conflicts we decided to look more into the non-managerial employee conflicts. We found that once a conflict rose management usually avoided the conflict or forced a solution to the conflict. There was no presence of negotiation strategies or third party assistance. The management expected employees to resolve the conflicts themselves warned them of losing their jobs if the conflict persisted. Hence the employees either avoided the conflict or looked at the higher common interest of keeping their job and negotiated themselves. We found avoidance as the dominant strategy used. The interesting issue was again when a certain liked non-managerial employee and a normal employee were in conflict. These conflicts were seen to be solved by eliminating the normal employee by management (firing them), which gave the liked employee even more informal power.

Leadership Roles:

We found there only existed position leadership. The absence of a leader that is admired and trusted and taken as a leader and model is missing for the non-managerial employees and we think this is the main missing piece in motivation of the non-managerial employees

CULTURAL LENS The cultural lens is all about people in the organization. It focuses on the norms, the mental maps, meanings, cultural artifacts, values of the artifacts and assumptions that affect the people in the organization. The role of the manager here is all about effecting the employees, articulating vision, creating and keeping a symbol of culture, creating and maintaining a culture of the organization and also analyzing how a dominant culture may help or hinder the organizations own culture. Time has a powerful effect on the culture of the organization. Decision makers make decisions based on their perception and their own representation of reality, which may differ from that of the employee depending on the level of communication between them. By identifying the influential personalities, managers can use this information to relay their decisions. However, using this only utilizes the individual. When the manager uses the culture as a whole to relay the information, it is spread to everyone much more effectively. Loyalty is a very important it must identify its part of the organization and how it functions. Loyalty is affected by long tenure, employment security, a high wage and most importantly by culture. An organizational culture can lead to very loyal employees and will also affect the conflicts and conflict resolution. Two important parts of the culture of an organization is that it changes with time and it relates to the symbolic dimension of life.

We examined the McGill Bookstore through the cultural lens by applying questionnaires, interviews and through observation. We found more information from the interviews and questionnaires then observing the organization. We concluded that the Bookstore is lacking culture and rather is being dominated by the McGill university student culture. We couldnt find any active attempt to create a culture from the management and got the view that the management is not even aware of the need to have an organizational culture. We found that the non-managerial positions had high turnover rates. The most longstanding employees in the non-managerial positions have been working at the bookstore for only six months with the average duration being three months. We have concluded that the management is not capturing full benefits from the diversity of the employees or their diverse skills and we also acknowledged the presence of bystanders. The initiative created an informal group within the non-managerial employees and the dominant culture becomes even stronger and more dominant. Managers unknowingly or knowingly encourage this informal group behavior but discourage all group work. We saw more evidence of the dominant culture taking over when we noticed that there is no conflict resolution system in place. The conflicts are just assumed to die off with time, or the parties in conflict are just fired if they cannot resolve it themselves. As the cultural norms affect loyalty and motivation of the employees we have found that the employees are not very motivated and need warnings and threats to work. We have also found that the employees are more loyal to their other cultural organization (McGill university student body) then to the Bookstore. For example we have observed that the non-managerial employees have a tendency to give out confidential information and holes in security to their friends at McGill University so that the friends can benefit from it. We have seen that

when a non-managerial employee is lacking on the job other non-managerial employee helps so group loyalty does exist. We have also observed that any employee whom is favored by the management is not liked by other employees and is excluded from the inner group of the non-managerial employees. Hence loyalty should be on top of the managements list of improvements.

Culture and the Organization The McGill university bookstore has symbols as the McGill university logo. When employees join they are given things with the McGill university logo (e.g. Key chain, ID holder), also, as mentioned previously, after working at the bookstore for some time the employees get a discount on the bookstore products giving the employees more access to the symbol. All these should create a feeling of belongingness for the employees, however the bookstore uses the McGill university logo and does not have a symbol of its own. The incentive (hiring students) and the use of the same logo as the dominant culture makes the dominant culture even stronger. Hence when the initiative is taken, both the denotative and connotative meaning becomes stronger for the dominant culture and not the bookstore culture. McGill University buying the bookstore was to improve the sense of belongingness for students and helping students getting required materials for their schoolwork. Hence the dominant culture here is doing very well, however the bookstore has failed to make the employees identify solely with the bookstore.

The non-managerial employees dont work in groups or in one department constantly. They are shifted throughout the store and are given no chance at the decisionmaking process; they also have very little control over their day-to-day jobs. They are also discouraged from providing recommendations or ideas and are constantly kept under the impression that they can be replaced quickly, which also works to prevent a sense of belonging. The turnover rate is very high among the non-managerial employees hence there is not an adequate amount of time for culture build and it cannot be transmitted very quickly. The managers are also seen to except no ideas and the flow of information is oneway hence the management is not seen as the hero and rather a grouping is made where the management is the enemy (judging by our questionnaire answers). Hence build up of culture is minimal and encompasses the fear of being fired. Motivation, for the most part, is not built up except at times when pep talks are given. No training, or long-term carrier development programs exist and even the chances of working at the bookstore for long durations are slim to none, hence no build up of preferred culture was observed which lead to no efforts from the management to motivate the employees. The impression given is one of employees performing very simple jobs and therefore not needing many skills. Because of this, management sees little reason to provide motivation. The diverse skill sets of the employees are not acknowledged by the management and sharing such knowledge or ideas are discouraged. The employees are highly diverse (in background, culture and education) but the benefits of this diversity are not captured, but squandered. We have observed the management favoring some employees based simply on who charms management more. Hence the rest of the employees are encouraged to put more emphasis on charming the management rather then

producing higher quality work. No social contract has been built between the organization and the employees. We have noticed the existence of bystander in the organization as if one employee is not liked they will be mistreated in front of the rest of the employees. We have also noticed the absence of any conflict management strategies. Instead the management tries to ignore all conflicts between the non-managerial employees, and if the employees cannot work out the conflicts, they are simply fired. There is very little employment security, as the employees are not even told that they have been fired. They are just not given any schedule and when the employees venture to find out why they have been let go they are told they are no longer required. Employees are under constant stress of not being employed the next week, as schedules are made weekly. Due to this absence of long tenure, employment security, high wage and organizational culture, very little loyalty exists in the non-managerial employees. As the incentive is imposed by McGill University on the bookstore all employees know about this incentive. As the dominating culture, the McGill university culture is however helped by the bookstore and is reinforced by the hiring of the students for part-time help. The McGill university bookstore should try to create and manage a culture of their organization, which may become a subculture of McGill University as a whole. The absence of culture is affecting the loyalty and motivation of the non-managerial employees, which in turn affects the performance of the organization.

Whats

Going

On

in

the

Organization:

Characteristics
In order to research and explore this initiative further, we must understand the organizational context in terms of the five characteristics of the new organization: networked, flat, flexible, diverse, and global.

Networked Many companies are investigating new styles of organization and ways of working in order to capture a competitive advantage in their environment. Many of these new forms of organizations such as the networked organization exploit the potential of communication and information technologies. The new model of organization relies heavily on networks, interdependence between individuals, subunits, and groups outside the organization versus the traditional communication links of the old organization. We found the McGill Bookstore to have several features of a networked organization. Firstly, there is a growing importance of task forces reflected in the many multitasking requirements to perform the jobs. Secondly, there is greater emphasis on individual jobs rather than on teams as being the fundamental unit within the organization. Furthermore, information and knowledge are not openly distributed either vertically or horizontally within the bookstore; information travels up and decisions travel down.

Employees feel they have no ability to influence decisions regarding day-to-day success of the organization or the long run functions of the organization. We explored employees and managers in action by observing their day-to-day activities. One way of assessing how well they function is to analyze how well they communicate. Our analysis of the ways individuals, groups and subunits communicated and collaborated was used to determine if they are organizationally ready for operating as an effective networked organization. From our data we attempted to derive a number of recommendations about how best to introduce such new ways of working. Both managers and employees must work together and make efforts to move toward the networked organization. Managers need to create the environment, structures and systems to ensure that such cross-functional working produces positive results. For example, performance management and reward systems may need to be implemented and adapted to include cross-functional project work or processes. Resources, authority and accountability will need balancing to match success requirements, and ensure that no one group or function has too much influence. At the individual level, employees learn new ways of working as they collaborate more rather that being in continuous competition. They each expand their personal network and have a greater opportunity to influence and be influenced. Employees also learn to adapt to a more fluid and flexible way of working and managing their roles and time, as well as improving their influencing and teamwork skills.

Flat Another key feature of the new model of the organization is that they are becoming flat, rather than vertically layered. In an era dominated by technological revolution and rapid changes in the economical environment, a lot of companies feel it is necessary to adapt their organization to these changes by optimizing the workforce. Productivity is improved significantly as the companies start reducing the number of employees while experiencing a growth in sales. Fewer managers mean a smaller payroll, and so companies are discovering that it is more efficient to have less layers of management. A flat hierarchy though cannot only be translated into reducing the number of layers of management but also into pushing decision down to the front line. The flat characteristics of the McGill Bookstore can be translated as follows: There exist fewer levels of management (there is no middle management). Flattening the hierarchy based on reducing layers of management allows more efficient monitoring of activity, resulting in a growth in sales and leading the organization to a significant productivity improvement. Less difference between levels (organizations based on individual work rather than teamwork that dont stretch power and minimize status differences, fewer management perks) But, there is a growing gap between top management and bottom employee salaries. The employees are only McGill students, which occupy the low paying non-managerial positions (e.g. stacking books, cashier, and sales representative).

McGill University Bookstore Organizational Structure

D av i d S t r u t z
McGill Unive rsity Representative
Strategy & Expenses

Bi l l Ar my

M r . L aw r e n c e

Sa n d r a

Kim

Ag n es

Gr a n t

Flexible As we move forward to this next characteristic, the gap between the new and old model deepens. We are no longer following the well-codified rules, routine and structure of the old; instead we are dealing with projects, task forces and informal communities of

Mr s. Ga br iel

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Fin e anc

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practice. All these changes are generated by a more intense competition, the diversity of labour force and by an unpredictable external environment. Based on the values, which drives a flexible organization, our analysis resulted in the following conclusions: The McGill bookstore systems and processes can respond differently to different situations. The busiest periods of the organization are the beginning of the two semesters when the bookstore will hire more students to respond accordingly to this rush, which is also favourable for many students because of the light work load at the onset of the semester. The McGill Bookstore labour force houses a very diverse educational and cultural background (students from management, philosophy, art, music, and science) Lower levels of formalization between employees and management Fewer detailed rules and standard operating procedures There is no encouragement of initiative on the part of individual employees, as the initiative is to hire the employees Other characteristics would be the total absence of competition and unpredictable external environment because the university bookstore sells mainly to students who have to buy the textbooks regardless of cost (monopoly). The McGill bookstore is governed by fewer formal rules, routines, structures and operating procedures, which are constantly watched to make sure that they are respected and followed accordingly. The jobs require multitasking abilities, which means that job requirements are not well defined. The organization doesnt encourage creativity,

innovation, new ideas and initiative on the part of individual employees. However, there is high flexibility of the company regarding personal schedules and familial responsibilities.

Diverse The new organization is based on the need to accommodate a diversity of perspectives and approaches, carrier paths, people and policies. The need for diversity is based on the following reasons: Visible variety in the company (greater ethnic diversity, only students are hired, presentation, styles of dress, physical appearance of the company). This is however obtained because McGill University takes the initiative of making the university diverse and multicultural. Growing volatility in the business environment Impact of government legislation

The new model presents different tracks that employees are choosing depending on their interest, carrier, and family situation. The bookstore includes employees without full-time contracts, which are open only to McGill University students with wide variety of study backgrounds. In such a diverse environment, conflicts are inevitable which depending on the way they are handled could provide good opportunities for innovation and flexibility. Based on the interviews conducted, the opinions regarding how conflicts are managed when they occur within the non-managerial part-time employees we found that there was no conflict resolution is place. The non-managerial employees are expected not to get into conflicts and when do they are expected to resolve it themselves outside of working hours. The

conflicts are expected to be forgotten by the parities in conflict and if they stagger then the particular employees (or employee) are fired. Unfortunately the bookstore employees do not have much ability to influence decisions but they do have some creative input. Diversity is something that the bookstore focuses on in order to identify and keep the most productive employees. We have found that the non-managerial employees have a growing image that there is a tendency to hire more females in certain jobs and males in other jobs by the managers. But then they have not experienced any discrimination. The employees performances are measured and evaluated objectively enough but only negative feedback is provided to the employees. Most of the time this feedback is very public as we found two instances when an employee made a mistake and the mistake with a warning was emailed to the employee and rest of their colleagues, almost as if the management was using this as a warning system for everyone. We found that most of the top managers used their listening skills only when a certain employee mistake was required to be found. Only a few of the managers listened to employees but we concluded this was not part of the organisational design rather it was the person (manager). Managing this diversity involves the systematic and planned commitment by organizations to recruit, retain, reward, and promote a heterogeneous mix of employees. However we found that the bookstore employees are not considered as an asset of the organization. Diversity should be explored in four key areas: Examine tolerance and respect acceptance Measuring awareness and empathy

Assessment of stereotypes and knowledge Self-awareness and interpersonal skills are measured and insights are provided into employees' actions and attitudes. A diverse organization will experience the benefits of having increased teamwork and

communication; reduced employee conflict; improved performance; diversity as a source of organizational strength; employees who learn how they personally respond to workforce diversity issues, and where they need to develop increased understanding. We concluded from our analysis of the organisation that although the organisation is very diverse in employee origin and skills the management is not aware of how they can obtain benefits from this diversity.

Global To be global means to be involved in interactions across borders, to operate in many countries keeping operations in each country separately.

Characteristics of global companies are as follows: Subdivisions in another country The organizations networks extend

outside the home country Cross-border networks with suppliers and customers Frequent travel outside home country

The McGill Bookstore is a non-profit organization whose main purpose is to provide textbooks for the university students without any other division over borders. All though

they do have what they call web-orders where they sell books on the web. However they have no operations that require them to be global.

EVALUATION OF THE INITIATIVE

In studying the McGill bookstore, we intend to evaluate the bookstores initiative to hire exclusively McGill students for non-managerial positions, especially those on the Work-Study program. The bookstore implements the Work-Study program with the intention of helping students to ease their financial burdens. At the same time, such a program helps the McGill Bookstore by eliminating the need to actively search for new employees. This is extremely important since the Bookstore has a relatively high turnover rate for part-time employment relative to other organizations. With the Work-Study program in place, the McGill Bookstore has a relatively steady supply of workers; giving them little problem on meeting its need for large numbers of part-time employees during the seasonal busy rushes. We carefully studied the organization through the strategic, political and cultural lenses in order to have a better understanding of the overall operation of the organization and consequently to be able to give an educated evaluation and recommendation. We achieved our goal by investigating and observing the organization through different perspectives, including management interviews, employees interview and first hand experience (visiting the bookstore as unannounced visitors for example), then sorting out the valuable information for our project. We found that since the bookstore is listed as a non-profit organization, it does not follow the normal business model used by other bookstores. As mentioned, they only

employ McGill students, paying them low wages, which in turn shaped the job design of the organisation differently. The only real incentive that we found in place was given in the form of merchandise discounts (after employees stayed for a certain time on the job). However, as one of the interviewees stated, the only real incentive is to let you keep the job. We feel that such a statement is a product of the bookstores current business practices in which there is no job security. Apparently the organizations strategy is to cease the scheduling of employees instead of informing them of their dismissal. Such creates a high level of stress and anxiety since workers do not know if the will have a job the following week. Some other employees remarked that rewards in terms of scheduling and special training were based solely on favouritism from management. The power in the organization came from top to bottom (position power). The managerial structure was very flat. Since employees do not stay longer at their jobs and could easily be replaced, they could not build strong influential power. We identified a big gap between managerial and non-managerial salaries. There was a general consensus among workers in regard to the lack of conflict resolution from the management part. We observed some employees that stated that management even ignored conflicts among nonmanagerial employees with the hope that they will resolve themselves. Culturally there was not a clearly stated organizational culture within the bookstore. Rather we recognized a lack of interest in articulating the organizations vision. There was stronger loyalty toward the main body of the university than for the bookstore itself. The lack of cultural strength appeared to play a factor on loyalty. In fact according to some workers, employee feedback was discouraged, dissipating any sense of belonging. Overall, the lack of interest in creating a solid, independent culture was clear.

In conclusion we can say that their initiative of hiring McGill students in the Work-Study program is well in place and respected. However, we noticed that its objective is partially achieved since even though the employment opportunity is provided, there is a high level of turnover. Management disregards such fact as part of normal business. We noticed that high levels of uncertainty among employees were present across the board. Consequently the intention to alleviate student financial situation is achieved only temporarily. There was a clear level of contentment from the organizations members (management) in implementing their initiative this way, despite the fact of having high turnover rates. The fact that current workers have only been employed with the organization an average of 3 months did not represent a motive for management to re-evaluating their initiative. There is a clear indication that medium and long-term achievement of their initiative was overlooked. Thus, we identify the main problem to be a political factor, where management is the main barrier working against the initiative.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on our observations, Fuerza Solution has a few suggestions for the current McGill bookstore initiative of hiring McGill students in the Work-Study program. Clearly management feels they can accomplish their initiative despite keeping employees only for a short time. This represents a clear disregard of the primary goal of helping students for financial reasons. Instead, such a goal is mistakenly believed to be accomplished by simply hiring the student. Consequently, it creates a high level of unsatisfied employees, lowering of morale, loyalty and productivity. By implementing an in-depth analysis through three

different perspectives (strategic design, political and cultural lenses) we were able to identify an action plan to assure the success of the initiative. Since there is a high turnover rate, there is not strong sense of belonging. We believe a solid first step to take is to re-evaluate the main objective of the program in order to put it in perspective. There is a clear need for a better understanding of what is the real purpose of the initiative, and if it is intended for attaining goals in short or long terms. Employees hired with the intention of keeping them for the rush at the beginning of the sessions should be officially informed of their temporary status. We observed an above normal level of uncertainty and anxiety in employees, which translated, in low loyalty and poor sense of belonging. Secondly, communications should flow more freely from top to bottom. We noticed employees did not know much about the organization objectives, strategies and goals. We feel that setting clear rules and objectives as well as involving non-managerial employees in the companys overall strategy will positively influence employees. Thirdly, creating opportunity and incentives in order to build a constructive atmosphere where employees will feel rewarded for their hard work. Employee creativity and ideas should be taken into account, after all work-study is not just for financial support it also acts as a way for the students to experience real work situation. Hence students when encouraged to give ideas may apply their knowledge and different expertise, which may be highly beneficial to the bookstore. We strongly believe that this will change the perception of the organization positively. Opportunity and incentives could be offered in the form of training and raises. Employees with the right skills could stay within the organization longer and become recompensed according to their performance. This will make

employees more knowledgeable and satisfied with their job. Consequently a more experienced, loyal, entuistic and cheerful employees will more likely serve customers. New employees will have an informal leader to whom they can ask questions and go for consults. Fuerza Solutions strongly believes that by implementing such recommendations the McGill bookstore will ensure the success of the real objective of their initiative.

In Summary
We have gathered many observations and qualitative data in our analysis of the organizational behaviour of the McGill Bookstore. In attempting to codify this data, one initiative stood out most clearly to us: the McGill Bookstore chooses to hire students only from a selective pool of potential employees as supplied through the work-study program. After examining this initiative through the three organizational lenses and determining the extent to which this organization conforms to the characteristics of the new organization, we can confidently conclude that this initiative is largely successful from the point of view of both the employer and employees. However, there is much room for improvement on the side of the McGill Bookstore management. The initiative is working fine for the Bookstore because it is convenient; it is satisfying their need for a large number of disposable employees. What they are lacking however is the proper attitude toward the employees that could maximize employee performance and increase overall functioning of the organization. Employees need to be respected more and viewed as a valuable asset rather than a disposable commodity. The employees, however part-time, are the face of the Bookstore. Like most organizations, the

actions of the face are dictated by the ideas and motifs of the brain. As the brains of the organization, the Bookstore management needs to respect its assets fully. It needs to use the gift of the large cultural diversity of its staff and even extend this advantage into creating a culture of its own. In doing this, employees could feel more a part of the team; a part of the organisation; they would feel as though they have something more than just their time invested into the bookstore. Information would automatically flow more freely between the brain and the face of the organisation. This increased flow of information would assist in completing the transition of the Bookstore into a new organisation. A bi-directional flow of information could help to further flatten the structure, allowing the employees to feel that their opinions and ideas are as valuable as those of management. Through this, the diversity of the Bookstore would be felt, and a new mosaic of ideas could prove to be the push the organisation needs to get to the next level. Another area in dire need of revamping is the procedure for firing the employees. The incessant looming feeling of being easily and readily replaceable is only worsened by the knowledge that the employees will only know their employment has been terminated after the fact. This ties into the lack of respect for the employees. Why should they feel as though their input is valued if it is so potently clear that their skills are a dime-a-dozen. It is difficult to offer unique ideas without the assurance that voicing an opinion wont count against the employee and result in termination without explanation. After this thorough examination of the workings of the McGill Bookstore, we cannot say that the organization is working to its full potential, nor can it be concluded that it has yet made a smooth and complete transition into becoming a new organization. In a

nutshell, the employees are valuable assets to the fate of an organization and need to feel as such.

All in all, to take care of your assets is to take care of yourself.