Cole's Supermarkets Framework

Overview

A strong framework or the burly platform can result into the smooth working of an organization. Many different factors need to work in coordination to make the platform strong and these factors can be classified as HR, structure, political, and many other aspects too. The best example which we are considering here is of “Coles Supermarkets” which is a very famous chain of supermarket and owned by the Wesfarmers in Australia. It was founded in the year 1914 in Melbourne by G. Coles. Throughout Australia, it operates nearly 775 supermarkets. This business reports shown below primarily reflects the Bolman’s and Deal Four Framework, by the help of which the internal aspects associated with the organization may get clear in an easy way.

(Electronic Trading Team, 2013)
Bolman’s and Deal Four Framework
Bolman’s and Deal Four Framework is a structure which helps in re-framing the definite structure of any of the organization. The Bolman’s and Deal framework mainly consists of four key frames which are classified as the structural, Human Resource, Political and Symbolic. All these frames have diverse aspects and help to identify the various circumstances of the organization. These frames are very powerful and strong. (Nwlink Team, 2015) There are a variety of reasons for which this framework has been considered and defined. Some of the reasons are shown below: -
• A several perspectives can be developed by the help of these frames, which will straightly create a positive impact along with it helps in the growth of any of the organization.
• An innovative tool, i.e. “Reframing” helps in producing various new ideas and finding the appropriate strategies in context of the work. It helps the organization to grow in an enhanced way and in the right direction. (hunt, 2013)
The four frames are described below: -
 Structural: Leaders who use this approach for making the changes mainly focus on the structural elements inside the organization, along with the strategy, execution, and the adaptation. Changes in the institutional structures will be successful when one has clear goals. By the help of this frame, it’s easy to identify the flow of commands which will be from the higher escalation towards the lower escalation.
 Human Resource: This Frame primarily focuses on the essential aspects which are related to the employees and the management tasks. It emphasizes the support, staff growth, empowerment and responsiveness to the needs of the employees. The HR team plans and prepares the process of performance evaluation. Also, the two-way communication is also established at the management level, which helps to achieve the organizational growth. (MCLEOD, 2007)
 Political: This type of approach, focus on dealing with the interest groups, negotiating the divergence, and creating compromises. It helps in signifying the power, authority, rivalry, networking and chiefly the negotiations.
 Symbolic: This approach mainly focuses on the vision and the inspiration. The accomplishment of the targets and the goals are done with the help of the different brand ambassadors. (Chung, 2012)

So, by using the Bolman & Deal’s frame, the needs of the organization can be diagnosed at the planning stage only so that an appropriate action can be taken at the accurate time.

Structural Frame of Coles

The organizational structure followed by the Coles is taking care of the store managers and the employees working there. Each store of Coles has a manager which we may say as the store manager. The structure doesn’t only takes care of the store manager, but Coles approach is to take care of all the people, who are involved in running the day to day operations and functions effectively. The other key person is the immediate junior of the store manager who does all the hand holding of the store which is designated as the second in charge (2IC) in the store along with the employees. (Mason, 2014) The key persons in the store after the store manager come are respective department managers, who take care of the different departments of the store such as, fruit and vegetable, bakery section and general grocery, etc. The department managers along with the store managers are responsible for the accounting of stock, assessing the wastage, staff salary and wages, maintaining the effective relationship with the regular customers. (StudyMode Team, 2013) They are also responsible for making the future projections with the minimum wastage. The department managers also assist the store managers in profit assessment with the respective ROI’s, which is required to be submitted to the regional

managers by the individual store managers. Thus, it reflects that, Coles being in the supermarket domain not only takes care of the store managers, but also consider and appreciate the employees and department managers’ on ground level. (Goyder, 2007)
Human Resource (HR) Frame of Coles
The HR framework of Coles is similar to what is being adopted by the leading organizations in supermarket area. Cole’s main aspects in HR are Reward management and the Performance management. These two areas are considered highly important because employee retention in the supermarket service plays an essential role in the growth of the company and establishing better relations with the customers. The foundation of key competence and business objectives of Coles is intricate as they always keep an eye for improvement for their employees by implementing the Reward management to fill the lag from the operational loss to reach the best possible performance. (Kessell, 2007) Also, in case of Coles performance management approach, they motivate their employees continuously and assess their responsibility effectiveness with the set roles assigned to them. This shows that Coles dedicatedly follows both the approaches to get an effective and fruitful policy result in the areas of HRM.
The company also follows a few other frameworks in relation to the growth in various areas, such as a supplier charter framework, constant market/ industry growth, distribution and effective logistics mechanism and share of wallet.

(Arnold, 2003) These competencies are directly or indirectly associated with the human resource and employees of the company. Due to these policies and strategies, Cole has been successfully running more than 749 stores all over Australia while sustaining and retaining their employees. This has been evidently proved since Coles inception, to reach out to a number of consumers and creates a regular and substantial cash inflow for generating high profits in the industry. (Langley,

2014)
Recommendations
As such, the company is able to smash the industry rivals and able to maintain the competition advantage due to the resources and capabilities they own, and they have already strategize on how these resources and capabilities can be utilized in the future, even for contingencies and incidence in case of market attractiveness and high-end edge of new market entrants. The recommendations for Coles, in respect of devising the better policies in the form of short term or long- term are given below:
 In the short-term, Coles should invest more in advertising which may help in attracting more customers and they should publish the employee’s retention rate so as to attract more people as employees. The advertising media would also help in signifying that how Coles proffers the best platform to work and best places to shop. This would surely act as a double advantage tool to enhance the goodwill among the people to get associated with Coles and augment the purchase likelihood among customers.
 The company should keep an eye and adopt benefits, such as incentives, etc. which other supermarkets are offering to motivate their employees. This will help in placing and extending the value of leadership of Coles among the employees. To attain the incredible economics of scales in the industry, the company should keep their employees happy and satisfied to make their customer’s satisfied.