Question

Question 1 (35 marks, 300 words)

In the current HR employer-employee relations, there’s more emphasis on improved employee degree of autonomy and responsibility. HR is also placing more focus on employability.

Use a real business example to discuss what is meant by empowerment era, employability and the benefits, costs and effects of employability.

Question 2 (35 marks, 300 words)

One of the foundations of Amazon’s success is the company’s intelligent use of CRM (Customer Relationship Management). Amazon’s CRM software captures customer data at the point of purchase, which it uses to instantly customize its users online experience.

Amazon’s interface is simple and easy to use. Customers can view their own order history and how much they’ve been spending. Returns are handled easily through the system. Re-ordering is a breeze and purchases can be tracked through every state of the delivery process.

CRM software allows Amazon to collect personal and payment details and makes it very easy to customers to buy products again. It sends tailored offers, promotions and recommendations to customers based on their past purchases and interests.

Customers can deal with almost every issue they might have through their accounts. And if there’s something that does require a customer to speak with a customer service assistant: CRM to the rescue again. Amazon staff have customer details, meaning quick and efficient resolution to all problems – and more satisfied customers.

Amazon’s use of CRM has been influential in the growth of its services. With these smart and automated practices, it’s not hard to see why Amazon are crushing the competition.

Required:

1. Discuss what is meant by relationship marketing and discuss at least four of its benefits for Amazon.
2. Discuss the relationship between relationship marketing, customer lifetime value, satisfaction and loyalty and profit.

Question 3 (30 marks, 300 words)

Simon worked for a well-known sports gear manufacturer but found that the organizational culture within the organization was very negative indeed. Workers were treated like machines, on an input–output basis – only as good as what they were targeted to produce. If they produced more than their target, they were not valued for this – there were no incentives to do so. If they consistently failed to achieve their targets, they were sacked. This meant that Simon never bothered to exceed his target because he was never made to feel valued for doing this.

In light of the above:

A. Discuss in some details the five levels proposed by Maslow’s theory.

B. Evaluate the level of Maslow’s need that Simon was stuck on. What could the manager do to motivate him?

Answer 1

1) Empowerment can be understood as a measure that makes a person of an organization become stronger and gaining more confidence in developing authority. Empowering means having more powers to deal with life situations. The PhireGroup has utilized the player empowerment era by linking the athletes with the brands connecting the people emotionally. This has helped both the player and the company.

Employability can be understood as the ability of a person through which he gets employment or he gets employed. It is also related to getting a new job as a deserving candidate. It is also identified as getting the initial start of a job or getting a job for the first time. The organizations want a candidate who is deserving and who can work according to the needs of the organization. It means that a flexible person is always in demand by any company. Thus, employability helps in providing the right candidate for a particular job. Employability also helps in adapting according to the situation and solving the various problem which comes in the path within the organization. It also helps in generating the professional skills which are required for becoming successful in a career.

The employability costs are the total costs which are to be earned by the employers in the form of salaries, rewards, insurance, etc. provided to the employees. These costs are paid instead of getting the services by the employee. The employee is paid against the work which he does for the company.

The effects of employability are that the candidates tend to develop more professional skills which help them to become more successful in the future. They also help in taking the organization to new heights which are needed by the organizations.

2. A) Relationship management as the name suggests is building a strong mutual relationship with the customers through a proper strategy. It also means to keep the customers or the audiences engaged with the actions of the organization. The benefit of relationship management for Amazon is:1) it helps Amazon to gain the confidence of the customers making them loyal customers. 2) This helps in increasing the revenue of the company. 3) Allows having a large database of the customers which can be targeted in the future.4) It also helps in the expansion of the business by having a large number of customers. Relationship management is very important for the company like Amazon as they work virtually and does not directly contact with the customers face to face. In this situation, the customers only rely upon a strong relationship that is built among themselves through the products and services which are delivered to the customers.

B) Relationship management is the key to success for any organization. Building a strong relationship with the customers provide a chance for the company to make the customers satisfied with the product and services which they are offering. A satisfied customer is always an asset to any organization. The customers also provide in free promotion of the brand among various other people which ultimately helps in expanding the business. Satisfied customers always become loyal customers and stay with the brand for a lifetime. This all helps in expanding the business which ultimately results in higher profits and revenues. Thus, relationship management helps in making lifetime customers which helps in generating more and more profits over some time.

3) A) Maslow has presented a five-tier model which helps in understanding the needs of human beings and help in understanding human psychology according to the needs. He has represented the needs in a pyramid form. Starting from the base of the pyramid there are the psychological needs of the people which are the basic needs of food, water, clothes, etc. These needs are essential for the survival of human beings. These are the most important one to make the human perform at an optimum level. The next is the safety needs of the people. These are the needs that can be aimed only after the psychological needs are fulfilled. Human beings want safety and security for them as well as their family and the safety needs to help them to fulfill their needs. The third one is the need for love and belongingness. Human beings are social animals and they cannot live in isolation. So, they need to be loved and feel belonging to some other person. The relationships are very important for human beings and thus these needs are developed by people. The fourth one is the esteem needs which are related to the need of the people for getting respect in society and have a strong reputation. This need is very high among the adolescent who wants to be recognized and respected in society. Prestige is also included in these needs. The last one or the top of the pyramid is the self actualizations need of the people. These needs include looking for personal growth, realizing potential, experiences, and self-fulfillment within a person. These needs are deriving and achieving all the things which a person wants to achieve in his life. So, these are the five levels proposed by Maslow’s theory.

B) Simon was stuck with the esteem needs in which a person wants to respect and recognition for the work which he has performed. The workers were not treated as human beings and also they were not recognized by the work which they were performing for the company. This made Simon demotivated and the work efficiency was also hampered. The manager can incorporated reward and recognition for the employees wo work extraordinary for the organization. As the stem needs will be realized the employees will feel motivated and they will work with full efficiency.