Question

Case Albert Heijn supermarkets

Introduction

With almost 35% market share, Albert Heijn (AH) is the market leader in the Dutch food retailer market. In 1952, AH opened the first self-service supermarket in the Netherlands. In 2020 the company has 889 stores in the Netherlands and 43 in Belgium. AH is part of the international publicly traded Ahold-Delhaize group with the head office and staff departments in Zaandam.

The company strives for a diverse and inclusive workforce and helped employees to reach their potential so they can thrive. In 2017, AH turned Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) from an HR idea into a tangible business goal. The company created a global framework to serve as a compass for their brands to use locally. This framework includes a few key focus areas:

• Inclusive Workplace: Create a high-performing and inclusive work culture by promoting ownership and accountability for diversity at all levels in the organization.
• Workforce Diversity: Attract, develop, engage and retain a diverse workforce that reflects their customers.
• Diversity Competency: Develop the necessary knowledge, understanding and capabilities to leverage diversity in individuals and teams, so they can better serve their customers.

According to AH, a safe work environment is fundamental, but the workplace should also offer opportunities for development and for a healthy life. AH’s healthy living programs for employees aim to make healthier choices easy: providing free fruit in a number of offices, educational programs on nutrition and weight loss, and smoke-free campuses are only a few of their initiatives. (aholddelhaize.com)

Covid-19 measures

The management of AH has introduced a series of measures to ensure the safety of its employees and customers during the coronavirus epidemic.

The retailer provided visibility vests to employees filling up empty shelves with the message 'We do it together. Keep sufficient distance’. It aims to remind customers to maintain a safe distance of at least 1.5 metres from each other.

The company is also encouraging shoppers to use hand scanners or pay at self-scan checkouts.

Customers paying in cash, put their money and take the balance from the cash registers. AH also introduced an exclusive shopping hour for the elderly from 23 March.

It allows customers above the age of 70 to shop at all AH outlets in the Netherlands between 7:00 and 8:00 on weekdays, before the stores open to other customers. The retailer also added plexiglass screens at checkouts and service desks across all its stores.

Staff employees in supporting roles at the head office are obliged to work from home, unless there is no other way to do their work. Travel needs to be avoided as much as possible.

A new job AH-to-Go

25-year-old Jeanet always dreamed to work for an international triple A company in the food industry. She finished a university degree in food science and marketing and worked already about a year for a Dutch food retailer. When a head-hunter approached her for a category manager job at AH she thought that her dream came true. It was a very interesting job at the outlet formula AH-to-go. Jeanat has to monitor the results of the different products, keep relations with suppliers and come up with ideas for new products and marketing approaches.
A few days before the 1^st of April, the date she actually started the job, her AH manager contacted her and said that she needed to work from home until at least the end of September. She could only come once to the office to get her mobile phone and laptop, but that was it. The briefings about her job and the meetings with colleagues and with her manager Tom are only online.

1. Individuals & Motivation (15 points)
   The policy of AH to keep employees of departments in the head office working at home, will have an impact on the motivation of employees.
   1. Explain which of the needs McClelland identified in his motivation theory, is affected the most by working at home? (3 points)
   2. Describe an intrinsic motivation factor and an extrinsic motivation factor that are affected by working at home? (4 points)

Explain which letter combination of 4, that Myers and Briggs used to describe their personality types, will be best suited for the online working environment

Answer 1

a. The need of power is affected most by working at home. As the employees will not be able to work according to their choices. They may not be able to control and influence others who are working within the organization. Also, the employees will not have to face any kind of competition which he/she likes to win to prove themselves. It is also very difficult to gets status and recognition which an employee wants with working in a company for which he was working with their full efficiency. Therefore, the need for power is affected the most.

b. By working at home the employee does not have the opportunity to act according to his desires which could showcase their talent. Intrinsic motivation is that in which the behavior os a person is desired from within. The work from home does not aid in performing according to the capabilities of a person due to restrictions and nonavailability of the peers. The employee do not have chance to face a competition which affects their working.

An extrinsic motivation factor that is hampered by work from home is the extrinsic reward which is attached to the performance of an employee. The employees are not able to get any kind of reward which is attached to the work and this hampers the motivation of the employees.

Extraversion vs. Introversion best suits the online working environment. The extroverts people do not like working in isolation while the introverts love to work in isolation.