Running head: TEAM PAPER ON ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 1

M6A1- Team Paper on Organizational Change

Group 5- Kim Kelly & Karson Jones

St. Petersburg College

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GameStop

GameStop is a company that has 6,683 stores in 15 different countries (McIntyre, Sauter,

& Allen, 2012). They primarily sell used video game software, hardware, and video games

(McIntyre, Sauter, & Allen, 2012). GameStop is having some problems with dissatisfied

employees. The staff has been regularly complaining about how the company places more

importance on sales, versus customer satisfaction (McIntyre, Sauter, & Allen, 2012). One

employee stated, “Priority is placed on sales instead of games and customers, pushing people to

pre-order games can place them in a situation where they spend good money on a bad game,”

(McIntyre, Sauter, & Allen, 2012). For a decade now, GameStop has used a strategy called “The

Circle of Life” (Schreier, 2017). The idea behind the strategy is that customers buy and sell back

used games to GameStop, and the proceeds of the trades are used to buy more games (Schreier,

2017). The profit margins are much higher for the used games versus the new games, therefore,

the company feels it is in their best interest to push their used products. GameStop employees

have always been pushy, but a new policy is taking the forcefulness to a new level and making

employees feel as though they must lie to customers in order to keep their jobs (Schreier, 2017).

The policy assigns each employee and each store a Circle of Life score that is based on quotas

including pre-owned sales (Schreier, 2017). Since the quota is based on a percentage of the

employee’s total dollar transactions, the policy punishes the staff for selling new games and

systems (Schreier, 2017). The Circle of Life program has also forced the employees to lie to

customers regarding what they have in stock (Kain, 2017). “We are telling people we don’t have

new systems in stock, so we won’t take a $300 or $400 dollar hit on our pre-owned numbers,”

claimed GameStop employee, Jason Schreier (Kain, 2017). Some employees have claimed that

they never intentionally deceive customers, and others have claimed that they feel the pressure to
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do so. It is unfortunate that employees have been encouraged to sell aggressively and the

company doesn’t encourage interpersonal skills or sales techniques (Northrup, 2012). If

GameStop wants to remain in business, they must reconsider their organizational goals. Our

team will help create and implement a plan that focuses on increasing employee satisfaction and

changing the organizational culture to better serve customers.

The major organizational change that needs to be addressed is the problem of employee

dissatisfaction. GameStop has poor situation factors and are lacking job characteristics,

leadership, organizational climate, and stressors (Kinicki & Fugate, 2018). GameStop employees

are not going to be engaged at work because they are worried about meeting a quota and having

to be unethical to customers (Kinicki & Fugate, 2018). The managers of the GameStop stores

show poor leadership skills because they are encouraging employees to be dishonest to earn a

higher profit margin (Kinicki & Fugate, 2018). The climate of GameStop is not healthy and

doesn’t foster engagement amongst everyone working in the store (Kinicki & Fugate, 2018).

There are many stressors placed in the GameStop environment that include the expectation of

lying to customers, reaching a specific quota, and being aggressive (Kinicki & Fugate, 2018).

Internal forces are driving this problem to occur. Internal forces come from the inside of an

organization (Kinicki & Fugate, 2018 p .639) More specifically, human resource challenges stem

from employee perception about the way they are treated at work and the match between

individual and organization needs and desires (Kinicki & Fugate, 2018). Dissatisfaction is a

symptom of mistreatment and often requires attention from company leadership (Kinicki &

Fugate, 2018). It is apparent that GameStop employees are dissatisfied with how they are being

treated and the pressure that is put on them to meet a quota. If GameStop wants to keep

employees and remain profitable, organizational change is necessary.

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It is important that GameStop comes up with a solution for their employee dissatisfaction

issue. The company is going to propose that GameStop adopts a Theory Y approach. Theory Y is

a modern and positive set of assumptions about people at work. The assumptions are that

employees are self-engaged, committed, responsible, and creative (Kinicki & Fugate, 2018, p.

164). A study showed that employees and teams had higher performance when their managers

displayed Theory Y behaviors (Kinicki & Fugate, 2018). Another study demonstrated higher

levels of job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship when

managers engaged in Theory Y behaviors (Kinicki & Fugate, 2018). GameStop is going to use a

Theory Y approach to plan and implement a solution that better serves their employees.

GameStop has a vision that their employees and customers are both happy. Satisfied employees

are likely to better serve customers (Kinicki & Fugate, 2018). It is being proposed that

GameStop comes up with a new strategy that doesn’t force employees to deceive customers and

put them in uncomfortable situations. GameStop should consider changing their “Circle of Life”

strategy that allows customers to sell games back to GameStop, allowing other customers to buy

those games for a higher profit margin (Schreier, 2017). The Circle of Life strategy is making

employees feel the need to be forceful and aggressive to sell the used products. A new strategy

can be put in place that still allows GameStop’s customers to sell back games, but employees

aren’t required to reach a quota, and the staff isn’t punished for selling the new games and the

new systems (Schreier, 2017). Instead, employees will be responsible and committed to being

creative to try and figure out the best way to sell all types of games and software’s to customers.

To conclude, the new strategy will be better suited for GameStop and will allow employees to be

committed, responsible, creative, and more satisfied.

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References

Kinicki, A. & Fugate, M. (2018). Organizational Behavior: A Practical, Problem-Solving

Approach. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.

News/Business Periodicals:

Kain, E. (2017, February 02). Reports Of GameStop's Terrible 'Circle Of Life' Program May Be

Overblown. Retrieved February 04, 2018, from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2017/02/02/rumors-of-gamestops-terrible-circle-

of-life-program-may-be-overblown/#1c6680c23683

McIntyre, D., Sauter, M., & Allen, A. (2012, August 10). America's Worst Companies to Work

For. Retrieved February 04, 2018, from

http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2012/08/10/americas-worst-companies-to-work-

for.html

Northrup, L. (2012, August 28). I Used To Work At GameStop, Now I'm Never Shopping There

Again. Retrieved February 04, 2018, from https://consumerist.com/2012/08/28/i-used-to-

work-at-gamestop-now-im-never-shopping-there-again/

Schreier, J. (2017, February 03). 'We Are All Scared For Our Jobs': GameStop Employees Share

Their Circle Of Life Stories. Retrieved February 04, 2018, from https://kotaku.com/we-

are-all-scared-for-our-jobs-gamestop-employees-talk-1791963185

Develop a Change Management Plan that covers the action steps, the individuals responsible,

and the timeline with due dates. Focus your Plan to cover each of the following elements:
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Change Management Plan

Reason for Change - The reason for the recommended change [align with goal(s)]; -The specific business

needs driving the change (reason for);

VMission statements  express the reason an organization exists. Some examples

of clear and effective mission statements follow:

vision,  a compelling future state for

an organization and an important input in the systems model of change. Missions typically

imply little or nothing about change and instead simply define the organization’s overall purpose.

Effective visions, in contrast, describe a highly desirable future and outline how the organization will get

there (p647)

Implementation Steps / Roles and Responsibilities - The implementation steps necessary for the

change (procedure/responsible party / timeline); and

Change Theory / Organizational Strategy - A change theory that will help the organization reach the

goals. Determine the intervention that supports the organizational strategy (align plan with

organization's vision).-

 Who makes the decision;

 What is the strategy; and

 Factors the team finds necessary and applicable

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Monitoring, Controlling, and Progress Reporting - Explain the monitoring, controlling, and progress

reporting procedures during implementation of this plan. Include the measure used to handle

the most likely areas of resistance. Include and discuss your communication plan, (how will you

break the news).

Y. Theory Y  is a modern and positive set of assumptions

about people at work: They are self-engaged, committed, responsible, and creative.

Consider the value of adopting a Theory Y approach toward people. One recent study

demonstrated that employees and teams had higher performance when their managers

displayed Theory Y behaviors. A second study uncovered higher levels of job satisfaction,

organizational commitment, and organizational citizenship when managers engaged

in Theory Y behaviors.12 (p164)

Three General Types of Change

innovative change  introduces a practice that is new to the organization. lt’s

midway on the continuum of complexity, cost, and uncertainty. If competitors in your

industry utilize social media for recruiting but your company hasn’t in the past, doing
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so qualifies as innovative change. Innovative changes bring more uncertainty and

cause more concern than adaptive changes.(p643)

Lewin’s Change Model

Unfreezing The focus of the unfreezing stage is to create the motivation to change.

The most common, but not necessarily the most effective, way of communicating a

convincing reason to change is to demonstrate that current practices are less than ideal.

Data related to employee or customer satisfaction or showing market share gains made by

competitors is often used. The process of unfreezing, moving, and refreezing occurred at

Facebook

Changing Changing is where the rubber meets the road. Because change calls for

learning and doing things differently, this stage entails providing employees with new

information, new behavioral models, new processes or procedures, new equipment, new

technology, or new ways of getting the job done.

Refreezing The goal of refreezing is to support and reinforce the change. Managers

support change by helping employees integrate the new behavior or attitude into their accustomed

way of doing things. They can first give employees a chance to exhibit the new

behaviors or attitudes. Once this happens, positive reinforcement can encourage the desired

change. More specifically, continuous reinforcement with extrinsic rewards (recognition,

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feedback, bonuses) is useful early in the change process