Application of the Right Motivational Practices at Nordstrom Case Study

Application of the Right Motivational Practices at Nordstrom - Case Study Example To motivate employees to such an extent, Nordstrom’s managers hire the right salespeople; employ various motivational programs and contests, and employees are highly paid compared to other competitors. In spite, Nordstrom did face employee rebels because of workload, leadership and other issues, which affected Nordstrom business to some extent. A few proposals and their implications have been suggested in the present context. Employee motivation has certainly been one of the crucial reasons for the success of most of the contemporary businesses that flourished during the last century (Walker, Churchill & Ford, 1977). However, businesses have trembled because of changing circumstances and increasing competition. A similar issue gripped the upscale business giant, Nordstrom Inc for some time despite its huge success and immense growth beyond one’s imagination. Business at Nordstrom, which was started as a shoe retailer, grew at an unimaginable pace and started making profits and revenues of multiple times. All growth and expansion are attributed to the ‘Nordstrom Way’ that sets apart their unmatchable customer service, productivity, and teamwork, the three performance drivers. Apart from these, Nordstrom boasts of its practices such as thank you cards for its customer's post-sales, employee motivation and customer entertainment programs, sales contests, and other customer-oriented activi ties that contributed towards its growth and sales (Freedman & Vohr, 1996). Overall, top management at Nordstrom set goals and objectives for employee performance and provide resources for employee motivation. Although the company does not follow too many formal policies and procedures, Nordstrom levies complete responsibility of achieving these goals on individual outlets and empowers its store managers to make decisions that can help in achieving their goals. In turn, their frontline employees are empowered to achieve their individual and team goals.