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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
TEAM PAPER ON ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 3
do so. It is unfortunate that employees have been encouraged to sell aggressively and the
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
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
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
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
References
News/Business Periodicals:
Kain, E. (2017, February 02). Reports Of GameStop's Terrible 'Circle Of Life' Program May Be
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
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
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:
TEAM PAPER ON ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 6
Reason for Change - The reason for the recommended change [align with goal(s)]; -The specific business
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 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).-
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
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,
industry utilize social media for recruiting but your company hasn’t in the past, doing
TEAM PAPER ON ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE 8
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
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
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