Summer Sports Incorporated Case Study

Introduction

Summer Sports Incorporated was founded in May of 2011, by Dishawn Norman. Before opening the first store Dishawn did research and visited several sporting stores to get a clear understanding of what she was about to face. Dishawn's goal was to be the number one sporting goods store that could meet all of the customer's sport needs. Ms. Norman's main focus was customer satisfaction and for the employees to have moral principles.

In May of 2011, Dishawn opened the door to her first sporting goods store in Miami, Florida, which sold jet skis, boats, snorkeling gear, fishing rods, fishing gear, scuba diving gear, footballs gear, etc. The first store was run by family members with no real organizational or ethical structure in place. By the end of 2012, Summer Sports Inc. had expanded to four cities within Florida.

We at Summer Sports Incorporated employ approximately 60 employees. Our business is wholesale type company; therefore most of our customers are retailers. We have a warehouse and an outlet store where we sell overstocks, seconds, aged inventory and other discounted items directly to consumers. We have a few sales people, a general manager, partner owners, and accounts payable, accounts receivable and purchasing departments, however most of our employees are young people who work in the warehouse and in logistics.

With the thought of keeping the customers first, Dishawn began to focus on the ethical standards of the company. During this process the vision of Summer Sports Incorporated was created.

Vision and Mission

The vision is that Summer Sports Incorporated is to be the number one retailer in Florida that delivers excellence every day. It will be ensured that the standards and guidelines of Summer Sports Incorporated are widely spread throughout all locations. Employees Will: Respect individuals, provide world class customer service, and always strive for excellence. The ethical culture will also ensure that everyone takes responsibility for their own actions. The mission of Summer Sports is to provide quality safe products at an affordable price. Our motto is "The Customer is Always Right". With that being said we will stand by our product 100% and provide an extra 3 year warranty on top of the manufacturer's warranty.

How will the employees respect individuals? We Summer Sports Incorporated will respect one another. Respecting the team members means being honest and acting with integrity. We will also respect our customers. Our slogan is "The Customer is Always Right". When the customer is always right we do what we can to keep our customers satisfied. We will do everything in our power to ensure that the customer has a happy shopping experience. Even when the customer is irate for some reason will still treat them with kindness and escalate the situation to the manager on duty.

Organizational Ethical Culture & Structure

In order for the employees of the company to ensure that the environment is a pleasant one, it has to start with a strong organizational structure. A strong organizational culture should be widely shared within the organization, providing common direction for day-to-day behavior (Trevino & Nelson, 2011, p. 151). A strong organizational culture is important as it ensures that all employees have the same beliefs and values as the company. The values of a corporate culture influence the ethical standards within a corporation, as well as managerial behavior. This is very valuable as it allows the team to have the same goals. These goals would include communicating effectively with management and working together to improve efficiency. Building a strong organizational culture is important to the owner of Summer Sports Inc., but it is not to be interpreted as being more important to the employees than the overall goals of the company.

Leadership Chart

As seen in figure 1.1 the strongest leaders are at the top of the company. Strong leaders are just as important to the organization as a strong culture. Hiring the right people for the team is important in any organization, but hiring the right leaders helps to build the organization from the ground up. Summer Sports Inc. seeks leaders that have the same morals and values as the organization. The selection process for these leaders includes questions geared towards leadership, ethics, and the overall vision of the organization. Personality also plays a role in the hiring process. Because we promote customer satisfaction we need leaders that are cheerful and optimistic as they can pass this down to the subordinates.

The Management team and leaders of Summer Sports must have the same goals and vision as the company. The Organizational Structure of the company starts with the Board of Directors. These members of the board are high executives within the company that makes the decisions as to how the company is run and the day-to day operations of the company. The Board of Directors will ensure that the ethical standards of the company are being followed from upper management on down. Then there is the Chief Executive Officer. The Chief Executive Officer is responsible for providing the shareholders of the company with financial results. The individual hired in this capacity is the boss of the company. He or she is hired and fired by the board of directors. He or she ensures that the company is able to execute their plan.

Outside of having strong leaders, we also have an ethics commission that is ran by an ethic officer. The ethics officer will accomplish the day to day operations of the ethics program. He or she will work closely with other bodies in the company to promote compliance. The ethics officer will closely monitor investigations of possible misconduct, monitor the development of the program and provide advice on ethical concerns. The ethics officer ensures that all levels and departments of our company meet and excel ethical, legal and civil society expectations on day to day basis.

The ethics committee for our company will be in charge of developing and implementing our ethics program and the code of ethics in our company. They will maintain a close communication with all parties that are held responsible for supervising and managing the ethics program. As well as make sure that the ethical, regulatory and policy standards have been established and have been communicated to all the departments