Tanglewood Case Study

Introduction

Tanglewood is the entrepreneurial mastermind of best friends Tanner Emerson and Thurston Wood who originally started off with a single store at Spokane, Washington in 1975. Their strategy was to cater to the middle and upper-income groups looking for convenience and reasonable pricing in the area of "outdoors" camping and living themes.

Their aggressive expansion strategy has led the company to grow exponentially in the last 5 years. They now have 243 stores open across North America, primarily obtained by acquiring existing stores.

In this assignment, we will be focusing on the staffing quantity and quality strategies for Tanglewood, before they consider any further expansion. As an external consultant for staffing services, Donald Penchiala (Staffing Services Director) is interested in staffing decisions pertaining to levels and quantity in reference to Exhibit 1.7 of our textbook.

Current Operating Framework

Competition and Industry

On comparing financials with industry competitors, Tanglewood comes out to be a moderately sized organization with a strong growth potential (see Appendix A) standing in second only to industry giant Kohl's(see Appendix B) when it comes to ROI (return on investment).

Competitive Response and Strategy

Tanglewood has adopted a style similar to its competitors in its marketing approach and strategy. They have developed various proprietary brands and have created a niche in the online retail sales sector using high technology innovations.

Organizational Structure

Tanglewood has adopted a clear organizational hierarchy (See Appendix E) across our 12 geographical regions, with approximately 20 stores in each region. However, the HR practices are not consistent at all locations.

Organizational Cultures and Values

Even though there are many elements in the organization that are similar to their competitors, they have developed their own organizational cultures and values which are very distinct. There is a strong sense of employee participation and teamwork, which could be instilled due to the open door policy maintained throughout the organization. Employees are given opportunities to voice their opinions and involve themselves in company-wide activities, which allow them room to nurture their abilities and groom themselves for career growth within the organization.

Human Resources

Even though there is a clear defined HR hierarchy (See Appendix D), a definite lag seems to prevent them from working as a cohesive unit. Local leadership seems to be affected because of the volume of the stores and centralization of the Human Resources function seems to be the missing element.

Recommendation

Staffing Levels:

1) Acquire or Develop Talent

The management would benefit from a dual approach, by developing talent of its existing workforce and acquiring talent to meet the needs of the expansion strategy. The method of developing talent would reward employees who have been with the organization and who have been imbibed with the organizational culture and values. They could essentially be mentors for the newly acquired workforce. This could also be a motivational tool for the remaining workforce, who would be looking at career enhancement opportunities.

2) Lag or Lead System

Tanglewood has an existing recruitment structure, which has worked for them and their employees because of its acquisition strategy. The approach of imbibing the organizational values to the employees of the newly acquired offices was facilitated primarily through a extensive training module. There is a strong familiarity among the employees and it creates equal employment opportunities for everyone. Hence the current recruitment approach can be retained

3) External or Internal Hiring

There is a heavy emphasis on employee suggestions in Tanglewood and the management provides avenues for its employees to develop their careers by observing their leadership and decision making qualities. There are development opportunities even for new employees with no retail experience. With these avenues available for employees, internal recruitment is ideal. They would be the right talent for filling the middle and upper levels of management. However at the entry level, external recruitment would be preferred as it brings in diversity in talent and ideas.

4) Core or Flexible Workforce

Tanglewood should focus on its core workforce, as these employees have the corporate values in place. It is easier to maintain team cohesiveness and company culture among the core employees, as opposed to a flexible workforce, especially in an environment where the philosophy is driven around "teamwork".

5) Hire or Retain

Tanglewood should focus on retaining employees, as they are the core strength for the organization. They have the right values incorporated in them which should be further nurtured and groomed. It would be difficult to maintain the company culture if they have a high turnover of new employees.

6) National or Global

Tanglewood works in a very competitive environment. They have expansion strategies they wish to undertake and taking a global approach would make sense. With a combination of cost effective, off shoring and outsourcing strategies, we could achieve the level of competitiveness among others.

7) Attract or Relocate

Tanglewood has stores organized into 12 geographical regions, with approximately 20 stores per region (see Appendix C). Using the right recruiting strategies they need to attract talent, which would give them an edge with the local knowledge.

8) Overstaff or Understaff

Tanglewood is overstaffed in certain areas, with centralization being the missing link. The best solution would be to decrease staff and increase responsibilities. The key to maximization is multitasking. This will make the environment more competitive and improve job performance.

9) Hire or Acquire

Tanglewood has been acquiring talent, primarily as their expansion strategy was based on acquisition of smaller units and merging them within the existing corporate fold. This