Comportement organisationnel

Introduction

I decided to present one of my professional experiences in France as an employee in different departments during my summer holidays I had in a company of German origin, Lidl. In this report, I am going to discuss about several topics that I was confronted with several problems and discussions with employees who had already been there for some years during my experience, such as the working environment, management techniques used, emotions, satisfaction and ethical behavior. Thus, I will talk about working conditions and how this impacts employee in their desire to want to work and the behaviour they hold.

An environment favorable to stress

There was chronic and intense stress. Management had put in place a very strict protocol in its room for manoeuvre (each of the steps had to be meticulously applied) and in time (a time was given to carry out all the steps) which caused quite a lot of stress. Coupled with an almost daily "crisis" situation with recurrent resignations due to various problems, understaffing, total lack of recognition, the stress increased tenfold and counterproductive reactions began to appear with an upsurge in emotional reactions such as anger or avoidance reactions such as sick leave, non-involvement in team building. I was able to see that the best way for the manager to control the stress of these employees was cooperation with other employees because there was a very good understanding between employees based on trust, solidarity, mutual help and consideration and informal moments of conviviality such as the traditional coffee break, lunch break, tee times or outings between colleagues. The manager had put this in place, but despite its implementation, it was not enough. Indeed, one of the main sources of stress was the management methods of the department managers and their attitudes towards the context.

External and internal violence

Working in Lidl's packaging process involves having relationships with suppliers and creative agencies outside the company. These parties are essential to the creation of packaging and are at the origin of very important issues. This position brings a lot of power and it was quite common for them to abuse it by using unpleasant, sometimes aggressive language. As the packaging department was not involved in the choice of Lidl's customers, no one and even the managers could change anything. Without going so far as to threaten, this indirect violence was nevertheless present.

Internal violence is the most present and heavy. The department was run by two managers who adopted the technique of good cop/bad cop to achieve their ends. Harassment, threats of dismissal or public humiliation were part of their methods, in order to encourage employees to work better. However, the lack of encouragement and frequent sanctions encouraged those involved to do only the bare minimum and especially not to get more involved than they should. Thus, while these methods helped to keep people on the right track, the various forms of violence resulted in fear, which was a major source of stress in the department.

Ruthless management techniques and work overload

As said in introduction, I worked there during the summer

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