Epistemology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Epistemology - Essay Example Philosophers have come up with theories best to meet varied retail management strategies and aligning them with varied customers’ needs with time (Tsoukas, 2005). Douglas McGregor in his book â€Å"Human side of enterprise† acknowledged an method of making an atmosphere in which employees are encouraged through imposing, direction and control or integration and self-control which he called theory x and theory y. Abraham Maslow on the other hand developed a scientific management approach called Third force psychology. In retail management, organization of employees is of paramount importance due to their respective roles in running the activities of the retail outlet. They may range from cashiers, sales persons to assistants on technical aspects of the products and services. Customers’ needs on the other hand are varied and keep changing with time, seasons and preference. With McGregor’s theory, retail mangers need to ascertain the optimum transfer of autho rity and/or power to their employees incorporating Abraham Maslow’s needs and preference principles to help run the retail outlet smoothly. The two theories have similarities and differences of which can be viewed in a business perspective to assist in analysis of their concepts. In business core values, values like respect, commitment to personal and professional development and focus on friendly environmental practices and unwavering commitment to quality will match well with McGregor’s theory on employees’ motivation and control, and that of Maslow’s self-esteem, confidence, achievements and respect of others and by them. In developing goals, setting results expected of different employees of the outlet, the administration, financial segments and the outlet at large can provide a benchmark of realizing departmental efforts and capabilities and an insight about what requires change. This matches well with Maslow’s self-actualization pillar where molarity, problem solving, lack of prejudice and acceptance of facts which will be a product of the employees organization. In tem endorsed product line, the two theories are similar in that retail managers will need to assign employees to their best performing sections so as to align with the customers’ immediate wants. This is due to the fact that in endorsing a product line, employees need to intensively know their products and â€Å"think big† about the possible queries by expected customers and their respective answers so as to convince the customers. The two ideologies differ in the application to meet the employees need to change in their working conditions in terms of rules and regulations company aspirations and perspectives towards their development in one hand, and customers/consumers’ need of incorporation of their changing needs and preferences on the other hand. This calls for further study on retail management and analysis of ways to merge the man agement styles with the customer needs. For instance McGregor’s theory of authoritative, direction and control varies with the theory of integration and self-control in that there is no clear cut of the optimum type and level of authority to the employees to achieve maximum returns (Cooper, 1999). That is, if managers use the authoritative and control style, how would employees perform in relation to meeting the customers’ needs? On the other hand if management opts for integration and s