TABLE OF CONTENT PAGE NO

CHAPTER ONE

Introduction 2–3

Company profile of Melcom 4

Definition of the research problem 5

Objectives of the research 5

CHAPTER TWO

Literature review 6–7

CHAPTER THREE

Research Methodology 8

CHAPTER FOUR

Analysis of the research 9

CHAPTER FIVE

Research findings and conclusion 10 – 13

Reference 14

Appendix 15

1|Page
CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Grocery stores, also known as supermarkets, are familiar to everyone. They sell

ranges of fresh and preserved foods, primarily for preparation and consumption at

home. They also often sell prepared food, such as salads, for takeout meals. Stores

range in size from Supercenters, Which may employ hundreds of workers, provide

a variety of consumer services, and sell numerous food and nonfood items, to

traditional supermarkets to convenience stores with small staffs and limited

selections.

Convenience stores, however, also often sell fuel, including gasoline, diesel fuel,

kerosene, and propane. Recently, many convenience stores have expanded their

scope of services by providing automatic teller machines, money orders, and a more

comprehensive selection of products, including food for immediate consumption and

an assortment of nonfood items.

(Specialty grocery stores—meat and fish markets; fruit and vegetables markets;

candy, nut, and confectionery stores; dairy products stores; retail bakeries; and

health and dietetic food stores, for example—are not covered in this section. Food

services and drinking places that sell food and beverages for consumption on the

premises are also excluded. Grocery stores are found everywhere, although the size

of the establishment and the range of goods and services offered vary.

2|Page
Traditionally, inner-city stores are small and offer a limited selection, although larger

stores, including specialty grocers and a few supercenters, are now being built in

many urban areas; suburban stores are predominantly large supermarkets and

Supercenters with a more diverse stock. Most supermarkets include several

specialty departments that offer the products and services of seafood stores,

bakeries, delicatessens, pharmacies, or florist shops. Household goods, health and

beauty care items, automotive supplies, pet products, greeting cards, and clothing

also are among the nonfood items that can be found at large supermarkets. Some of

the largest supermarkets, including wholesale clubs, even have cafeterias or food

courts, and a few feature convenience stores, automotive services, and full-service

banks. In addition, most grocery stores may offer basic banking services and

automatic teller machines, postal services, onsite film processing, dry cleaning, video

rentals, and catering services.

However in Ghana, there are numerous supermarkets such as max mart

supermarket, Game, Melcom, Shoprite etc. for the purpose of research we like to

take Melcom Plus Ghana LTD as case study.

3|Page
COMPANY PROFILE OF MELCOM

Melcom Ltd. is Ghana’s largest chain of retail department stores. The name Melcom

hardly needs an introduction to the Ghanaian public. Dealing with and selling

Electronics, Furniture, Kitchenware, Glass and Plastic ware, Garments, Hardware,

Toys, Stationery, Supermarket items of late and much more – there is very little that is

not within our scope. Melcom is Ghana’s favorite shopping destination, with an array

of more than 4500 products available under one roof. The Steady growth in Melcom

branches throughout Ghana and its vast product range bears testimony to the trust

our Ghanaian customers have in Melcom.

MISSION STATEMENT OF MELCOM

Melcom strives to be Ghana’s preferred shopping destination by offering goods at the

customer’s doorstep through its nationwide network of branches with uniform pricing

all over.

VALUES OF MELCOM

Quality goods, a conductive shopping environment and customer service are the

pillars on which Melcom’s future rest.

4|Page
DEFINITION OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

Globalization has resulted in free trade due to convergence of customers taste and

preference all over the world, the removal of barriers to trade and investment.

International business has taught us that to establish a foreign direct investment such

as Greenfield it will be prudent to use the local citizens of that country if all things are

possible because of the difference in culture and economic frameworks.

Due to this, we taught it wise to evaluate the overall relationship between employees

and their management in Multinational grocery retail industry in Ghana, with much

emphasis on the reward systems, labor unions, workplace culture, attitude toward

work, performance management systems and many more.

OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH

 To find out the reward systems of expatriate or cross cultural literate managers

in multinational grocery/merchandise retailing industry.

 To assess the labor unions impact on multinational grocery /merchandise

retailing companies join.

 To evaluate the workplace ethics of multinational grocery companies.

 To find out the altitude of staff or employees of grocery merchandise retailing

companies.

 To assess the management performance systems used by multinational

grocery companies.

5|Page
CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

There is a positive and direct relationship between service quality and relationship

quality. The results show that empathy is the most significant contributor to

relationship quality at both the employee and company levels. Implications for the

management of customer relationships are discussed, while limitations and future

research directions are proposed, Amy Wong, Amrik Sohal, (2002)(“ Customers’

perspectives on service quality and relationship quality in retail encounters”)

The impact of collectivist and individualist management styles in employee relations

on levels of strategic integration in employee relations. The findings indicate a

positive relationship between individualism and strategic integration. The findings

further indicate that high levels of strategic integration are associated with low levels

of collectivism in employee relations. Ownership was the most significant factor

impacting upon variations in levels of strategic integration, Patrick Gunnigle, Thomas

Turner, Michael Morley, (1998)( “Strategic integration and employee relations: the

impact of managerial styles”) .

Even though, we learnt that collectivist leads to positive integration or team work the

above research says otherwise. That is when there is an individualistic management

style company tend to receive higher integration or teamwork. This is explained as

when individuals are assigned distinct roles they deliver better performance as group

because of social loafing.

6|Page
There were differences in cultural values between Thai employees and Chinese

managers. Moreover, Chinese managers are not adapting themselves to the Thai

culture. However, the Thai employees were satisfied working with the Chinese

managers. Chanchai Bunchapattanasakda, Pisit Wong, (2010) ‘’ Management

practices of Chinese managers in Chinese MNCs operating in Bangkok’’.

The limitation of this research was that even though there was a cordial relationship

between the Thai employees and their Chinese managers, the research failed to

make emphasis on what were the reasons behind this.

Findings of a research by Amik Garg, S.G. Deshmukh, (2006) on “operations

performance management “ranges from various optimization models, maintenance

techniques, scheduling, and information systems etc. Within each category, gaps

have been identified. A new shift in maintenance paradigm is also highlighted.

Improving service quality are watchwords for the retail industry, often involving

employee development and empowerment programmes, partnerships between

labour unions and employers and many other challenges. Employers' views of these

challenges are often heard, but what about the unions themselves and the labour

union. The Congress presents its view on people development which raises some

interesting points for retail management, Management Development Review

7|Page
CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The survey research method will be the basic research design. Data will be gathered

from both primary and secondary data sources. With the primary data, we will use

Melcom retail company as a case study to generalize for the grocery merchandise

retail industry in Ghana. Specifically the use of personal interview will be conducted

with the help of questionnaire to sample views from staffs and management of

Melcom. The personal interview is generally expected to last between 5 to 10

minutes. A sample of our questionnaire for this interview can be found at the

appendix.

SAMPLE DESIGN

A survey of approximately 50 individuals located in the selected two (2) branches of

Melcom found in Greater Accra Region, specifically, Melcom plus in industrial area

and Melcom at Accra Central will provide the data base for this study. The sample will

be selected on a probability basis from the premises of Melcom retail company.

DATA GATHERING

The group members of this research will conduct the field research. We will divide our

group into two. Each group will interview a specific branch of Melcom selected for this

study.

8|Page
CHAPTER FOUR

DATA ANALYSIS OF THE RESEARCH

TOTAL NUMBER OF RESPONDENTS = 50

REWARD QUESTION YES NO

SYSTEMS ARE YOU 10 40

MOTIVATED?
LABOUR UNION DO YOU JOIN 50 0

LABOUR UNIONS
WORKPLACE WHAT STYLE OF CONSULTATIVE AUTOCRATIC

CULTURE WORK PLACE 5 45

CULTURE
ATTITUDE DO YOU ENJOY YES NO

TOWARD WORK WORKING 20 30

MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE SYSTEMS

The management of Melcom retail informed us that they use appraisal forms in

assessing their staff performance. This is done by the use of questionnaire by their

supervisors of employees to know their work rate. That is whether efficient or not.

CHAPTER FIVEFINDINGS AND CONCLUSION

9|Page
FINDINGS

From the respondents through the questionnaire, we realized the following

information

REWARD SYSTEMS

Staffs of Melcom complained about no reward systems for them. The only reward

they enjoy is end of year party organized during Christmas for all staff. During this

occasion gift is given to employees who have worked for long time. This information

confirms what we got from the questionnaire. That is the 10 staff who responded yes

might be older staff who always receive present during the end of year party. This

means new staffs feel cheated and demotivated. In general the foreigners who are

the expatriate are paid higher than the local employees.

From our secondary data research, the issue of compensation or reward system is far

more complex in international business than domestic business. The main reason

behind this is the difference in economic scenarios prevailing in different countries. If

the organization decide to pay the same compensation, then expatriate managers in

developing country, such as Ghana, will be getting far more than he /she could spend

as compared to managers posted at developing countries

Therefore, there is likely to be disparities in compensation among separate managers

and employees at different locations which will result in resentments.

LABOUR UNIONS

Melcom has two different classifications of employees. That is the first group work as

10 | P a g e
sales attendants in the retail shops while the second group are the staffs within the

offices who work for continues supply of goods. When it comes to labour union, only

the first group joins (TUC). The second groups don’t join any labour unions. This

follows our data analysis because we only interviewed the sales staffs within the

selected branches of Melcom retail company.

Our secondary data, taught us that organizations involved in international business

cannot make use of the same management practices to manage the labour relations

successfully across the nations. This is because of the difference in economic,

political, legal and cultural environment of the nations.

WORKPLACE ETHICS

When it comes to organizational structure, Melcom retail company is such that all the

Indians in the company are senior staff while their Ghanaian colleagues are junior

staff. Due to this difference there is a big gap between management and junior staff.

Also decisions are made based on autocratic basis without the concern of the junior

staff.

The success of expatriate managers to a great extent depends on how well they are

able to adapt themselves in the new culture they find themselves. The expatriate who

fail to realize the cultural.

The expatriates who fail to realize the cultural difference are not able to adapt

11 | P a g e
themselves and as a result feel isolated outcast and misfit in the host nation. The

result is frustration and a definite decline in job satisfaction. There expatriate are urge

to socialize, be consultative and easily ready to learn and adapt in the host nation.

ATTITUDE TOWARDS WORK

Since there is no motivation to work, and difference in staff of Melcom retail. Staffs do

not enjoy working for the organization and always think closing time as soon as they

get to the premises of their work place.

MANAGEMENT PERFORMANCE SYSTEMS

Performance appraisal by managers are made base on the following, productivity,

profitability, market share, growth rate and many more. Foreign managers of

multinational who are involved in the evaluations don’t have much practical idea of

working in the host nation and such cannot imagine the impact on the above figures

of external events like exchange rate fluctuations, economic slowdown, and political

development.

Also when local mangers are also used for this exercise, they tend to be bias

because of the same culture and compared to the foreign mangers.

Therefore the advice in appraising performance is to have a hybrid of the two

mangers that is a foreign and local manager so that they can share idea and assist

each other.

12 | P a g e
CONCLUSION

From the research findings, we realized that multinational grocery retail companies in

Ghana are not having good relationship with their workers using Melcom retail Ghana

as a case study. We need to understand that due to cultural differences we need

each other that management and employees to be able to boost efficiency and deliver

best customer service to all our customers in the retail industry. Therefore we

recommend that a cordial or win-win relationship should be encourage in the

grocery/merchandise retail industry.

13 | P a g e
REFERENCE

Amik Garg, S.G. Deshmukh, (2006) on “operations performance management

Amy Wong, Amrik Sohal, (2002)(“ Customers’ perspectives on service quality and

relationship quality in retail encounters”)

Chanchai Bunchapattanasakda, Pisit Wong, (2010) ‘’ Management practices of

Chinese managers in Chinese MNCs operating in Bangkok’’

Doug Harber, Fern Marriott, Nirwan Idrus(“Employee Participation in TQC: An

Integrative Review”)

Patrick Gunnigle, Thomas Turner, Michael Morley, (1998) (“Strategic integration and

employee relations: the impact of managerial styles”).

14 | P a g e
APPENDIX

GHANA INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION (GIMPA)

THIS QUESTIONNAIRE IS A MINI PROJECT TO RESEARCH ON GROCERY/MERCHANDISE RETAIL

INDUSTRY IN GHANA

PLEASE TICK

A. Reward System.

 How Are Your Staffs Rewarded Or Motivated? Yes No

 How Often Are You Rewarded Within A Year? ………………
 Do You Enjoy Bonuses And Other Incentives? Yes No

B. Labour Union.

 Are You In Any Labour Union? Yes No

 Do You Contribute Towards SSNIT? Yes No
 What Was The Motivation In Joining The Union? ………………..

C. Workplace Culture.

 What Is The Relationship Between Senior Management

And Subordinates? Good Bad
 What Type Of Decision Making Does The Co. Adopt?
(Autocratic /Consultative) “A” for autocratic “C” for consultative. A  Or C 

D. Attitude towards Work.

What Time Do You Start Work?..............................................

What Time Do You Close? ......................................................

E. Performance Management System.

 How Do Management Measure Staff Performance? ……………………………………….

 What Reward Is Given To Hard Working Performing Staffs? ………………………….

15 | P a g e
16 | P a g e