Nike Shoes Company

Background

Nike is one of the well-known companies in the world, especially through the production of high quality products, to such an extent that every individual across the globe is aware concerning its existence. This company was founded in 1962, by Bill Bowerman, who was by then the field and track coach at the University of Oregon, and Phil Knight, who was one of Bowerman`s former student. At the time that this company was incepted, it was known as the Blue Ribbon Sports Company, and the initial outlet that the duos opened was in 1966 (Frisch, 2011, P. 23). At the onset of the 21^st century, this company had opened retails outlets and had distributors in approximately more than 170 countries in the world (Park, & Kincade, 2010, p. 182-193). Precisely, this company primary focus was athletic footwear which were designed for leisure and specific sport uses, but this expanded to athletic apparel that bears the same brand names and trademarks as numerous of its footwear lines, performance equipment such as eyewear, timepieces, sport balls, bats, skates and numerous other equipment that are designed for sport activities.

Analysis of the areas that the Nike Company is doing poor and areas that it is doing well in regard to the goal setting and the expectancy theory

The management of the Nike Inc. have numerous areas that they are doing poorly as well as those that they are doing poorly in relation to the goal setting and the expectancy theory. On a positive side, the management of Nike Inc. have been rewarding its employees for good performance. For example, employees who record a good performance at the end of the evaluation period gets rewarded for their efforts. The reward tends to be in numerous ways, including being promoted to a higher job level, being given some days off, gifts, monetary rewards, as well as words of appreciation such as good work, maintain, congratulations, keep it up among others. Rewarding employees in this manner, inspires them to improve in their performance not only due to the perception that the organization takes them as its valued assets, but also due to the hope or anticipation of getting something at the end of the every evaluation period. Based on the expectancy theory, the employees are deemed to work harder if they have an experience that their hard work will finally pay off. Moreover, the mission and vision statements of the Nike Inc. have been the central aspect that have been serving as a compass of this company. The mission statement of this company is “To bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete in the world.” (Smithson, 2018). This mission statement serves as the company`s global goal of reaching out to the global sports footwear, leisure, apparel and equipment market. This goal inspires all the employees to not only work hard but also focus all their efforts towards the achievement of the set goals and objectives of this company. In addition to the mission statement, one of the founder of this company, Bill Bowerman goes an extra mile to reinforce and enhance the inclusivity of the company`s mission statement by stipulating that, “If you have a body, you are an athlete.” (Smithson, 2018). Besides the mission statement, the Nike Inc. also has a strong vision statement that also provides the direction of the company. The vision statement of this company is “To remain the most authentic, connected, and distinctive brand.” (Smithson, 2018).

On the other hand, the management of the Nike Inc. have greatly failed in terms of motivating its employees in a way that they can fully exploit their potential. For example, though the Nike Inc. has strong and well stipulated mission and vision statements, the management of this company has failed to not only remind these statement to its employees, but also providing feedback concerning the overall performance of the company at the end of the performance year. Based on the goal setting theory, providing timely feedback to the employees concerning what the organization has managed to achieve as well as what has not been achieved stimulates them to put more effort in their performances for the unmet goals to be achieved during the next financial year. In addition, considering that the Nike Company is a multinational organization, it has failed to maintain fair compensation of its employees as well as fair rewarding system. For example, Nike Inc. have been exploiting workers in Asia and in numerous other third world countries for financial gain (Wilsey & Lichtig, 2017). In addition there have been numerous criticism on Nike Inc. that the company has been moving most of its factories from the United States to numerous third world countries in Asia for financial gain. Precisely, since the labor costs are low in the third world countries the Nike Inc. had been taking advantage of this situation for their gains. Currently, the media has awakened the member of the public concerning the poor and unfair compensation in the labor markets and numerous corporations, including the Nike Inc. has lately been under fire for these malpractices. The unfair treatment of employees is a major threat in as far as inspiring them to perform extra harder is concerned.

Recommendations that are grounded on the goal setting and expectancy theory

Though the human resource management at the Nike Inc. has been ensuring that new employees are recruited based on their skills and experience, there has been a slight leniency to this culture. Precisely, due to the high competition for limited resources including the talented workforce, the management of the Nike Inc. have also been focusing on recruiting individuals from unrelated fields and then training them in order to match with the skills and knowledge needed. Though this idea is encouraging, there is a high possibility that recruiting individuals from other fields may result to reduced ability to perform. According to the expectancy theory, employees are deemed to portray good performance if they are the ability to perform it (Hsu, Shinnar & Powell, 2014). This means that the workers that the Nike Inc. tends to employ from non-related fields rarely have experience, skills, and ability to perform to the established standards. Precisely, the management of the Nike company should not expect the employees who are employed from other fields that are not related to the needed skills and knowledge to perform at the same level with the employees who whose area of professionalism perfectly matches that is needed within the organization. The resulting outcome of employing individuals who do not match with the skills and knowledge of the positions that needed to be filled is that they may take long to complete the assigned tasks, and this would result to the failure of attaining the set organizational goals and objectives with the set duration and timeframe (Miner, 2015). The management of Nike Inc. Company needs to ensure that the new workers who are being employed are on merit.

In addition, the Nike Inc. needs to eliminate biasness in terms of compensating and rewarding its workforce regardless of the country that they are operating in. according to the expectation theory, all the employees are deemed to improve in their performance if they are certain that the organization that they work in has a reputation of not being biased or have a fair. It is possible to find that most of the employees who have been employed by Nike from the third world countries do not perform to their full potential since they feel they are being exploited by the former. At the same time, the employees of the same company in the United States may be working to their full potential since the company adequately compensates them well. Moreover, the company needs to give employees opportunities that would require them to put more effort in order to not only meet the set organizational policies and standards, but also to exceed them. For example, the management of the Nike Inc. can start giving employees some positions to lead or some challenging tasks, as this would motivate them to put more effort in order not to disappoint their seniors by failing to perform to their expectations. Additionally, providing the employees with opportunities that would require them to make an effort can help in fostering innovation, which is a rare resource in the present times. Encouraging innovativeness among the employees can enhance the competitive edge of the company, by producing unique products in the apparel and footwear industry. According to the expectancy theory, when one makes an effort, chances of achieving good performance tends to be very high.

In addition, there is need for the management of the Nike Company should abolish the aspect of relying on the mission and mission statement as a guiding principle concerning what the employees are expected to perform. Instead, the company needs to set feasible goals for each and every employee. According to the goal setting theory, the goals of each employees should be communicated in public and in a timely manner, as this stimulates the employees to improve in their performance. Setting individual goals does not only provide direction concerning what should be done at a given time, but also serves as a sense of efforts that are needed for effective attainment of the goals. In addition, setting goals will motivate the employees to mobilize efforts, improve their attention on the tasks assigned to them, and more importantly, enhance their motivation of completing the tasks within the set budget and timeframe even when the task is quite challenging (Mone & London, 2018). It is worth noting that employees are deemed to give up easily on challenging tasks especially if no targets have been set for them. However, when goals have been set to each employee, the employees will do anything possible not to disappoint their seniors, including consulting from each other on what ought to be done in order to complete the tasks. Moreover, the management of Nike Inc. needs to communicate feedbacks concerning the performance of each employee on regular basis, in order for them to know which areas they need to improve on in order to achieve the unmet goals (Mostafa, Gould‐Williams & Bottomley, 2015).

References

Frisch, A. (2011). The story of Nike. Mankato, MN: Creative Paperbacks.

Hsu, D. K., Shinnar, R. S., & Powell, B. C. (2014). Expectancy theory and entrepreneurial motivation: A longitudinal examination of the role of entrepreneurship education. Journal of Business and Entrepreneurship, 26(1), 121-140.

Miner, J. B. (2015). Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Routledge.

Mone, E. M., & London, M. (2018). Employee engagement through effective performance management: A practical guide for managers. Routledge.

Mostafa, A. M. S., Gould‐Williams, J. S., & Bottomley, P. (2015). High‐performance human resource practices and employee outcomes: the mediating role of public service motivation. Public Administration Review, 75(5), 747-757.

Park, H., & Kincade, D. H. (2010). Historical analysis of apparel marketer’s strategies: Evidence from a Nike case. Journal of Global Fashion Marketing, 1(3), 182-193.

Smithson N., (2018). Nike Inc.’s Mission Statement & Vision Statement (An Analysis). Retrieved from, http://panmore.com/nike-inc-vision-statement-mission-statement

Wilsey M., and Lichtig S., (2017). The Nike Controversy. Retrieved from, https://web.stanford.edu/class/e297c/trade_environment/wheeling/hnike.html