Nike is one of the largest multinational companies, based on revenues. The company
primarily produces and distributes sports footwear, apparel, and equipment. The company is also
well known for its well-educated and skilled workforce. Nike has one of the best workforce
because it has effectively allocated it resources to the human resource personnel. The company
has strengthened its sales associates departments to help it achieve its short and long-term goals.
Although the company has strengthened it sales associates department, it needs to develop and
effective training and development plan for such personnel, allocate resources appropriately to
sales associates, and adopt the use of various learning theoretical frameworks such as
reinforcement, goal, and need theories.
Organization (Nike Inc. Corporation)
Nike Inc. is an American multinational corporation that is engaged in the design,
development, manufacturing, and worldwide marketing and sales of footwear, apparel,
equipment, accessories, and services. its headquarters is in Beaverton, Oregon. Additionally, the
firm is one of the largest manufacturers and suppliers of footwear and apparel across the world.
According to Fortune's 2018 list of 500 largest companies across the world, Nike Inc. is one of
the largest ones in the world based on its revenues (Wokutch & Singal, 2007). As of 2017, the
brand's value was estimated to be at $29.6 billion (Wokutch & Singal, 2017). Nike Inc., formerly
known as the Blue-Ribbon Sports, was founded on January 25, 1994 (Wokutch & Singal, 2007).
The company's founders include Bill Bowerman and Phil Knight. The founders opened the
company's first retail outlet in 1966 and it launched its first shoe brand in 1972(Wokutch &
Singal, 2007). The firm was renamed from Blue Ribbon Sports to Nike Inc. in 1978. By the early
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21st century, Nike Inc. had one of the well-known companies across the world due to expanding
its operations and opening more retails outlets in many countries.
Nike Inc.'s operations are guided by its mission and vision statement. The company's
mission is to bring inspiration and innovation to every athlete across the world. Nike Inc. aims to
provide every athlete with the right sports footwear, apparel, and equipment. Besides, the
company's vision is to remain the most authentic, connected, and distinctive brand across the
world (Arafat, 2016). the company's vision statement reveals three components, including
authentic, connected, and distinctive. The enterprise aims to deliver sports equipment and
apparel of high quality and performance. Besides, the company aims to create and maintain a
better relationship with its customers. Nike Inc. also aims at distributing the best and unique
sports products to its wide customer base.
Organizational Position (Sales Clerk)
A sales clerk within Nike Inc. is tasked with numerous roles and is required to possess
various skills. The role of a sales clerk at Nike Inc. is to ensure that the company can maintain
high sales of sports shoes such as converse, which have become part of the firm's production line
owing to their increased demand in various settings, such as courts. The company's human
resource department requires that sales clerks be highly adaptable to change to fit into this
particular organizational position. Moreover, the company requires a sales clerk to be aware of
the shoe trends in the market, and inform the firm on what products customers demand.
Therefore, the company requires effective training for sales associates. The company requires
that sales associates acquire skills related to how to build an effective relationship with
customers, accomplish multiple tasks in a fast-paced environment, and assist the firm in
identifying customers' needs and preferences.
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Needs Assessment
Short and Long-Term Goals
Nike Inc. has numerous short-terms goals. Or example, it aims to increase its the sales
and maintain its market share across the world. Besides, the company plans to widen its profit
margins by expanding its operations into new markets across the world through the maintenance
and exploitation of the excellent wholesaler relations. It also intends to expand the independent
monitoring programs to include various agencies such as educational and governmental
institutions ("Nike: An Analysis of the Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals," n.d.). This objective
aims to increase the publicity of the company's operations. Nike Inc. is also seeking to fund open
forums and university research projects to explore various aspects of air quality management and
other ethical business practices. Therefore, in the short-term, the company seeks to address
organizational, consumer, and workforce needs to be an employer and brand of choice.
The company has also several goals it seeks to achieve in the long run. For instance, it
plans to increase the availability of its wide range of products to the consumers by building
stores in various locations, such as Japan, and West Europe. Besides, the company seeks to
improve on consumer satisfaction by educating the customers on various benefits and risks of its
wide products ("Nike: An Analysis of the Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals," n.d.). The
company is also looking to improve consumer satisfaction by developing new technologies that
will help to enhance the quality and usability of the firm's wide range of products. Lastly, the
company intends to increase product pricing owing to the brand's popularity.
Allocation of Resources to Sales Associate
Sales associates play an essential role in determining Nike Inc.'s to realize success of its
short and long-term goals because they are directly tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that
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the company's wide range of products reaches the target market. As mentioned, the company
requires that a sales clerk possess knowledge of daily sales and key performance indicators
within the industry. The sales clerk in the company is also required to contribute to the
realization of the firm's short and long-term goals. Based on these requirements, it is evident that
sales clerks plays a crucial role, therefore in the company, therefore, they need to be provided
with the necessary resources, such as education, training, and development programs, to do their
jobs effectively. Allocating resources to employees aligned with the sales department is crucial
as it may help to enhance their knowledge and skills, and improve their motivation. Upon
training, these workers can successfully execute their tasks that focus on the realization of the
company's short and long-term goals.
Matching Organization Resources to Human Resource Needs
The rate of goal attainment increases with a company's ability to match its organizational
resources to human resource needs. In the case of Nike, it can assess its workforce capability and
provide its employees with effective training and development programs to increase the chances
of achieving its goals. The company can also match its resources to human resource needs by
offering its employees with numerous compensation benefits.
Employee Orientation Program
Employee orientation is one of the crucial programs that every organization ought to
adopt. The employee orientation program entails the introduction of the new employees to their
co-workers, responsibilities, workplaces, and duties. The activity aims to allow new employees
to feel comfortable in their new work environment and understand organizational policies and
laws and what is expected of them. Achieving these objectives would require Nike Inc. to
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implement numerous learning theories, including reinforcement theory, goal theory, and need
theory to ensure that employees' responsibilities are communicated clearly to them.
Reinforcement Theory.
An orientation plan established based on the provisions of the reinforcement theory
would help to guide the employees through the principle of shaping behavior by manipulating its
consequences. Reinforcement theory states that the desired level of motivation among employees
can be achieved by the means of reinforcement, punishment, or extinction (Wagen, 2008). By
adopting this theory, Nike Inc. would be able to develop an orientation program that would
utilize both rewards and punishments to encourage desired or eliminate undesired behaviors
amongst the new members of its workforce.
Goal Theory
The goal theory outlines that the goal-setting process is crucial to performing tasks hence
would help the firm. Adopting this theory in the development of an orientation plan would allow
sales clerks to identify some of the objectives that Nike Inc. plans to achieve in both the short
and long run. Besides, incorporating goal theory in development and implementation of
employee orientation programs would enable new employees to understand what the
organization expects of them.
Need Theory
This theory would be appropriate in the development of Nike's orientation plan. Adoption
of this plan would allow the company to identify the needs of the new employees to address,
such as establishing strong cohesion between them and the old employees.
Decision-Making for Selecting the Best Theory
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In my perspective, goal theory is the best theoretical framework for Nike Inc. to adopt in
the development and implementation of the orientation program and plans. This theory would
enable the company to outline some of the objectives that it expects to achieve within a particular
time, and highlight what it expects from its new employees to achieve the set goals. The best
orientation plans and programs should entail informing the new employee what is expected of
them to help the company to achieve its objectives.
Training and Development Program
Nike Inc. can train and develop sales class associates by adopting the use of various
methods such as online training, on-the-job training, and interactive learning. Online training
would allow new employees to acquire relevant knowledge from a variety of locations, while on-
the-job training would enable them to acquire practical skills that they cannot obtain from online
and interactive learning. Furthermore, interactive learning would allow the sales associates to
acquire relevant work knowledge from their co-workers through the sharing of ideas and
opinions.
Conclusion
Nike is an American multinational company that is well-known for the production and
distribution of sports footwear, apparel, and equipment. The company has diversified its product
line and has expanded its operations to many foreign countries. The sales clerk position is critical
for the company because it impacts its sales greatly. Nike Inc. requires that an individual has to
possess the knowledge and capability to identify shoe trends and relate well with the company's
customers in order to assume the sales clerk role. Therefore, before applying for this position, an
individual is required to undergo effective training. Besides, the company needs to develop an
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effective training and developing program for its sales clerk and allocate them organizational
resources to ensure that they can help the firm realize its objectives.
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References
Arafat, K. (2016). Nike. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Classics.
https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.013.4425
Nike: An Analysis of the Mission, Vision, Values, and Goals. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.mindcoral.com/questionlibrary/view/1526
Wagen, L. V. (2008). Reinforcement Theory. Customer Service Intelligence, 47-67.
https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-7506-8190-2.50008-7
Wokutch, R. E., & Singal, M. (2007). Nike, Inc. Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society.
http://doi.org/10.4135/9781412956260.n576