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Learning, knowing and controlling "the stock": the changing nature of employee discretion in a supermarket chain

Learning, knowing and controlling "the stock": the changing nature of employee discretion in a supermarket chain
Learning, knowing and controlling "the stock": the changing nature of employee discretion in a supermarket chain
Ordering and managing stock is a key function to organisational
performance in the retail sector in general and in food retail in particular. The advent of such technologies as EDI (electronic data interchange) and EPOS (electronic point of sale scanners) has allowed retail companies to synchronize sales with ordering and inventory replenishment. Subsequently, stock management has been centralised with the head office being responsible for the overall co-ordination of the process while the role of individual stores is merely viewed as the transmittal of customer
demands through the supply chain. Reporting data from a case study of a British supermarket chain, this paper explores the nature of the relationship between head office and stores; how it is mediated by the range of technological tools available for managing the stock and also what its implications are for employee learning at store level. The evidence illustrates the dual role of artefacts in making possible long distance control from head office, on the one hand, but also opening up spaces for local discretion and intervention, on the other. Accordingly, the paper also shows how the relation between organisational centre and peripheries gives rise to different types of skills and expertise, providing the basis for a potentially expansive learning environment in the individual stores.
12
Cardiff School of Social Sciences
Fuller, Alison
c6b47796-05b5-4548-b67e-2ca2f2010fef
Kakavelakis, Konstantinos
d0a26962-968e-448c-94c0-3a5f2087ad5a
Felstead, Alan
514e6ef7-2443-49aa-883e-706911d9191d
Jewson, Nick
f96f4be3-d026-4140-9c81-265d74aab544
Unwin, Lorna
8203040c-b1e8-4948-bc2e-4bb2db648720
Fuller, Alison
c6b47796-05b5-4548-b67e-2ca2f2010fef
Kakavelakis, Konstantinos
d0a26962-968e-448c-94c0-3a5f2087ad5a
Felstead, Alan
514e6ef7-2443-49aa-883e-706911d9191d
Jewson, Nick
f96f4be3-d026-4140-9c81-265d74aab544
Unwin, Lorna
8203040c-b1e8-4948-bc2e-4bb2db648720

Fuller, Alison, Kakavelakis, Konstantinos, Felstead, Alan, Jewson, Nick and Unwin, Lorna (2008) Learning, knowing and controlling "the stock": the changing nature of employee discretion in a supermarket chain (Learning as Work Research Paper, 12) Cardiff, Wales. Cardiff School of Social Sciences 24pp.

Record type: Monograph (Working Paper)

Abstract

Ordering and managing stock is a key function to organisational
performance in the retail sector in general and in food retail in particular. The advent of such technologies as EDI (electronic data interchange) and EPOS (electronic point of sale scanners) has allowed retail companies to synchronize sales with ordering and inventory replenishment. Subsequently, stock management has been centralised with the head office being responsible for the overall co-ordination of the process while the role of individual stores is merely viewed as the transmittal of customer
demands through the supply chain. Reporting data from a case study of a British supermarket chain, this paper explores the nature of the relationship between head office and stores; how it is mediated by the range of technological tools available for managing the stock and also what its implications are for employee learning at store level. The evidence illustrates the dual role of artefacts in making possible long distance control from head office, on the one hand, but also opening up spaces for local discretion and intervention, on the other. Accordingly, the paper also shows how the relation between organisational centre and peripheries gives rise to different types of skills and expertise, providing the basis for a potentially expansive learning environment in the individual stores.

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Published date: January 2008

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 63795
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/63795
PURE UUID: 50c24f7b-6f5e-4222-840b-7af8f5ec5576

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Date deposited: 04 Nov 2008
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 11:43

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Contributors

Author: Alison Fuller
Author: Konstantinos Kakavelakis
Author: Alan Felstead
Author: Nick Jewson
Author: Lorna Unwin

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