Home Depot Case Study
Home Depot Case Study
Fabian Gonzalez
Great Basin College
Line and staff relationships consist of two types of authorities that work hand in hand in order for a company to work in an efficient manner. Line authority deals with the ability to make decisions over production, sales, or finance, while staff authority deals with the assisting of those who have line authority, by helping with the performance expected by workers (Certo). In the Home Depot case, the relationship between these two authorities, before CEO Nardelli, was unknowingly miscommunicated. Headquarters would apparently send out messages to these individual locations which were then overlooked or disregarded by store managers. They continued to have what is referred to as “do-it-yourself management” (Certo). The co-founders of the company would tell store managers to dismiss headquarter changes and do what they thought was best for their store. Tom Taylor, who joined the company, agreed that store managers were “aggressive and independent, pushing hard to build sales by giving local customers what they wanted” and included they were “a little bit rebellious, a little bit dangerous” (Certo). Authority was mainly in the control of the independent store managers. After Mr. Nardelli took over as Chief Executive, things started to change. He brought back the authority to headquarters staff by taking purchasing authorities away from store managers. He essentially brought back the communication throughout stores and throughout the individual managers via email which enabled the communicating of advice and the sharing of ideas (Certo). He refreshed the idea of cooperation within the corporation.
Nardelli impacted the Home Depot franchise greatly. His influence and changes affected the corporation in a major way. He took away the “do-it-yourself” attitude from store operators and included the advice of many other authorities. This helped with the
Fabian Gonzalez
Great Basin College
Line and staff relationships consist of two types of authorities that work hand in hand in order for a company to work in an efficient manner. Line authority deals with the ability to make decisions over production, sales, or finance, while staff authority deals with the assisting of those who have line authority, by helping with the performance expected by workers (Certo). In the Home Depot case, the relationship between these two authorities, before CEO Nardelli, was unknowingly miscommunicated. Headquarters would apparently send out messages to these individual locations which were then overlooked or disregarded by store managers. They continued to have what is referred to as “do-it-yourself management” (Certo). The co-founders of the company would tell store managers to dismiss headquarter changes and do what they thought was best for their store. Tom Taylor, who joined the company, agreed that store managers were “aggressive and independent, pushing hard to build sales by giving local customers what they wanted” and included they were “a little bit rebellious, a little bit dangerous” (Certo). Authority was mainly in the control of the independent store managers. After Mr. Nardelli took over as Chief Executive, things started to change. He brought back the authority to headquarters staff by taking purchasing authorities away from store managers. He essentially brought back the communication throughout stores and throughout the individual managers via email which enabled the communicating of advice and the sharing of ideas (Certo). He refreshed the idea of cooperation within the corporation.
Nardelli impacted the Home Depot franchise greatly. His influence and changes affected the corporation in a major way. He took away the “do-it-yourself” attitude from store operators and included the advice of many other authorities. This helped with the
References: Certo, Samuel C., and S. Trevis. Certo. Modern Management: Concepts and Skills. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2012. Print. Lloyd 's Register. "Corporate Reporting Verification.". N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. .