Organizational Behavior of Run On!

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By:
Lee-Kun Ko
Kevin Ngo
Richard Tran
Philip Anderson
Edward Stevenson

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Table of Contents

● Company Overview………………………………………………….……....2
● Job Performance…………………………………………….…..…………...4
● Culture…………………………………………………….……….…….…..6
● Team Characteristics and Diversity………………...….…….….…….….....7
● Leadership: Styles and Behavior…………………..………………….…….9
● Organizational Commitment……………….………………………..……..11
● Recommendations…………………………………………………..……...13

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Company Overview
Bob and Rebecca Wallace purchased Phidippides and quickly changed the name to Run
On!, which opened it’s first Dallas store during March of 1995. The two of them were well
experienced in running event management and race timing since the late 1980’s. Rebecca had the
ability to talk to strangers and Bob had running retail experience and a notable running resume.
This couple had the capabilities to run their own business. A year later, they relocated from the
original Greenville and Lovers location to Mockingbird Lane. Soon after came the second store
located in Richardson, which is currently managed by Chris Goer. In October of 2012 Run On!
Was acquired by the Running Specialty Group. There are currently nine Run On! stores in the
DFW area and plans to expand to several more in the area.
Run On!’s expert staff is committed to finding what works for you, whether it’s shoes,
apparel, gear, or training programs. Run On! is a specialty store as well so customers don’t just
randomly go in there to browse around. Normally, anyone that comes in already has a good idea
of what product he or she already wants. The mission at Run On! is to inspire individuals of all
ages and abilities in achieving their fitness goals through their comprehensive product line,
enhanced service and training. Run On! takes their customer’s feet as the most important thing,
the employees help determine the biomechanics of your feet or simply how your feet move. This
company will narrow down to the category of shoe that best fit the person and not necessarily the
most expensive or best looking shoe. Customer service is their focus and so highly trained staff
is with you at every step to find the perfect fit. At Run On! their bra fitting process is just as
extensive as their shoe fitting process. This organization takes great consideration for women to
wear a sports bra that is the right style and fits them.

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Run On! also demonstrates a big impact to the community. They currently have eight
community partners with some names as: North Texas Food Bank, The Family Place, and
Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Run On! has also been recognized and selected for
Competitor’s list of Top 50 Specialty Running Stores in America again in 2013. The
organization also sponsors time races and usually has their own booth at just about every big run
in the DFW area. Run On! also has an open invite to their social runs. The social runs take place
at every store weekly on Wednesday nights at 6:30 PM. The group’s run/walk between 2-8 miles
at paces from 7-15 minutes. Everyone is welcome, and the staff and coaches monitor each run.
The social run is a friendly environment and sometimes have sponsors to come out to sponsor
their shoes. The sponsors will even bring dozens of pairs of shoes for the runners to even test run
during the even. At the end of the run, the participants are provided with water and sometimes
even beer or food.
The structure of the organization starts at their corporate office, which holds seven
positions to oversee the Run On! in the DFW area. The positions at the corporate office are:
general manager, director of store development, marketing manager, apparel manager, team
coordinator, training class manager, and webpage. After the corporate office, the structure
branches off to staff in the Racing Systems, Buying & Distribution, and the staff at each Run On!
location. The general nine Run On! stores typically have one manager and a number of
associates depending on the productivity of the store. There are a total of five stores that have
assistant managers as well.

Job Performance
Job performance is defined as the set of values of employee behaviors that contribute to
organizational goal accomplishment, either positively or negatively. Run On! has a couple task

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performances that involve employee behaviors that directly influence the transformation of
organizational resources into goods or services that the organization produces. For instance, Run
On! has routine task performance, which are demands that the employees are familiar to
accomplish the everyday task that become a norm. Chris, the manager of the Run On! at
Richardson, has a checklist for his workers on what needs to be done throughout the day to run
the store efficiently. The checklist helps the employees to perform specific task when the store
isn’t tending to customers. Creative task performance is the degree to which the employee
develops useful ideas or physical outcome during certain situation. For example, Run On! just
receives a new shipment that unexpected comes in with new products to sell. The employees
have to think, “Where are we going to put this?” Normally, inventory is pretty full in the back, so
they have to think of ways to put this out in the store as soon as possible to sell. The employees
have to decide if they think it’s best to put the old inventory on clearance to make way for the
new products. The unpredictable shipment can be seen as an adaptive task performance as well.
Since Run On! is a corporate, the stores will have random shipments and new products to each
store that the corporate wants to promote. Chris provides a flexible culture, allowing each
employee to speak up at any time about making the store more efficient and effectively.
The friendly environment at Run On! demonstrates different ways of citizenship behavior
by the staff going out of their way to engage in behaviors that aren’t in their job description.
Citizenship behavior can be defined as voluntary employee activities that contribute to the
organization by improving the overall quality of the organization’s atmosphere to work in. The
team members will assist each other when needed, such as boxing up a shoe and putting it away
when the coworkers are tending to the customers. Another example is Allie would direct the
customer to the counter, where coworkers will check them out to create an efficient customer

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service system. One of the members on the staff greets every customer that comes in and a
salutation upon their exit. The assistant manager at Run On!, Donna doesn’t generally get too
close with her coworkers and focuses on the job itself. She did indeed perform citizenship
behavior when the store had a high sale day, so she brought baked cookies for the entire staff the
next day. The employees also pick up drinks or food for one another when going on their break.
In every organization, there’s always a previous employee that demonstrates
counterproductive behavior. Counterproductive behavior is defined as employee behaviors that
intentionally hinder the goal accomplishment of the organization. Run On! had an employee that
called one of the coworkers fat. Although, this organization has a joking environment, he
definitely crossed the line. The employee thought the sense of humor was in a “hostile
environment” and took things the wrong way. This employee demonstrated political deviance,
which are behaviors that intentionally gave a disadvantage to the coworkers than the larger
organization. Run On! creates a friendly environment and usually hires the staff with everyone
getting along. This guy altered the dynamics of the culture at Run On!, the workers are normally
care free and have a nice personality so they avoided confrontation at the time. This employee’s
negative behavior also showed signs of incivility or communication that is lacking good
manners, rude, discourteous, and impolite. Chris had to make the decision to let him go for the
best interest of the organization.

Culture
The culture of Run On! is very relaxed, or rather calm. Each store within the metropolis
has its own sort of culture regarding on how goods are sold, what goods are being sold, etc. For
example, in the Frisco stores the employees are able to smooth-talk the customers to buy the
higher priced shoes or training gear based on how well the product performs while the

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Richardson store sells goods based on the customers’ request. The Richardson store’s culture is
family oriented; employees work to get the best gear for the customer at the best price, and to do
so is to ensure that the employees know about the products before the customers walk into the
store. The customers that frequently shop at the Richardson store know what they want to buy
since this store is a specialty store, so the employees usually know what each customer wants.
The employees of Run On! are very sociable, often relating to customers on the aspects
of running. There is a low to zero amount of neuroticism in the environment, giving the store a
laid-back atmosphere; due to the atmosphere of the store, the managers and employees have a
very open and casual line of communication. Whenever an employee has an idea on how to
improve the way the store works, said employee is able to consult with the manager at any point
in time. With the categories in the Big 5, the employees are very conscientious, being reliable
and hardworking. The second category, agreeableness is present with the employees being
courteous, helpful and comfortable to speak with towards the customers.
The relationship between the managers and employees is very friendly and casual; in fact,
the workers tend to have music nights a few times per month, and anyone is free to participate.
On the corporate level, the culture changed compared to the store. Employees aren’t paid with an
annual bonus included with the normal pay when the corporates in charge changed. Otherwise,
the store culture itself has remained the same. The store’s layout compared to the others is
unique, with how goods are organized, and the designs for the signs. The signs are generally
vibrant, colorful to catch the eyes of the customers; the shoes are placed in the back for easy
access. To control the flow of customers and preventing blocking the entrance, clothing is placed
on the sides of the stores and the training goods are around the center of the store.

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Team Characteristics and Diversity
A general overview of the organization demonstrates that it has an ideal working team
within the store’s daily functions. Specifically, the organization of Run On! has an ideal team
size, great degree of diversity on staff, and its employees generally have personalities that
contribute to the overall success of the organization.
The Run On! store has around four to five employees on staff, which matches the ideal
number of team members for a team to function well enough without being over- or
undermanned. The employees do not all work together at the same time in the storefront
normally. Most of the time, there are two to three employees during shifts that help customers,
guide them through the aisles to their products, and serve them however they could in the front.
Run On! employees generally display personality traits that positively contribute to the
success of the organization. Of the Big Five personality traits that include CANOE, or
Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness to experience, and Extraversion, a
great degree of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness to experience could be easily
observed. The manager at Run On! expresses that his employees are very dependable and hard
working. They are the ones that help serve the customers, organize the products on isles, and
handle the store responsibilities as if they run the place by themselves. In that sense, they have a
high degree of conscientiousness. The employees of Run On! are also very agreeable in general.
They cooperate with each other fairly well, and are often met with positive attitudes. The
manager also said that each member is encouraged to offer suggestions and his or her opinions
about improving the business. For example, in the past, the manager has tried out multiple ways
to change product placements after employees made suggestions to see whether it would help

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generate more sales. If things worked out, he would keep it, but if not, they would just change it
back to how it was before the experiment. Overall, it is a very relaxed cooperative, and openminded environment at Run On!.
Run On! also has great diversity within its work team. Diversity originates from
differences in age, gender, life experiences, and so on between each individual in the team. The
ages of the employees in the Run On! store range from young adults to more senior individuals.
The diversity in age in the employees could be useful in instances like when discussing ideas in
meetings regarding how to further help customers who are also in different stages in their lives
find their perfect products. Differences in age also bring different life experiences to each
employee’s lives, which can help build chemistry between each member or just provide more
uniqueness to the workplace. There are also a fairly even number of employees of both male and
female, again providing the diversity that males and females offer to the working environment.
However, no matter what differences exist between the employees in Run On!, one big similarity
shared between all of them is the passion and love for running, fitness, and good physical health.
The common love for running created events like the Social Run, where store members invite
people in the communities nearby to come run once a week on Wednesday evenings.
The weekly Social Run sessions are not the only event that bonds the members of Run
On’s team. Some members are also musicians and they meet up after work regularly and play
music together as not only a method of creating chemistry between each other but also just to
simply have fun and relax, which again contributes to the relaxed environment that Run On
presents. These events are critical in helping the team advance past the stages of team
development. The employee turnover rate is usually about once every one to two years according
to the manager. This means that the team does not go through the development process very

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often. However, when they do, members are encouraged to join in the Social Run or the
musician nights to get to know each other better. Events like these can speed the development
past the storming phase and quickly into the performing stage and maximize the team’s
performance.

Leadership: Styles and Behaviors
The leadership structure at Run On! consists of a store manager who answers to a
corporate entity, and an assistant manager. Refer back to organizational structure section for
more details.
The style of the store manager is very much transformative, and implements a lot of
consideration behaviors. The manager tries very hard to lead by example. Which is to say that he
doesn’t expect anything from his employees that he doesn’t do himself. The manager also
emphasizing wanting to teach his employees, which is an example of his transformative style,
and then he expects all employees to be able to operate the store on their own for short periods.
When looking for leaders among the employees, the manager expects the employee to
take initiative, be knowledgeable in the product sold in the store, and be highly proficient in
operating the store. This means the employee must engage customers without prompting, and
perform other duties such as cleaning without being asked as well as answering all questions.
Part of the consideration behaviors the manager displays is in the ways he motivates
employees. He tries very hard to foster a positive work environment where employees can be
friends. He even invites employees to social events outside of the workplace such as regular
music sessions. Also, after a particularly good sales week, it is not unheard of for cookies or
similar to be brought for the employees. Employees are also rewarded for selling certain

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products by receiving store gift cards, or even a free pair of shoes from a supplier that they sold a
certain amount of shoes from.
Some motivational techniques are negative however. For example, there was an instance
of an employee being antagonistic to their coworkers. The manager was forced to have a private
talk with this employee and threatened to fire them. Another form of negative reinforcement
used is a sales chart kept near the break room. This chart isn’t normally used, but if sales go
down too much it gets filled out with daily sales as a way for pressuring the employees to work
harder.

Organizational Commitment
Organizational commitment is the desire for an employee to remain a member of the
organization they are involved in. An individual’s organizational commitment affects whether an
employee stays where they are or leaves to pursue other opportunities. While speaking with
Chris Goer, the manager of the Richardson “Run On!”, it was obvious that their organization
makes a conscious effort to retain employees. And turnover rates that are lower than most might
expect from a retail store suggest that this store has done an effective job with employee
satisfaction.
Run On! builds organizational commitment at the outset, by hiring people to be a part of
their team that already have an interest in running. This ensures that not only do the employees
of the store have knowledge of the subject but they also have affection to the culture of the
company. In organizational behavior this idea is reoffered to as “embeddedness”, an employee’s
link to their organization and community. This ensures that employees have a tie to the store
without ever having to work a single day.

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At the store the manager and company set goals for the sales team to achieve in a given
period, in an effort to heighten employee motivation. When these goals are met the employees
are rewarded in some way. This is another effective strategy when it comes to maintaining
organizational commitment. Keeping employees engaged and motivated makes them less likely
to become dissatisfied with their job and more likely to stay long term.
The store also holds events meant to strengthen the bond between co-workers and the
community in general. The store holds a social run once a week, where employees and members
of the community are encouraged to attend and participate in a 2-5 mile run open for people of
all skill levels. Another event that promotes organizational commitment is the stores monthly
margarita and music night. Mr. Goer invites employees over to his him to play music and drink
margaritas and spend time bonding with their coworkers. These type of events build affective
commitment in employees, or the emotional desire to stay at their place of employment.
Employees being motivated to stay through an emotional attachment to their place of
employment and the people they work with is something this store is making a very clear effort
to emphasize their employee’s emotional connection to the store, which leads to lower frequency
of turnover. Most expressions of “loyalty” or “commitment” to an organization are usually in
reference to affective commitment. Affective commitment leads to employees who are more
likely to engage in interpersonal and organizational citizenship, such as participating in events
and helping when they aren’t required to. Run On! does a good job of ensuring its employees
have a high level of affective commitment to their company and the store they work at. It is
widely believed that affective commitment is one of the stronger forces that leads to employee
retention.

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Since most retail store encounter a very high turnover rate, they are forced to find ways
that convince their employees to remain in their position rather than leave and seek new
opportunities. They have to fight against the idea that there is not much upward movement in the
retail space, when you consider each store has only one manager and very few people move from
the retail store into corporate positions. Employees in stores like this are often incentivized to
leave and pursue other options whether it be a completely different career path or a new store
where their opportunity for advancement is more likely.

Recommendations
360-degree Recommendation
Run On! has a once a year job analysis with feedback on how their job performance is by
the manager. Run On! should implement a 360-degree feedback to their workers on how they’re
performing every quarter of the year. The 360-degree feedback approach involves collecting
performance information from anyone who might have first hand knowledge of the employee’s
job performance behavior. This is beneficial because they get insight from their peers within
their coworkers. The employees could also see how they perform their job from customers as
well. The 360-degree feedback gives a more balanced and comprehensive examination of the
performance. Since these feedbacks are anonymous, the managers can see if they are a right fit to
stay with the organization. The people that are providing feedback must give an honest answer,
which doesn’t have to always be positive. Negative feedback is good too because it allows the
person to know what they need to improve or develop in. Not every employee is perfect, the 360degree feedback does give opinions on how an individual is doing, but also gives an employee
the opportunity to grow.

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Job Performance Recommendation
One recommendation to be suggested to improve Run On! is to work on job performance.
From the history of Run On!, there were a few employees who weren’t confronted for their
behavior regarding the sarcastic jokes being used around the other employees or customers for
months until one of the managers confronted the employees about how it was offensive to others
even if it was considered a joke. With counter productive behaviors present, it’s difficult to get
work done from the toxic environment, motivation drops and stress increases. With a very
relaxed culture, there could be political deviance from the employees from mere gossiping to
incivility; it would be for the best to try to have some limitations on the employees’ freedom
without restricting it too drastically. Another problem with having a very relaxed culture is the
possibility of having an incident that can ruin the atmosphere. The atmosphere is so relaxed that
its extremely delicate, and with one little spark, it is possible that conflict can escalate and
explode; it is a time-bomb waiting to blow up.
On the positive side for job performance, citizenship behavior in Run On! is not a
concern. On the organizational level, each employee has a voice that can be heard, so if anyone
has concerns regarding the organization itself, the work and such, the managers are free to listen
towards said concerns. On the interpersonal level, the workers are courteous and are very
cooperative towards the customers.
What could be a way to improve the job performance factor in Run On! would be
anonymous evaluation forms for both the employees and the managers. With anonymous
evaluation forms, the workers are free to express their opinions in case if anyone has certain
opinions that could cause conflict if said out loud; the main purpose of the forms is to improve

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job performance, so having feedback is essential in order to figure out what are the main causes
of concern.
Higher Reward Recommendation
Before the change to a corporation, Run On! employees received annual bonuses from
meeting and exceeding company sales goals. The policy has since been removed and may have
caused the degree of motivation of the employees to drop. The lowered motivation has the
potential to negatively affect the performance of each employee working at Run On! as well as
the overall company sales.
A recommendation for the organization is to return to offering a type of reward as a result
of employees’ hard work. By providing employees some incentives to enhance their
performance, not only would they likely be more motivated in general, but it could also increase
the degree of rewards interdependence. Rewards interdependence is described as: each member
of the team would be more inclined to support one another in the hopes of achieving company
goals and earning the rewards at the end as a team.
As mentioned above, the motivation of a resulting reward follows the expectancy theory
of motivation. The expectancy theory basically offers the belief that the more successful an
member’s performance is, the better the reward that will come to fruition. Motivation will
generally increase as the rewards waiting become more and more attractive, which, in the
business world, is usually a higher amount of money reward. Being more motivated means that
the employees of Run On! will get a better sense of direction of where and how their
performances will elevate the company to a higher status. The employees will work harder for
the rewards and will likely be more persistent in pursuing after the common goal as an
organization.

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