Identify The Regional Economic Issues Evident At 7 Eleven - Sample

Question: Discuss about the Identify The Regional Economic Issues Evident At 7 Eleven. Answer: Introduction: As stated by Hill, Jones and Schilling, (2014), regionalisation is the process of engaging within a close geographic region in order to gain advantage of the common ground trade, economic agreements and partnership that would provide benefit to the member nations operating in the particular region. The initiative of the regional partnership agreement is to acquire economic benefits from the pool of consumers of the particular region. 7 Eleven is an international chain of convenience stores that operates in franchises and licenses in over 18 countries. The organisation has been operating in Australia for more than four decades (7eleven.com.au, 2017). A number of issues have been filed against the organisation related to the wage theft. The purpose of this report is to identify the regional economic issues evident at 7 Eleven and propose a number of recommendations that would eventually help the organisation to carry out its organisational activities in a proper way. Overview of the organization: 7 Eleven is a company that has the members like directors or CEO. A company has some legal liabilities that it has to adhere. There are strict standards under the Corporations Act that requires reporting to Australian Securities and Investment Commission. For most trading businesses, a company is more limited by shares and liability of the shareholders than their own value of shares. 7 Eleven is such a company that has to obliged by the rules and regulations designed meant for the companies to operate. It operates in different parts of the world by the major means of franchise. In fact, the Company has been ranked in No. 3 spot in Entrepreneur Magazines 31st Annual Franchise 500 (7eleven.com.au, 2017). 7 Eleven has been operating in the market of Australia since 1977. It is a privately owned company by the Withers and the Barlow family. It has the license of operating with franchises in 7 Eleven stores in Australia from the US based 7 Eleven Inc. In the recent time, the company has more than 630 stores operating all over the country including Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Western Australia (7eleven.com.au, 2017). It has more than 190 million transactions a year and has been serving six customers per second. The organisation generates sales of approximately $3.6 billion. Impact of Regional Economic Issues: Regional economic integration is the agreement among the countries in the geographic region aims at removing the tariffs and non-tariffs barriers that a free flow of the goods and services carries on. As commented by Whalley, (1998), that in the last few decades the proliferation of the regional trade bloc has unprecedented contribution towards regional economy and have secured the free flow of goods and services. Economic and social crisis has haunted regions of Australia. There has been a change in the political landscape of Australia by the rise of Pauline Hansons One Nation and Independents. Focus has been made on increasing the global presence but the major objective always remained at considering the well being of the people working for the organization. However, in the lieu of greater expansion, major organisations are now exposed to domestic competition (Abc.net.au, 2016). As a result of the increasing competition, the organisations are being found to compromise on the cost o f the workers that directly determine the allocation of the resources. As argued by Wallis, (2015), in Australia the financial and the labour market has been more evident in this respect. The major organisations are considering the wage of the employees and workers determined by the market. The provision of compromising the wage with the workers seemed to create greater distress in the overall business activities. Similar issues have been identified in the organisational activities of 7 Eleven. In the last couple of years, since 2015, 7 Eleven, operating in Australia has been criticized with respect to a number of parameters. In 2015, it was reported that the company has been conducting certain ill employment practices. The investigation showed that the employees and the workers were underpaid. The workers are found to paid around A$ 10 to $A 14 per hour (Business Victoria, 2016). The legal issue that has been identified against 7 Eleven is that the major franchisees were found to maintain the pay record that would show that the employees have been paid ethically but what actually included in the report was record of half of the hours of work that the employees did in the complete week. Therefore, it clearly signifies that the employees are paid half compared to what they should actually being paid. In fact, to add to unethical practices, it was also found that the workers were often not paid loadings and penalty rates that are legally entitled to pay to the workers, for ex ample, for overtime or night duty or even on the public holidays. Identification of critical issues: The economic and the monetary union entail economic integration and cooperation. Economic union requires the free flow of products from the major country to the member country. This definitely requires the adoption of a common trade policy like considering the tax rate, common monetary and fiscal policy. The Australian economy has increased at a rate of 2.3% in the last 2014-2015. This clearly gives evidence that the labour market would flourish because of the presence of a strong growth ahead. Major organisations are facing issues in terms of adjusting with the domestic and global economic reforms. As evident by reading Williams, Hickey and Nader, (2011) that there has been an increase in the GDP from 6.1% to 11.5%; but the prices of main commodity exchange has declined to a great extent over the past few years. This created constrain in the prices and expenses of the commodity from a higher level. This created a situation where the common people and the households have been found t o become softer towards their domestic spending (Australian Institute of Company Directors, 2016). Major businesses have been considering their spending and investment. Government is also focused on the fiscal consolidation as the world economy is getting fragile (Smh.com.au, 2016). The IMF has downgraded the outlook of the global growth in the past few years it has resulted in the decline from 3.8% to 3.6% (Frei, 2008). The value of Australian dollar has also fallen by over 23% that automatically created an impact of the price of the commodity because weaker exchange rate can lead to long-term challenges for the Australian economy. In order to combat against the increasing fiscal and economic challenges in the market, 7 Eleven has been found to undertake certain initiatives. For instance, the organisation has recently being reported to replace the cashier and the employees with technological amenities. As commented by Munson and Jackson, (2015), that there are major organisations that undertake the approach of technology for carrying out organisational activities but not on the cost of the employees rights. For instance, the organisation has planned to completely rely on the payment option by cards or mobile and removing the cashiers from their respective positions. This approach has been undertaken by major other organisations as well to fight against certain challenges like lack of workers or for reducing the work load of the employees, but the approach undertaken by 7 Eleven is to slash away the employees and rely completely on the technology which is a wrong approach (Williams, Hickey Nader, 2011). Recommendations to improve organizational performance: With the analysis of the issues and the challenges faced by 7 Eleven, it is important that the organisation undertakes certain serious approaches towards their business activities that would help it to improve its organisational performance. Some of the major steps that the organisation could easily undertake can be mentioned here: Conducting a comprehensive market analysis: The Trans Pacific partnership agreement between the major organizations in the Trans-Pacific Regions, like Australia, Japan, Canada and others that negotiated in strengthening the regulatory coherence among the major organisations to promote economic development and also focus on the transparency of the laws and regulations in terms of employment. This would create better opportunities and benefits for both the workers and the consumers. Commitment to regional approach: 7 Eleven needs to focus on the development of the production and supply chain. This would eventually create better employment scope and would also improve the standard of living of the workers and employees. Enhancing conservation effort and facilitating the cross border integration shall be beneficial for the domestic market. 7 Eleven could focus on building up their own supply chain that would eventually reduce their overall expenses and the organisation would be able to pay the right amount of money to the workers. Addressing new market challenges: It is also important to promote innovation and take a competitive approach towards the organisational activities. Coming up with technological advancement and considering digital economy, are some of the steps that the organisation would easily undertake in order to fight against the increasing competition. Taking the opportunities of the market: The economic reforms have also focused on the part that ensures the development of the businesses in all level. It can be recommended that an organisation can easily take the benefits and opportunities of the market to ensure proper advantages and benefits to the organisation and the employees working in it. Conclusion: A detailed analysis on the organisational activities has been carried on in this report. It has been found that the organisation has been operating in the regions of Australia as a means of franchise of the company. The organisation has been certain issues in terms of its operational activities. The poor condition of the employees has lead to the situation that created major dispute in the organisational management. There are major evidences that clearly show how the situation of the employees has been degraded in the organisation. This is the reason that the organisation has come under criticism. It has to be understood that economic reforms and crisis are common but it shall remain the major objective of an organisation to consider the situation of the employees as well and design organisational policies likewise. In order to overcome these distresses, certain recommendations have been made. It is expected that if 7 Eleven undertakes these approaches, it would improve the organisat ional activities in the future. References: 7eleven.com.au (2017) About us. Retrieved from: https://www.7eleven.com.au/about-us [Accessed on 29-5-2017] Abc.net.au (2016) 7-Eleven: More workers speak out about 'cash back' scams Retrieved from: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-14/7-eleven-workers-speak-out-about-cash-back-scam/8113622 [Accessed on 29-5-2017] Australian Institute of Company Directors, (2016). Guiding Principles of Good Governance, AICD Retrieved from: https://www.companydirectors.com.au/director-resource-centre/governance-and-director-issues/guiding-principles-of-good-governance [Accessed on 29-5-2017] Australian Securities and Investments Commission, (2016) Corporate Governance on ASIC Retrieved from: https://asic.gov.au/regulatory-resources/corporate-governance/ [Accessed on 29-5-2017] Business Victoria, (2016). Setting up a Business, Business Victoria Retrieved from: https://www.business.vic.gov.au/setting-up-a-business/business-structure [Accessed on 29-5-2017] DFAT, (2016). Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Retrieved from: https://dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/tpp/Documents/tpp-overview.pdf [Accessed on 29-5-2017] Economist, (2016). The Economists Guide to Britains EU Referendum Retrieved from: https://www.economist.com/news/britain/21700592-brexit-briefs [Accessed on 29-5-2017]. Frei, F. X. (2008). 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