Psychology

Over a couple of past months, there have been some debates that have been circulating in the media concerning Styles Retail Stores.  This is a retail store that deals with both retails and whole sale transactions of plastic and other household goods. Over time, there have been a lot of cases of employees getting injured while they are working. After much observation, we decided to investigate more on the issue and know for truth whether there are a lot of injuries that are taking place in the stores.

Research Methods
The very first thing that we decided to do was to visit the media house which had interviewed a group of people who claimed to have been injured while they were working in the stores. We were lucky to get the contacts of these people from the media house and we were able to interview them. All these people claimed that indeed they had received some injuries while they were working at the stores. They referred us to one of their colleagues who was still in the hospital after he broke his leg while transporting some goods in the company stores.

We were able to locate thirteen workers who since then had stopped working for the company. Out of the thirteen workers, eleven had experienced some injuries while they were working at the company. Most of the injuries involved spinning of joints especially the ankle and breaking of legs.  We found out that out of the whole thirteen workers, eleven had worked in the stores for at least two years. Seven of them had fallen with a ladder that they usually used to carry goods from the upper stores to the ground. Five had broken their arms and two had broken their legs. From the same group, we found out that the other five had been injured by some live wires that were all over the companys stores.

After this, we headed for the company there, we were lucky to meet the operations manager who was still in the companys store.  We had an interview with him concerning the current issues that are taking place in the organization. At first he did not want to tell us more about the company. In addition, he did not want us to visit or rather tour the stores and see the way people work in the stores. However, after some time, he allowed us and we were able to tour different parts of the stores. We were able to go upstairs and the know more about what the company does. We realized that the company is a retail store that operated on selling shoes and other domestic use products in bulk.

We also notices that the stores operated on a very small space which is about one thousand square meters. This space is the one which acts as the companys store and at the same time, it acts as the front office of the company. Due this lack of space, there is a small upstairs store which is used for storing large stocks of the goods that are sold.

There is only one way of getting to this upstairs stores and this is through a ladder that is usually removed when the stores up are not busy. At this point, we realized that indeed, there is a possibility that these workers who were claiming to have been injured in the stores may have been fallen from that ladder. It was very steep and it would be difficult to balance when one is carrying goods with both hands. (Aamodt, 2006)

After this we went to the operations manager office and we interviewed him. We realized that he too admits that the company has a problem with the space. He told us that he had tried to raise the issue to the management who promised to act on the issue. He had worked in the company for the last five years and according to him, there were thirty five reported injuries sustained by workers in the store. He said that during that period of time, there was only one death that was reported of a worker who had fallen from the upper store and he hit the ground with his head. He sustained multiple injuries and succumbed to the injuries.

After this, we had a chance to interview a group of people that were working in the stores. Out of the seven persons who were working in the stores at that time, five believe that there was actually a problem with the way store was managed. They felt that the only reason that they were working in the stores was because they did not have anywhere else to go. They felt that the stores especially the upper compartment is not properly designed and the ladder that links the lower compartment and the upper compartment poses a risk to their life. They felt that the store needs to shift to another bigger place so that they can have better working conditions which are free of such health hazards.

All the people that we interacted with admitted that there was a problem in the stores. They all admitted that there was a problem with the management as over the past five years, there have been a lot of injuries that has been reported to have taken place in the stores. Indeed, there has been one death over this period of time. The problem seems to be the design of the stores. After thorough investigation, we noted that the stores happens to be the only one that serving the town with those types of goods. It was also noted that behind the stores, there is an idle land that is not developed. However, the management of the stores is the one which is just reluctant and takes no action when a person is injured.

This information can be presented diagrammatically in the following chart
 EMBED MSGraph.Chart.8 s

Solutions
We also noted that out all the thirty five people that have been injured while working in this stores, only two were compensated and the rested would usually quit working. We understood that in the company, very few people understood that there exists a law that protects the employees. There is a law that protects the employees and every employee is entitled to compensation in case he or she is injured while on the job. It is therefore right to educate the employees on some of the basic policies that they should be aware of while they are working in the stores. They should be fully aware of their rights while they are working and that if they are injured in the places of work, they should not quit but ask for their compensation.

Secondly, from the information that we have gathered, it is clear there is a problem with the stores. This problem seems to have spanned for a period of over five years. It should be addressed as people cannot keep on getting injured out of management negligence. From our investigation, we found out that the cause of the problem is lack of space. Behind the building which houses the stores, there is an idle land it would be recommendable therefore, that the store management contemplates on expanding the stores on the real side. It is the duty of the management to ensure that the working environment is good and that if there is a worker that is injured while on the job, he or she receives the necessary compensation or the necessary services. The management should also ensure that all the workers are well informed about their rights while they are on the job. (Aamodt, 2006)

In summary, we have identified a problem of poor working environment that exists at the Styles Retails Stores and the solution is expanding the retails stores to the real idle land and also educating the workers on their rights while they are working for the company.