Int. Journal of Business Science and Applied Management, Volume 8, Issue 1, 2013

The retail store managers’ role: Evidence from Greece

Antonios Zairis

New York College of Athens, Department of Economics

38 Amalias str., Athens, 105 58, Greece

Telephone: 210 3318932

there is no detailed description about the store managers’ role or their actual work. Furthermore, the continuous

developments in the retail sector have established different roles and created higher levels of responsibility for

store managers. The aim of the present paper is to empirically investigate the role of retail store managers in

Greece and identify any potential differences in terms of personal characteristics, tasks and various job-related

factors. For the purposes of this research a survey was conducted focusing on the sectors of apparel/footwear

and food, in an attempt to explore any potential differences within the two divisions. The results revealed the

profile of the Greek store managers (male, over the age of 40, with a secondary level of education and more than

five years of work experience) and their multi-factor role. The three major roles that they perform were labeled

as: sales oriented, supervisor, and customer experience oriented. The research also indicated that the two most

popular sub-sectors in the Greek retail industry employ different profile managers. The issues of work

et al., 2013; Pornpitakpan & Han, 2013; Shoemaker, 1999 etc) whereas the same does not apply for store

managers. A review of the relevant literature revealed that although the retail managers’ role is determinant for a

store’s performance, the academic inquiry into the analysis of their practices is extremely limited (Arnold et al,

2009). Numerous studies focus on the appealing of retailing as a career choice for business graduates (e.g.

Broadbridge, 2007; Commins & Preston,1997; Houlton & Thomas, 1990; Preston & Smith, 1996 ; Schmidt &

Corbett,1994 ; Swinyard 1981; Swinyard et al., 1991 etc). Researchers concluded that despite the technological

advances in the industry, retailing did not appear to be an attractive option for the future managers (Rhoads et

al., 2002) and was negatively associated with words like: “routine, boring, mundane, having long unsociable

hours, with poor pay and poor advancement opportunities” (Broadbridge, 2003). Over the years, the retail

industry has faced a difficulty in attracting “good quality” store managers (Commins and Preston, 1997).

today’s economic environment enhances the necessity for organizations to hire retail managers who have the

ability to satisfy their clients, in an increasingly competitive environment (Marshall and Michaels, 2001), and at

the same time perform their work under fewer resources (Harris et al., 2006).

The present study is motivated by the need to investigate the role of retail store managers in Greece and

identify any potential differences in terms of: personal characteristics, tasks, and various job-related factors. It

focuses on the sectors of apparel/footwear and food and attempts to explore any potential differences within the

two divisions. Furthermore, the research intends to provide some insight into the subject by replicating and

extending a number of studies in various fields of the marketing literature such as: the product managers’ role

(Lysonski, 1985; Panigyrakis & Glynn, 1992), sales force (Jones et al., 2005; Ramaswami et al., 1993; Vukelic,

2005), the public relations manager’s role (Panigyrakis, 2002), gender related differences in job attitudes

with the limitations and suggestions for future research.

2 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 The role and profile of the retail store managers

In a business environment the term “role” has a double meaning: it can be regarded both as the personnel’s

(managers and employees) expectations (of each other), and as the functions or positions they carry out in the

company (Hartenian, 1994). In this paper the term role is based on the interpretation of Curcuru and Healey

(1972) who stated that the concept of role refers to the “collection of activities that a person undertakes because

he presumes that such activities are required in his position”.

There is a great deal of controversy surrounding the implementation of the retail store managers’ activities,

which has been mainly concerned with defining the areas of responsibility and the authority that managers have

makers (Ingram et al., 2006) and their role is generally characterized as a “boundary role” between the retailer

and his customers as well as between the store and the different departments of the organization (Lusch &

Serpkenci, 1990; Singh, 1996).

A store manager’s tasks differ according to the type of retailer and the size of the firm (Levy & Weitz

2012). Notwithstanding, a store manager’s job description may not always be precisely defined, and therefore

allowing him to perform many tasks simultaneously. In these cases there is always the risk that the manager may

neglect a role that he considers to be unnecessary, uninteresting or unpleasant (Curcuru & Healey, 1972).

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Regarding the characteristics of a successful retail manager, Houlton and Thomas (1990) noted that he

should be “socially adept, excellent communicator, energetic and determined”. Jain (2008) also commended that

and job satisfaction (e.g. Darden and Howell, 1987; Kim et al., 2009; Quinones et al., 1995 etc.). Hence, this

research is guided by the following three questions:

Q1: What are the demographic characteristics (profile) of a store manager in Greece?

Q2: Are there any differences on the profiles of the two most popular sub-sectors?

Q3: What are the role tasks and responsibilities of a retail store manager?

2.2 Job related factors

Lusch and Serpkenci (1990) stated that regardless of the “ample conventional wisdom about what makes a

store manager successful” there is little evidence on the direct or indirect impact of job tension, performance or

job satisfaction on the managers’ overall performance and the stores’ outcome.

increased levels of role ambiguity (Johlke & Iyer, 2013). It appears that the absence of role clarity may also

cause increased job tension (Donnelly & Ivancevich, 1975) and role stress (Knight et al., 2007). It seems that the

more easily the managers adapt to the various tasks the more conflict they experience (Dubinsky & Hartley,

1986). Furthermore, if retail employees do not fully comprehend their “authority, job responsibilities, or manner

in which their job will be evaluated, their motivation to engage in customer-oriented behaviour would be

diminished” (Knight et al., 2005). All these influence the working environment and ultimately the job

satisfaction of employees (Parker et al., 2003).

As an attitude, job satisfaction has been one of the most commonly studied variables in organizational

behaviour (e.g. Davis & Nestrom, 1985; Hoppock, 1935; Mosadegh & Yarmohammadian, 2006; Mullins, 2005;

Wright, 2006 etc) and describes the way people feel about their job and its different aspects (Spector, 1997).

country’s official statistical source for all economic and social activities) 65% (185,976) out of a total of

286,101 companies operating in Greece belonged to the retail sector. Judging by the number of employees, most

enterprises are characterized as small and medium sized. As it is shown in Table 1 the majority (49.08%) of the

retail companies consisted of 2 to 9 employees, while another significant proportion of retailers (48.95%)

operated with only one employee. Furthermore, due to the country’s peculiar geography (mainland and

numerous islands) the retail stores in Greece are fairly dispersed. The geographical distribution of the country’s

retail companies is depicted in Table 2. Most of them (30.83%) are based in Attica (mainly in the cities of

Athens and Piraeus) and in the area of Central Macedonia (17.67%).

Regarding the market sizes of the industry’s sub-sectors (Table 3), it appears that the core activity was the

grocery trade (51.1%). On the non-grocery sub-sectors, apparel and footwear represented 10.3% of the industry,

electronics and appliances 4.0% and the furniture/homewares stores 6.8% of the market (Euromonitor, 2010).

The total turnover of the Greek grocery retailing was estimated at about 35 billion euro which was also the

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Table 4: The key variables of the Greek retail sector (2002-2010)

Source: Hellenic Statistical Authority, 2011

1

In thousands of euro

2

Without the value added tax

to Eurostat (2009) the products whose sales volume was mostly affected by the downturn were: computers and

peripheral units, software, and telecommunications equipment. On the other hand, the change in the retail sales

of textiles, clothing, footwear, and leather, for the same year was marked as positive. The highest volume and at

the same time the turning point for the retail sales was recorded in March 2008. Since then, both the indicators

mostly affected by the downturn were: pet shops, clothing and footwear, furniture, electrical and household

equipment, books and stationary (Euromonitor, 2010). These results are also depicted in the data of the

following table (Table 5) where the indexes of turnover and volume are presented (Hellenic statistical Authority,

2011).

Table 5: Turnover and volume indexes of the Greek retail trade (2008-2010)

2010, using a purposive nonprobability sample (judgment sampling). The sampling frame was difficult to obtain

since there was no official record for the total number of store managers or the retail stores operating in Greece.

The mailing list that was finally used was the membership directory of the Hellenic Retail Business Association.

The data collection approach was the self-administrated survey. More specifically, the data were collected using

a combination of the online (email) and the traditional mail survey, which given the geographical dispersion of

retail stores in Greece (in the mainland and insular regions) provided the researchers the ability to contact

participants who were difficult to access.

The design of the questionnaire was conducted in two phases. Initially the roles, tasks and responsibilities

of the store managers were identified based on the literature review and personal interviews with Greek retail

managers. Several retailers provided duty statements and job descriptions which gave additional insight into the

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consumed and indicate any possible omissions (Bell, 2005). In addition to the questionnaire the managers also

received a cover letter, which is considered as a supplemental part of the “mail survey package” (Cooper and

18.23%. The demographic profile of the participants is depicted in Table 6.

The majority of the Greek retail managers (54%) were between the age of 41 and 50 years old, male (93%)

who had been working approximately 9 to 14 years with the company (36%). Only 4% were under the age of

30. Still an important percentage (31%) was 31-40 years old while almost 26% had 5-8 years tenure with the

percentage (2%) holds two university degrees. It is evident that in the retail industry specialized skills and

increased education are not valued as important as other individual characteristics such as work experience and

commercial awareness (Gush, 1996).

Subsequently the data were analysed in two stages. First, descriptive statistics were calculated and

significance tests were carried out to determine the demographic variables that were different between retail

managers. Furthermore, in-depth analysis was conducted focusing on the sectors that dominated the sample:

grocery (food) and apparel/footwear.

Based on the objectives of the research the variables were divided to: background variables, job related

well as to discover any potential differences across sectors.

4.2.2 Job related factors

The next variable to be evaluated was the store managers’ job satisfaction. Since there was no empirical

research on the issue of job satisfaction in the retail sector, the items were modified from the study of Pruden

and Reese (1972) and measured on a seven-point Likert scale. The store managers were asked to state their

4.2.3 Store management activities

Due to the lack of researches on the subject of store managers’ responsibilities and activities (Ingram et al.,

2006), 24 items were developed representing the tasks, responsibilities and expected behavioural aspects and

were based mainly on personal, in depth interviews with retail managers. Respondents were asked to use a

seven-point scale (anchored 1= “I strongly disagree” to 7= “I strongly agree”) and indicate their agreement with

each item.

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

5.1 Work experience and job security

Based on the results, although the first job position varied among respondents, almost one third of the

Table 7: The store managers’ job security

5.2 Statistical analysis on the focus sectors

As it was aforementioned the grocery and apparel/footwear sectors were proved particularly important

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similar conditions that the Greek store managers experience, regardless of the sector or the type of retailing they

work. In detail the store managers share almost the same prospective concerning their activities and

salespeople despite the high rate of staff turnover (Good et al, 1996) which creates a difficult working

environment for the managers who are responsible for selecting, recruiting, motivating and evaluating them.

According to Levy and Weitz (2012) the employee turnover in the retail industry is approximately 60% for the

fulltime and 115% for the part-time employees.

Table 8: Mean differences in job satisfaction

Moreover, in absence of a specific empirical measure, an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted