Why Is Filene's Basement Justified

Filene’s Basement act of firing Norma is justified for several reasons. The main reason of justification is Norma’s excessive returns and frequent registered complaints. Furthermore, the change in ownership of the company has led to changes in organisation structure and culture. The new management at Filene’s Basement introduced a centralized decision making structure in the company where all decisions are made at their corporate headquarters. The corporate strategy of the new holding company focused more on data on profit margins and hence the working culture at Filene’s Basement was tightened with respect to the policies. As such, Norma did not get the special attention that she was used to have with previous staff. Moreover, due to changes
in structure and culture the staff were pressured to increase performance (sales) and the staff no longer had local authority regarding store operations such as providing additional discounts, providing discounts on items not on sale, etc. These changes were the root causes that led to the misunderstanding between Norma’s intentions and Filene’s Basement management. Filene’s Basement therefore interpreted Norma’s actions and suggestions as complaints. Additionally, Filene’s Basement was justified in their decision due to Norma’s chosen method of communicating her suggestions to Filene’s Basement management. Norma’s way of approaching the CEO/CFO unannounced at their office frequently was justifiably not well received. Unfortunately, Norma did not realize this method was not an appropriate way of providing feedback. Lastly, as it is evident in the case that Norma was frequently returning items, she probably generated low revenue. With the changes in corporate structure at Filene’s Basement focused more on profit, and therefore identified Norma as a low-profit customer due to her frequent returns.