Nike is a well-established supplier of sports clothing and equipment (www. Nike has successfully opened franchised chains of department stores all over the world. Athens is the host of three of these department stores (www.nike.gr), one being located in Glyfada. The Nike stores provide the public with top quality apparel and equipment at "value for money- prices. The store in Glyfada opened in 1998 and employees the following staff: management, cashier, accountant, and sales staff, marketing staff and cleaning staff. Management is responsible for day-to-day operation of the store and human resources. The following sections analyze several aspects of the Nike department store.
Human Resources Management, Total Quality Management and Reward Systems.
Human resource management or Personnel Management is not concerned only with hiring and firing of employees. "The purpose of Human resource management is to improve the productive contribution of people to the organization in ways that are strategically and effective-(Frost, pg.17, 2001).
Personnel management, as a specialist function, concerns itself with the fact that except for the sole proprietor, business employs or needs to employ-staff. Employing people carries costs - arising from the contract of employment, the responsibilities for the employer towards the employee, additional facilities and support needing to be given to employees and the overheads of accommodating them. These costs are managed through a systematic process of Personnel Management. (William B. Werther, 1996 pg.500-503).
"Human resource is closely associated with Total quality management to achieve the basic objective of overall organizational excellence-(Creech, pg 7, 1995). The management at Nike believes that personnel are the most important assets to any organization, hence to achieve best quality one has to pay serious attention to the kind of people hired at various positions and the retention of those already employed.
