The Responsible Leader and Manager of Limited Brands - Essay Example

The Responsible Leader and Manager, Stakeholder Essay The Responsible Leader and Manager, Stakeholder Essay Introduction Limited Brands is an international lingerie, beauty products, home fragrances and toiletries retailer operating over 2, 000 stores in the United States (Carroll 2006). Among the managers are Stacey Miguel, Kathy Buttimer and Annama Schaeffer. They are, respectively, district manager in Indiana, recruiting manager in Rhode Island and investor relations manager. The district manager oversees all the operations of the district including customer satisfaction and preparing stakeholders’ reports. The recruiting manager is responsible for getting qualified and competent staff to drive the business’ success. The investor relations manager ensures the stakeholders’ interests are taken care of while updating them on the company’s progress. This paper will explain how the managers can use their personal, interpersonal and societal values to manage the stakeholders. It will also show how they demonstrate their awareness of social issues and corporate citizenship responsibilities. Stakeholders Stakeholder management is the process that promotes a company’s strategic goals by influencing internal and external environments to create beneficial relationships between the company and its stakeholders (Bolman & Deal 1995). This is achieved through management of the agreed objectives and expectations. Among the stakeholders of Limited Brands are the customers, corporate shareholding companies and suppliers. By the end of 2012, Janus Capital Management LLC had 22.8 million shares, representing a 15.9 percent shareholding in Limited Brands. It is the duty of the managers to integrate their personal values and corporate values in order to ensure the success of the business and encourage stakeholders to invest more. Apart from Mr. Leslie Wexner, the owner, Janus Capital Management is the next largest shareholder. Customers The customers are among the key stakeholders, and the company instills the value of the customer being king to all managers. The managers at Limited Brands know that the business cannot survive without its customers. Even after bringing quality products to the market, the customers’ choice to buy or not can determine the business’ fate (Chappell 1993). It is, therefore, significant to portray themselves as a company that focuses on excellence driven by customer satisfaction and motivational leadership on top of giving value for money in their products. In mirroring their customers’ values, the recruiting manger, district manager and investor relationship manager bring out their humility in a bid to empower women and improve children’s education. All the managers possess personal values of reaching out a helping hand to the needy. They themselves must possess values of honesty and integrity so as to enroll into the programs genuinely deserving students and women. In light to aiding talented students who need to gain experience before venturing into the employment world, the company offers internships and the successful applicants receive firsthand 10 weeks of immersion experience. They get to learn how products, brands and customer experiences are built and delivered. Some are even enrolled into accounting or systems support positions. The managers ensure, through their values of sharing knowledge and opportunity, that the interns learn in the best environment and they can share their experiences with the general public, and customers, upon completion. They subject the interns to the actual and challenging experiences of the working field. The interpersonal values of the managers help the interns to build and develop networks of relationships with other managers and the broader customer base by introductions and recommendations. This gesture serves to attract, build and maintain loyal customers who ensure that business flourishes. With retail stores in 49 states in the US and over 700 products, the interns also stand a better chance of being taken up for employment once they have acquired sufficient experience (Sun 2010). This creates job opportunities for young citizens who can extend their appreciation and loyalty by bringing in more customers. The role of a corporate citizen is well represented by this internship sponsorship program. Suppliers For its suppliers, the managers are committed to the social responsibility of ensuring that forests are conserved (Visser, Matten & Tolhurst 2008). Such managers must have within themselves an appreciation of the environment in which they run their business including the ability to influence their partners to do the same. To achieve this, the company only uses paper and forest products obtained from sources managed in ways that adhere to regulations of environmental protection and natural resources as well as the protection of the rights of local communities and indigenous people. This exhibits their value of preserving life and the environment. With a commitment to assume a leadership role, the managers have partnered with similar minded retailers who encourage suppliers to practice sustainable management of forests. The managers at Limited Brands encourage suppliers of paper and forest products to formulate and base their forest management plans on internationally acknowledged, quantitative information on the conversation and protection of natural resources (Visser, Matten & Tolhurst 2008). To this end, they have influenced their suppliers to be good custodians of the environment in which they operate. The managers at Limited Brands are also in the fore front to minimize wastage of materials and resources originating from forests. They have, therefore, advocated for the value of efficient use of paper through efforts to curb duplicate mailings and distribution of catalogs. They further promote reduction in paper weight and efficiency in use of fiber and printing methods by use of advanced technologies. Through their policies, the managers encourage their supplier to carry out researches in the use of alternatives to sources of fiber like agricultural wastes. By using their own values, the managers have, therefore, shown they care for a healthy environment. They have also used their interpersonal and social values to influence other businesses that use paper and forest products to take up ethics and practices that do not deplete the environment. Through indirectly managing the activities and operations of their suppliers by setting standards of the products they must be supplied with, the managers of Limited Brands are also managing a social cause by advocating for a greener environment (Visser, Matten & Tolhurst 2008). Janus Capital Management LLC Corporate social responsibility is an organization’s obligation to act towards improving and protecting the welfare of the society as well as the organization’s own interests (Sun 2010). In accordance with the concepts of social responsibility, managers ought to make it their duty to realize both societal and organizational objectives. Managers at Limited Brands understand that social power gives rise to social responsibilities. Janus Capital Management is a major shareholder with the potential to put in funds for the good of the community. In 2010, the Limited Brands Foundation made a commitment worth $100 million to Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, the Wexner Center for Arts, Richard J. Solove Research Institute and The Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital (Sun 2010). Recently, the company donated one million dollars towards the relief efforts for the victims of the Hurricane Sandy. All these were clear indications of the managers’ and organization’s awareness of social issues. The stakeholders can see their managers’ philanthropic values through such gestures and will be willing to be associated with the initiatives. The managers can solicit for funds from such a stakeholder to put into such projects by convincing them of the positive outlook it can paint for the organization. By putting their social values and skills into use, they can identify projects that will benefit most of the society and be able to get funding from shareholders (Chappell 1993). The managers themselves must use their values of having the interest of the citizens’ well being at heart and show a willingness to give back to society. Timely and correct financial reports that give a true picture accounting for the use of stakeholders’ money in social projects are crucial in encouraging them to donate towards worthy causes (Sun 2010). The managers often invite the stakeholders to the launch of such projects to let them know the use their money is being put to. It is for the managers to initiate and implement successful projects to convince the stakeholders that growth and profitability work side by side with the responsible treatment of the community and customers (Sun 2010). Through their social values, the managers can measure the success of their efforts by the degree of social responsiveness they will receive. Their personal values will enable them to judge if they achieved their goals without being wasteful in using the organization’s resources. Such values also play a significant role in helping them decide if it is time to seek external help Conclusion In conclusion, the managers display their personal values of generosity and appreciating those who contribute to the growth and success of the retail store chain. A good manager incorporates business ethics with personal values not only for the business’ success but also for the benefit of the whole human society (Bolman & Deal 1995). The values working hand in hand with the business ethics can positively impact all the groups of stakeholders. Business managers should therefore strive to instill ethical practices not only for moral conduct but as well as earn the existing business advantages in having the stakeholders view the company as ethical (Carroll 2006). Managers in businesses today need to be conscious of the seemingly different but intertwined aspects of social responsibility, values and ethics in order to pool resources from all the concerned stakeholders’ for the business’ success. References Bolman, LG & Deal, TE 1995, Leading with soul: An uncommon journey of spirit, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Carroll, AA 2006, Business and society: ethics and stakeholder management, Thomson, Ohio. Chappell, T 1993, The soul of a business: managing for profit and the common good, Bantam, New York. Ross, T 1988, Ethics in American business, Touche Ross, New York. Sun, W 2010, How to govern corporations so they serve the public good: a theory of corporate governance emergence, Edwin Mellen, New York. Visser, W, Matten, M & Tolhurst, N 2008, The A to Z of social corporate responsibility, Wiley, New York. Read More